I have a feeling the problem I’m seeing here is peculiar to later releases, but not sure…
With V1, I could always just hit Enter to create a new task and tab trough its details to change them. With V2 this isn’t the case. For example, if I select the Projects perspective and hit Enter, I get a new Project. If I then click somewhere at the bottom of the task list, Enter doesn’t work at all. I have to highlight an existing task or some other grouping, and then the task is added underneath whats highlighted. But it’s worse than that. The new task will take on the context/project of what I highlighted, which might not be right. If I use cmd-N, the task is placed at the bottom of the task list if nothing else is highlighted, again taking on characteristics of the last task, or underneath anything that is already highlighted. New tasks created this way also don’t have both a project and a context field in them so I can’t tab through and change the details - I have to use the inspector pane, which is a pain (sorry about that).
There is a preference to switch between “Classic” and “Modern” modes:
In Classic mode, Return always creates a new item. In Modern mode, Return confirms editing if you are editing a field, or creates a new item if you are not editing a field.
I’m not seeing this behavior in build r209636. If I select the Projects perspective and press Return, I do get a new project, which is the expected behavior. If I then click at the bottom of the task list and press Return, I get a new task that belongs to the last project in the outline.
The only way I can get OmniFocus to refuse to do anything when pressing Return is if my sidebar selection consists only of a folder that contains no projects which match my current view settings (for example, my sidebar selection consists only of an empty folder). Then there’s no project to create a task in, so OmniFocus refuses to create one.
Sorry, hadn’t seen the significance of this. Still doesn’t really solve the problem though I don’t think (see below).[quote=“KyleS, post:2, topic:1676”]
I’m not seeing this behavior in build r209636. If I select the Projects perspective and press Return, I do get a new project, which is the expected behavior. If I then click at the bottom of the task list and press Return, I get a new task that belongs to the last project in the outline.
The only way I can get OmniFocus to refuse to do anything when pressing Return is if my sidebar selection consists only of a folder that contains no projects which match my current view settings (for example, my sidebar selection consists only of an empty folder). Then there’s no project to create a task in, so OmniFocus refuses to create one.
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You may be right about the Projects perspective. But I live mainly in a custom “Today” perspective. This is grouped by context, sorted by due date, filtered by due or flagged. If I hit Enter at the bottom of this list I just get an error beep. The only way Enter does anything (regardless of the preference setting) is to highlight something first, then Enter puts a new task behind what’s highlighted.
But I do find the whole use of Enter to start a new task a bit confusing. When you switch to a perspective you don’t really know where the focus is, so that Enter might add a new context/project or a new task. Its not obvious which will happen really. Maybe I should rely on cmd-N. But either way, I’m not that happy that the new task never has both context and project fields for me to tab through. I usually have to resort to Inspector and the mouse to complete filling in the task. This is obviously a conscious design decision. Is there a reason behind it?
I find that it’s easier to set up a keyboard shortcut for the quick entry window and add all new tasks that way - it helps train muscle memory, it allows all keyboard entry - tab type enter and shift+cmd+l to set a flag.
Doesn’t matter where I am then - quick entry works everywhere…
Thanks, boldfish. I was coming around to that way of thinking. I think it’s strange that new tasks don’t have both context and project fields in the normal course of events.
