I’ve looked, but can’t find it - I have to be missing something. There has to be an easier way to set the focus of a perspective than by adding each project or folder one at a time.
Is there no way quick way to add the sidebar selection or window focus to a perspective’s focus? Must I use the Focus combo box in the Perspective popover?
You can use the “Add Current Sidebar Selection” to add projects that are selected in the sidebar, but only if the Project Hierarchy option is set to “Use project hierarchy”. The downside is that, unlike perspectives created with “Don’t use project hierarchy”, these perspectives aren’t available on iOS.
If you do want to create perspectives that “Don’t use project hierarchy” (i.e. with contexts in the sidebar) you’ll need to add each folder/project to the Focus box. I find that typing in this box is faster than selecting from the menu, especially if you have a fairly complex structure.
If possible, group related folders and projects into a higher level folder and put the focus on that folder. For example, I have a “Personal” perspective that focuses in on a top-level folder called “Personal”, showing all available items grouped by project. Anything inside this folder will automatically be included and everything outside this folder will automatically be excluded.
I hope this helps…
Cheers,
Tim
Yep I’m after a context-based perspective that I can use on my iOS devices.
My projects are organized into a hierarchy and yes, it often makes it possible to add a folder or two to achieve my desired focus. Sometimes though I want a short term focus (i.e. “before vacation”) that includes projects from multiple areas. The way it is now, it’s pretty tedious to achieve this.
I tried adding projects selected in the sidebar while in “Use project hierarchy” mode and then switching the perspective to “Don’t use project hierarchy”. The project selections are still visible under “Sidebar Selections” but get ignored once the Project Hierarchy selection is switched. Worth a shot. What’s missing is the ability to add project sidebar selections for “Don’t use project hierarchy” perspectives. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to submit this as a feature request.
In the meantime, one suggestion would be to add some text (e.g. #vacation) to either the name of the project or the project note field. You could then filter based on this text…and then remove this “tag” once it’s no longer needed.
Thanks Tim for the experimenting, your findings are consistent with mine. I will submit a request when I get a moment.
I like the “tagging” idea, the Find text field is pretty helpful.
Glad to hear this was helpful. “Find text” opens up all kinds of possibilities for customization.
