Export/Import of Projects from and to OF4?

mlondon · June 26, 2024, 6:26pm

I’m in the process of triaging my bloated OmniFocus database. It’s far too much work to review everything now, and many of the (hundreds!) of Folders and Projects are for a project that I’m not working on right now. I understand I can put a Project on Hold, and remove it from my daily view by selective use of what I choose to Show in perspectives.

However I’d like to understand the current options for exporting this data in a way that would preserve formatting (tags, links, etc) so that I have the option of re-importing again in the future. Before posting this I read older articles about exporting to OPML and importing to OmniOutliner, but in OF4 I do not see OPML as an option in the Export dialog. I do see that there is an option to Import an OmniOutliner document, but no explanation on how to export. Grateful for guidence. And are there any other options besides OmniOutliner?

Thank you…

martinewski · June 28, 2024, 12:34am

You could copy everything as taskpaper and save in a text document, as long as you don’t have attachments, I gues.

sandy · July 2, 2024, 4:02pm

FWIIW I offload projects into Obsidian with an automation script:

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/windoverwater/14e6990003f01188974f33da5f8660b7

of-task-to-obsidian-mod.omnifocusjs

/*{
    "type": "action",
    "targets": ["omnifocus"],
    "author": "Otto Automator",
    "identifier": "com.omni-automation.of.task-to-obsidian-mod",
    "version": "2.2.2",
    "description": "Creates a corresponding note in the indicated Obsidian vault, for the selected task or project. There is a preference for including the tags assigned to the task or project.",
    "label": "Copy to Obsidian ",
    "shortLabel": "Copy to Obsidian",
    "paletteLabel": "Copy to Obsidian",

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However, I don’t have a strong need to go in the reverse direction because I sill manage offloaded project todo’s in OF even when the project is in Obsidian. Unfortunately I don’t know if the formatting is preserved but OF tags are converted to Obsidian tags.

FWIIW the target model for this is that OF is always the sharp end of the arrow (project) regardless if the shaft and feathers are in a different app.

Just an FYI - YMMV