You might read wrong some comments here. I’m personally happy with Omni products and I respect the Omni team. However, it’s exasperating (to not use frustrating again), that some features from OF1 were left out, and very obvious features are not implemented. It’s all what’s that about. What you’re writing about is off-topic, and not what the OP (@DrJJWMac) wrote about in the first place.
Wilson … I agree often with what you say. Your insights and postings here are consistently well-directed, positive, and exceptionally helpful. As a compliment, I often wish that I had as much patience, endurance, and positive approach as you do in your responses. My history is sadly a bit more tarnished.
On the one issue of whether OF2 is an worthy update to OF1, we mostly part ways. I am not making a statement that OF2 sucks or is worthless or … whatever (though that may have come out between the lines of my earlier frustrations and vents). I am stating in some way or another that, so little has come out of so much hype and anticipation that I am left … disappointed. By comparison to what really should have been possible in the time since OF2 was first announced, in comparison to the quantum leaps and bounds in development that have been made in that same time by a number of other high-level packages that I use seriously in my workflow, and by comparison to the timely and well-informed notices that continue to come out of those other developers to tell us users frankly about their awareness of bugs and feature requests and their intent to fix them ASAP (or not as appropriate), the release of OF2 feels like a bad B-grade movie that has been over-hyped, under designed, poorly delivered, and left to be swept off the shelves by fawning fans until it is awarded “cult” status (e.g. … why doesn’t EVERYONE like this … they must be so dumb!).
I have integrated with and adapted to the desktop version of OF2. It continues to be an occasional boot camp experience, and this has nothing to do with me using it “the wrong way”. Unless, by that you mean, OF1 was designed in some cases to be used “the wrong way”, and OF2 “fixed” that problem.
I refuse yet to upgrade to OF2 on the iOS platforms. Primarily I ask, why should I pay to loose the home screen layout of my custom perspectives that absolutely make or break how rapidly I can process through my workload? Why should I tolerate that I will likely never again be able to use OF2 the way that I want rather than the way that millions of other customers say it should be? Is it painful not to have some of the other bells and whistles? I don’t know, I don’t care anymore even to try to find out, and I don’t even believe anymore that I will in my lifetime have a respectable chance to find out.
Finally, in reference to those who might say OG gives all due notice to their plans as needed, I would ask that you trouble yourselves to find where OG does a side-by-side comparison of features between OF1 and OF2 across each platform. Why, when OF2 is to be THAT good compared to OF1, do we not have a table that shows what does and does not carry forward as well as what is and is not brand new? Why are we left here in these forums to rut-around about whether this or that is or is not in OF2 versus OF1? Why did it take me an impossibly long time to even realize that OF2 on the iPhone would NOT allow custom layouts of the home screen … and that was after a long series of late-night readings in these forums.
If OF2 is THAT good, then gosh darn, perhaps it is only that good because it is mostly kept in the dark (and even something ugly looks good there)!!!
(sigh)
My apologies. I am older, stubborn, and sometimes downright ornery any more when it comes to my expectations about the software I choose to use. On the bright side, I guess it could be worse. I could be forced to use a Windows system (although TortoiseSVN has never ever been replicated anywhere as good for free on the Mac). :-)
I was one of those happy customers initially. I bought OF2 for Mac and the IOS version as soon as it they were available. I was immediately impressed by the complete redesign of the mac version and the adoption of new IOS guidelines
from Apple. The home screen of iPhone version, in particular looked like a million dollars. But as I begin to use them in earnest, that “Oh” moment of regret started to hit more and more. The iPhone version just became unusable for me
with my complex project layout. And the Mac version, well that’s been well documented here already: data density, missing features and perspectives in particular while conceptually are a great idea, the execution of them leave a lot to be desired. I ended up with perspectives which didn’t quite deliver my data the way I needed and I always feel like I’m comprising when I use Omnifocus now.
I respect the fact that Omnigroup allow their users to voice their opinions openly. Almost every product sold on the internet is subject to review, criticism, comment. As a software developer my work has oft been
critiqued, sometimes negatively and that’s part of our profession. It’s business, not personal and normally companies respect that and learn from it. In my opinion, Omnigroup has made a mistake with Omnifocus on this occasion.
And initial sales figures or star rates won’t change my mind on this. I suspect the more the product is used, the more the weakness will show particularly from people with complex setups. People with simple todo style tasks lists,
probably will be happy enough. But Omnifocus has always been marketed as “Professional Grade” software. It don’t think it’s up to the mark any more.
Omnigroup would do well by themselves as follows:
Identify and publish the functional gaps between OF1 and OF2.
Produce a timeline for implementation of these gaps
Clean up the messy user interface.
There are some folks on the forum who are real fans of Omnifocus and get upset or shake their fingers at people who post negative comments. I don’t understand this. It’s not big issue stuff.
It’s just a task manager! from a successful company with other great products. I have no doubt they will be around for a long time. Everyone makes mistakes. Omnigroup have made one here.
Right from the disastrous beta, it was apparent that they did not know how to proceed with OF. But as I say, it’s only task manager app. Most of us could run our lives with a notebook and pen,
if we really wanted to. People did not so long ago. Task manager software brings convenience and fun to an otherwise drab necessity.
I don’t take it too seriously and I move from product to product periodically but I enjoy doing it. I have the “task management app bug” as lots of others have to, Maybe I should set up a support
group for us poor folks who can’t settle on one product. Right now I have moved away to another product.
producing a timeline is gonna be a guaranteed way to disappoint many folks. I’ve seen politicians try to come up with vague 2- 4 year timelines during election season It’s often too vague to be useful or too detailed and certainly will bring flames and fury when well intentioned milestones aren’t met on time.
Fair enough. But sometimes in software development, end-date project management is a strategy/tool used to focus people and a stick to a commitment.
Anyway,we’ll see…
Well, it’s been a couple of months, so I thought I’d check back in. Is OmniGroup digging a deeper moat around the castle to keep the hordes of unhappy users at bay, or has there been any progress on fixing the UI issues: Fully functional compact layout, and layout customizations (fonts, colors, column width/hiding, etc)?
[Mr. Moderator, the moat comment completely a tongue in cheek joke - no need to hide this post, ok?]
I would LOVE a blog post that says: (i) here are the features that aren’t in OF2, though they appear in OF1; (ii) here are the ones that will be coming to OF2 (timetable preferred); and (iii) here are the OF1 features we are never including in OF2 (rationale preferred).
More transparency would be nice, if for no other reason than to help us figure out if it’s worth our time to wait for OF2 to be fixed, or if we should simply move on. Has the product “been Finalcut,” or is there a feature complete version in the works?
We’ll see what we can learn in the future about where OG has their focus and commitment with their software that is designed to do top-quality project management toward exactly the results that you mention.
(results have been edited to remove otherwise logical inferences)
The Things suite such are such beautiful apps, I wonder does this signal Things 3 is on it’s way soon? If they add subtasks and a few more tweaks…I reckon it’s game over.
Hahahahahaahaaaa, that’s a good one- this is SO funny! You guys seriously complaining in the Omnifocus forums about Omni not delivering while pointing to Things 3…
Guys, You have no idea what kind of struggle Cultured Code is putting their fanbase through, honestly… Things 3 is announced since september 17th 2013… GerryMac knows what I am talking about… they got the funky status board that basically is not even slightly announcing even a beta for the new version yet! It will be another year roughly until the new version arrives …The new releases of Things were nothing but the overly necessary GUI polish, because before that they were on 2007 level…
in terms of delivering, OmniFocus can unashamedly be called progressive and frequently updating- compared to Things.
Hehe indeed, I’m laughing at my own post, what was I thinking. Sorry OG! No argument that they work at a snails pace and they get slated for it also. They don’t seem too bothered though.
They don’t try to pamper their customers. It’s kinda like “Look, you bought a product, it works, now leave us alone!” And in a lot of ways I kind of like them for that.
I was’t pointing to them as a model for timely delivery. Far from it.
The difference is that Things does exactly what it says on the tin. You know exactly what you are buying.
It’s extremely robust, easy to use and very well designed. Great for folks who have a medium sized set of projects and just do not want to have to think about
how to implement a system of their own.
They sell bucket loads of units by all accounts. The built in workflows are so well thought out. Your
up and running in ten minutes.
Well done mat_rhein for spotting my flawed comparison though
Yeah, that’s a uniquely german customer service attitude… since you have no options there, eventually you start to like it ;-)… that said, it seems like there is no “one way fits all” customer relation method- both companies get their good share of sarcasm at times… they might also be dealing with a very special customer base as well, since we seem to be the constant factor in the equation [evil grin]
You’re right, although I couldn’t even pinpoint it to some feature in particular… it feels simpler. This is the impression I am always longing for when I consider walking away from OF for a while… this feeling of simplicity then lasts until I have all my stuff transferred properly… then I come back to where the structure is deeper and where I have the freedom of splitting every task too big into smaller pieces ;-)
I use OF 2 on a daily basis but there are some bugs and shortcomings that drive me crazy. That’s why I’m giving “the competition” a(nother) try from time to time.
I do like Things and I’m looking forward to Things 3. Hope, that’s not going to be the “Stuttgart21” of GTD apps (too late, too small, too expensive) ;-)
I’m trying OF again after almost 2 years with Things. Reading the comments here helped me attach words to vague frustrations. You guys are clearly a lot deeper into this stuff than I am (and ever want to be).
First, I use OF / Things only to organize my personal life. It’s not a very complex life but it’s not simple either. My first use of OF lasted about 2 years. I felt that I had a relatively nice arrangement of projects and perspectives but I began to hate opening OF. I felt that I had two choices. With one choice I felt overwhelmingly nagged with items that were not that important; with the other choice I felt that I was blind to important items until they suddenly appeared and set me into panic mode.
With Things, I never felt that I had a good place to put new items. It provides no useful structuring. Over the two years, I slowly abandoned any attempt to structure anything. Every morning I faced a long, almost random, list of items. Things makes it very easy to push things ahead so I did that to most of them. New projects became daunting because my one entry said “Start X” Projects never got broken down into doable steps because I didn’t have a place to put the steps. And, of course, they often never got started.
So, when I heard about OF2, I downloaded the trial. Once I saw Forecast, I was sold. I found that OF1’s “Due” was the source of my biggest frustration. If I set “due soon” to a larger number, I was overwhelmed; the most overwhelming thing was all those screaming bubbles over on the left. If I set “due soon” to a small number, I was often suddenly surprised. A small programming change, I know, but a big change in the usefulness of the program.
Another minor change, with a big impact to me, was changing the word "Start to “Defer.” I never knew what “Start” was for. You’d all laugh if you saw what I did to make a new copy of an old task.
What most impressed me, after putting in a lot of time getting OF2 set up with my current projects and tasks, was that I could get that same database into OF1 and make comparisons between the two programs. Many software vendors would have made going back impossible.
So, I’ll stick with OF2 even though I actually prefer the look of OF1 because of Forecast. Paying the upgrade price for a feature that small is troublesome but the respect I now have for Omnigroup, because they did not block going back to OF1, makes it easier to take. You guys that are complaining because you feel you must go back should be happy that you can.
As I click “Reply” I have to chuckle a little bit, and I’ll tell you why in just a moment. First, a little background.
I beta tested OF1, provided feedback, and was very pleased with what ultimately was released. At that point in my life I was extremely busy and needed something to help me manage everything going on beyond just a calendar. I fell off the OmniFocus bandwagon when things settled down. I haven’t used OmniFocus in probably close to 5 years.
There’s a new storm brewing, and the other day I decided I needed something to help me manage. I purchased OF2 + Pro immediately, and dropped about 150 items into my Inbox.
At this point you’re probably thinking: “Alright, get to the point.” I’m getting there.
So, I read a couple of threads in brief about OF2 vs OF1. I sympathize with OmniGroup. It really doesn’t matter what you do. If you establish any kind of UI familiarity, even if it’s the bad kind, you will never hear the end of it from your users. I’ve been on the receiving end of this exchange many, many times.
If you’re reading this people of OmniGroup, please give me just one moment to try and change your mind about formatting…
I see what you’ve done with the UI here, and I’m generally very pleased. In almost every way I think it is a vast and obvious improvement over OF1. In fact, I think the crazy amount of formatting that you allowed in OF1 was well, crazy. I managed to make my OF1 window disgusting on several occasions, returning to the bosom of the defaults on more than one occasion, but there was one thing.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why I cannot reduce the font size in the Projects view. Well actually, I take that back. I can understand why a little bit. The type is good looking at the size you’ve locked in. If you start mucking with the font size in one pane, the other pane doesn’t compliment it quite as well, and then you start to wonder: well, if I could change it here, why can’t I change it there? So, being the smart folks you are: Kill it with fire. “You’ll have nice type, and you’ll like it.”
The following formatting change is just for a bit of comedic effect, but in closing:
So, the reason I was chuckling a little bit when I clicked the “Reply”
button is that I think whatever your reasons are for
dropping all formatting changes. I immediately hit `CMD +` to bump
my font size to something readable. In OF2 I feel
like the font size is imposing in the main pane, and I feel like:
"Whoa there OF2, I don’t need my neighbors across the
street to read my screen." Are you having a hard time
I found myself tweaking with the font styles in OF1 and forgot to do what I was supposed to be doing - getting things done.
Customisation is nice to a certain point. I often have my Samsung friends point out all the customisation features over the iPhone. But I remind them that I’m getting so much done, I don’t have time to be customising. I just get stuff done with my iPhone. The other day, my friend just burned a whole day adding custom ring tones to the people in his address book. I just thought that was such as waste of time. I have pretty much everyone set to one ring tone and my family set to a different ring tone. That’s pretty much all I needed. Customization is a nice feature but we do get carried away with it sometimes.
At first, I did miss having my own personal OmniFocus theme. But after a few months of OF2, I’m just concerned about checking tasks off my list and not so worried about how pretty things will look.
humm… Honestly, that was a little too long for me for something that is actually adressed in OF2 ;-)… Go to settings / General and drag the little slider in the direction of your preference- in single line mode your type then varies from
