Overall, how are you liking OmniFocus 2 relative to OmniFocus 1?

Overall its really good and sure will be great once ready for prime time.

Importantly 24hrs in and OF2 beta v2 is already my go to, mostly due to forecast view.

Thats including a few crashes, tweaks & polish would like to see ( more on that once spent more time ).

OF2 beta v1 didn’t stick like this, largely due to performance, crash issues but also as just didn’t warm to it, so used OF1 as default through that phase… not been back to OF1 at all today.

Great work all round.

Reminder: This thread is asking for overall impressions of v2 and whether you’re using it in preference to v1. If a post doesn’t answer either of these questions then it belongs in a different thread.

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I moved a post to a new topic: Suggestion for making the sidebar more engaging

I moved 2 posts to a new topic: Finding single action lists harder to scan in v2

I moved a post to an existing topic: Can I drag items from the inbox to a project or context?

I moved a post to a new topic: Checkbox on the right feels too disconnected

Started using it right away with a sync to my database. No problems. Perspectives work just fine and I like the easy access to settings. Waay too much white space, spacing between related items is too big and item delineation is not as crisp. Right hand check boxes means I use the space bar instead of mousing but it’s familiar from iOS. Review will bring me back to the laptop from the iPad for this task. New features make it a plus, design change is not so compelling.

@hirlas There’s some interesting detail there, but I’m having trouble seeing the answer to the fundamental question of this thread: are you liking v1 better or v2 better at this point?

I like it. I’m using it. I hope the style evolves to be tighter.

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Like

  • Interface is now very neat and polished
  • Quick open
  • Forecast view

Dislike

  • Low data density is for me a very important issue: I have so many folders, projects, nested actions and actions that I need more data density to stay on top of it. This is the main reason I’ll stick with v1 for now.
  • Sometimes I anticipate my weekly review of 1 day (Saturday instead of Sunday). With the new review mode it seems I can’t do it anymore
  • It is difficult to distinguish nested actions, and also icon are so light that I can’t distinguish them at first glance
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So far I’m really liking OF2. I am using exclusively. I will echo some of the comments made regarding colour, styles and density.

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Ditto. The ultimate response to “what do you think?” must be “I’ll start using OmniFocus again”. Which I intend to do - this works much better for me in every respect. Still some wrinkles to iron out, obviously, but I just find OF2 so much more useable than any of its predecessors.

Ken,

Total score with version 2! Been a long time coming, but totally worth it. Love forecast, review, and new aesthetics. #WIN.

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Putting the current bugs aside, which I’m assuming will get ironed out, I think it’s a huge improvement in all aspects except data density. Quick Open is an extremely valuable feature (I actually was the one who suggested it in the main forums…thanks!). But unless the data density gets addressed, at least with an option, I don’t know if I would prefer this over OF 1. A lot of the GTD/OmniFocus system is about whittling down your tasks to a manageable list. There is something about not being able to see even a moderate list all at once (current OF 2) that negates this intangible.

2 Likes

I agree with 100% of these comments. Right on target.

I want to see a nice (tight) list of my tasks. Projects should be bold and a little larger than tasks. Each sub task should be indented.

Current format has too much white space and too many distracting widgets, icons and noise, with several shades of grey. Each task takes two lines of text, requiring another distracting light grey horizontal line.

I much preferred, the one-line, multi-column view of OF1. I think I also preferred the standard check box at the beginning of the task, but I can live with it at the end.

I think the biggest issue is having two lines of text for each task. Makes everything look AND FEEL busier. Makes me look like I have twice as many tasks to do! ADDS STRESS!

I do like the new, simple, square icons for each section of the app on the sidebar.

And of course the forecast feature is great (but again with the busy, two-lines, per task).

6 Likes

To me Omnifocus/GTD should be all about presenting a clean task list to choose from, (and helping me spot what’s due/flagged). In project view i want to see all tasks and the outline structure. In context view I want a clean list of what i could do right now to scan and pick from.

I’m not a fan of the double line sparse look because, as people are mentioning, it’s a lot harder to scan and the structure is less obvious. Also within a very standard size window the colour coded completion checkbox is too far to the right to be the main indicator of due/flagged.

Despite a truly very nice version 2 design for all the nav and chrome, for now I prefer version 1 for the simplicity/clarity of your task list. And that’s the key.

This stuff is hard because everyone uses it a little differently and I’m sure all at Omni have tried endless way and have it this way for a reason.

While it doesn’t fix information density, I think the change shown below would make v2 my preferred option by:

  1. helping show the project structure by giving the first line some dominance
  2. bringing the due/flagged status to your attention better when picking the next thing to do from a list.

The changes here are

  • completion boxes on the left (and at 70% of original v2 size)
  • slightly lighter grey text in second line

Also from here you could add a preference/key to show hide the second line if you wanted to project plan in a more pure outlining mode.

Before version for reference. The overdue status is just not clear enough:

8 Likes

Oh and some context for my comments:

  • I’ve used Omnifocus heavily since first release (and the Kinkless version before then).
  • I love new iOS7 Omnifocus on phone - fantastic design and the circles on right work great as they’re closely associated with a task (and in a good spot for right handers). I lead a small team designing financial apps and reference Omnifocus for iPhone often as best-practice/smart.

I love the new version! And using OF2 only now. Some thing have been mentioned here already:

  1. Visually distinguish Folder, Projects, Single actions, Actions etc. And laso Active vs non actionalbe actions (waiting fors) - this is the biggest issue now as thi lists seem to be too flat and homogenous
  2. In the project list - There are icons for Sequence and parallel projects - I do not see any value there, it actually distracts me, as it makes mi thinking what type of project is it - I do not really care at that point
  3. When switching perspectives I’d like to choose whether to display list of projects or contexts (= area between vertical bar with favorite Perpsectives and tasks theselves)
  4. I am not really used to Forecast view, but I find a little bit confusing when selecting multiple days to have Calendar timeline for each day - can’t really see all the tasks (I might not be getting the concept of forecast fully though)

In general I really like it! Great job;)

1 Like

So, overall I love the new version! The design feels fresh, up to date, the whole deal!
I LOVE Forecast view. One thing I realized over the time waiting for the second version of OmniFocus is that it is crucial for me to see this information to actually feel on top of everything.
Second, I actually feel a little differently about the project list, while currently I don’t have a ton of projects and folders, due to some cleaning up of my system I did recently, I just tryed setting up a folder structure that I used to have in v1 which I got rid of because it felt clunky and didn’t really give me the high level view of all my projects that I wanted. In v2 I love the way the projects and folders look. It feels much more minimalistic and cleaner and I feel like I can actually just glance at it and see what I have on my plate. I will update this post or reply in this blog later as I put more projects in OF, but for now, I couldn’t be happier.

Overall, there are some great improvements to V2 over the other Alpha. A crucial problem makes it unusable, however.

The lack of ability to turn off viewing the note and contexts line is a deal killer. The data density is just too poor to make a list of tasks for glancing at to see what is next. I will have to go back to OF1 or switch completely if this is not fixed. This was a major complaint from most people about the first alpha, and it was not addressed.

Great progress on many fronts, but in the process have lost the most important thing, which is the ability to view a list of available tasks without it taking up my entire screen on the desktop.