Is it possible to use the search field to filter out tasks? For example, if I’m waiting for someone to reply to me with info about a task, I put #AwaitingReply_Name_ at the top of the comment field for the task. When I review my tasks for a project, I like to search on “#Awaiting” to see only those tasks for which I’m awaiting info. After I’m done reviewing them, I’d like to see only those tasks in the project that do not have this tag.
In a Google search, you can do something similar by including a search term that is preceded by a minus sign. For example, the search terms “dogs -dalmatians” will return web pages that mention dogs and that do not mention Dalmatians.
However, minus signs don’t work in OF. Is there a way to do what I’m asking for?
No, searches that exclude results are not possible in OmniFocus 2.
But have you tried using contexts? You could assign these actions an ‘awaiting’ or ‘waiting for’ context. Then when you don’t want to see the actions, you could exclude it from your context selection.
Using the Contexts perspective, select the contexts you want to see (click each holding down the command ⌘ key).
Or if you’re using OmniFocus Pro, a custom perspective would allow you select the contexts you want to see. Also in Pro, you could use Focus mode on the contexts you want to see and then everywhere in the app, you’d not see anything with the ‘awaiting’ context.
Thanks for the advice, but I’m already using contexts for a different purpose, one that would not allow for the co-existence of contexts used for another purpose. After OF gets multiple contexts, I’ll give your advice a try.
Hopefully this will be achievable with tags in OmniFocus 3.
