Once you use the keyboard to shunt your task to an existing project, @jgarrr, bang ⌘+O and enter part of the project name to go right to the project (even faster than mousing a project list). Reorder your newly-entered task there, then hit ⌘+1 to get you back to the Inbox for further processing.
Thanks @lucasburke and @TheWart. I would still very much like to be able to see the list of Projects (guess I’m just attached to the “old way of doing things”), but both of your suggestions are very helpful. I hadn’t been using cmd-O at all. It’s worth the price of admission! (Which, does bring up the point that I feel like a lot of the disgruntled response to OF2 could have been avoided with better documentation from Omnigroup.)
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I thought there was good documentation in the OmniFocus built-in help menu.
There are also the free ebooks available in the iBook store.
The same free ebooks are available directly from Omni.
https://support.omnigroup.com/ibooks-not-available-everywhere
I think Omni has done a lot to provide documentation.
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I mailed to Omni support and got a respond which is as follows:
[quote]
Right now, the best way to drag and drop items from the Inbox to Projects is by using a second OmniFocus window (which you can get by selecting Menu Bar ▸ File ▸ New Window); I certainly understand that it’s not ideal, and we’re tracking how many people find it frustrating—so I’ve added you to that count! I think that 2.2 will bring some layout changes, after we get Yosemite compatibility put to bed—with any luck, we’ll be able to address this, as well, although there’s been no official word at this time. Sorry to disappoint![/quote]
Omnifocus often crashes when I drag actions between two windows on my MacBook Pro 2014 (running up-to-date Yosemite). Then I have to restart Omnifocus and open a second window, navigate to Projects, etc. This is not a viable solution for me. Plus, I have to set my 15" Retina monitor to the smallest resolution. Drag and drop will not work if the windows are overlapping. Would be very difficult on a smaller/lower resolution monitor.
The suggestion made much earlier is a 99% perfect solution.
- Create a project with a title such as “Empty Omnifocus Inbox” and place it at the very top of the list of projects in the Projects Tab.
- Select all your Inbox items and in the Action Section of the right hand column, select “Empty Omnifocus Inbox” (awesome that this can be done in a single step!)
- Move to the Project Tab and then to the “Empty Omnifocus Inbox” project. Drag and drop the (former) Inbox items into projects to your heart’s content … works flawlessly!
A 100% solution would be to have this functionality built into the Inbox (a 99.5% solution would be to explain this workaround in the formal product instructions). I like Omnifocus again.
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So… any progress on this? To me this is still the single biggest source of unnecessary friction in OF2.
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I want to share a “me too please” to the humans at omni on this topic and essential feature. I´m totally new to OF and this was the first thing I´ve tried – intuitively. As mentioned a few thousand lines above, the actual UX lacks with a “missing” sidebar only on the Inbox.
Also, I´m a bit irritated, because this thread is so old – with statements of the omni people saying, that a solution is (at least) under investigation.
(Anyway, I also like to mention that I have a support-ticket open on another topic, and I had a quick, friendly and helpful response within a day).
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As some of the folks have pointed out above, this is not only an uncomfortable source of considering friction, it is a bizarre change to remove the central drag-and-drop (inbox > project) from a Mac-based GTD app.
Regarding the friction, yes, the 2-window approach meets the need indirectly, but is an awkward hack that leads to confusion. For example, if in the Inbox window I change to projects to find a task in projects, I now have 2 windows open with projects and no Inbox. Or, if I change to Projects window, to complete that brief Projects-focused task, and then drop off and return and inadvertently change to In box, I now have two Inbox windows open, and I am back where I started. In other words, if the obvious work-around is to open those two windows, why is there a tab for Inbox at all? Again, this is not a small question given the centrality of managing one’s Inbox to GTD…not having to switch back and forth over and over between modes of managing with mouse to typing project names is a very real productivity improvement for human minds.
I also really yearn for the power I used to feel in being able to do things like select all Projects AND Inbox to give an global scope to search results…multi-step but natural and fast…and so perfectly representative of GTD. Now, I need to do two different searches to make sure I cover both Inbox and Projects when I inadvertently file some new task somewhere (or somedate or somecontext) and I forgot where.
There seem to be a lot of very nice improvements to OF2 (I am still using a trial version), and the custom Perspectives seem like they’ll be helpful when I get to them, but with Inbox serving as the pseudo-no-project Project in the GTD model, Inbox and Projects simply aren’t separate Perspectives.
Just adding a me too here. I guess it’s difficult to make it completely like OF1 due to the current design, but what about split view? Like in Mail.app you have messages and the content (if you choose that layout), what about having a split view (option I guess), where the bottom half shows projects and actions, and the upper half shows inbox items. :)
Yes, I agree with all of the above. Of course, creating a project to put all of your inbox items into is a temporary solution, but it’s still an extra step. Would love to see this fixed!
I’ve been using the public beta versions of El Capitan and it has helped me in finding the solution I needed to this problem in the form of the Split Fullscreen capability this release adds. I’ve found that running two windows of OF2 in a split Full Screen where the left of the screen is my Inbox list (window) and the larger right portion of the screen is my Projects window, is pretty seamless and well integrated.
I appreciate people don’t like running two windows but you might find that with the El Capitan split screen capability, it feels “right” and gives you that capability you’re after. I feel it has for me and you might be surprised that Apple could fix this workflow issue on Omni’s behalf !
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I just cobbled together an applescript that lets me highlight the whole InBox, click the script and it moves everything to a project called [InBox]. Then I added a Keyboard Maestro Shortcut that automates it all in one step. Everytime I sit down to OmniFocus, I push one button and I don’t worry about the InBox.
Here’s the script. It’s made of bits of script from others who have posted here. Hope it helps:
set theProjectName to "[InBox]"
tell application "OmniFocus"
tell front document
set theProject to first flattened project where name = theProjectName
end tell
tell first document window of front document
set validSelectedItemsList to selected trees of content
set totalItems to count of validSelectedItemsList
if totalItems is 0 then
set alertText to "No valid task(s) selected"
my Notify(alertText)
end if
repeat while totalItems > 0
set selectedTask to value of item totalItems of validSelectedItemsList
set taskName to get name of selectedTask
set the assigned container of the selectedTask to theProject
set totalItems to totalItems - 1
end repeat
end tell
end tell
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18 months later, version 2.3
There are tons of workarounds, but they are all still workarounds especially if you are a visual thinker. Are we going to every see this, or is it now the Pink Elephant in the room that we all agree to pretend not see?
Frankly I don’t care what the answer is; I just would like to know. I already have several colors of Pachyderm in my living room. I really just want to know if I should adopt a hack and learn to love it for the long term.
Am I the only one surprised that the “convert to project” and “move inside another item” on the ipad is actually better than anything we have on the desktop version?
-ratz
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I agree. It’s clearly in demand, and the discussion has been going on for so long we need a statement from Omnifocus on this.
P.S. My Workaround is I have to flag every new task I create because my Today view is to show Due and Flagged messages. So that way all the “inbox” items are at the top because they are flagged. I have to unflag them when I process them if they are not to do right away. Inevitably a few slip through though, so I still have to check the Inbox tab :(
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Well, sorry, while I really like the improvisation skills that workaround won’t cut it, adding that much friction to the process.
I am myself currently either tabbing through and then searching for projects in inbox view in respective column (and yes, I am using the fabulous condensed view in the 2.3 beta, in case you wonder)
or, I am using an additional window, which results in equal amounts of friction… altogether, a very unsatisfying process.
All we actually need is projects alongside the inbox.
In every forecast loads of screen real estate is wasted due to the position of the calendar while inbox is suffering of the missing project list.
The best solution in my opinion is to make the perspectives area independent from the sidebar containing projects /contexts/calendar. That way one could choose that feature individually for every perspective, adapting it to the individual needs.
I’ll have this Omnis’ way as well.
At this point, I just want my money back. I have invested in OF2 (and it wasn’t cheap) for all of my devices, but the lack of an easy way to move inbox to projects is a deal breaker. I will now start looking for alternatives. Good bye OF, and Omni.
I can understand its frustrating, but do find this statement quite drastic, because I think OF2 is very good at doing what its supposed to do, even without being able to see the inbox!
@Amityweb. You are right, and I was feeling particularly frustrated at OF2 yesterday. OF2 is very powerful, but I don’t need all of it. In fact, I feel irritated by the dogmatic way that OF2 wants you to adhere to their version of GTD. My workflow is a hybrid of what works for me. I don’t need something that maps directly to the GTD book.
Why not let their product be both powerful AND flexible?
They are not dogmatic at The Omni Group, they are just slow. The nice thing about OF2 is that you could make it work in a way that suits you - without bothering at all about the GTD book. But I agree, I would also like to have a more convenient way to handle the inbox. And there will be one, sooner or later, when The Omni Group have found a way to implement it. It’s probably not as easy to implement as we think, but I certainly wish they would prioritize it. The good thing is that when The Omni Group finally choose to implement something, the solution is usually well thought-out.
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