One way to do it would be to make the InBox tab a toggle. Clicking it would add the InBox to the top of the list of the Project Or Context view, whichever was currently active. If another view were active, clicking the InBox would show the InBox and the project view.
Right now the processing is terribly flawed for the inbox. I worked around it by building an Inbox project as a single action list, I then have to double process my inbox by selecting all and assigning to the Inbox project
Iām doing that too, in the short term. I find it a better workflow than using two windows.
You canāt be serious asking us to open two windows as a long term solution?!!?
This needs to be fixed. We need to be able to see the list of projects in the one interface when processing the Inbox, and also see the count of items in the Inbox.
I agree with everyone elseā¦moving items from my inbox to various projects is important and there needs to be an easy drag and drop way without keeping two windows open.
Something like dragging the inbox item over the Projects icon which causes the Projects window to pop open and showā¦and then just dropping from there. Or something even easier.
I like this idea a lot. I agree that when adding Inbox items to existing projects, the Smart Match feature is ideal. Your parenthetical proposal is great for converting Inbox items to projects in specific Folders, which I do frequently. Otherwise, the converted project is misplaced.
Just wanted to give my vote too, this is a must have feature. I am also missing some more customization elsewhere. Also I immediately switched to the experimental compact layout with checkboxes left: in Safari with omnifocus stopped type: omnifocus:///change-preference?ContentLayout=compact to go back to default: omnifocus:///change-preference?ContentLayout, beware, that focus for clicking checkboxes is right now outside to checkbox at roughly 4oClock (bug).
(Bug fixed in 2.0.3)
Lack of drag and drop from the Inbox is a significant problem for me. Not being able to easily see the project hierarchy from the Inbox makes reviewing and allocating tasks MUCH more time consuming. The sooner that this (to me) basic functionality is added to OF2, the better.
A.
This is also a big sticky point for me. In OF1 I would often create new projects from Inbox items by dragging them straight to the relevant folder on the left side. Now, I have to turn the Inbox item into a project, then switch to the Projects view and drag the project into the necessary folders. Itās so much extra work!
If there was a simple way to use the Inspector to create a project from an Inbox item and add it to an existing folder, Iād be happy doing without the drag-n-drop functionality, but even thatās not possible.
Rather than switching modes that way, wouldnāt it be easier to use Option-Command-N? Thatās what I use whenever I want to drag an Inbox item onto a folder, project, context, or Forecast day:
(Since Inbox items can be dragged to any of those things, this approach is much more flexible than listing projects in the sidebar.)
just downloaded the trial version of OF2 and saw this problem immediately. googled the issue and found this forum. this is a massive deterrent and I wonāt be upgrading to OF2 unless this is fixed.
I know this post adds nothing new to the thread, but I figured the more people chime in the more pressure we can put on omnifocus to fix this issue.
Beyond a bad workflow, two screens are tough to do on a MBA when running in full screen mode due to the new low data density model, so now I have to do this:
I have to agree with most users here. Having to use two windows complicates my workflow. The whole point of omni-focus is to simplify it. :)
Hereās a suggestion: What if you could drag your inbox item over one of the navigation tabs and by doing so, it opens that tab. Once the tab opens (and while your still holding the mouse button down), you drag and drop into the appropriate project. That way your new format isnāt disrupted and those of us who clear our inbox this way have something other than the two window workaround to work with.
To be be honest, that was the first thing I tried to do. It felt intuitive.
I have adopted the workaround shown by #awlogan, above.
Not ideal, but much more sensible than the bizarre multiple window suggestion. The current āquarantined Inboxā situation seems to me the result of a poor interface design decision. We can only hope that Omni will see sense about this soon.
Until then, Iāll be using a proxy Inbox at the top of my Projects list.
See this post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the design for v2 took this workflow into account, but the way it did so was more objectionable to some folks making the transition than we anticipated.
Weāre aware of the concern and are considering the issue. I know thatās frustrating for the folks posting here, but software takes time to design and build. When we have more to say, weāll certainly let everyone know. :-)
There are two big problems with not being able to see the inbox in project views.
1- I tend to forget thereās something in the inbox, and consequently stuff doesnāt get done. In OF1, the when the inbox is always visible, it reminds me to organize. Because of this limitation, I try to assign a project when I use quick entry. But that slows down my capture of items, which should be done quickly without thought to organization.
2 - often an inbox item is so quick to do, that it I can act on it without ever having to put it into a project. With OF2, it begs for the extra step of organizing it first.
HI - This is my first post - so please be kind. :)
I always thought that the ability to drag from inbox into projects in OF1 was good, but did run a little against the grain of GTD in that i was using the inbox for storage and processing not so much collecting. SO I understand the debate. My solution :
I have a project called TIP which stands for temp inbox processing.
When i go to the inbox, anything i canāt do immediately i move to TIP (its easy to remember - no problem there)
When i go to project view TIP is the second project (multi single Action List) just below Misc.
I select TIP then move all items to the right project (since I can see them all on the left) Anything that is Misc is moved to the MISC Single Action List.
but did run a little against the grain of GTD in that i was using the inbox for storage and processing not so much collecting.
I donāt quite understand this comment in relation to this issueā¦ when a task is in your Inbox and you need to decide what to do with it, you assign it a project. At the moment you have to enter a project in the projects box, for each task. If we could drag it into a project it would be quicker. Its exactly the same action, but being able to drag it is quicker.
Also, I hate it when software tries to force GTD on you exactly how a certain person says it should be done. Everyone implements GTD different and so software need flexibility. Software cannot enforce GTD, the person has to do that (if they want to). v
agreed @amitywebā¦ but must the software then provide all options for the different flavors of GTD? The drag/drop thing here is kinda special since it is a redundancy removed from v1 and loudly requested. Apart from that, I think itās fine for OF to stay focussedā¦
I dont think software can cater for all scenarios, thereās just too many, but I do think software should not force any persons methodology or some other process onto its users. All software needs flexibility. So in this case I mean OF should not force a strict GTD process on its user. Would be good if introduced flexibility based on the highest demands from users.
