Posts tagged with "omnifocus"

OmniFocus Browser Bookmarklet and Safari 6→

OmniFocus Browser Bookmarklet and Safari 6

Ever since upgrading to Safari 6 and Mountain Lion, I’ve noticed the OmniFocus bookmarklet I had installed stopped working properly. The OmniFocus bookmarklet is a handy addition to my workflow, in that it allows me to quickly save webpages I need to act upon at a later date, while preserving their title, link, and text selection. I often do this for linked posts that end up here on MacStories, or pages that I need to check out but that I’m not ready to bookmark yet (for that, I use Pinboard).

In theory, the OmniFocus bookmarklet should be capable of grabbing a webpage’s URL and selection (if any) as a note. However, of the two bookmarklets provided by The OmniGroup, none of them manages to successfully grab text selection on my machine running Safari 6 and OS X 10.8.1. So I set out to find a better bookmarklet, and I found this version by Alex Popescu that, besides working correctly, has also some nice integration with Gmail.

For Gmail, the bookmarklet creates a new task with the email title as the task title and a note with the current selection (if any), plus a from line in the form: From: email subject:(email subject) email_thread_url. For normal web pages, the bookmarklet creates a new task with the document title as the task title and a note with the current selection (if any), plus a from line in the form: From: page_url.

I tested this on Safari 6, and it works as advertised. The bookmarklet also works on iOS devices, albeit the iPhone’s Mobile Safari can’t send the current text selection from a page to OmniFocus.

Get the bookmarklet here.

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Create OmniFocus Tasks From Drafts, Scratch, Or Any Text Editor Through Dropbox

Back in October 2010, I posted a tutorial on how to add new tasks to OmniFocus or Things using Dropbox, AppleScript, and PlainText by Hog Bay Software. In June 2011, I wrote about more ways to add tasks to OmniFocus (my GTD app of choice), and noted how I had only “scratched the surface of what’s possible to do with OmniFocus and task creation”.

I decided to slightly revisit my workflow now that several “quick Dropbox note-taking apps” like Scratch and Drafts have come out. These apps are already integrated in my daily routine, but the following method works with any text editor, and, obviously, using Dropbox is recommended if you want to be able to create tasks from anywhere. Read more

Send Favorite Tweets To OmniFocus’ Inbox

In my daily “social networking workflow”, I use the “favorite” feature of Twitter as a todo list of sorts. I couldn’t find a way to add favorites to OmniFocus without leveraging email as a bridge, so I built a solution myself.

Using IFTTT, a single line of bash, Hazel, and AppleScript, I created a simple way to turn a favorite tweet into an OmniFocus task in the application’s inbox, ready for future processing. As an extra, I have also created a more “advanced” version that adds Automator to the mix to only extract URLs from favorite tweets. Read more

Save Safari Tabs As A List in OmniFocus→

Save Safari Tabs As A List in OmniFocus

This is a nice tip to save the tabs of the frontmost Safari window as a list in OmniFocus (via Shawn Blanc). Through AppleScript, tabs are saved as webpage titles and URLs in a note in the OmniFocus inbox; the note is named with the “URL List from Safari Tabs” + timestamp format.

Using OmniFocus’ AppleScript Dictionary, you could modify the script to assign a specific context to the task for easy retrieval of your tab lists with Perspectives or OmniFocus’ own URLs. For the latter option, you can use Launch Center on iOS to quickly jump to OmniFocus projects and contexts; also keep in mind that any OmniFocus item (a task, a project, a context) has a unique ID that you can get using the “Copy as Link” option from the app’s contextual menu.

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Launch Center Pro and OmniFocus→

 Launch Center Pro and OmniFocus

Michael Schechter has created a series of Launch Center Pro templates to speed up the creation process of repetitive tasks in OmniFocus for iPhone, inspired by David Sparks’ snippets for TextExpander and OmniFocus for Mac. With actions to easily attach the contents of the clipboard to a new task or setting up a reminder to follow up on something with a colleague, Michael’s snippets can be huge timesavers if you’ve been looking for a way to automate certain aspects of OmniFocus on the iPhone.

All I’ve done here is create a new group in Launch Center Pro called OF Actions. This allows me to have 11 rapid-fire actions for my most commonly created tasks. Rather than 11 unique actions, I’ve actually created duplicates for most that include whatever I have on the clipboard. This way I have a version that duplicates the Quick Entry field and another that emulates some aspects of the Clipper.

Based on OmniFocus’ new URL scheme and Launch Center Pro’s support for prompts (more details in our review of the app), these snippets won’t offer the same degree of customization found in desktop solutions like the aforementioned TextExpander or Keyboard Maestro, but they surely are the best way to automate OmniFocus on the iPhone for now. Because of the nature of iOS, you won’t be able to set up scripts that, for instance, let OmniFocus communicate with other apps automatically, but at least you’ll be saving some typing and navigation inside the app.

Inspired by Michael’s work, I have set up actions to access my most used perspectives and a new one called “Review Latest” that makes up for the lack of an Inbox perspective on iOS (as it’s project based rather than context based) and displays the latest tasks I may have added without a context or due date using Captio. Furthermore, I have assigned a scheduled reminder to the action, so that every day after dinner I’ll be reminded by Launch Center Pro to process my newest tasks created throughout the day.

The Omni Group’s Ken Case also chimed in on Twitter explaining how OmniFocus URLs work, and Justin Lancy collected the tweets in a Storify bundle. Nick Winja took a look at how it’s possible to access contexts via URL, as well.

You can see the full text for Michael’s Launch Center Pro snippets here.

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OmniFocus and Calendar Notifications

I recently became tired with the fact that OmniFocus needs to be launched every once in a while in order to get the latest version of its synced database. For almost two years, I synced OmniFocus through The Omni Group’s excellent (and free) Omni Sync Server service, but I switched to a manual WebDAV location hosted on my Macminicolo machine because I like to be in control of the app’s sync sessions, and to fiddle around with ways to better automate the app’s syncing system.

Over the past few months, however, I have found myself increasingly missing notifications for due items because I am not always using the same device to manage OmniFocus, and I tend to forget to launch the app and hit the Sync button. I may go a full week without using OmniFocus for Mac, but I’d still like to be reminded of important items even if I don’t sync my iPhone and iPad all the time. Unfortunately, in the way OmniFocus is structured, the standard sync doesn’t allow items to be “pushed” in the background.

I came up with a way to have OmniFocus’ due reminders synced “in the cloud” and always up-to-date that enables me to keep using the app like I always have, yet staying assured I won’t miss items because I forgot to sync or open the app. It uses OmniFocus’ built-in calendar export functionality, and a mix of automation, Macminicolo hosting, and third-party apps to get the job done reliably and consistently. It’s not perfect (mainly due to Apple’s fault) and it’s likely doable in some other way with some other hosting solution, but I found this method to work perfectly for me in my workflow. Read more

“Creating Flow with OmniFocus” Now Available as Audiobook

The aim of this text then is not just in using the productivity and task management program OmniFocus, but also in getting to the creative space wherever that may be found. The hope is in getting to those things you want to do and enjoy while maintaining the responsibilities that inevitably accrue in life. Be it in work, play, or with family, we are aiming for a relaxed depth of focus and flow.

Originally released in November 2010, Creating Flow with OmniFocus by Kourosh Dini is one of the best resources available to learn more about The OmniGroup’s fantastic GTD software. Specifically aimed at Mac users of OmniFocus, the 555 pages of Dini’s book will take you through the basic concepts of the application, such as Projects and Contexts, to more advanced techniques and workflows that may involve prioritization of your tasks, context management and, overall, finding the right “flow” for your tasks and Getting Things Done system. As a reader of Creating Flow with OmniFocus myself, I’ve always been impressed with the way the author made this book about balancing your own creativity with goals and projects you have to complete in real-life, rather than simply writing a “how to” guide for OmniFocus. Sure, the book has its tutorial-oriented sections with screenshots and tips, but I found the overall “focus” on creating flow and making the system work for you quite liberating.

Creating Flow has been substantially improved since its original release. Kourosh Dini worked hard to bring the book up to speed with the latest refinements introduced in OmniFocus for Mac (now at version 1.9), and today he released an audiobook version that is available on his website. I have been able to listen to a pre-release copy of the audiobook, and it’s a good alternative for those times when you don’t want to sit down with a full copy of the eBook in your Mac or iPad PDF reading app of choice (personally, I like PDF Expert), but still would like to catch up on some great OmniFocus suggestions and discussion. In fact, I would say that the biggest advantage of the audiobook is that, once synced to your iOS device, you’ll be able to quickly navigate between chapters and instantly get to your desired section with just one tap. You’ll lose images and the overall visual style of the eBook (albeit the .zip file comes with a reference of over 300 screenshots), but you’ll gain an improved navigation that makes it easy to skip sections you don’t want to listen to again if you’ve already read the book. In this regard, existing owners of Creating Flow should consider supporting Kourosh again and get the audiobook just to have a refresh on some parts of the original book without having to go through it again.

The audiobook has been narrated by professional voice actor, Bruce Edwards, encompassing nearly 10 hours of listening material. As I wrote in 2010, Creating Flow with OmniFocus is the book every OmniFocus user should read. Now you can listen to it as well with the audiobook available here.

The Omni Group Posts Omni Sync Server Stats, Service Coming To More Apps

As a follow-up to their previous update on Lion adoption numbers, The Omni Group has published a blog post on Omni Sync Server usage stats. The Omni Sync Server is a cloud-based system that handles OmniFocus databases across Macs, iPhones and iPads. It’s been in “beta” for several months and it’s free, allowing OmniFocus customers to keep their tasks in sync over-the-air free of charge.

The Omni Group monitored usage on the OSS, and found out that roughly 31,500 users were active in the past 8 days (at the time of publishing the blog post). 92% of iOS devices on the OSS were updated to the latest version of iOS, 5.0.1; the most popular Mac computer in usage logs has turned out to be the 2011 MacBook Air with 10%. As for OmniFocus, the majority of active users are opting for the Mac+iPhone combo, with “all 3” being the second most registered option. Surprisingly, “only” 2069 users were active as iPad-only.

With Omni Sync Server, The Omni Group has built its own cloud that syncs user data across the whole OmniFocus ecosystem on OS X and iOS. The developers have also confirmed that the service will come to other document-based Omni apps, such as the popular OmniOutliner. Indeed, the lack of proper automatic sync between the mobile and desktop versions of these apps has forced many users to either switch to different software with Dropbox support or rely on third-party tools such as DropDAV, which turns your Dropbox into a webDAV server compatible with Omni apps and Apple’s iWork for iOS (the latter lacking cloud sync before version 1.5).

You can read more about OmniFocus’ sync and the Omni Sync Server here.

A Software Experiment

For the past couple of years, I’ve been using OmniFocus to keep track of my projects and tasks. I love OmniFocus: it is a trusted system from developers I respect with an amazing set of native apps, constantly updated to take advantage of the latest features Apple has to offer. Yet for as much as I’d trust OmniFocus to handle everything for me, when personal needs change, habits are re-imagined and your workflow has to be finely tuned in a different way, software that is not meant for the purpose can only cover so much before you figure out it’s time to move on.

In the past months, some things changed in my personal life, I started a couple of new projects (including the next two iterations of MacStories), hired new people, and started helping out my girlfriend more with her job, too. To keep track of all this, I used to rely on OmniFocus, which worked extremely well until I realized I wasn’t really following any GTD methodology anymore and I had tweaked the app and made compromises with the software that turned OF into a beast it really isn’t. At the same time, I realized a part of my job – writing for this site – just can’t fit into OmniFocus’ style, at least not in the way I work. Which is to say, my colleagues use OmniFocus to manage their articles, and it works pretty well for them.

I compromised because I love OmniFocus too much. I have a deep respect for The Omni Group – a piece of history in Apple’s third-party development scene – and I have spent hours just browsing the company’s forums to read more about how people use Omni Group apps to get things done. I have dedicated Evernote notebooks just for OmniFocus and OmniOutliner, full with tips, stories, AppleScripts and lots of other cool resources. But it comes a point when, even if a specific software is flexible enough to allow for a huge amount of customization, spending hours learning and tweaking isn’t worth it anymore, especially when you have actual work to get done and people to report to. And tweaking is not getting work done, although it can give you such illusion sometimes.

I’ve been working exclusively from my iPad and iPhone for the past two months. Most recently, I got back to writing full-time again and decided to use my iPad for that, too. In this short period of time, I have used a different set of tools than OmniFocus to get things done, and this ‘experiment’ seems to be working so far.

I don’t blame it on OmniFocus. Like I said that app is fantastic, and version 2.0 is on my wish list of apps I’m looking forward to this year. I kept denying this, but the way I work (and, more generally, live) has changed in the last months of 2011; the app I used to manage my tasks wasn’t the perfect tool for the job anymore. So I stopped tweaking and moved on.

I’m now using a combination of Remember The Milk, Todo.txt and iCloud calendar. This setup is very simple, really, and I can assure you it’s more straightforward then what I had done with OmniFocus over the years. Read more