How to visualize OmniFocus?

I am researching the different ways to visualize OmniFocus projects and actions data.

I have heard about mind or tree maps and/or Gantt charts. What are ways and software needed?

For complex projects with lots of people involved, I use OmniPlan to visualise. This is mainly because my colleagues expect a Gantt chart and often want a copy to use in Microsoft Project. It’s what they’re used to receiving and they can make modifications and send back to me.

You can drag tasks or entire projects into Tinderbox and it will automatically port over the following metadata: due date, defer date (called start date), end date, task status, the callback URL, and the notes (doesn’t seem to migrate tags).

In the map view, you could move them around to visualize, annotate connections across projects, etc. You could also stamp new metadata onto them and sort in different ways using agents.

This is unidirectional for the time being, though there has been some interest in making it bidirectional. If this appeals, consider adding to the feature request conversation linked above.

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Hi Beck. Serendipity. I had in mind to email you directly. We’ve got community, research, mindfulness and technology in common. To be continued… :slight_smile:

Anyhow, it is very nice to hear from you. Tinderbox is an expensive solution. Yikes - am I seeing correctly Tinderbox is $250? It looks fantastic though. Do you perchance have other ideas for a less pricey tool?

Be well
Neil

I hope you do email me directly, I’d love to hear more about what we have in common.

Tinderbox is expensive in comparison to many of the tools out there, yes. And if all you were using it for was this, I’d not suggest it as an investment, necessarily.

I use it for the work of thinking and connecting ideas and I honestly think it’s invaluable, but that’s a highly personal opinion.

I tried copying and pasting, exporting, and dragging from OF to the other concept mapping software I have (iThoughtsX, CMapTools, and Scapple) and none of them handled it elegantly. The Sweet Setup has a good list of tools you might try (I’m sure many have free trial periods). Perhaps one or more of them handle it better?

@RosemaryOrchard How did you create the mind map trigger list PDF which is included with your book?

For folks who have yet to discover, here are details https://omnifocusbook.com/home/

MindNode! Nothing fancy - their default template :slight_smile:

@RosemaryOrchard Hi Rosemary! By chance would you be willing to share how do you share the info between OmniFocus on and MindNode?