OmniFocus 4.7 Beta Thoughts

This is interesting. I started using NotePlan and like all my stuff together, but I REALLY miss the task skills of OF. What was missing for you that made you switch back?

I’ve been using OF since v2. I’ve found myself over the last 1-2 years, relying on my calendar (Google/Fantastical) much more for tasks/deadlines to the point I’m considering just using OF for multi-step projects/processes. All my hard deadlines/events are in my calendar. At the beginning, I could get my OF tasks into my calendar but along the way, OF/Google/whoever stopped this. It feels right now relying primarily on my calendar and I don’t have to rely on having to go to one additional source for what I need to do on a daily basis.

Maybe OF4 will get me back to using OF more often?

  • No useful repeating tasks in NotePlan without using the plugin, and I found the plugin much less intuitive than OmniFocus repeating tasks. Therefore, I was having to use another app anyway, so everything wasn’t in NotePlan.
  • Lack of deferred times for tasks. In other words, if there is something I can never, ever do until the market closes, I still saw that on my task list all day long. I tried using Reminders, but of course, the Reminders view showed that task even if it was for a week from today.
  • I had some sync issues. That alone probably wasn’t enough to make me change, though.
  • I had an issue or two with using H3 headers under the Tasks section of my daily note. I would add a task with H3 and some tasks under that heading, then add another unrelated task below that section without making a new H3. If I collapsed or moved that H3 group, my unrelated task went along with it. The connection is made by the note’s structure and not anything more formal like a database field Project. I’m a pretty structured guy, but if I’m adding a note with my phone while on the go, I probably won’t pay attention to the heading in which my new task falls.
  • I didn’t like having that Reference section above my Daily Note. I would frequently forget to reference it! Also, if I dragged the task into my daily note as a synced line and then deleted it, my brain would assume all the aliases would be deleted also. Nope, it only deletes that instance, so you first have to do the dropdown to identify all the replicants and delete manually everywhere (or search for words in that synced line if they are unique).

I think Eduard may be a genius, but I have a hard time with having so many advanced Kanban and AI features being implemented when repeating tasks are not yet integrated. Some of the features seem to be developed ā€œon the flyā€ such as having to define the property or field to group the data manually.

I’ve gone on way too long in a negative way about an app and programmer that I really like—it just wasn’t for me.

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I use OmniFocus and NotePlan in conjunction. I’ve only done this for a few months now, so we’ll see if it sticks, but I am a long-time OmniFocus user that became intrigued by NotePlan after the MPU episode on it last year. However, I never sensed I entirely ā€œtrustedā€ it in the way I trust OmniFocus, and I had issues with the repeating tasks, etc. However, I really like it as a complement to OmniFocus and a replacement for Agenda. I also find the kanban view helpful to see the status of all of my projects, which I’ve never really found an effective way to do in OmniFocus. There are other features I like as well, such as markdown support, and especially the daily-weekly-monthly-quarterly-annual views. Those views are really helpful for doing my periodic reviews. However, I still prefer my tasks in OmniFocus.

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Will 4.7 finally show tasks past their deferr date in the forecast perspective?

I made a separate perspective to show them, but I always forget to look at it. I never forget to check the Forecast perspective, however.

If you have a task planned for a past date, it will still show up in the Forecast.

The planned date is the key here. I planned for something yesterday but I forgot to do it.

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I would argue that you’re doing it right if you rarely get to a perspective of tasks that never need to be done! :stuck_out_tongue:

Do you know when the official 4.7 update will be released?

I’m not sure—I haven’t tried 4.7 yet. I have a lot of perspectives and Shortcuts that use the Scheduling plugin, so I’m waiting until the official release, as I know it will be a bit of work to switch from the Scheduling plugin to the new planned dates.

I just tested this in 4.6.1 however, and can see that items with past deferred dates don’t show up in the Forecast perspective. I don’t use the Forecast perspective so much myself. However, I do have daily startup / shutdown checklists, and this where I would include a task to check for any past deferred items. I do have one to check my ā€˜overdue’ perspective, which includes both past deferred and overdue items. It only takes me second to check.

I just tested in 4.7 and the only option re Defer date in Forecast is to show items on deferred date. But I use the Today tag (which is the Forecast tag for me), so that if the deferred date has come and gone without me noticing it (would rarely happen), I will still see it in my Forecast based on having that tag. I think of this as ā€œI can’t do until this deferred date, but after that, it should be done ASAPā€. If my thinking on that task has changed, I can address it easily enough.

As a crosscheck, I have a perspective that shows everything that doesn’t have a Today, Due, or Planned date, meaning I may never see it on today’s schedule.

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4.7 is live!!! Not had a chance to play, yet :smiley:

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It’s a great update! I wrote a blog post for Learn OmniFocus that highlights key features in OmniFocus 4.7. I included three Quick Tip videos so you can see some of the new features in action.

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This is a nice release, and easy to adopt. I just had to make two tag groups mutually exclusive and double-check planned shows in forecast. Everything else gets used in the course of my normal work.

And, Omni was way too cautious about presenting the database migration! So cute. :slight_smile:

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Really like what Omni is doing here. Super smooth update that’s making me reconsider the way I use Notion for project management — these updates make OF4 much more capable in that regard. Bonus points for being a native application.

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I am seriously planning to give a trial run for Omnifocus for next 3-months
The release of Version 4.7 is just a trigger

I have been using Things 3 for last 5-years (after sadly it was clear that 2Do was abandoned) and it has served me well. However, now with my increased work load, I think the simplicity of Things has started to show its limitations such as no concept of overdue or flagged items or perspectives. Also the no way to check off recurring task early is a constant annoyance, this despite developers promising to make it possible publicly :neutral_face:

Having said this I must admin that the beat feature of Things has to be ā€œThings Helperā€ which automatically makes link to the item (file, webpage, email etc) and has it profiled for new task entry. I wonder why many other apps don’t do this.

I am aware Hook can achieve same things, but having it part of the to do app is just convenient

Thanks. This was very helpful.

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You will not be disappointed!:face_with_raised_eyebrow:

It’s not quite as seamless, but if you go into System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. There is an entry under ā€œTextā€ called ā€œOmniFocus 4: Send to Inbox.ā€ If you set a keyboard shortcut for this, then it has some context awareness and you can have a mail message selected or text in a url field of Safari (for instance) and it’ll populate the quick entry with those details automatically (like URL to message, etc…)

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Still no calendar sync, still no way to stop tasks inheriting flags/dates/tags from parent projects. I assume these things will never arrive, but it still gets in the way.

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How is Spotlight integration with this version?
Ie, can I use Spotlight to serch my actions in OF?

…and how do you update to 4.7 (I have OF 4.6 Pro)? :thinking:

Spotlight integration’s been in OF for awhile. Your apps should prompt you to update or you can force it with Check for Updates.

(I really should make that crazy cake today.)

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