Still seems to work on some of the apps I use. Drafts for example still has native textexpander.
Interesting. It still works natively in Drafts for iOS as I type this.
Are your apps all updated?
January’s credit card statements have been known to assist people in making wise decisions.
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Greg is saying he didn’t remove it yet, but it’s no longer supported so will break, and people should get used to the new approach if they want to use TE long term.
I don’t know if he will remove it when the replacement TextExpander app launches, or leave it in until it breaks (could be caused by iOS or TextExpander changes.) The launch of the replacement app (leaving TestFlight) is behind schedule because of some programming challenges so hopefully TE would be careful not to be the one to break the SDK in the meantime.
Other developers have proactively removed the unsupported SDK or left it it out of their next major versions; it’s up to each developer how to handle the news.
The issue for me on the text expander keyboard (even the current beta) is that the auto correct basically is non existent and not at all a consistent experience like the native one. Therefore, It is hard to just rely on it. With that, I only swap over to it when I have no other choice.
That makes sense. It seems like Smile is really struggling to get it production ready.
I do understand the design of purposely hiding things that most task managers do. It still leaves the situation that you need to find your tasks. You need to remember where you put them. Yes you can use reminders, start dates, due dates and all the rest. I find all of this creates friction and more maintenance.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m an advocate of Mark Forster’s FVP system. I place everything that needs to be done on a particular day in my diary on that day. I will add a projects due date in brackets when writing the task. I review my list weekly, but sometimes daily. With a list of 300 tasks in a Moleskine Cahier notebook, I can review them in 2-3 min. I can’t do this as fast on computer of mobile.
Everything is on one list. For me, scanning the pages is easy and everything is there at a glance.
Yes I am; 2 months now; and so far the move has proved most beneficial.
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This is where the review function is helpful. Sometimes I might be quickly assigning projects and tags to an inbox item by typing in the first few letters of a project or tag. I can enter in the wrong tag or project and it gets lost. Having the review perspective helps me visit projects on a recurring basis to identify any tasks that got the wrong tag or needs to be reassigned to a different project.
It is also helpful to do a search for a task if I remember the task name.
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I’m finding the desktop widget delightful.
I left the beta because of bugs months ago, so this is all new to me. It was just being implemented when I left the beta.
I love the improvements. Changing color from grey when all is good to red for imminent tasks is beautiful.
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After reading others saying that OmniFocus 4 was not very different to OF3 I installed it anyway, (with fairly low expectations) but have to say I’ve been really impressed. I think it’s significantly improved.
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I upgraded to OF4 from OF3. So far, it’s more visually appealing but there’s one thing that’s missing… the Curt Clifton Populate Template Placeholder.
Anyone know if Cliff is working on this?
I agree, and against my better judgment, I’m being tempted to switch from Reminders to OF 4. I’ve been experimenting, and it is much faster to manage, with far greater customization than I recall. Moreover, it is a free upgrade for me, and because I can buy the license in the future if desired, I’m not locked into a subscription. Decisions, decisions…I’d sure hate to eat crow after moving to mostly default apps! I think I’ll run OF and Reminders in parallel for a while to see what I think before making any decisions.
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@Kaitlin (who’s been a guest on MPU and Learn OmniFocus) created Templates for OmniFocus, an OmniFocus plug-in that was inspired by Curt Clifton’s Populate Template Placeholder AppleScript.
I use Templates for OmniFocus regularly and find that it works really well. Templates created for use with Curt’s AppleScript can easily be adapted to work with Kaitlin’s plug-in. The key change is to place each «placeholder» on a separate line in the note field of the project.
It’s worth reading through the extensive documention that Kaitlen provides. There are a lot of excellent features that you can easily add to your templates. For example, if you add $OPTIONAL to the note field of an action, you’ll be asked if you want to include this action when you create a template-based project. The plug-in can also calculate defer and due dates, incorporating date(s) you specify as «placeholders».
Since it’s a plug-in, you can use Templates for OmniFocus on the Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Bonus Tip: As of OmniFocus 4.0, you can use Quick Open to access plug-ins on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
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The key thing here being: what does OF offer to you that Reminders does not? From your track record I would say that you are not exactly using Reminders for just the groceries list, so it’s possible that you are unadvertently hitting some Reminders limitations in terms of how the information is presented and, more importantly, not presented in order to avoid cognitive overload. But then OF itself can be thought of as the definition of cognitive overload in task managing… So it’s a very personal decision.
I’m switching from Reminders to OF4 just to give it a spin for a couple of months and see if it sticks. I may have forgotten about OF3 in iOS, but I find it impressive how they crammed quite a lot of functionality in the limited mobile UI. Not exactly enjoyable like Things but very powerful nonetheless.
I can, without bragging, say that I have maximized the abilities of Reminders more than most. I use Reminders extensively for complex projects spanning months, people, and departments. That said, there are things that OF can do that Reminders can’t or can’t do as quickly.
The features that entice me about OF are, in no particular order:
- Ability to bcc OF in an email to convert it to a task
- The full text of an email in the task saves from opening the email
- Quick Entry and Clipping shortcuts
- Ability to select multiple days in the Forecast perspective
- Defer dates
- The Review feature
- Unlimited folder structure
- Column view and ability to reorder column headings
- Ability to attach a document, not just a link
- Add my calendar to the Forecast view
- The notification and estimated duration
- Fast project entry
- Ability to add a note to the Project, like in Things. Reminders only allows a note for a task
- The notes field is collapsed to minimize visual clutter
As stated earlier, I’m going to run Reminders and OF in parallel for a while to see what I think works best.
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I bought OF3 while in another „I just need a new task manager to get things done“ frenzy, knowing that I would get OF4 for free (I asked before buying). I have used the Beta for the last several months. I had OF2 already some time in the past, but always felt overwhelmed by it.
For now I tried to use OF4 in a more simple way than probably intended, which kind of felt like working against the program.
After listening to the great episode with @Kourosh I became a fan of him (we actually seem to have a lot in common) and I bought his OF book. So far it seems really, really great and I‘m finally beginning to understand how to make use of OF’s features.
So right now I’m glad the new version is not so different from the one explained in the book.
I guess most of these apps can do so much these days, it comes down to very little differences that you might like or dislike.
I‘m just glad I got a brand new app for the money I spent some while ago (feels like I got it for free) and I‘m confident this app will get supported and developed.
I‘m committed to learning how to manage my tasks, now that I got so much inspired by Kourosh. I‘ll do this with OF4 and stop thinking about which other app might help me a little better or worse.
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Love to hear that. Kourosh is great and informative. Has a different take on task management. The fact that OmniFocus can go from “add bananas to my shopping list”, all the way up to “Start my multimillion dollar company”, is very impressive.
It’s that old thing of “no application will ever be perfect”. OmniFocus comes very close though!
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I was a huge fan of the Complete and Await Reply Script that he made … I’m back on Omnifocus now with version 4 … any idea where I can get that script ?