Omnifocus 4 release

I recommend checking out Autocar, “A ‘Complete and Await Response’ plug-in for OmniFocus, with automatic naming and tagging of new actions.” Since it’s an OmniFocus Plug-In, it should work fine on the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

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This is GREAT. Thanks !

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I’ve surprised myself by moving back to OmniFocus after having used NotePlan and Agenda for a good while. I like both of them just fine, but the key win for me in OmniFocus is Mail Drop and the ability to run sequential projects in addition to having single action things etc.

I was delighted to realize that since Projects can have a note associated, I can attach documents to a project, or link to an Apple Note or to a section of OneNote. Being able to have notes and to-do in the same place was what I liked about Note Plan and Agenda. This is essentially the same capability and it gives me more flexibility in managing one off tasks etc.

I started with Omnifocus back when it was Kinkless GTD. It feels like I’m home for Christmas right now with Omnifocus 4. Heh.

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If I switch, you having done so will make me feel better about it. :slightly_smiling_face:

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And one more thing about linking… you can link the Omnifocus project to the associated Apple Note and/or OneNote. That means I can move easily back and forth from the task lists and the supporting documents, and my written material etc.

The links work cross platform too. Neat!

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New to OF, and currently doing a trial. The iOS app is underwhelming to say the least when compared with Reminders/Things/Todoist. I have another 7 days to go before deciding :man_shrugging:

Is it still overwhelming if you only use it to do what you need to do?

I’m hardly the one to judge but I think it can be used very simply in what I call “basic mode”.

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There are some basic UI issues like copy pasting text, fields shaking during editing mode. Nothing to do with the workflow.

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How can you create a link to an Apple Note?

There are various shortcuts and Alfred plugins to do it… but my way is much simpler.

I have a pinned Apple Note called “Scratch Pad” - I go to that, type >> and then create a link to the Apple note of interest. Then I copy the result to Omnifocus. Voila!

It’s not elegant, but it works. Heh.

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I create the link directly from the note in question, as shown in these screenshots.

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Thank you - that is very clever

I realized another option may be to use the Hook app - which can create a link to an Apple Note with just one keystroke

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Relevant to another discussion (Our unexpected winners of 2023), but perhaps moreso here, I have to say that my “unexpected winner” of 2023 are the plugins increasingly being created and shared on Omni-Automation. When you start integrating the plugins into your workflow it really adds another level to the possibilities of OmniFocus. Templates, as @timstringer describes, is the one I really embraced this year, but I’ve also started to really take advantage of another plugin created by @Kaitlin: the Move to Action Group plugin.

For those not familiar, action groups can loosely be described as ‘sub projects’ in OmniFocus. They are very useful at providing some hierarchy and order to projects with many tasks. I didn’t use them so much previously as adding items directly to the appropriate action group was slightly cumbersome, but the plugin makes this really easy.

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Curious to hear more of your observations as a new user. What do you think of the progressive easing into the full features they’re trying to do?

I have been using OF for probably about 8 years. Love it. And yet, I use it in its most basic form. I’m hearing about plugins and I have no idea what they are. When I have time, I will need to dive in. I’m also curious about Dini’s book.

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I assume OF plug-ins are similar to using plug-ins in Obsidian.

What is the criteria to get a free upgrade. I clearly am not in that circle. Just curious.

I’d use just the features that I need. I have photoshop and I probably use 1% of its overall features and that’s all I need. But it’s nice to know the other features are there when I need it.

The plugins seem to be more like JavaScript actions. They appear on a menu item, but don’t have a separate settings panel like Obsidian does.

You needed to have purchased/upgraded to 3 during their version 4 beta phase.

Plugins seem to be used to automate things. Such as creating new copies of a project populated with tags and dates or an action the completes a task that requires a response and creates a ‘waiting for’ new task linked to the completed task.

I can imagine plugins to be extremely useful in replicating large repeat projects or just automating things you find yourself repeatedly doing. I’m sure they can be far more feature rich and complex.

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I like OF overall but feel curated that I have to keep going back to the desktop app to get things right. A change in sub task date changes the parent task date on mobile and I was worried that I messed it up. Copy pasting is not easy and neither is formatting in the notes field. The iOS app seems more like a companion app than a full fledged mobile app. Not sure if that’s intentional. I haven’t yet started creating perspectives but already feel that the workflow is getting heavy (I just had a few projects inputted to get started).

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