I want to try OmniFocus on the Mac, but wanted to wait for version 3 to come out first. If I were to start now, would I have to pay for an upgrade, or is there a discount/free upgrade path for those who buy now?
Pretty sure for the OSX version if you buy version 2 now itâs a free upgrade to 3 on release. Sure I read that on their site.
Itâs a great piece of software, requires time invested but once youâre in the habit itâs so beneficial.
I moved to things 3 when it came out but have gone back to Omni since as in just more comfortable with it.
Good luck 
If you buy OmniFocus 2 for Mac youâll receive a free upgrade. Hereâs the official word:
https://support.omnigroup.com/of3-mac-free-upgrade/
On a side note, Iâm one of the lucky few whoâs using the OmniFocus 3 for Mac beta!
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What, no comment on OmniFocus 3 for Mac other than that youâre using it? 
How is it?
I have asked to be on the beta program but have not received an email yet. Either Iâm just down in the queue or responded too late. Should I not make it into the beta program, I will be happy working primarily on iOS and doing just basic edits on macOS until the official release.
I responded the first day they had a link to sign up for the iOS Testflight. Like for iOS, theyâve invited the most curated list for the very first wave, theyâll have multiple waves over time. With the first wave, theyâve wanted a small number of people so the most obvious and egregious bugs arenât getting reported 1,000 times each. Once theyâve gotten a patch out on them, theyâll do the second wave. I was the second wave last time.
While thereâs a shorter window of time to release for the Mac version than the iOS version (there were almost exactly two months between the second wave and release, while the first wave of the Mac beta has only just started and release is due before the end of September), I imagine theyâll do it fairly similarly.
Theyâve asked for a bit more discretion for the Mac, though I donât know that thereâs a real NDA. I had a better idea who was on the first wave for iOS, but it was power-users with a lot of technical know-how and a good platform last time. I know @RosemaryOrchard was one of the first people in last time and Iâd be surprised to find out sheâs not in the Mac beta already.
tl;dr donât discount the likelihood of getting your beta invite (thereâs no maximum number of testers imposed by Apple for the Mac test), and be patient (which Iâm personally struggling with).
I recommend following Omni Group CEO, Ken Case on Twitter for updates on the OmniFocus 3 for Mac beta. Hereâs his latest post:
Lots of great feedback in these first 24 hours of outside testers using OmniFocus 3 for Mac! I think weâre on track to fix the most common showstoppers and be ready to invite 500 more people to help us testâprobably late next week.
Iâve been running the Mac beta since Thursday and am one of a small group helping the Omni Group identify issues to be addressed before making the beta available to more testers.
If they gave it to everyone right out of the gates the Omni Group would likely be inundated with bug reports and feedback, which could ultimately slow down the development process.
Iâm impressed so far! There are plenty of creative UI touches and the stability has been strong overall (the one crash I found has already been fixed). Itâs also a treat to be able to access things like tags, advanced perspectives, and flexible repeats on the Mac!
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Thereâs also the Omni Slack group. Iâve seen some screenshots posted in there so far, and Ken has been active again.
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If youâve not bought OmniFocus 2 and arenât interested, sign up for the OmniFocus 3 test programme. Test builds of major version releases donât require a licence.
These first early builds have already seen great progress. As @timstringer says, the app is impressive even with features still in active development. The same power is there, but the interface makes it feel much more friendly to me.
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I have downloaded the free trial of OmniFocus, as I figured it was the best way to see if it will meet all of my needs and live up to the hype.
I need to plan my day and see what I have on. Forecast view seems to address that, but I need to see what is on for today grouped by the type of task (e.g. phone calls, letters, e-mails, etc.). I did this in Wunderlist by creating a Project for each, as its Today view groups tasks by project.
These items really arenât Projects, so I created contexts. Is there a way to tweak the Forecast perspective to sort by Context (or if really necessary, Project)? If not in version 2, is that feature going to be in version 3?
I tried creating a custom Perspective (thatâs Pro version, right?) and was able to get it to Group by Context and sort by due date, but could not seem to get it to filter out all those tasks not due today. Is there a workaround here to get tasks grouped by type (identified either as a Context or a Project) and filtered to just Due today?
Typically the Forecast is there to show you whatâs become available today (deferred to today), due today and your calendar appointments. (Of course it also includes the near future.) With OmniFocus 3 you can choose a tag whose items will also be shown in the Forecast. This sounds like it might help you.
Youâre on the right path here. Those âtypes of tasksâ certainly do sound like contexts, (which are represented as tags in OmniFocus 3). There is not a way to group by context/tag in Forecast, even using the new Forecast tag.
I think the sort of workflow I might take in your situation is to create a planning perspective that includes available calls, letters and emails, and use that as a palette to choose what needs doing today. Mark those items with your Forecast tag (perhaps today or â) and then you can use Forecast as your working perspective, showing you everything.
If, though, grouping by tag is important, youâll need to create a custom perspective, which is indeed a Pro feature.
Of course this all relies on OmniFocus 3. In OmniFocus 2, you might opt to use a flag to take the place of the Forecast tag. Though because flagged items wonât appear in the Forecast, you might want to make a custom perspective of available, flagged or due items, grouped by context. Like this:
OmniFocus 3 (for Mac) will be out in September so youâve not got long to wait if you like the sound of its features. Buying OmniFocus 2 now will get you a free upgrade to OmniFocus 3 once itâs available.
Thanks for the awesome response! I did try your settings for the custom perspective, but it still showed a task due tomorrow among the ones due for today. I appreciate your candor on the other issues, and there may not be a way to recreate my workflow in OmniFocus 2/3. I can either modify my workflow or stay with Wunderlist. Still playing around and experimenting.
Ah yes, OmniFocus will show due soon actions in that case. You can redefine what âdue soonâ means to you in preferences: in the next 24 hours or just âTodayâ if you prefer.
OmniFocus tends to be quite flexible in letting you make your workflow whatever you want, but definitely leans toward a GTD workflow.
Regardless, I hope you find your optimal workflow.
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Dude!! That did the trick! I set âsoonâ to Today, and now my custom Perspective only shows Today items grouped by Context! Now on to other experiments in workflow!
Is there a way, in version 3, to create a custom perspective that will filter by Tag? If I set a Tag to Home or Work, can I create a corresponding perspective of to-do lists for the home and the office? That would give me one unified system!
There certainly is on iOS, so I would assume (!) that there would be on the Mac versionâŚ
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Yep, and all the same options are available in OmniFocus 3 for Mac as well.
@LawyerSteve Your use case is exactly what I do, too. A set of perspectives for Work and a few for personal. One place and I donât have to worry about seeing the work stuff if I donât want to. Sometimes I even put my work tags on hold so I donât even accidentally see them!
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Thanks! Looks like Iâm all set! I purchased and downloaded @MacSparkyâs video field guide to learn more. However, for some reason, QuickTime 10.4 is not showing the chapter marker button on the toolbar, so I can jump around on the guide. Anyone have an idea as to why this is happening? Googling it didnât produce an answer.