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Chapter 1
Throughout this manual you’ll find information to help you get the most out of an app designed from the ground up with your productivity in mind. OmniFocus is a great way to organize, plan, and accomplish the goals in your life, and with OmniFocus 2 for Mac there’s never been a better time to dive in and see what it’s all about. We’re glad to have you with us!
OmniFocus for iPhone complements OmniFocus for Mac and OmniFocus for iPad, bringing all the power and versatility of the OmniFocus system to the palm of your hand. It uses the latest features of the iPhone to help you get things done when it’s most sensible, convenient, and efficient to do them. Omnifocus Mac Manual OmniFocus for Mac, iPad, and iPhone is designed to quickly capture your thoughts and ideas to store, manage, and help you process them into actionable to do. Much of Creating Flow with OmniFocus is precisely the development of a workflow, The Omni Group's manual – OmniFocus 2 for Mac, The Omni Group's. OmniFocus for iPhone uses Apple’s built-in background fetch to keep your database up to date even while not using the app, but if you’ve made changes you want to view immediately on other devices, you’ll want to perform a manual sync (by tapping the Sync button in OmniFocus) before switching to OmniFocus on another iOS device or your Mac.
What is OmniFocus?
It all starts with a basic idea. You have something that needs to get done, and you know you’d better make a note about it somewhere, but that sticky note on your desk isn’t going to cut it anymore. You’re ready to try a more reliable system, one that can keep track of all the things going on in your head, and maybe even help them feel a bit more simple in the process.
OmniFocus is the personal task management tool that helps you keep track of all the goals, plans, errands, and aspirations that come up in your life. Whether the task at hand is something small, such as setting a reminder to swing by the bike shop after work, or the tasks are part of a bigger goal, such as making plans for that long overdue vacation, OmniFocus helps you keep track of everything you need to do throughout your day.
Available on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, OmniFocus is packed full of tools to help you prioritize steps within complex projects or simply jot a quick to-do list for a weekly meeting. OmniFocus works great as a standalone productivity aid or in conjunction with whatever time- and task-management scheme suits your personal style.
Note
OmniFocus for Mac complements OmniFocus for iPhone and OmniFocus for iOS, serving as your base of operations for productivity that extends well beyond the screen of your Mac.
For a video tour of the features of OmniFocus, check out:
Inside OmniFocus is another great resource to help you get up to speed with the wide variety of ways OmniFocus can be used to help you get things done.
What’s New in OmniFocus 2.4
OmniFocus 2.4 is the newest version of OmniFocus for Mac, packed with bug fixes and improvements along with a couple of new features. First, you can now choose Today as an option for the meaning of Due Soon in Dates & Times Preferences.
Choosing today as the meaning of Due Soon gives the status of any item due between 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM on the current day the amber 'due soon' color (this behavior also applies to other Due Soon values that are expressed as days). This is notably distinct from the 24 hours option, which considers anything within 24 hours of the current time as due soon.
Since 'Due Soon equals today' has proven to be a common conception of the meaning of Due Soon, we've adopted it as the new default setting. If you previously had 24 hours selected, you'll have to choose it again if you would prefer not to use midnight as a boundary.
The other big feature that's new to OmniFocus 2.4 is the rollout of push notification-triggered sync. We've had this feature on iOS for several months now, and we're happy to be able to bring it to the Mac and make the circle complete. Your iOS device running OmniFocus version 2.6 or later should now alert OmniFocus on your Mac shortly after you make a change.
Settings related to push notification-based sync can be found under Show Sync Details. in Synchronization Preferences, and you can learn more about how it all works in this support article.
Making the Transition: OmniFocus 1 to OmniFocus 2
If you’re a user of OmniFocus 1 for Mac, you probably have an existing database that you’d like to bring over to OmniFocus 2. Due to changes in the way OS X handles files associated with specific apps (sandboxing), you’ll need to migrate your database as the first step to using OmniFocus 2 with your existing data.
Migrating your Database
Syncing OmniFocus 2 to your existing OmniFocus database is the recommended method for migrating from other versions. It provides a straightforward pathway for keeping your data in the up-to-date state you want, and keeps all versions of OmniFocus playing nicely together if you’re running the app on multiple devices.
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However, if you choose not to sync the first time you launch OmniFocus 2, you’ll have the option to migrate an existing database from OmniFocus 1. This doesn’t remove your old database (it just copies it over), so again, we recommend syncing to avoid later confusion and conflicts between multiple versions of your database.
Migrating your Archive
After you’ve used OmniFocus 2 for a while, you’ll be prompted to archive parts of your database that aren’t relevant to your current set of projects (you can also create an archive manually by choosing Move Old Data to Archive from the File menu). If you have OmniFocus 1 installed on your Mac, OmniFocus 2 will check the default location for an OmniFocus 1 archive, and if it finds one, ask if you’d like to move it into OmniFocus 2’s sandbox and add your new archive data to it.
Changing Terminology
To help better represent their function, a few things have changed about how OmniFocus describes certain features of the app.
To get started with OmniFocus you can continue browsing the help, or dive right in to the app. If you’re starting fresh with a blank slate, you’ll see the tutorial project ready to offer some initial pointers. You can add the tutorial to your database at any time with the Help ▸ Add Tutorial Project menu item.
Standard and Pro
OmniFocus 2 gives you the power to engage with OmniFocus in ways even more uniquely tailored to your needs. We made the Standard edition of OmniFocus 2 for Mac with the idea that it has everything you need to get started “out-of-the-box”, including the vast majority of features covered in this manual.
In OmniFocus 2 Standard, you’ll:
In the following chapters you’ll get a full look at everything OmniFocus 2 Standard offers. It’s a heck of a lot!
In addition to the Standard feature set there are some specialized tools that appeal to users who’d like more increased view flexibility and workflow customization, and that’s why we made OmniFocus Pro.
When you try OmniFocus Pro, you’ll be able to:
How to Try Pro
You can download the trial version of OmniFocus from our website. At any time throughout the trial period you can switch between Standard and Pro using Free Trial Mode ▸ Try Pro/Standard Edition in the OmniFocus menu to compare features and see which is the right fit for your needs.
Likewise, if you purchased OmniFocus 2 Standard from the Mac App Store you can download the trial version and run it side by side to compare features.
If you own a Standard license from the Omni store and would like to try Pro, if you’re still within the trial period you can temporarily delete your license (Licenses in the OmniFocus menu) to revert to trial mode and give Pro a try. If you’re outside the trial period, contact us and we’ll be happy to provide a Pro trial license.
Note
Unsure whether you have Pro installed? Check About OmniFocus in the OmniFocus menu for details on the current version and licensing status of the app; with Pro installed you’ll see a purple bar below the Omni address indicating your purchase. Using This Book
One of the beauties of having OmniFocus’s documentation available in electronic form is that it’s always available whenever you need it. We have built the documentation right into the Help menu. We have put all of the documentation on our website where it can be searched and bookmarked. And we’re continuing the ongoing trend of creating EPUB versions of the docs and making them freely available on the iBooks Store.
Tell Us What You ThinkOmnifocus 2 Mac Manual Download
We’re constantly working on updates for our documentation. Whether it’s CSS work, correcting the occasional typo (yeah, they do sometimes slip through), or adding details or clarification for a specific feature based on something we’ve heard from a customer, we’re always trying to make our documentation better and more useful for you.
If you have any specific comments you’d like to send us about the documentation, please do. You can drop us an email message via our Support queue, or you can ping us on Twitter; we’re @OmniWranglers.
Finally, we’d like to thank you for taking the time to read the docs.
Chapter 2
When you first launch OmniFocus 2 you’ll be asked to set up your sync settings. Syncing is important in OmniFocus as an additional layer of backup storage for your data, and enables several of the advanced features of the app such as Mail Drop. If you have OmniFocus for iPhone or iPad, syncing connects you to the latest changes made on any device.
If you’re planning to sync, it’s recommended to do so as part of the app setup process to ensure as smooth a transition as possible between versions, and to provide that added layer of backup right away. If you choose to set up sync later, the same preferences you saw at first launch are available in OmniFocus ▸ Preferences ▸ Synchronization.
Omni Sync Server
The most straightforward sync option available is our very own Omni Sync Server. It’s free, reliable, and supported by Omni’s ace support team; we take care of managing the servers so your data is always available when you need it most.
Get started by creating a new Omni Sync account here:
Other WebDAV Options
Omni Sync Server is a great syncing solution for most OmniFocus users. If your sync needs require that your data be kept completely within a system you control, you can configure a private WebDAV server to sync your OmniFocus data. This can be a third-party server (there are many fine providers out there) or one that lives on your own Mac.
While we’re not able to provide comprehensive support for WebDAV servers we don’t administrate (since it isn’t our software), we’re glad to help you get started with some pointers.
See this support article for a tutorial on setting up your own OmniFocus sync server using Server.app (included with Mac OS X Server).
Warning
When you expose files and folders on your computer to the internet (even with password protection), you assume some risk. Make sure you understand this risk before setting up a server, and be sure to keep your Mac up to date with the latest security patches. If you’d prefer not to host your own server, you can sign up for an Omni Sync Server account or use another standards-compliant WebDAV host to sync OmniFocus.
Also note that while services such as Dropbox are great for file sharing, they can’t handle OmniFocus data properly for syncing purposes. Using Dropbox as a place to store your OmniFocus data can corrupt it. Do not use Dropbox as a means of synchronizing your OmniFocus data.
How Synchronization Works
With sync turned on in OmniFocus, a server you designate keeps a copy of your database so that it’s always available wherever you are. With each subsequent sync, OmniFocus compares your local database with what’s on the server and merges any differences between the two databases.
With sync turned on, OmniFocus sends new changes to the sync server after one minute, or when opening or closing the app. At a bare minimum, OmniFocus checks in with the server every hour if nothing has changed on the device. This helps ensure that your data from OmniFocus is always safe, secure, and most importantly—up to date.
Tip
Devices with OmniFocus 2 (on any platform) that sync to the same server account and are connected to the same Wi-Fi network will prompt each other to sync when any new changes are pushed to the server. Nifty!
If you’ve made changes you want to view immediately on other devices, you’ll want to perform a manual sync (by clicking the Sync button in OmniFocus) before switching to OmniFocus on another device. This pushes your latest changes up to the sync server, so that when you launch OmniFocus on the other system, all you have to do is click or tap Sync to ensure that all of your changes are there.
Note
In OmniFocus 2.4, synchronization is even more robust with the addition of push notification-triggered sync. This feature notifies your other devices with OmniFocus to update whenever you make a change, so manual syncing should rarely — if ever — be required. See this support article for more information on just how it works.
For options related to push-triggered sync, choose Show Sync Details. in the Synchronization Preferences pane of OmniFocus Preferences.
Chapter 3
After you’ve set up your sync preferences and on subsequent launches of the app, you’ll be presented with an OmniFocus window that provides a view on all the tasks and to-dos you’ve accumulated. If you’re running OmniFocus for the first time, this will include the Tutorial Project and nothing else; if you’ve set up sync with an existing database, you’ll see your database contents spread before you.
What follows is a guided tour of the various parts of the app interface you’ll interact with regularly in the process of getting stuff done.
The Toolbar
The toolbar at the top of your OmniFocus window contains icons for commonly used app functions that you’d like to have accessible at the click of a button. The default toolbar includes buttons or fields for:
Customizing the Toolbar
Secondary click on the toolbar to reveal a contextual menu that contains the Customize Toolbar command, or choose it from the View menu. You’ll see a sheet with a multitude of buttons you can drag into place in the toolbar to suit your workflow.
Note
In OmniFocus Pro, this includes custom perspectives you’ve created in the Perspectives Editor, and any AppleScript scripts you’ve added to the scripts folder.
You can choose whether to display toolbar icons, text, or both, and toggle between large and small versions of the icons.
Perspective Tabs
All of your to-dos in OmniFocus live in a database behind the scenes. Perspectives are how you look at and interact with the contents of that database. OmniFocus 2 for Mac comes with six built-in perspectives that represent specialized, commonly-used view states specifically designed to help you organize, prioritize, schedule, and review your tasks.
Note
In OmniFocus Pro, you can change the order and visibility of perspective tabs and add custom perspectives using the Perspectives Editor.
You can browse your visible perspectives using the tabs on the left side of the OmniFocus window. By default this includes:
Note
Completed and Changed are two additional perspectives, available from the Perspectives menu, that can help you recover misplaced items or review progress and recent changes to your database. These are designed as temporary views on your database, so switching away from them to another tab removes the tab from your sidebar (you can open them from the Perspectives menu again at any time). The Sidebar
Nestled between the main outline and the perspective tabs lives the magical land known as the sidebar. It appears when viewing each built-in perspective other than the inbox, and provides a powerful, high-level means for surveying what’s on your plate. The function of the sidebar for each built-in perspective is discussed in the chapter for that perspective.
The sidebar can be collapsed and hidden using the sidebar button in the toolbar, or by dragging the handle in the bottom bar to the left, with the View ▸ Hide Sidebar menu item, or with the shortcut Option-Command-S.
The Focus Bar
When you’re in a special mode of the app where only a subset or nonstandard implementation of your database is visible, a bar will appear beneath the toolbar to indicate the mode that you’re in.
The most common case in which the bar appears is when you’re focusing (in OmniFocus Pro). A bar also appears to notify you when:
The Main Outline
This is where you’ll view, add, and manipulate the tasks you’re working on at a given moment. What you see here is based on which perspective you’re viewing, what you have selected in the sidebar, whether you’re focusing on something, and more—you can narrow your concentration on just a few things you’d like to accomplish in the near term, or get a broad overview of the tasks ahead across a number of projects.
The main outline displays a list of items—inbox items, projects, actions, or groups—that fit the criteria you’ve established with your other view parameters. Each item displays associated information that’s the most relevant info you’ve entered about it.
Status Circles and What They Mean
Items you’re looking at in the main outline have circles next to them. These are called status circles. Some may may be colored, have dots in the center, a jaunty little flag icon in the corner, or even appear solid with a check mark in the middle: these display the various states an item can be in for quick reference as you view your list of tasks.
The figure above shows many common visual states of the status circle, including from top to bottom:
Note
Status circles can display various combinations of states when more than one is applicable to the same item (as is the case with the action that’s Flagged, Due Soon, and Repeating, above). The Inspector
The right side of the OmniFocus window is the domain of the inspector. This handy spot is where you view (“inspect”) the details of an item or context you’ve selected in the sidebar or the main outline.
You can show and hide the inspector using the inspect button in the toolbar, dragging the right handle in the bottom bar, with the View ▸ Hide Inspector menu item, or with the keyboard shortcut Option-Command-I.
The Bottom Bar
The bottom bar contains tools for quick access to commands based on your current perspective, as well as a summary of the contents of your main outline.
Chapter 4
When you first start using OmniFocus, you might be thinking “Where do I start?”. The best place to go is your Inbox, since this is the place where you’ll do most of your initial work in OmniFocus.
The Inbox is the hub of all activity, and is the catch-all space for depositing just about everything that’s on your mind, no matter how big or small. The things that you’d like to do—tasks, to-dos, aspirations, plans, chores, life goals—all have a home in OmniFocus. You can throw any stray thought into your Inbox.
One of the best ways to get familiar with OmniFocus is to sit down and do a “brain dump” into your Inbox. Let OmniFocus be your “brain away from brain” for when you can’t remember that really important thing you need to do by next Monday.
Inbox Items
The things you create are placed in your Inbox, and are known as Inbox items. Some of these Inbox items are so simple that you can knock them off while they still reside in your Inbox. For example, let’s say you create an Inbox item to remind you to change the lightbulb in your workshop. That’s a simple enough task that you can do it at any time.
This Inbox item doesn’t need to be part of the Household Chores project, and adding the Home context seems like overkill. Instead, you just leave this item in your Inbox as a constant reminder to yourself that you need to change the lightbulb in your workshop, especially before you plan to use any power tools.
Some items, though, are worth categorizing and providing fine details so that you have all the information you need at hand when you’re in a particular place or focusing on completing a particular project.
Actions
Most of the Inbox items you create ultimately end up as actions. This happens when you decide that an item is part of a larger goal—a Project—and you file it away with similar to-dos (more on this in the Projects and Contexts sections).
Each action has a Status Circle on its right edge for marking it complete. When you check an item as completed, it’s moved from the list of available items to the list of Completed items and becomes invisible under the default View options.
Once you’ve assigned an Inbox item to a project, it becomes an action that you can see in the Projects or Contexts views, or in any custom perspective you’ve assigned it to.
To edit the details of an action, select it and add data right in the main outline. You can also use the Inspector for even greater control.
You can enrich the information you include with an action by adding Notes and attachments, such as images and audio recordings. You’ll find more information about these in Notes and Attachments. You can also set due dates, defer dates, and repeat intervals for actions—for the details, see Dates and Times.
Cleaning Up
When you mark an item complete by clicking its Status Circle, the item doesn’t immediately disappear. Rather, it appears checked off until you do something that tells OmniFocus to “clean up”, such as switching to the Projects or Contexts perspective. You can choose what causes OmniFocus to clean up automatically in the Organization preferences.
If you find that checked items are getting in your way (look at you, completing things!), you can either click the Clean Up button in the toolbar, or by using the Command-K keyboard shortcut.
Note
Fans of Terminal.app may recognize Command-K as the keyboard shortcut you use to clear the Terminal window’s view.
If a completed item doesn’t disappear even after you’ve cleaned up your current view, check View Options. It’s likely that the view is set to All. Try setting the View options to Remaining or Available to tidily hide those completed items.
Note
Clean Up hides certain items based on your View options, which is different from deleting them entirely. If you mark an action complete that belongs to a project or context you later want to delete, OmniFocus pops up an alert to warn you that the action you’re about to take will remove some of the hidden items unintentionally. To see the items you’ve completed, change the current perspective’s View options to All, or switch to the Completed perspective. Chapter 5
As you work through your Inbox, some of the items will stand out as larger in scope than a simple action. Planning a vacation or move, for example, are the sort of things that could benefit from being broken down into more manageable parts. Projects to the rescue!
A Project is an item that’s made up of multiple actions. Projects are typically more complex than actions, and can include several related actions.
Understanding Project Types
Projects can be as elaborate as necessary, and you can specify the project type to be either Sequential, Parallel, or as a logical grouping of Single Actions.
Sequential Projects
Some projects, such as building a papier-mâché pterodactyl, require one action to be completed before the next action starts. These are Sequential projects.
Sequential projects have actions that need to be completed in a predetermined order; the first item needs to be completed before you can move on to the next. Another example of a sequential project could be a checklist that an astronaut goes through during the launch sequence. Each item in the list is dependent on the previous item’s completion.
Parallel Projects
Parallel projects consist of actions that can be completed in any order, such as picking up items at a few different locations. In a parallel project, all incomplete actions are available, and the First Available is just the first one in the list.
Note
The difference between parallel and sequential projects is most visible when the View option is set to show only Available actions. (Actions beyond the first available action in a sequential project are blocked, and therefore hidden.) In other View settings the distinction is there, but more subtle: future actions in a sequential project have their titles in gray text instead of black.
When viewing the Projects perspective, each project has an icon to its left that indicates the project type. These icons allow you to quickly scan a list of projects and tell which project is which type.
If you find yourself using one type more often than the other, you can change the default setting in OmniFocus ▸ Preferences ▸ Organization.
Single Action Lists
The final project type, Single Actions, isn’t really a project—it’s a list of loosely-related actions that aren’t interdependent. A Shopping List project is a good example of a Single Action list because it contains a list of things that you need to pick up at the grocery store. You can gather these items and check them off as completed (or acquired) as you make your way through the store. The order in which you collect them is irrelevant—it doesn’t matter if you pick some of them up today or tomorrow; they’re just things you know that you need to grab.
A Single Action list is often more about a state you want to generally sustain (spoiled cat, non-spoiled food, functional household), rather than a state you want to achieve (ship an app, take a vacation, find a new apartment). Another way of looking at this is that Single Action lists rarely have due dates, and they rarely get checked off as completed. The items within the Single Action list may get checked off, but the project itself is ongoing.
Project Status
When you think about the status of an Action or Group, the primary concern is whether the Action is complete. Projects are a bit different; they can be assigned one of four states:
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