Thoughts on OmniFocus 1.9

 

There are at least several changes in potential workflow with the new 1.9 version of OmniFocus.

 

Context to Perspective Access

Most apparent, context access has given way to perspective access by either the dock or the menu icons:

 

 

Prior, control click on the dock icon would present the user-created hierarchy of contexts. Similarly, a left click of the menu icon would also present one’s contexts.

As perspectives are such a major aspect of OmniFocus, not to mention what tends to set it apart from its competitors, improving access to perspectives certainly makes sense.

Contexts now, however, can only be accessed via the sidebar in context view.

 

Show Parents and Action Groups

“Show Parents and Action Groups” is now more prominent as a preference option rather than a toggle from the menu. Functionally, it is the same as it has been, but its presentation does offer stimulus to revisit. In general, if the default for “Mark the project or group complete” is left unchecked, it may be best to check “Show Projects and Action Groups”:

 

 

By doing so, parent group tasks should now appear in context mode when their child tasks have been checked. Personally, I tend to go back and forth on both of these options, continually experimenting.

 

Icon Badges

One can now choose the grouping of items that will appear in the icon badges. For those using the Start Date Core described in Creating Flow with OmniFocus, one may wish to consider checking the flag item on. This would allow you to see the 30K flagged projects and tasks.

 

 

For those using the Flagged Core, the flagged choice may not make as much sense as there will likely be too many to be reasonable for immediate work.

Otherwise, the image above displays the configuration closest to its prior functioning. Namely, it will present a count of overdue and/or due items.

 

Other Changes

There are a number of other changes that the release notes list, some of which will be more important than others depending upon one’s workflow. For example, perspectives now require a “control” or “command” press as part of the key combination. Also, “option” now needs to be pressed while double-clicking an item to bring its project into focus in its own window.

See the release notes for more. To access the release notes,

• Select Help > Release notes.