The Blog

OmniFocus news: latest Mac updates, GTD summit, and 50,000 sales on the iPhone

by Ken Case on February 27, 2009

Hi, all!

In case you missed it, we shipped OmniFocus 1.5 last November, adding synchronization between any number of OmniFocus for Mac and OmniFocus for iPhone databases, archiving, view presets, style preferences, and more. You'll definitely want to make sure you're using this latest version, which you can grab from the OmniFocus page.

We're also hard at work on OmniFocus 1.6, and if you're interested in trying out the latest ongoing (possibly unstable) builds, you can access the sneaky peeks at the sneaky peek page. It adds support for projects which automatically complete when all tasks within the project are complete, makes contexts completely optional (actions without contexts are no longer considered unavailable), lets you filter your inbox and no context lists, and lets you view all your due or flagged items in a single list.

In other news, we are working closely with the The David Allen Company to promote OmniFocus as a GTD enabled software solution. What does this mean for you? Well, hopefully our working relationship will help us better support those of you who are using the GTD methodology, by having an ongoing connection with the folks at David Allen & Co. and staying in touch with their latest thinking. As we look to future versions of OmniFocus, we want to help you get the most out of your GTD-specific workflows, and provide more GTD resources that supplement our software.

(Of course, you don't have to be a GTD fan to use OmniFocus: we think we provide a very useful set of features for other task management styles, and we're continuing to make improvements there as well.)

COME SEE US AT THE GTD SUMMIT

We also wanted you to know that Omni will be at the GTD Summit in San Francisco on March 11-13. If you're interested in attending, you can access a special discount of 35% (more than $800) off the Summit fee. To register, go to the registration page and enter the coupon code “Summit35”.

You may wish to view a short invitation from David, and you can find more details about the event at www.gtdsummit.com. We hope to see you there!

Lastly, we're thrilled to announce that this past weekend we sold our 50,000th copy of OmniFocus for iPhone! Thank you so much to all the folks who have helped us immeasurably by sending in suggestions, reporting issues, and recommending OmniFocus to friends.

 

Comments

Who was the lucky 50K customer?  I may have been close!

Branden

02.27.09 9:16 AM
Team Member

Maybe it was you! :)


(We have no way of knowing.  All we receive from Apple is a report of how many copies they sold in each market each day; we don't know anything about individual buyers.)

Ken Case

02.27.09 9:51 AM

” It adds support for projects which automatically complete when all tasks within the project are complete”


GREAT! Been waiting for that.


Would also love to see a better “Due Managment”.


I mean if you enter the Due section you would expect to see everything related to dates, such as Today, Within the next week, withing the next month, etc!. Like smart playlist in iTunes.


Instead, OF just gives almost the same view as Context section.


Thanks.

Alejandro

02.27.09 10:26 AM

Great to see you're working on OF1.6 .  It's my favourite app on my Mac.  I use it every day and have dozens of projects.  The news features look fantastic.  And it's also good to see you guys are all active GTD devotees.  That will make sure OmniFocus stays true to the principles and purpose of GTD.

Paul

02.27.09 6:58 PM

After following David Allen on Twitter and reading his forum and your forum I found that a lot of people want a stronger connection between Omni and DavidCo. 


I'm so happy that you guys are working with them and I hope someone in either of the two communities will post some media (whitepapers, screencasts etc) showing some best practices for implementing GTD w/ OmniFocus….


All the best Omni Group!!!

Aaron M. Clay

02.28.09 12:18 AM

I second Alejandro's request for an easier deadline interface.  I love OF's power.  Keep up the good work.

pete

02.28.09 12:33 AM

Glad to hear about the coming improvements, especially in the area of GTD.  I have trialed OmniFocus and found its feature set to be superior to everything else on the market.  The problem is that I use Windows at work.  I have given some thought of getting a MacBook to take to work just so I can use OF.  But a much better alternative would be for OF to create a web app so we can have the power of OF on all platforms.

John B. Kendrick

02.28.09 12:58 AM

Until seeing the suggestions for smart deadlines, I had been content switching between by Start Remaining and Due Soon windows.  A single view (“Work on THIS!”) would be a big improvement.

Ward

02.28.09 9:38 AM
Team Member

Alejandro: Click on Due, then go to the View menu and change the Status Filter from Due Soon to Remaining.  Is that the view you're wanting?  (If so, you can save it as a perspective for one-click access in the future!)  Or were you looking for something different?

Ken Case

02.28.09 6:43 PM

Great, and congratulations on 50k!


Now, if we could only manually sort actions in the context view on the desktop application we'd be all set.

Doug

03.01.09 12:27 AM

>> [OmniFocus 1.6] adds support for projects which automatically

>> complete when all tasks within the project are complete.


THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

I have been needing that SO MUCH! (Having to review project simply to complete them so they would repeat.)


You guys are great!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I say THANK YOU!!!!?

THANK YOU!!!!

Randy Chevrier

03.01.09 12:37 PM

Amen on the auto-complete feature getting fixed.


So far I've worked around the bug by adding a “Check [parent] to make [project] repeat” action to my repeating projects. It's not pretty and it's way too much effort, but at least it stopped repeating projects from vanishing off the radar because they didn't complete automatically.


Thanks Omni.

Jan

03.01.09 6:08 PM

[...] wanted to let everyone know that it's still kicking. Recently, Omni Group CEO Ken Case offered a status update on the software; it has a new version under development and has also done quite well on the iPhone. [...]

Apple News : Omni discusses OmniFocus improvements

03.02.09 1:47 AM

[...] to let everyone know that it’s still kicking. Recently, Omni Group CEO Ken Case offered a status update on the software; it has a new version under development and has also done quite well on the [...]

TechNews » Blog Archive » Omni discuss

03.02.09 2:38 AM

Will OmniFocus 1.6 be a free upgrade to owners of the current version?

Mark

03.02.09 3:59 AM
Team Member

Yes, all OmniFocus 1.x updates will be free.

Ken Case

03.02.09 5:10 AM

I've been a committed OmniFocus user since the day it came out and still am.


But on the subject of “provid[ing] a very useful set of features for other task management styles” besides GTD, the one missing feature that I desperately need is a priority rating system.


I have a lot of stuff that needs doing over the coming week/weeks/months, though without firm due dates.


Right now, in order to prioritize my tasks, I basically have to give everything a fantasy Due Date—e.g. the date I'd like to have it done. Then I order things by due date. But this is far from ideal; when I get so busy that everything gets pushed back, then I have to go through and re-date a whole bunch of stuff.


I am not a coder, but I imagine that adding such a feature would be trivial programming, and it would be extremely useful and flexible in supporting other (non-GTD) management styles. So when might we expect to see this?

Scott

03.03.09 1:12 AM

Congratulations!  OmniFocus is tremendous.


I second John Kendrick's suggestion: providing a Windows version of OF and a web version.  I OF at home on my Mac, but am in a Windows environment at work.  Any plans to introduce a Windows version?  And/or a web version?


Thanks.  You guys are great!

R.J.

03.04.09 6:54 AM

I love my iphone version but would love to see it use the accelerometer so that I can type new actions in landscape. I could then use this in meetings so that I don't have to do double entry.


Also can you change the synchronisation to just update actions in the inbox, not the whole database. This way I can enter action on my iphone into the in box. Sync them with my Mac and process them and then do a full sync back to my iphone.


Thanks for the great product!

Wayne

03.10.09 4:11 PM

iPhone OS V3.0 cut and paste has to be HUGE for you guys. How will you be making use of it?


Please make some sort of info grab from iphone email & Mac Mail

Casper TFG

03.17.09 9:46 AM

Congratulations on the 50k sales. (I did the math in my head and was momentarily staggered.) I would love to hear a bit more about what all you folks were thinking when you first started working with Ethan and if you ever thought you would have this kind of hit on your hands.

John Laudun

04.04.09 9:17 AM

Yes, I second casper's suggestion. I recently switched from Toodledo and the one thing I really miss is being able to convert emails actions in the iPhone.  I did this by forwarding my actions to a private Toodledo email address.

Ed Kraay

08.28.09 4:53 AM

Hi Folks,

I've been following Omnifocus for iPhone for awhile now.  I'm very interested in this product, but frankly I haven't puchased it yet because it lacks a windows desktop interface.  I wish I could be on a Mac, but that's not going to happen anytime soon with our IT department…so is there any hope?  I could just go with it on iPhone but it really isn't practical in a group setting with lots of people on multiple projects.  I'd much rather have a team solution that works for everyone.  What are the chances?

Thanks for your time,


Greg Bishop

Gregory Bishop

09.08.09 3:06 AM

[...] se cenová hladina zvedá, ale i tak je cena OmniFocusu na pom?ry docela vysoká.Jedná se o informaci z února tohoto roku, takže k dnešnímu dni už budou ?ísla zase n?kde jinde. Každopádn? [...]

Minority blog : Jak se da?í úsp?&scaro

09.14.09 6:05 PM

I would like to echo several of the other comments relative to a Windows / web interface. I have the iPhone client (and LOVE it) but I'm really missing the ability to see a dashboard, type on a keyboard, have custom views, and syncing. I saw mention for Windows users to “stay tuned” on Twitter a while ago. Any update?

Chelsea

02.03.10 2:27 PM

Windows version please!

Gerald

02.04.10 11:10 PM
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