New Features and Interface Refinements: Introducing OmniPlan 4

Managing complexity just got even easier with OmniPlan 4 for Mac. We’ve added to OmniPlan’s ease of use and its existing interactive Gantt chart, powerful task scheduling options, network view, and automatic project scheduling. OmniPlan 4 introduces interval cost and effort tracking, new scheduling features such as recurring and manually scheduled tasks, and a new assistant to help set up project schedules. In addition to these powerful new features, a wide range of improvements have been made throughout the app, making OmniPlan easier to use than ever before for day-to-day project management tasks—no matter how complex your project is. And for the first time ever, your purchase of OmniPlan 4 now includes licenses for both Mac and iOS (plus a free 14-day trial).

Highlights:

New project assistant: Get help creating a new project with a setup assistant.

Recurring tasks: Tasks can now be scheduled to occur daily, weekly, monthly, or at yearly intervals.

Interval tracking: Cost and effort tokens can now be added as labels below tasks in the Gantt chart or displayed in the Gantt header. These tokens can display the total cost or effort for the current time increment or the cumulative total cost or effort up to that time increment. Interval tracking data can be configured and included in CSV and OmniOutliner exports.

Task roll up: Group tasks can be set to “When closed, roll up children” in the Task Inspector. With this option selected, the group is collapsed and sub-tasks and milestones are displayed in a single line.

Manual task scheduling: Manually scheduled tasks use the start and end dates you provide (OmniPlan will not automatically reschedule them).

File type: Projects can be saved as flat files or package files—a new enhancement for sync service compatibility with certain cloud services and network storage systems like Dropbox and Box.

Automatic light/dark modes: Projects created with default templates automatically switch between light and dark mode when your system changes modes.

Project outline views: Stay on track with the new project outline view for dedicated top-level projects.

Unified Resource View: Project and resource work hour customization are consolidated into an enhanced Resource View, providing easier access to existing functionality. This release also introduces a new schedule exception popover and customized day list, which allows for titling schedule exceptions and creating exceptions for any length of time.

Inspectors: Updated appearance, layout, and organization for inspectors increases discoverability and improves access to functionality.

  • Updated Task Schedule Inspector: Support for scheduling tasks manually has been added to the Task Schedule Inspector. Workflow for setting up task constraints has been updated, and task baseline information is now split into a new Task Baseline Inspector.

  • New Task Scheduling Influences Inspector: The functionality previously offered by the “Show Scheduling Influences” popover now displays in a dedicated Task Inspector.

  • Overhauled Styles Inspector: Redesigned to offer easy access to all advanced styling functionality in one place, the updated Styles Inspector replaces OmniPlan 3’s Styles View.

  • Unified Custom Data Inspector: Updated Custom Data and Attachment Inspectors have been consolidated into a single inspector.

  • Violation column: Collapsed groups containing a violation now display the Violation icon in the Violation column.

  • Outline behavior: Documents now remember when “Collapse When Not Editing” outline behavior has been previously selected.

Scheduling: Project schedules are more efficient and accurate than ever with multiple scheduling improvements.

Notice bars: Appearance has been updated for Change Tracking, Filtering, Monte Carlos Simulation, and Import notice bars.

View customization: Reorganized view-customization options are easier to find and customize.

Additional highlights for PRO users include:

  • Change tracking: Updated for improved reliability.

  • Reports window: Updated appearance and layout of HTML Reports window.

  • Omni Automation: Support for automation via the JavaScript plug-in has been updated. Learn more about our automation enhancements and other changes in the API Reference Release Notes.

In addition to the current available purchasing options for OmniPlan, cross-platform individual subscriptions for OmniPlan Pro are also available for purchase for $19.99 a month or $199.99 for an entire year.

If you’re interested in syncing OmniPlan 4 for Mac projects with OmniPlan on an iOS device, sign up for OmniPlan 4 for iOS TestFlight. Due to changes in OmniPlan’s scheduling logic and file format, we do not recommend syncing OmniPlan 4 projects with OmniPlan 3 for Mac or iOS.

We hope you enjoy OmniPlan 4—another example of our continued commitment to providing tools as powerful as you. Download the app for Mac, and if you have any questions or feedback, email support@omnigroup.com—our amazing Support Humans are standing by, ready to help.