OmniFocus 4 Testflight Release Notes

TestFlight builds of OmniFocus 4 require macOS 12.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — March 24, 2023

updated - Inspector — Inspector now includes bottom toolbar with button for toggling hidden display fields.
updated - Outline — Reduced font weight for action titles in outline.
updated - Outline — Updated project and Forecast date collation row formatting and layout in outline.
fixed - Colors — Corrected appearance of vertical dividers in light mode.
fixed - Context Menus — Indent and Outdent optons in Organize context menu now function as intended.
fixed - Context Menus — Organize menu is now included in sidebar gear menu.
fixed - Forecast — Improved vertical alignment of event dates and due dates.
fixed - Inspector — Inherited item status is now fully reflected in the Inspector.
fixed - Item Status — Resolved item status is now displayed consistently for explicitly and implicitly resolved items in the sidebar and outline.
fixed - Item Type — Item type options are now displayed in consistent order in all menus.
fixed - Nearby — Implemented Current Location button in Nearby.
fixed - Outline — Projects list disclosure button is now displayed in outline row project field.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — March 16, 2023

danger - Colors — Cleaned up code around color use in OmniFocus 4. A one-time reset of default color palette may occur after installing this TestFlight build (previous default can be re-enabled in Styles Settings).
new - Settings — “Color text for first available actions” and “Strike resolved items” options are now available in Style Settings.
updated - Context Menu — Context menu now includes indent/outdent Organization menu items.
updated - Forecast — Forecast View Options now include Hide All/Show All calendar options.
updated - Outline — Folder, project, and tag title text in outline now conveys item state.
updated - Outline — Reduced use of horizontal dividers in outline.
updated - Outline — Updated folder, collation group, tag, and action row formatting and layout in outline.
updated - Outline — Disclosure triangles are now consistent size and weight.
updated - Scheduled Notifications — Scheduled Notification default time can now be customized in Date Settings, initial default time is 2pm.
updated - Scheduled Notifications — Scheduled Notification date picker no longer requires clicking “Done” to save new notification.
updated - Tags — Updated appearance of tag lozenges.
updated - View Options — Updated experience customizing row layout Editing Fields.
fixed - Context Menu — Fixed bugs related to changing item status via context menu.
fixed - Date Picker — Removed unnecessary “Time” label from date picker.
fixed - Inbox — Show Sidebar/Hide Sidebar commands and toolbar button are now disabled for the Inbox.
fixed - Inspector — Fixed recent regression setting item status via the Inspector.
fixed - Outline — Unavailable single actions are no longer displayed purple when “Color text for first available action” setting is enabled.
fixed - Outline — Implicitly resolved items now display in correct text color.
fixed - Outline — Due Soon/Overdue highlight is now drawn consistently around date fields.
fixed - Settings — “Perspective bar shows titles” style setting now resets properly.
fixed - Sidebar — Strikethrough text is now used consistently for resolved projects and folder titles in sidebar.
fixed - Sidebar — Corrected alignment of project type icons in project list.
fixed - Toolbar — Adjusted size of Mark Reviewed icon.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — March 9, 2023

danger - Outline — In-progress work on outline row formatting and layout refinements (this TestFlight build does not reflect intended final state).
updated - Context Menu — Context menu for repeating actions now includes top-level Skip and Drop Completely options.
updated - Inspector — More specific distance values are now used in Location Inspector.
updated - Perspectives Bar — Clicking current perspective tab in the Perspective bar now clears the current selection in the sidebar and outline.
updated - Quick Entry — Updated appearance of Quick Entry window.
fixed - Context Menu — Fixed a bug that could cause sidebar selection context menu to display in wrong location.
fixed - Dates — Restored time field in inspector date popovers.
fixed - Dates — Resolving repeating items via inspector date picker using a date in the past no longer results in generation of multiple repetitions.
fixed - Dates — Edits in dropped field date and time picker now update item’s dropped date correctly.
fixed - Dates — Fixed a bug that could cause date for previously selected item to display in date picker or the date picker to fail to update when switching between selected tasks.
fixed - Outline — Fixed recent regression that caused project title text to disappear on mouseover in columns layout.
fixed - Quick Entry — Repeat popover now functions in Quick Entry.
fixed - Quick Entry — Removed non-applicable sidebar option from Quick Entry View Options.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — March 3, 2023

updated - Context Menu — Updated assorted context menus for consistency with iOS app.
updated - Custom Perspectives — Restored “Open in a new view” option for custom perspectives.
updated - Focus — Revised appearance of Focus expectations bar.
updated - Nearby — Refined Nearby perspective navigation experience, including moving Map/List toggle to View Options.
updated - Outline — Project field is no longer hidden for action group children in the outline.
updated - Sidebar — Item status is now displayed consistently for all item types in the sidebar.
updated - View Options — Explicitly enabling project field in customized row layouts now overrides app-wide “Hide projects when redundant” preference.
fixed - Inspector — Fixed a bug that could cause input to be discarded in Inspector when assigning identical date value to multiple items in a row.
fixed - Inspector — Adjusted size of tag pin location popover in the Inspector.
fixed - Inspector — Cleaned up issues in Repeat Inspector.
fixed - Outline — Fixed a bug that could cause a blank Project column to be displayed when “Hide Projects Field when redundant” is enabled.
fixed - Outline — Actions in Single Action list are now colored when “Color Text For First Available Actions” is enabled.
fixed - Settings — “Settings” terminology is now used consistently on macOS Ventura.
fixed - Stability — Fixed a crash that could occur when resetting the database or reverting from backup.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — February 17, 2023

updated - Outline — Restored project row counts, etc. in outline.
updated - Forecast — Improved event name alignment in Forecast.
fixed - Nearby — Adjust map margins in Nearby.
fixed - Outline — Fixed many scenarios in which item text could display in incorrect color following availability change.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — February 10, 2023

updated - Context Menus — Completed context menu work. If you have feedback about the updated context menu, or feel a context menu item is missing, please let us know!
updated - Focus — Updated appearance of Focus status bar.
updated - Outline — Show Full Project Path option is now available when Projects field is enabled in outline layout.
updated - Outline — Note icon is no longer optional to display in fluid outline layout.
fixed - Icons — Consistent status icons are now used for all item types.
fixed - Repeats — Fixed a bug that could cause resolution of repeating items via the Inspector to generate multiple repetitions with unexpected dates.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — February 2, 2023

danger - Sidebar — Updated sidebar display behavior:
- On all device types, sidebar display now defaults to remembering most recent expansion state when navigating between perspectives.
- On iPhone, sidebar can be enabled as default display mode on a per-perspective basis.
- On Mac and iPad, sidebar can be hidden by default on a per-perspective basis.
danger - Context Menu — Context menu re-organization remains in-progress.
updated - Context Menu — “Skip” is now available as a top-level context menu item for repeating items.
updated - Toolbar — Updated default toolbar icon set.
updated - Toolbar — Back/Forward navigation buttons are now grouped in toolbar.
fixed - Forecast — Fixed unnecessary truncation of date and time calendar event labels in Forecast.
fixed - Inspector — Fixed a bug that could cause Inspector layout to fallout of sync in some specific scenarios.
fixed - Layout Options — Non-functional “Show Notes in Outline” layout option has been removed.
fixed - View Options — Fixed layout of perspective upgrade explanation in View Options.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — January 27, 2023

new - Quick Open — Quick Open results now include Omni Automation plug-ins.
updated - Context Menu — Progress towards updating context menu for parity with OmniFocus 4 for iOS.
updated - Forecast — Updated appearance for Forecast “piano” tiles in outline header.
fixed - Forecast — Fixed bugs related to Forecast “piano” keys, including issues related to window re-sizing and assigning dates.
fixed - Forecast — Calendar list is now scrollable in Forecast View Options.
fixed - Forecast — It is now possible to remove an assigned Forecast tag.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — January 18, 2023

updated - Accent Color — Selection accent color now matches iOS app blue accent color.
updated - Inspector — Additional Inspector appearance and layout refinements.
updated - Inspector — Completed implementation of per-device type Inspector configuration sync.
updated - Metadata — Placeholder strings are now capitalized.
fixed - Nearby — Fixed a hang that could occur when changing tag location.
fixed - Perspectives Bar — “Copy Link” in Perspective Bar contextual menu now works.
fixed - Sidebar — Improved appearance of sidebar selection highlight.
fixed - Stability — Fixed a crash that could occur when attempting to drag content into an OmniFocus window.
fixed - Stability — Fixed a crash that could occur when attempting to drag an item in Forecast with “Keep Sorted” enabled.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — January 11, 2023

danger - View Option Reset — Changes in this build will cause outline metadata customization to reset to default settings—our apologies for the one-time inconvenience!
new - Flagged — Flagged perspective now supports additional grouping options, including the ability to display items ungrouped.
updated - Inspector — Updated visual translucency of Inspector background.
updated - Inspector — Additional Inspector appearance refinements.
updated - Sidebar — Updated visual translucency of sidebar background.
fixed - Sidebar — Sidebar selection is no longer discarded when navigating away from and returning to a perspective.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — January 5, 2023

updated - Inspectors — In-progress updates to Inspector appearance, including refinements to the appearance of the Location, Tag, Repeat
fixed - Inspector — Fixed bug that cause temporary display of incorrect note text color in dark mode Inspector.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — December 16, 2022

Happy Holidays! This will be the final OmniFocus 4 TestFlight build of 2022, as the OmniFocus development team will be working reduced hours through the new year. Please feel free to continue testing and reporting feedback during this period (if you encounter significant regressions or instability, previous builds are available for installation via the TestFlight application). Thank you for participating in the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight - we’re looking forward to releasing OmniFocus 4.0 in 2023! —The OmniFocus Team

updated - Inspector — Updated calendar button placement in date fields.
updated - Inspector — Appearance refinements in Title, Tags, and Parent Type Inspectors.
updated - Review — Missing options have been restored to Review View Options popover, settings now sync.
updated - View Options — Progress towards keeping View Options up-to-date when changes are made in another window or on a synced device.
updated - View Options — “Show Inbox” in projects View Option now syncs between devices.
updated - View Options — Finalized titles for Row Layout View Options.
fixed - Custom Perspectives — Deleting a parent rule now deletes rule’s children.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — December 8, 2022

danger - View Options — Updated underlying logic for saving and syncing View Option changes. This change addresses a number of bugs, including mismatches between outline display and current View Options selection. Please let us know if you encounter any unexpected behavior related to changing View Options, mismatch between selected View Options and displayed items in the outline, or restored/synced View Option state!
new - Toolbar — Toolbar buttons now support text labels (text labels are optional and enabled in toolbar by default).
new - View Options — Items assigned to on hold projects can now be optionally hidden in Forecast.
updated - Custom Perspectives — Various improvements to custom perspective editing experience in View Options, including support for automatically growing popover size to accomodate displaying longer sets of perspective rules.
updated - Icons — Updated Clean Up icon to match current icon on iOS.
updated - Status Circles — Completed status circles now use “OmniFocus” checkmark icon.
updated - View Options — Updated titles of some View Options for clarity.
fixed - Inspector — “Anywhere” is now consistently used for this type of location assignment.
fixed - Nearby — Nearby tab can now be switched to via Omni Automation.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — December 1, 2022

updated - Custom Perspectives — Custom Perspective edits in the new View Options perspective editor are now saved automatically.
updated - Custom Perspectives — Grouped custom perspectives no longer support enabling Preserve Hierarchy (this setting could cause items to be displayed multiple times).
updated - Inspector — Updated appearance of Inspector notes field.
updated - Perspectives Bar — “Copy Link” is now available in Perspectives Bar tab contextual menu.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — November 23, 2022

updated - View Options — Continued clean up of View Options layout.
fixed - Forecast — Toggling Preserve Hierarchy now immediately updates displayed outline content correctly.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — November 16, 2022

danger - View Options — Updates to View Options appearance and organization are in progress.
updated - Outline — Updated display of unset metadata icons in the outline.
fixed - Inspector — Fixed a bug that could cause title edits in the Inspector to be discarded.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — November 14, 2022

updated - Outline — Icons are now displayed in date and estimated duration columns.
fixed - Keyboard — Tab key field navigation now works as expected in Quick Entry and fluid outline layouts on macOS 13 Ventura.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — November 11, 2022

fixed - Conflict Errors — Navigating between fields via the tab key no longer triggers unnecessary edit conflict alerts (note: we are still working on addressing broken tab key navigation in Quick Entry and fluid outline layouts).
fixed - Custom Perspectives — Empty “Any of the following” or “None of the following” rule groups no longer result in no matches.
fixed - Custom Perspectives — Fixed a bug that could cause unexpected filtering in some upgraded v2 custom perspectives.
fixed - Inspector — Values are no longer discarded when entering and exiting a field with different values in a multiple selection.
fixed - Notes — Default note font size now scales with font size preferences.
fixed - View Options — Fixed a bug that could causes changes to row layout to be discarded for non-favorited perspectives.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — November 3, 2022

danger - View Options — Further progress towards full custom perspective editing support in View Options.
fixed - Toolbar — Updated flag icon.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — October 31, 2022

new - Forecast Hierarchy — Add a “Preserve Hierarchy” switch to Forecast’s View Options, so it’s easy to opt out to get a completely flat, reorderable list.
fixed - Dragging Projects — Fixed a crash encountered when dragging projects. Also fixed an issue where dragging a project in Forecast would override any date assignments on items inside that project.
fixed - Date Inspectors — Fixed an issue where dates edited in the Inspector would not be saved unless you pressed Return in the field.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — October 20, 2022

danger - View Options — Custom perspective rules can now be edited directly from the perspective’s View Options.
new - Forecast — Project and action group hierarchy is now preserved in “unified” Forecast list (i.e. when “Organize Into Groups” is disabled in the Forecast View Options).
updated - Forecast — Items with Before Due notifications are now included when items with Scheduled Notifications are displayed in Forecast.
updated - Forecast — Forecast View Options are now listed in consistent order across platforms.
updated - Icons — Updated Focus icon.
updated - Toolbar — Sync icon now displays indicator dot when sync is in-progress.
fixed - Forecast — Further improvements to calendar event sort and sync logic in Forecast.
fixed - Inspector — Uncommitted note text in the inspector is no longer discarded after switching switching away from OmniFocus.
fixed - Inspector — Inspector date fields now accept text input on macOS Ventura.
fixed - Outline — Status circles now scale with text size in the outline.
fixed - Outline — Action group text styling now matches styling introduced in OmniFocus 4 for iOS.
fixed - Outline — Improved indentation of task hierarchy in ungrouped custom perspectives.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — October 14, 2022

danger - View Options — Due to in-progress development work, changing synced View options for a perspective on one device in recent TestFlight builds may result in View options reseting for that perspective on other devices.
fixed - Tabs — Custom perspectives no loner use a generic “OmniFocus” title instead of perspective title when viewed as a tab.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — October 12, 2022

danger - Toolbar — Sync toolbar button update work is in progress, and button is currently display/animating incorrectly.
updated - Status Circles — Status circles have been updated to match appearance and functionality in iPhone and iPad app.
fixed - Forecast — Dropping an item on a date tile in the Forecast outline header now assigns the appropriate due date (matching the drag and drop functionality in the Forecast sidebar calendar).
fixed - Forecast — Improved how calendar events are handled when Forecast items are manually sorted.
fixed - Notes — Fixed a bug that could cause note text to appear black in Dark mode.
fixed - Toolbar — Updated Omni Automation console toolbar icon

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — October 5, 2022

danger - Keychain — We have updated how OmniFocus 4 saves passwords. After installing this update, OmniFocus 4 will prompt for your sync account password. Future OmniFocus 4 for Mac updates should not present additional password prompts. If you are unsure of your Omni Sync Server password, steps for recovering it via Keychain Access are available here: https://support.omnigroup.com/of-look-up-password/
new - Omni Automation — Rich text notes are now scriptable via Omni Automation.
fixed - Custom Perspectives — Fixed a bug that could cause changes to custom perspective rules to fail to save.
fixed - Notes — Inspector notes field now updates correctly when row selection changes.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — September 30, 2022

danger - Keychain Prompts — Keychain Access is currently prompting for permission after each update to OmniFocus 4 is installed via TestFlight - we’re looking into it!
new - Notes — Rich text notes with inline attachments, tappable links, and dynamic color support for improved legibility when switching between light and dark mode are now supported on all platforms. This feature required a fairly comprehensive change to OmniFocus’s text rendering logic, so please be sure to report any specific issues you encounter!
fixed - Stability — Fixed a crash that could occur when attempting to move a project inside of another project in the sidebar.
fixed - Stability — Fixed a crash that could occur when converting an action to a project.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — September 28, 2022

danger - Custom Perspectives — Manual sorting can not yet be enabled for custom perspectives via OmniFocus 4 for Mac. However, if Keep Sorted is disabled for a perspective via OmniFocus 4 for iPhone or iPad, the Mac app will respect this setting and allow for manual sorting.
updated - Feedback — Feedback emails generated via the Contact Omni... menu bar item now include OS version in email subject line.
updated - Nearby — Improvements to Nearby perspective and location-based tags.
updated - View Menu — Hide/Show Perspectives Bar menu item has been added to View Menu.
fixed - Forecast — Forecast title is now tinted correct color.
fixed - Toolbar — Fixed a hang that could occur when customizing the toolbar.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — September 26, 2022

fixed - Stability — Fixed a crash that could occur accessing Nearby perspective.

{class:key} OmniFocus 4.0 Mac TestFlight — Initial Test Notes

OmniFocus 4 for Mac is currently a work in progress! While most features should be functional, OmniFocus 4 is not aesthetically polished on Mac, some features have not yet been fully implemented, and there are bugs throughout the app. At launch of 4.0, we intend for OmniFocus 4 to offer feature parity and appear visually cohesive across all supported platforms, but there is plenty of work still to be done before we reach that point!

OmniFocus 4.0 TestFlight builds are now compatible with Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Builds can be installed via the TestFlight application on each supported device, and only one TestFlight signup is required to test OmniFocus 4 on all supported platforms. OmniFocus 4 for Mac TestFlight builds require macOS Monterey.

Sync Compatibility: OmniFocus 4.0 TestFlight builds are fully sync compatible with the most recent releases of OmniFocus 3 for Mac and iOS, and can be installed alongside OmniFocus 3. We believe that there is very low risk of data corruption in current OmniFocus 4 TestFlight builds, but as always we recommend that precautions are taken when syncing “real” data with a test build. Please back your data up regularly, and alert our Support team if you notice unexpected OmniFocus database behavior.

danger - Overall App Appearance — To date, the OmniFocus team has prioritized feature implementation in OmniFocus 4 for Mac. This means that most functionality introduced in TestFlight builds of OmniFocus 4 for iPhone and iPad can now be found in the Mac app, but the Mac app is not yet visually polished—newer features have rough edges, and the overall app window is not cohesive in appearance.
danger - Feature Regressions — We do not intend to remove functionality previously supported by OmniFocus 3 in this release. However, due to the nature of our development process for this release, which started with the iPhone and iPad application, some functionality has temporarily gone missing. While we’re already aware of many of these regressions, including broken keyboard date input in the Inspector on pre-release versions of macOS, please be sure to report any that you encounter in your OmniFocus workflow!
new - Outline — The task outline has been updated to include functionality introduced in OmniFocus 4 for iPhone and iPad, including:
- Additional Field Support — Project Status, Repeat interval, and Scheduled Notifications can now be displayed in and edited from the outline.
- Re-Orderable Fields and Columns — Field order is now configurable in the outline via drag & drop in the View Options or Preferences.
- Fluid — Status Circles are now displayed on the leading (left) edge of rows in Fluid mode, and metadata field visibility can now be configured independently for editing row state.
new - Perspectives Bar — Perspective Bar has been updated, with a new appearance and perspective badges. Perspective Bar visibility is now independent of the filter sidebar expansion state.
new - Inspector — Initial OmniFocus 4 Inspector support is in place, but visual appearance is not yet finalized. Inspector fields can be re-ordered and enabled/disabled in the OmniFocus 4 Layout Preferences. To display hidden Inspector fields, select “Show All Inspector Fields” in the View menu (a button will eventually be added to the Inspector for this as well).
new - Icons — New iconography through the application, including updated default perspetive icons and 100 new custom perspective icons.
new - Nearby — Nearby perspective and location-based tags are available on Mac for the first time! (Note, we’re aware of a crash that can occur when accessing Nearby - we’ll have a fix for this in the next TestFlight build! In the meantime, you can work around it by manually enabling Location Services for OmniFocus in your Mac’s Security & Privacy System Preferences.)
new - Forecast — Support for the additional Forecast functionality introduced in OmniFocus 4 for iPad and iPhone has been adopted, including:
- Flagged Items — Flagged items can now be displayed in Forecast.
- Scheduled Notifications — Items with scheduled custom notifications can now be displayed in Forecast. Items will be listed once per day that a custom notification is scheduled.
- Manual Sorting — Forecast items can now be arbitrarily re-ordered via drag & drop (enable “Keep Sorted” in the View options to disable this functionality).
- Unified List — Items for each day in Forecast can now be optionally displayed in a consolidated list rather than organized into groups for Due, Deferred, Forecast Tagged, and Flagged items. This eliminates redundant entries for items which previously appeared in more than one grouping (such as items due and deferred to the same day). When Forecast items are grouped, calendar events are no longer interleaved with due tasks.
new - Custom Perspective Sorting — Items in ungrouped custom perspectives can now be arbitrarily re-ordered via drag & drop.

OmniFocus 4 for Mac TestFlight Notes