OmniFocus for iPhone 1.6.1

February 4, 2010

Perspectives

  • Perspectives now support "No Context" being selected in the sidebar.
  • Perspectives no longer show projects or action groups by default.
  • Perspectives can display items from the Inbox.
  • Fixed a bug where recently-edited items wouldn't appear in perspectives right away.
  • Fixed flagged and duration-filter perspectives to stop showing parents of matching items.
  • Perspectives now implement the "Due Soon" and "Due Soon or Flagged" status filters.
  • Perspectives will now pay attention to saved searches.

OmniFocus Links

Localizations

  • Updated the localizations for German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, and Simplified Chinese.
  • Fixed a bug where the Record Audio button wouldn't work when the language was French unless the device was rotated to landscape mode.
  • Fixed a similar bug where the Business Search and Always Available context location options wouldn't work when the language was set to Italian, unless the device was rotated to landscape mode.

Interface Polish

  • Fixed a bug where the Edit button would fail to appear or disappear when updating a list of items on the screen.
  • Fixed a bug where the Search screen would briefly display the status "No Results Found" before showing all the matching results.
  • Toolbar icons should no longer shift when entering action detail screens.
  • The text on the welcome screen is no longer slightly cropped.

Notifications

  • Fixed a bug where calendar notifications wouldn't display in iCal in the UK Region unless 24 hour mode was turned on.

Stability

  • Fixed a crash encountered when trying to delete a location from the Nearby List.
  • Fixed a crash encountered when adding a new action and saving without entering any information.
  • The Perspectives list will no longer crash when a perspective's icon attachment is missing from the database.

OmniFocus for iPhone 1.6

January 7, 2010

Performance

  • Syncing multiple changes from the sync server should be dramatically faster. (Syncing is over five times faster for several of our test cases.)
  • Removed a workaround for an HTTP authentication bug in iPhone OS 2.x, eliminating an extra round trip to the sync server for each synchronized change.
  • OmniFocus now automatically compacts its database history when synchronization is disabled, rather than building up more and more history (which made OmniFocus slower and slower).
  • Reduced memory usage in a number of places.

Animation

  • List updates are now animated and immediate: When you check off a repeating item, the old item checks off and fades from view while the new item slides in from the right. Similarly, if you check off an item in a sequential project which was blocking several other items, you'll see it check off and fade out while the newly available items it was blocking slide in from the side of the screen. (This is clearer to see than to explain!)

Quick Entry

  • It wasn't very clear that Quick Entry is available while the database loads, so we've added a "Quick Entry" label on the loading screen to help draw more attention to that button.
  • Quick Entry is now also available while updating with synced data.
  • Quick Entry can now be used more than once in a row while a progress bar is visible.
  • Quick Entry no longer displays fields which can't be used while the database is unavailable (such as context, project, and repeat).

App Integration

  • OmniFocus can now accept tasks from other applications! As a demo of this functionality, there's now an "Install Safari Bookmarklet" option under Experimental Settings (to install a bookmarklet which sends your current web page from Safari to OmniFocus).

Perspectives

  • Added experimental support for synchronizing perspectives from the Mac version of OmniFocus. This is still a work in progress, and currently only supports non-hierarchical (Context mode) perspectives. You can enable support for Perspectives under Experimental Settings, at which point you'll see a new Perspectives top-level item in the Home screen.

Workflow

  • Actions which have been deferred (by setting a future start date) will no longer appear in lists of available or due soon actions. (After all, that's the purpose of deferring an action!) Deferred actions which are overdue will continue to appear in the Overdue list. ("Overdue" still trumps "Deferred".)
  • Inbox items now show up in Context lists. This behavior will be customizable in the future for those who would prefer to use the Inbox as a triage dumping ground rather than a work area.)
  • When a project is on hold or otherwise inactive, its actions are no longer considered to be available.

General

  • The default filename for the reminder calendar is now OmniFocus-Reminders.ics rather than DueSoon.ics, and settings for the reminder calendar are now synchronized between all clients (including OmniFocus 1.8 for Mac) rather than being stored as a local preference. Please feel free to remove your old DueSoon.ics calendar and any subscriptions to it.
  • Added support for viewing RTF attachments.
  • Updated localizable content.

Counters

  • When projects are configured to show all items, they will show a count of all items within the project rather than just the "remaining" (unfinished) items.
  • When context lists are configured to show only "next" actions, contexts will now display a count of the number of next actions they contain.
  • Fixed a bug where syncing a change to an action's start date wouldn't always change its context's count of available actions.
  • Fixed a bug where project lists would sometimes display "-1 overdue" (or "-1 due soon") when the project itself was past (or approaching) its due date but blocked from actually becoming due (such as when its parent folder was dropped, or the project itself was deferred).
  • Item counts in context lists are now properly updated when a change to an item's context is synchronized from another copy of OmniFocus.

Interface

  • While updating with synced data, the progress bar now shows meaningful progress updates.
  • The Nearby Contexts list now only shows contexts which are within 50km (~30 miles) by default. You can change this by using a settings link to update the NearbyDistanceLimit setting (specified in km).
  • Fixed an issue where the sync password prompt wouldn't always appear.
  • Eliminated some flicker in the toolbar when navigating from one screen to another.
  • On the Nearby list, contexts which are at the same distance (or are being edited) are now sorted by their order from the Contexts list (rather than alphabetically or randomly).
  • You can now delete actions from lists which group actions into sections (such as the All Actions and Nearby lists).

Bugs

  • Fixed a bug which could cause the Due Soon, Overdue, and Flagged lists to be out of date.
  • When a project appears in a search list, checking it off now correctly changes its state to Done.

Synchronization

  • As noted above, synchronization is now dramatically faster in some cases.
  • A sync progress bar now appears when updating the database with synchronized changes.
  • Fixed a problem which could cause sync database incompatibilities if you synced from a non-list screen (e.g. when editing an action, project, or context), made some edits, but didn't sync those edits before exiting OmniFocus.
  • When OmniFocus defers synchronization because it's displaying a modal screen which doesn't want automatic changes applied while it's active, they now get applied as soon as you leave that screen (rather than waiting for a subsequent screen transition).
  • While prompting for a sync password, autosync will no longer try to start a second sync.
  • Improved error reporting when attempting to sync with some Windows WebDAV servers.

Stability

  • Fixed a Nearby List crash encountered when leaving Edit mode just as a context finished looking up its address.
  • Fixed a Nearby Map crash encountered when leaving Edit mode as a new dropped pin finished looking up its address.
  • Fixed a crash on the Nearby Map or List which could happen when the location manager reported a change to the device's current location.
  • Fixed a crash encountered when trying to quit the app while the progress bar is up.
  • Fixed a crash encountered when an address for a map location is received from the network after leaving the Map screen.
  • Fixed a crash encountered when leaving Quick Entry.
  • Fixed a bug with jittery/flashy/crashy behavior encountered when editing the context list in the Nearby screen.
  • Fixed some crashes triggered by deleting items from a list.
  • Fixed some crashes encountered when checking off items on the Nearby list.

OmniFocus for Mac 1.7.5

October 23, 2009

  • Updated the OmniFocus Clip-O-Tron to be compatible with future updates to Snow Leopard. (When Mail warns you that the old version is no longer compatible, you can reinstall the Clip-O-Tron from Clipping Preferences.)
  • Fixed some regressions with the application becoming visible again while using Quick Entry.
  • In Snow Leopard's System Preferences, the clippings shortcut (assigned by Clippings Preferences in OmniFocus) should now appear under the Services -> Text section of Keyboard Shortcuts (rather than under the Application Shortcuts section).
  • Fixed a crash which happened when independently deleting the same folder on two copies of OmniFocus, then synchronizing the deletes.
  • Fixed a crash in the pop-up calendar window on 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which was triggered by pressing the delete key while editing a time.
  • Fixed a crash in the Quick Entry window on 10.4 (Tiger) which was triggered by adding or removing a column.

OmniFocus for Mac 1.7.4

September 29, 2009

Documentation

  • Updated the built-in English Help documentation to cover the latest features in 1.7. (If you notice any remaining documentation issues, please let us know!)

Interface Updates

  • Perspectives once again have the option to always open in a new window.
  • Double-clicking on an action in Context mode once again opens its new window in Planning mode. (It will also select the action in that new window, so you don't have to go find it again.)
  • Since the No Context group in 1.6 and later only displays actions which actually have no context (not those which have an invalid context), actions assigned to a dropped context will now appear in that context's count rather than in No Context's count.
  • In the Perspectives window, the table of perspectives no longer alternates its background color.
  • Stopped coloring view bar options when they differ from the default settings for a view mode. (Most of the built-in perspectives have custom options, so there isn't a single "normal" setting for those popups.)
  • Removed the "clear" button from the right edge of the view bar, since it didn't actually return to the previous view settings the way one might expect. (You can still return to a predefined view state by selecting an option from the Perspectives menu.)

Snow Leopard Compatibility

  • Updated the OmniFocus Clip-O-Tron to be compatible with Mac OS X v10.6.1. (Reinstall the Clip-O-Tron from Clipping Preferences to make it start working again.)
  • Fixed a crash under 10.6 when dragging a linked file to the title of a new inbox item.
  • Fixed issue when running under 10.6 where the quick entry window would not hide open date pickers when it closes (possibly leading a crash the next time the date picker was used in quick entry). As a bonus, fixed some hover effect issues too.
  • Fixed a crash on 10.6 when hitting the down arrow while in a note with a trailing blank line. (This was exposed by recent 10.6 fixes to the text system.)
  • Fixed a crash triggered by an unhandled exception in 10.6.1's standard date picker when pressing the delete key in an empty hours field.

Localization Updates

  • Localizations for Japanese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, and Simplified Chinese should now be up-to-date for all interface elements.
  • Localized help should work once again, though the new 1.7 updates introduced to English in this release haven't been translated yet.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug in scheduling status updates for items with start and due dates.
  • Fixed a bug in restoring window layouts which could cut off the top portion of the window content (the view bar and top portion of the sidebar and main outline).
  • Fixed a crash when option-dragging an attachment into a context, project or estimate column.
  • Fixed a crash encountered when pasting graphics which include LinkBack data (such as PDF content pasted from OmniGraffle). LinkBack data on the pasteboard is now ignored (since OmniFocus doesn't support editing of attachments) rather than causing a crash.
  • Eliminated a spurious console log message about not being able to write a file named .loaded into the Perspectives support folder when that folder doesn't exist.

OmniFocus for Mac 1.7.3

September 15, 2009

Fixed an issue where OmniFocus wouldn't always detect conflicts between sync databases which were incompatible.

  • If two databases were closely related, but one was missing some sync history needed to understand changes made by the other database, OmniFocus would try to sync up the two incompatible databases rather than displaying a sync error. Trying to sync up the incompatible databases could cause problems ranging from an alert saying "No root transactions found" to a more subtle issue where new changes wouldn't synchronize and you would be repeatedly prompted with an alert asking you to replace your local database and "start" synchronizing. (This shouldn't happen under normal operation, but could happen if a sync client turned off syncing or was unregistered, then later started syncing again.)
  • We've made several changes to address this problem going forward:
    • When synchronizing two databases, OmniFocus will now detect when one database has changes which no longer match up with the sync history of the other. It will abort sync with an error, forcing you to choose which copy to use.
    • When copying an entire database from the local system to the sync server or from the sync server back to the local system, OmniFocus will now filter out any changes which don't connect to the database's sync history.
    • When working with a local database which has changes which don't connect to the sync history, OmniFocus will make sure that all new changes still do properly connect to sync history (rather than potentially attaching them to the end of a chain of ignored changes).
  • If you were affected by this problem and would like assistance recovering some lost changes to your database, our tech support ninjas are always happy to assist! They're available by email at omnifocus@omnigroup.com, and by telephone at 1-800-315-OMNI or +1 206-523-4152 (10am - 5pm Pacific Time).
  • Turned this sync error into a warning: "Client with identifier [foo] only refers to identifiers that are not locally reachable". (The warning now goes to the Console, with more useful additional details such as the client's name and its last synchronization date.) This warning happens when another client refers to some history that isn't locally available, and indicates that OmniFocus can't compact its sync history anymore. But the sync was actually successful, and eventually that client will sync with some transaction which is in the current graph (or you'll be prompted to remove it as a stale client)—so it's reasonable for this message to be a warning rather than an error.
  • Perspectives should no longer be rewritten to the database when they haven't changed.
  • Eliminated a spurious "Unable to save" alert dialog encountered when processing a synchronized change which predated the creation of an attachment. (The data alert was harmless, but annoying.)
  • Updated the documentation for Perspectives and Attachments.