What a month! I had a great time hosting a workflow session over at Learn OmniFocus, got a new job, resigned from the old one, and am now planning a move to a different town 2 hours away. All that to say: April might be a little bit quiet on the Omni Automation front as I pack up and move! But, for now, here is a summary of the updates for the month of March.
Newly Released OmniFocus Plug-Ins
Work On… (v 1.0.1)
This is an OmniFocus plug-in that is designed to assist with managing ‘Work on…’ tasks. It contains an action to add a ‘Work on….’ task for the currently selected project/task, which is a repeating action. The second action in the plug-in marks that ‘work on’ task complete, with the option to defer working on the task until tomorrow, or mark the main/parent task as complete. If my ‘Scheduling’ plug-in is also installed, it also contains options to schedule work for tomorrow or for another date.
Tag Tasks Due Today (v 1.1.0)
This plug-in is fairly self-explanatory: it tags tasks that are due today with a tag specified in the preferences.
Other Plug-In Updates
Scheduling (v 2.0.0)
I released v2 of the ‘Scheduling’ plug-in, which was completely rewritten. Date management is now improved and tags managed by the plug-in, preferences have been added, and an assortment of other improvements were made.
Custom Complete (v 3.0.1)
I released v3 of the ‘Custom Complete’ plug-in, which contains a number of improvements:
- A prompt is now shown if there are no tasks remaining in a parent action group (not just the project, as was the case previously).
- The plug-in now integrates with my [‘Tag Tasks Due Today’ plug-in](https://kaitlinsalzke.com/omnifocus-plugins/tag- tasks-due-today/) as well as the new ‘Work On…’ plug-in.
- A preferences pane has been added to replace the manual configuration files. (This does mean that the ‘Synced Preferences’ plug-in is now required.)
- The ‘Function Library’ plug-in is no longer required to be installed.
Note that the plug-in has also (perhaps temporarily) been updated to use a Form rather an Alert for the ‘stalled’ prompt. This is to get around what I believe is a bug in OmniFocus.
Dependency (v 4.2.1)
Fixed a bug where dates were removed when checking for duplicates, causing dependents of prerequisites with repetitions to never become available.
Open URL From Note (v 1.4.2)
Fixed a bug where URL recognition stopped at an ‘:’ character.
Templates (v 1.16.2)
‘Templates’ folder and subfolders are now excluded from the ‘destination’ prompt.
Completed Task Report (v 2.4.1)
Improved handling of situation where tags/projects set in preferences are subsequently deleted from the database.
Note To Subtasks (v 5.4.1)
Fixed a bug where extra dropped and completed tasks were being added to the checklist, and also fixed handling of tags that were subsequently deleted after being set in preferences.
Hi this is a silly question, but to update these do I just delete the old plug-in and install the new one (and reset any preferences if applicable). Thanks!!
Not a silly question! You should be able to just install the new one and OmniFocus will replace it, however I have had a report from one person that OmniFocus didn’t actually update the version when they did this. So, if you find the version hasn’t been updated, then yes, you could just delete the old plug-in and install the new one. Preferences should persist without you needing to reconfigure them.
Hi Kaitlin! I loved your Focus vs Unfocused plugin which put tags on hold. I have searched for it on the site, but I can’t find it. Do you mind sharing it?
You’re right, I don’t think I’ve posted this one yet. I have had a few requests about it, though, so it’s one I’d like to write up.
It probably won’t be in the immediate future, but this is definitely on the list of things to publish somewhere!
Hi Kaitlin, Have you ever used OmniFocus for the web? About a year ago, I was using your dependency automation and started using OmniFocus for the web and I began having trouble with the automation. I couldn’t figure out the problem so attributed it to OF for the web and since created a new OF account to use your automation without OF for the web. However, I would really like to use OF for the web again, but not by sacrificing your dependency automation. Thanks!
Hi David! The lack of Omni Automation support on the Web has kept me away so far, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time… 🙂
If you’re using both Mac and the Web simultaneously, you should theoretically be able to create dependencies in the Mac app, check off tasks normally in the Web app, and have OF update the dependencies in the background on the Mac on a regular basis using (say) Keyboard Maestro, but you wouldn’t be able to get the dependencies to become available immediately with the ‘special’ complete action on the web like you can on the Mac.
Kaitlin, Thanks for the Estimate Total Time plug in. It’s something I really have been looking for.
Is there any way the sum can be presented without asking (at the top of whatever sort you have selected)?
Jim
Hi Jim! No, I don’t believe there’s a way to do that currently. Sorry!