OmniFocus 2 for Mac & Scripting
AppleScript support in OmniFocus 2 is a Pro feature—it’s extremely powerful. AppleScript is a programming language that interfaces directly with features of an application; it allows for manipulation of data or interface elements in apps that add support for it.
One of the big additions of OmniFocus 2 for Mac is the Forecast view, finally brought over from iOS and implemented tastefully on the desktop. It’s just as good as you’d expect: the Forecast provides a visual breakdown of your upcoming week by collecting due actions, deferred items, and calendar events, grouping everything by day and type. Focus GTD is a GTD application for Android that can synchronize with OmniFocus (1 or 2) on the Mac and iOS. It supports the full GTD methodology with Tasks, Projects and Contexts. This application is in no way related to OmniGroup. YOUR TASKS IN YOUR POCKET FocusGTD reminds you when tasks become due. You can configure the time and date when you. To migrate to the new system you’ll need to be running OmniFocus 2.19 or later on all of your iOS devices and OmniFocus 2.9 or later on all of your Macs. Once all of your syncing devices are running a version that supports the new system, you’ll be prompted to migrate your database. OmniFocus 2.9.1 is a minor update focused on bug fixes.
OmniFocus 2 has improved AppleScript support but should work with older, already-compiled scripts. Now that OmniFocus lives in a sandboxed environment, though, it’s worth taking a look inside and making some basic changes to bring ‘em all up to date. Get familiar with OmniFocus 2 AppleScript changes here.
The new OmniFocus 2 features everything you need to seriously get stuff done:. Clarify your goals as Projects, and break them down into manageable Actions. Assign Contexts — the place you need to be, the person you need to contact, or even a state of mind — to Actions and Projects.
If you do run into a problem with a specific script, check these changes first. If there’s a bug, let us know.
Using JavaScript for Automation in OS X
In OS X v10.10, JavaScript was added as an alternative to AppleScript. There’s a must-read site full of documentation about the addition.
The resources listed here don’t yet incorporate JavaScript.
Pretty Common Stuff
Actually, common is a bit of a misstatement! If you can dream it, you can probably achieve it with AppleScript and some glue. Starting with something simple like moving a due date forward by two weeks with the click of a button, to the advanced: generating a PDF of all completed, flagged actions in the last few weeks and emailing it to a partner or manager. (And then this thing and that thing and maybe a thing or two more…)
Folks have added entirely new features to OmniFocus: Curt Clifton’s Populate Template Placeholders script (and Chris Sauves own implementation, a script to find actions from a particular sender in your database from Mail, for deferring, for support documents, etc.
Helmut wrote quite a bit on deferring tasks quickly, made a mashup with a few other scripts, and paired it with Alfred. Massively convenient and all backed by AppleScript.
This won’t be a tutorial or a walkthrough on the entire OmniFocus 2 AppleScript library, but you will get a few examples of the flexibility.
Getting data into OmniFocus
Some people use OmniFocus for everything; here’s an “everything” example:
Radium is an internet radio player that lives in your menubar. Anytime a new, interesting song is played, running this script will add it to your Inbox for later. It’s up to you to process later, but it’s a good example of adding an action via AppleScript.
Views
Switching views quickly is super easy with the new Quick Open feature in OmniFocus 2. Hit ⌘O, start typing where you’d like to go, and WHA-BAM: you’re there. (After you hit return.)
But you can incorporate switching, opening, and adding views to your workflow just as easy with AppleScript. (It’s even more useful with a systemwide quick-launcher like Launchbar, Alfred, or Quicksilver!)
Here’s how to activate a perspective in your frontmost window:
You can also open that up in a new window so you don’t mess with your current window’s configuration:
If you do use Launchbar, just put those scripts in your ~/Library/Application Support/Launchbar/Actions/ folder. You could then open a new perspective window from wherever you are.
A Sandboxing Note
Remember, a requirement to being in the App Store is sandboxing: making sure the application cannot touch anything else on the system you haven’t explicitly given it permission to touch. You can continue to install scripts that live in your toolbar at a specific spot:
~/Library/Application Scripts/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus2
You can get there quickly by heading to Help->Open Scripts Folder.
- Delegate action via Mail by many, hosted by Jered Benoit.
- Advanced MailMate by Brett Terpstra.
- Flagged to OmniFocus by Hunter Hillegas. Exchange support in comments.
- Complete and Await Reply by Curt Clifton.
Adding Actions
- Add scanned items via Hazel by David Sparks.
- Add current Radium track by Derek R.
- Safari tab list to Inbox hosted by veritrope.com.
- Chrome tab list to Inbox hosted by veritrope.com.
- Add current Spotify track by Benjamin Crist.
Acting on Actions
- Defer Later (random) (by Helmut Hauser)
- Defer actions (by Dan Byler)
- Snooze (by Dan Byler)
- Today (by Dan Byler)
- Total Time (by Dan Byler. Sums estimates)
Templating
Omnifocus 3 For Mac
- Populate Template Placeholders by Curt Clifton.
- Templates.scpt by Chris Sauve; ongoing by Mike McLean.
Other!
- OopsieFocus by Shawn Blanc. Makes sure Quick Entry always comes up.
- Verify Next Actions Exist by Curt Clifton.
Know of something worth including here? Send ‘em our way: inside@omnigroup.com
By using the defer feature in OmniFocus you can control when an action, a group or even an entire project becomes available.
OmniFocus 3 for Mac
Defer dates and times work the same way in OmniFocus 3 as they did in OmniFocus 2. However, some of the specifics of what’s included in this video have changed in OmniFocus 3.
Omnifocus 2 Mac
The Cleanup button no longer appears in the toolbar by default. It can be added to the toolbar by choosing View > Customize Toolbar.
It’s still possible to view and change deferred items in the Forecast perspective. The calendar items, if displayed, now appear inline with due items. Previously they were displayed separately in a horizontal format.
Custom perspectives are more powerful in OmniFocus 3. It’s still possible to create a Radar perspective in OmniFocus 3 for Mac (Pro), but the interface for creating this custom perspective has changed.
Note that contexts are now called tags and OmniFocus 3 tasks can have multiple tags.
OmniFocus allows you to specify the date and even the time when an item will become available. When you’re getting down to work you can have OmniFocus only show you “available” actions, filtering out those actions that have been deferred. The result is a shorter, more relevant list.
In this video we’ll review the basics of using defer dates and will look at how they can be used as part of your day-to-day workflow. You’ll learn:
- How to defer an action to a future date.
- The difference between defer dates and due dates.
- How to specify the default start time for defer dates.
- How to defer an action to a specific date and time.
- How to display deferred items in the Forecast perspective.
- How to use drag and drop to reassign defer dates.
- How to defer a group of actions.
- How to defer an entire project.
- How to create a “Radar” perspective that groups actions according to their defer date.
If you’re using the Pro edition of OmniFocus 2 for Mac, it’s also recommended that you watch the Custom Perspectives with OmniFocus for Mac (Pro) video. This video provides instruction on creating perspectives that show all of your available actions as well as those that show available actions based on a filtered view of your OmniFocus database.