iPad OmniFocus Review
Productivity nerds rejoice. iPad OmniFocus, $40, is now available. I was a beta tester and have been using iPad OmniFocus for several weeks. So does OmniFocus’s much awaited iPad incarnation live up to the hype or fall flat on its face? I’m pleased to report the Omni Group succeeded, brilliantly. If you aren’t in the mood to read 2,000 words, just go buy it. Otherwise, read on.
First a Word about OmniFocus
OmniFocus is one of those apps that has rabid fans and confused detractors. There are a lot of moving parts to OmniFocus. It goes far beyond a simple task list and that is why people love it so much. That is also why a lot people give up on it, deciding that the barrier to entry is not worth any eventual payoff. One of the benefits of OmniFocus for iPad is that it simplifies the OmniFocus tools without dumbing them down. This makes many of OmniFocus’s more powerful tools more accessible, which is a good thing for veterans and new users alike. This review is written assuming you are already familiar with OmniFocus on the Mac. If you need a refresher, read my past OmniFocus coverage including a somewhat dated review.
The Interface Overview
OmniFocus works in both portrait and landscape view. Landscape works best and presents the familiar “steering wheel” control scheme with navigation on the sidebar and data manipulation on a larger right pane. The sidebar includes a new item button, an inbox count, project, context, and map views, a new forecast mode (covered later), flag status, a review button (also covered later), and custom perspectives.
If you use the application in portrait mode, the navigation pane is activated by pressing the OmniFocus button in the upper left corner.
Capture
OmniFocus for iPad includes several ways to add new tasks to your list. The easiest is the Quick Entry window accessed with the following icon. You can also get the Quick Entry window by clicking the plus (+) in the menu bar. (This is simplest way when working in portrait mode.)
The Quick Entry button allows you to add new tasks without leaving your current context or project. This is great for the little things that occur to you while random synapses are firing and you need to get back to work. (Like when you are neck deep in a writing project and suddenly remember you need more spicy carrots.)
The Action Editor
No matter how you go about it, when you add an action, you will get the Action Editor. This is the standard window for editing actions in iPad OmniFocus. It includes four tabbed views: Info, Dates, Notes, and Attachments.
You can adjust an action’s name from any tab. The Info tab includes context, project, and flag status. By touching any of these buttons you can add or adjust the entry. Touching the grey circled X to the right of any field deletes its current entry. The app is intelligent about adding contexts and projects. For the MacSparky Blog Entry project I can type “mabl” and the app figures it out.
The Dates tab lets you set start and due dates for new and existing tasks. Tapping the date field opens up the slot machine style date picker iPhone OmniFocus users are used to. You are managing your start dates, aren’t you?
It also has buttons to quickly move a task forward a day, week, or month. The Date tab includes a repeat button letting you assign a task or project to repeat on a set schedule or restart after completion. The seamless way you can set a repeat schedule was one of several features I found easier to operate on the iPad than the Mac. It is more intuitive and easier to find.
Using the Notes tab you can add notes to a task. This is also where text clippings from your Mac appear.
The Attachments tab lets you add photos and voice notes to you actions. Any PDF files or other attachments to tasks from your Mac can be accessed and viewed here.
Organize
Organizing tasks with iPhone OmniFocus always felt a bit cramped. With the limited screen space, there was way too much drilling involved to make it feel efficient. This is not the case with iPad OmniFocus. Particularly in landscape view, it is easy to jump between perspectives, contexts and projects to organize my day. It is one of the most liberating aspects of iPad OmniFocus that I no longer need to sit at my Mac to organize my tasks in the morning. It can be done over tea, in bed, in the back of a courtroom, or anywhere else I happen to find myself. The process of tapping on tasks and resetting dates and priorities is intuitive and fast. You lose the ability to select and process multiple items like you can on your Mac but in some ways that is a good thing. It is easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Either way, managing actions is fast enough on the iPad that I haven’t done my morning organization on my Mac in two weeks. In all views, you can collapse or expand all objects by tapping and holding the disclosure triangle.
If you want to focus on a particular project or context, tap and hold its name. Project organization is accomplished with the Project window, accessed by tapping on any project name. This is very similar to the Quick Entry window except the Info pane has entries for type and status.
By tapping and holding you can focus on or modify projects.
There is also full support for flags and maps. While limited use of flags can be helpful, I’ve never found much use for the map feature, which limits the viewable tasks to those near your location. Maybe if I wasn’t such a slug and moved about more, it would make more sense.
iPad OmniFocus also imports custom perspectives from your Mac. While there is no way to creat custom perspectives on the iPad (that still can only be done on the Mac), you add your custom perspectives to the default sidebar as shown throughout the screenshots attached to this review with my custom Today, Clear, and other unique OmniFocus Perspectives. To place a Perspective in your sidebar, tap the star next to the desired Perspective in Perspective view.
Checking the Weather
The new Forecast view is clever. It replaces the Due Perspective from Mac OmniFocus and gives you a breakdown of tasks with due dates over the next seven days. You can click on any specific date to see what you are up against. While the Due Perspective in Mac OmniFocus does a good job at managing the next few days, it doesn’t go any further. With iPad OmniFocus’s Forecast, you can know at a glance if next Thursday you are going to get crushed with deadlines and plan appropriately. This is another example of how iPad OmniFocus processes your task list for you. I hope this innovation finds its way to the iPhone and Mac versions, soon.
Process
Processing your tasks in iPad OmniFocus is easy and convenient. You can jump between Perspective and Context views obliterating your task list as you go. Since some of my daily routine involves driving a Windows PC, it is nice have my OmniFocus list on that big iPad screen nearby. While I could do this before with my iPhone, it is more natural (and faster) on the iPad.
Review
The one OmniFocus feature that a lot of people miss is Review. On the Mac, you’ve always had the ability to set a review timer on your projects. For important projects that review timer may be a week. For back-burner projects, it may be 3 months. OmniFocus will then give you a list of projects that are “due” for review. You can go through each project and confirm they are still relevant and on track. If you use the review tools on Mac OmniFocus, you can rest easier knowing projects will not fall off your radar.
The trouble is the review tools are not obvious and a lot of people aren’t sure how to use them. I also found taking the time at my desk to conduct the review difficult. It always felt like there was something more pressing. I eventually resorted to setting an appointment with myself and taking my MacBook to the local Peet’s once a week with the purpose of doing nothing but drinking hot tea and reviewing projects.
iPad OmniFocus solves these problems. Review is accessed from the sidebar. Once in Review view, you get a list of just the Projects due for review. From there you can audit each project and mark it as reviewed. You can also drop, complete, and place a project on hold. Finally, you can set (or change) the review timer. The iPad Review laps the Mac OmniFocus review tools. It feels very natural and I expect a lot more users will start adding a review process to their workflows.
Clipping and E-mail
Mac OmniFocus lets you take clippings from text and e-mails and add them to the inbox for later processing. This is particularly useful for e-mail because it gives you a way to forward plan an e-mail response and get the source e-mail out of your inbox. I explained my workflow for this at length on the Mac Power Users. Unfortunately, this is not possible on the iPad. Because the way iOS sandboxes applications, there is no way to easily take an e-mail message and drop it in your OmniFocus inbox on the iPad. I tried several experiments and none of them were acceptable. Copying and pasting text is possible, but slow and you lose the link to the original e-mail message that you get on the Mac. (As an aside, clipping links to original e-mail messages made on the Mac appear in iPad OmniFocus but don’t work.) This may get easier when the iPad gets multitasking but I doubt it is possible to make it as seamless on the iPad as it is on the Mac given the platform’s constraints. The solution I have reluctantly gravitated to is walking over to the Mac and hot-keying e-mails into the Mac OmniFocus Inbox. I can then process the inbox on either the Mac or iPad (or iPhone).
1.0
Despite being a 1.0 version, the app was stable throughout the beta process. It never crashed. It is clear a lot of thought went into the layout and user interface. The help window is also very thorough walking you through how the app works and even including a link to the OmniFocus GTD White Paper. I’m sure it will get more spit and polish with future releases but as some smart guy once said, “Great artists ship.”
Settings and Syncing
The settings are similar to those available on iPhone OmniFocus except some of the optional items from iPhone (such as perspective sync) is now baked in.
There are several syncing options, including Omni’s own developing sync service.
Overall
While there has been much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth as we waited for OmniFocus to make it to the iPad, the wait was worth it. OmniFocus is not a compromised version of the Mac app but stands on its own and, in some ways, outshines its Mac sibling. If you already “get” OmniFocus and own an iPad, go get it now. If you are not-so-sure about OmniFocus, it is time to take another look. I believe the ease of use you get with the iPad (capture, organize, process, and review) make the application much more accessible.
It is remarkable how far iPad app development has come in just a few months. In February, the Omni Group was laying out apps on plastic iPad mock-ups with scotch tape. It is amazing that just five months later they can release this stellar application with such a sophisticated and accessible user interface that gets so much right.
iPad OmniFocus was the tipping point for me where the iPad transformed from a delightful curiosity to a bare-knuckle, get-it-done tool. Using OmniFocus, along with the rest of my nerdy work arsenal (Mail, SimpleNote, Instapaper, Dropbox, Keynote, and remote access tools), I’m getting through entire days of extremely productive work with nothing but my iPad. Bravo Omni Group.
Reader Comments (39)
Great review!
Omnifocus looks like amazing, and like Lynda said, I'll enjoy using OF.
I was worried with the sync perspective because I didn´t see it in the video of omnigroup, but your review it's so clear.
Thank yo so much, great job.
Raul
Good job for this review! So, may you tell me please if it’s possible with the OminiFocus for iPad to drag-and-drop tasks to have them sorted manually? I think it's something very important and helpful in GTD... Thank you!
Great review David! Looking forward to getting my hands on it.
"You are managing your start dates, aren’t you?"
I have been since listening to your Mac Power Users podcast on Omnifocus & Things :-)
Thanks for a thorough review. I've been waiting for OF to release on the iPad - it might be the app that convinces me to finally pick one up. I could see myself using this as a dedicated OF device when I'm at my desk, rather than leaving it running on my Mac all the time.
Fantastic review, David - everything you said is spot-on. And, as a long time OmniFocus user (Mac and iPhone), I totally agree that if you own an iPad, you have to get OF. I already know that OF for my iPad will get the most use.
One other thing worth noting: It costs $39.99
The barrier to entry and long-term adoption of OmniFocus has always been syncing.
A true project management (or to-do list) tool needs to sync everywhere, to all my devices, automatically. This is why Web-based solutions thrive and do well.
I used OmniFocus on my iPhone and loved it,
but gave up ALL the additional functionality because Google Tasks was so easily "everywhere"... any browser, any computer, anywhere I needed it, free.
I would like to hear more about OmniFocus's new sync service... but "free and everywhere" are hard to trump by features. The portability of my tasks is more important to me than the project management tools.
I hate to be that buy but: Man I wish they'd release Omni Outliner for iOS. I can't stand the "hand holding" - a.k.a structure - of OF. OO is so free and so powerful since it allows me to make up the rules as I go along.
It is frustrating when I see then do OF so well.
Great review David. I downloaded OF for iPad this morning and using it for most of the day like what I see. OF is one of the main reasons I bought an iPad since I cannot have a Mac at work. This version gives me the feeling I have when using the one on the desktop. In fact (close your eyes Omnigroup) with this version I might not need the desktop version anymore.
For me, Omnifocus is too late. My iPad has become my primary device to manage my contact, my calendar, and my todos. Others have been here before: I use Toodledo and Todo for iPad and iPhone. I does exactly what I need - not more not less and at a fraction of the cost of Omnifocus. And since I carry my iPad everywhere I go and have Keyboard docks everywhere where I work, I really don't need a Mac desktop version of my Todo app. Observing that OmniFocus for iPad is again tremendously overpriced, I don't even have to think about whether I give it a try or not. It is just not an option and unfortunately, the Omni guys are too late for me. Shame, I really like Omnigroup, but their iPad app pricing is from a different world. I bought Omnigraffle for iPad and rarely use it...
Still waiting for Omnioutliner for iPad. Let's hope it's a good job, too. Any news regarding its prospects?
Thank you for a thorough review. I have been considering Things, but they currently lack the sync that OmniFocus has had a long while (which means OF-sync should be much more stable than the Things sync once it (if) is out).
I started using OmniFocus for Mac a week ago, and love it. The UI is pretty hard to get, but it encourages me to use the GTD-method, which is good and well worth the initial UI-frustration. Then, come iPad. From your review I can see that the iPad is not merely a duplicate of the Mac version, but it seems to add value to the GTD-workflow. That is pretty amazing but not surprising given the skills over at OmniGroup. What the iPad app also tells me, is that we have some pretty interesting features awaiting in OmniFocus 2 for Mac. Some iPad features, like forecast, will be much loved on the Mac as well, but clearly, the folks at OmniGroup truly knows how to innovate. Porting from one GTD app to another is very time consuming. Therefore, I am now 100% confident it is wise to choose OmniFocus over Things.
I see the "Today" icon in the left sidebar - is that a function for marking the items you want to work on today? I've been using Things on iPad, while waiting for Omnifocus, and they have a similar functionality, where you can easily mark or unmark the items you want to work on today, and it shows up in a single list. I like it better than flagging items in Omnifocus, which was my OF desktop workaround.
I use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Gmail Tasks to manage my workflow. Our organization has standardized on it.
I bet there are a number of people on Yahoo and MS that use their tools for similar reasons.
I would bet even more that there are people using tools based off their company's Exchange servers.
For those of us capturing corporate task lists, corporate policy requires (and should require) not syncing to outside servers.
Apps like this have a much better chance of me buying if they work under the security policy I live with. I trust Apple and Omni, but I am not about to put proprietary task lists on their servers. If you are listening, Omni, consider finding a way to sync to Exchange or Gmail services. (And the cognates for those whose company uses something else.)
Scott
Wow, Omni used to be my favorite Mac software company, but with their way-overpriced iPad apps, I guess I'll eventually abandon them on the Mac, too. As another commentor said, I use Todo and Toodledo to manage tasks on my iPhone, iPad, and on thte web. I refused to buy the over-priced Things for iPad, after paying for it on Mac and iPhone, and I would have already bought Omnigraffle on the iPad if it were reasonably priced, but it's not. Looks like if Todo comes out for the Mac, I'll get it.
No invitees??? I can't believe I can't add invitees or work in group with other omnifocus users. I suppose the alarms are push notifications, right?
Thanks for the review.
Omnigraffle is truly a wonderful software. It deserved it's price.
I can't speak for omnifocus. I just use Things iPad.
Thanks for the detailed review. I was sold before reading it, but it helped expose some new features I may not have noticed right away.
Reading the comments was a bit frustrating however. Sure, $40 is well above the average for iPad applications. However, the quality and functionality of the application is also well above the average. This attitude that nothing should be more then $5 or $10 is a bit perplexing to me. If there's a $5 app that does everything you need, then fine: buy it. However, don't say that OF should not exist at $40 because it exceeds some magical price point. Speaking as a software developer, I dislike this trend to devalue the time and effort that goes into a top notch application like this. A team of very talented people spent months of long days and nights to produce this, and they will continue to develop and advance it in the months (years?) to come. This is a tool that sits at the center of my professional and personal life. It allows me to be more productive, more focused and more mentally calm. $40 is not even a full tank of gas and that's burned up in a few days. Sorry, rant over. Great work Omni Group!
I think Omni totally lost their way with this app (if not at all).
I didn't try the real thing ($40? in addition to $20 in addition to, god-knows-when-last-updated $80?? - neither of which I even use anymore), but from all the screenshots I see, the UI is just awful. Totally unlike Omni I knew and loved.
These guys keep saying high prices are because this allows them to create high-quality apps, but looking at OmniFocus Mac (when was the last big update, again?) and at OmniFocus iPad, I don't think its really the case any more.
Just look at interface of Todo, PocketInformant for iPad. These are gems! No space wasted! And made by companies smaller than Omni.
Omni, on the other hand, wasted tons of space, icons are just plain ugly. A list view where you can see only 8 items on 768x1024 screen? Huge, insane paddings in hierarchical lists? Come on.. The whole UI needs to be thrown away and recreated from scratch.
So there.. like previous commenter, I use other means to manage my todos. And Omni is not even an option anymore.
@Scott Ellsworth
I find it interesting that you would trust Google, but not Apple or Omni, when Google's bread and butter is crawling your data looking for ways to learn about you for advertising purposes. Apple and Omni don't have this conflict of interest. You don't think Google isn't looking at your todo list in Gmail to show you a Wonder Bread ad when you list "buy bread" as a todo? Omni has no interest and nor does Apple when your list is some random data file on your iDisk.
I wonder whether all the reviewers going gaga about how wonderful this thing is have spent any time trying to navigate a 179 projects, 2792 actions database, like I tried to do today.
It is extremely frustrating. I will mention just a few issues,
- try this: go two levels deep, create a new project, create a new action in the project, go up one level, look at something, then go back to that last action you just created. Count how many taps it takes to do this.
- focus on a project, and while browsing it, create a new sibling of the project (hint: you can't, period, create a new project while a project is focused)
- focus on a project, then un-focus (hint: you can't, not easily anyway)
- navigate to a project several levels deep, create new project, focus on it, then go up a couple of levels, answer a phone call and get distracted, then figure out where in the hierarchy your project (showing nicely on the right side of the screen) is (hint: this is getting old already)
Note to reviewers: the ability to sync over the cloud and link contexts to your location are nice bullets in a propaganda document, but they don't mean squat if the actual act of adding a freaking action takes more than tapping a + button and there is no way to figure out where the things showing right there on your screen actually are.
Thank you for a great review David. Also for turning me onto using OmniFocus with your Mac Power Users podcast. This app pays you back in spades. Keep up the good work.
I've tried a lot of GTD app's. This one has a good interface, but it's way overpriced. This app adds nothing to ToDo, Things, Nozbe and others. If they would have elaborated on collaboration features than fine, but this way it's just another GTD app. Sorry, can't take these guys seriously.
At forty dollars, OmniFocus is way too expensive. Competitive products are much cheaper, even Things is cheaper than this. At twenty bucks, it would be pricy, but forty is gouging. It is ONLY an iPad app that does to-do lists, there isn't that much value in the product,
Ugh, now I bought it despite my serious doubts and its pricing just to see whether I am right. And contrary what people have written, other much cheapter Todo apps in the App Store (such as Appigos Todo) are actually much better in regards to what is displayed and what is not. Omnifocus is just a mess at that. It displays things that it shouldn't (e.g., empty projects with no "next item") and it is unable to focus on the next few tasks in one view (yeah, the Forecast should do it, but it displays only single days rather than the relevant tasks for the next few days). Sorry, the whole app isn't thought through and at the moment not worth the money.