8:20PM
Automating OmniFocus Task Entry
Since publishing the first screencast on capture, I’ve received several e-mails asking for a way to automate task creation based on a text list. The idea is making a task list in a text file and having your Mac convert it to tasks. While I haven’t looked into this, Josh Betz did and came up with this nifty AppleScript.
Despite Josh’s scripting prowess, I’m still adding tasks from a text list manually. I do this because quite often something that seems like a good idea when I peck it into a text file, like perhaps running with scissors, doesn’t pass the sniff test when it comes time to add the tasks to OmniFocus. Moreover, it really isn’t that hard to add new tasks to OmniFocus directly on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
Reader Comments (5)
A shorter version of that script:
set p to "/Users/lauri/Desktop/todo.txt"set l to paragraphs of (do shell script "grep . " & p)
do shell script ">" & p
tell app "OmniFocus" to tell document 1
repeat with v in l
make new inbox task with properties {name:v}
end repeat
end tell
I agree with the advantages of adding things manually to OmniFocus. I end up doing the same thing when I go through the items in my inbox to put them in the projects they belong in.
Even easier, you can do it without AppleScript at all ...
1. Copy the text from the editor
2. Press enter to create new task
3. Hit escape to leave the editing mode
4. Paste
OmniFocus creates a new task for each line of the text file because it honors the carriage returns in the text on paste. I do this many times a day.
@Josh Walsh: The nice thing about having a script is that you can automate it. I know the the arguments against having it automated, but I don't have to worry as much about forgetting to move something over to omnifocus this way.
This is the most informed writing I’ve ever seen on this subject.