Review: OmniFocus for iPad
by Tim Chaten
August 9, 2010
Overview
OmniFocus was initially developed with the help of productivity expert Merlin Mann. It was among the first Mac and iPhone apps with a focus on the "Getting Things Done" mindset. After many months of anticipation the iPad version of the app arrives. Is it all that productivity fans hoped for? Find out with my take of OmniFocus for the iPad.
The Features
OmniFocus features a powerful system to manage tasks and projects. It has a powerful way to utilize contexts (tools, people, locations, items needed to complete a task), and keep you focused on the task at hand. Focusing on your project has never been easier, simply tap and hold on a project to select focus and everything else disappears until you need to see it. Syncing works great between the Mac and iPhone versions using MobileMe, WebDav, or OmniSync Server (a new free service included with OmniFocus). Cloud syncing makes it easy to simply use the iPad and iPhone to work with OmniFocus and leave the Mac out of the picture.
New to the iPad version is a "Forecast" view which allows you to take a look into the future in a beautiful, but functional way. Greatly enhanced for the iPad is the way you review tasks. Review is a process to determine if you still want to continue working on a project, put it on hold, drop it, or mark it complete. This functionality has been available on the Mac, but with the iPad version reviewing is fun, enjoyable, and easy to understand. A little nicety of the app is a bookmarklet you can install inside of Safari to make it easy to create a task centering around a website you need to do something with. The app also features a map that can show you if you are near a location you can complete a task, such as the super market. You can also assign contexts to a special location within the map by dropping a pin.
The feature set overall is very complete and feels like they did not leave out too much in this first release.
The Breakdown
The Good The app itself is simply beautiful. The reason it did take so long according to the OmniGroup is that they wanted to make an app that you would feel at home in and have open all day. The really striking thing about the app is how elegantly it combines the power of the desktop with the innovation of the iPhone app. If there is one version of OmniFocus to have this is it. The iPhone app is not as full featured as the desktop app. The desktop app is at times hard to understand and integrate into your lifestyle. The iPad app is dead simple to understand, fun, powerful, beautiful, and has helped me be more productive in the few days that I have had it. OmniFocus for the iPad makes understanding GTD an easy thing. For those that do not want to learn GTD this app functions great as a to do app and project manager.
Adding tasks is one of the great things in OmniFocus. You can add new projects, folders, or tasks with many options to stay organized. What I found to be quite innovative about entering the due/start dates in this app is what I call pseudo keyboard shortcuts. On the Mac version you can type in various keyboard shortcuts to put dates in fast. On the iPad you instead simply touch +1 day, +1 week, or +1 month and it will automatically update the date. It seems like a simple thing, but it feels like OmniFocus understands this is an iPad and a new paradigm is needed for the keyboard shortcuts we all love. For those on the run you can also record audio attachments instead of a long text note to remember the task or project.
I also love another feature carried over from the Mac - the eyeballs. Touching this icon allows you to view Next Action, Available, Remaining, or All. Once again this feature was on the Mac, but I never used it because it was not a natural thing to do - the iPad is a different story and is used all of the time.
The Bad
Even with all of the great things OmniFocus does a few things did catch me off guard. Forecast even though is a great feature currently has all of the actions unorganized. I would love if in a future update they would keep your projects together so you could actually get work done within the "Forecast" view.
Another weird quirk to the app is the omission to unfocus from a project. A great feature is the tap to select focus, but if you tap an already focused project it does not have the option to unfocus (only focus again on the same project). The only way to unfocus is to leave that area of OmniFocus. This is yet another small thing that should be fixed in a few software updates.
Perspectives is still an odd work in progress. This is a great feature on the Mac to allow you to setup custom view options. They currently do not sync over to the iPad. If they do it is not readily apparent how to make them functional. Perspectives would be a nice addition to the iPad app, although they currently exist are limited to the built in contexts, due, and flagged.
When creating or editing tasks there is the ability to "move" a task. I love this feature, but it is very confusing when it does not list all of the projects and seems to have some unknown formula for where it can move tasks and items to. My hopes are that this will be made clearer and more functional in future releases.
The final oddity to OmniFocus is the map. The weird thing is that in the iPhone version you can open up Google maps to help you navigate to the destination, in the iPad you cannot. This is a huge disappointment to me because I use my iPad to navigate all of the time. A way around this would be to include a built in navigation feature to the OmniFocus map.
