OmniFocus 4.5
Orion Protonentis (release notes):
There are all-new Shortcuts actions (Complete Action, Complete Project, and Find Folders), Shortcuts actions that have gained additional powers (Today’s Forecast now supports due, deferred, tagged, and flagged actions), and Shortcuts actions that have been re-written (Add TaskPaper, Find Projects, and Find Tags) or re-written and renamed for clarity (Add Action and Find Actions).
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Get Database Object Result from Input required manipulating a JSON file, so we’ve replaced it with Get Action, Get Folder, Get Perspective, Get Project, and Get Tag, all of which accept OmniFocus URLs you can generate in-app using the Copy as Link command.
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With this update, our Spotlight integration has been completely rewritten, and will now show your actions, action groups, projects, folders, tags, default perspectives, and custom perspectives… no matter which device you’re using!
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We have added Mac-exclusive support for custom fonts, along with a list of Omni-selected system fonts that work well, and an updated slider which supports a wider range of sizes (from 9 to 42 point).
It seemed to increase the font size after I updated the Mac app, but there are now more size options than before, so I was able to get it back to where I wanted and could actually go down to 9pt if desired.
The Mac app continues to be just about perfect.
The iOS app has improved a lot since the rewrite, and really the only serious issue I have is that the numbers on the perspective badges still sometimes don’t match the number of actions shown in the list. The scrolling isn’t as smooth as before the rewrite.
The watchOS app continues to be frustrating. Even with Bonjour syncing, it will often take 30 seconds to sync a single to change to a single action, during which time the app is not responsive. And syncing still only ever works when I manually launch the app, so the number shown on the complication is almost always stale. I wonder whether this is any better in watchOS 11, which my watch can’t run.
Previously:
Update (2025-01-06): OmniFocus 4.5.1 fixes a bug in the watch app that would cause it to get permanently out of sync when Phone Sync was enabled. This means that I can now leave that option on, which really helps the sync speed, though it’s still slower than I’d like if I don’t regularly launch the watch app.
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I admire and appreciate all the ways in which you leverage all of these OmniFocus updates. In contrast, I don't recall a new feature that I've taken advantage of since the iOS app was introduced. In fact, I live somewhat in fear of some change that will force me to spend hours or days debugging how I use it. I'm increasingly coming to believe that despite using OmniFocus as long as I can remember, I don't think it's aimed at me. Don't get me wrong; I have a LOT of projects and tasks to manage. But I'm not at all sure that OmniFocus is the way to do it. Maybe Apple Reminders is, though I like separating personal and work tasks and also like hiding future tasks until date X, among other advantages that OmniFocus provides. I don't know what the other solutions are. Maybe I should use TaskPaper. I don't know.
I feel like OmniOutliner also left me behind. I find myself using Bike or just BBEdit now.
I love OmniGraffle, though. There is no replacement.
@Sean I guess I don’t understand what you’re afraid of. To me, it seems like the original basic features work pretty much the same way as always, and it’s easy to hide or ignore any of the additional stuff that you don’t want. The interface is so much better than Apple Reminders.
