Task management software for busy professionals that helps them accomplish more every day. 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.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Three years ago, the Omni Group decided to go 'iPad or bust,' delaying its Mac software releases in order to prioritize the iPad as a new platform for the company's well-loved software. Now, in 2013, CEO Ken Case has declared it's time to get back to the Mac, unveiling the company's plans to release OmniFocus 2 for the Mac on Thursday at Macworld|iWorld. The highly anticipated update to OmniFocus sports a new look, borrowing design elements and features from OmniFocus for the iPad. But the software is still in progress—Case says the company plans to take feedback from users in order to refine the UI before its final release, which he hopes to happen in the first half of this year.
Case is the first to admit that OmniFocus 1 for Mac, while popular, was not the most user-friendly of software packages. 'OmniFocus had a lot of power users, but it was not very approachable and awkward to navigate,' Case told Ars during the conference. 'With OmniFocus 2, you'll no longer need a degree in OmniFocus to use OmniFocus.'
When Omni built the first version of OmniFocus, Case pointed out, the company didn't really know where it was going. 'We didn't really know our goals, we just wanted to help people get things done,' Case said. But when Omni paused its Mac software development in an effort to go all-in on the iPad, it learned many lessons about user interface. 'Based on customer feedback, OmniFocus on the iPad is by far the most usable of all the apps,' Case said.
So what did Omni decide to do? For one, it unified all navigation within the app into a single sidebar. It also added a forecast mode as well as review modes (again borrowed from the iPad app). Review mode allows you to set a time for when you want to engage in specific tasks again—in a week, or a month, or twice a year, etc.—so you don't get overwhelmed with the tasks at hand. 'One of the things that happens in task management tools is that you end up collecting a lot of projects and tasks, and it's easy to collect so much information that you're overloaded,' Case pointed out. When dealing with tasks in review mode, OmniFocus will also show calendar events from your iCal app if you want to see them all together.
OmniFocus 2 was only part of what Omni decided to unveil in front of hundreds of onlookers at Macworld on Thursday night. The company is also on the verge of launching OmniOutliner 4—after having rebuilt the outlining engine around Core Animation in OS X, the company feels there is a lot of potential for additional features. There's text zooming support ('by far our most popular request over the last 8 years,' said Case), a new column visibility UI, style system matching, and an updated look and feel.
'First, we wanted to deliver something based on the new engine so we could stop maintaining the old engine,' Case told Ars, 'but Core Animation gives us a lot of room to grow and develop in the future.'
This is all in addition to OmniPresence, Omni's open source tool for allowing businesses or organizations to sync their own documents without relying on someone else's (such as Apple's) cloud network. The technology runs on a standard WebDAV server, making it possible for groups that rely on Omni's products to automatically sync documents between iPad and the Mac.
And OmniPresence, when it ships later this quarter, will manage conflicts; adding documents, renaming documents, and so on. 'We think a lot of businesses will want to host their own data on their own corporate network instead of relying on someone else's,' Case said.
Indie business is stronger than ever
Case noted that although he said the company is shifting its focus back to the Mac, it's really doing iPad and Mac concurrently. 'We couldn't keep up the same pace as before the iPad with the same number of people, so last year we crossed the 50 employee mark,' he told Ars.
In fact, I pointed out that the last time we spoke, Apple had just introduced Reminders to iOS 5, potentially threatening Omni's business with OmniFocus. 'Ever since Apple introduced Reminders, our sales have still been great,' Case said. 'In a lot of ways, things got better because when Apple added Reminders, it added Siri integration.' Omni was able to take advantage of Apple's API for Reminders and incorporate those reminders into OmniFocus, effectively adding its own Siri support. 'That has been a great feature that people love.'
Omni doesn't know exactly when it plans to release OmniFocus 2, but it does know that it plans to release a 'standard' version for more basic users at a lower price point. The standard edition won't come with custom perspectives or AppleScript support—features that are popular among pro users—but it will come with an easily digestible price of $39.99. That's half the pro version's $79.99 price, and upgrades from OmniFocus 1 will come at a 50 percent discount for both pro and standard versions. The software is going into a private beta phase now, with a public beta soon thereafter.
Background
I’ve used OmniFocus on and off over the years, but I’ve never used it to its full potential. I don’t use Contexts or Start Dates. I use one custom Perspective that has been replaced entirely by the app’s excellent Forecast mode.
All of that aside, I’ve been keenly interested in OmniFocus 2 for Mac’s development. When the initial beta phase ended, I was discouraged. OmniFocus 1 for Mac was aging, but once the betas fired back up, I jumped back in head-first.
Today, The Omni Group is at the end the long winding road and OmniFocus 2 for Mac is here.
Design
With OmniFocus for iOS 7, the app received a major visual overhaul. While I wasn’t a fan of it at first, I eventually came around to the new look once I got used to the revised organizational structure.
OmniFocus 2 for Mac follows its iPhone-sized cousin’s footsteps. It’s traded checkboxes for large colorful circles and uses white space for structure.
One downside to the new design is a decrease in data density. While this improved during the beta process, OmniFocus 2 shows less tasks on the screen at once than its predecessor. Text size can be adjusted app-wide which can help, however.
This tweak can be implemented to really increase data density, but it comes with some trade-offs I’m not a fan of.
With an OS X redesign rumored to be just weeks away from being announced, I do wonder how close The Omni Group managed to get their puck to where Apple is skating. My guess is the app will be just fine — it looks and feels like the new iWork, complete with the integrated Inspector window.
In short, OmniFocus 2 brings the Mac app into the modern age. Gone is theme support from OmniFocus 1, but I’m okay with it.
A Sidebar on the Sidebar
The new design introduces a sidebar that controls the view, changing it between the following sets of information:
- Inbox
- Projects
- Contexts
- Forecast
- Flagged
- Review
The sidebar — if you have the Pro version of OmniFocus 2 — can be edited via the Perspectives menu:
Starring will add a view to the sidebar, while unstaring will remove it. Perspectives can be re-ordered.
Creating a Perspective is fiddly, but that’s always been a good adjective for OmniFocus. All sorts of parameters can be changed, including grouping, filtering and focus.
While the sidebar demotes the Projects view (which itself is a little hard to read at times) from the main view, I like the change on the whole.
Features
Feature-wise, OmniFocus 2 isn’t a huge leap over OmniFocus 1. In fact, the database structure is identical, meaning bouncing back and forth between versions isn’t a problem.
All of the old favorites are here — repeating tasks, quick entry, great sync options and more. The new features are mostly borrowed from the iOS apps.
My favorite is Forecast. This organizes tasks by Start and Due date, which fits how my brain works really well. First introduced with the iPad version of OmniFocus, the calendar UI is great. Upcoming tasks are yellow; due and overdue are red:
Omnifocus 3 For Mac
(Sorry about all the Drang-esque data hiding.)
Review is a tool that allows you to work your way through all projects in the app to ensure they are updated. While I like to do this on the couch in my office on Fridays with my iPad, bringing this to the Mac is a great move. It could be done before, but OmniFocus 2 makes it a lot nicer.
Lastly, Quick Open is a new way to navigate the interface with just a keyboard. Typing CMD+O opens a new window, which acts like Spotlight, but just within OmniFocus:
Moving to the correct view in the app is as simple as selecting the correct option with the arrow keys and hitting Enter.
Pricing, Homework
OmniFocus 2 comes in two flavors.
Standard is $39.99 and comes with the basic set of features that form the core of the OmniFocus experience.
Pro is $79.99 and comes with the following additional features:
- Custom perspectives and the ability to edit the sidebar
- Focus mode, which will show individual projects, actions, and item groups
- AppleScript support for automating common tasks, or extend the inter-app functionality of OmniFocus
Here’s how The Omni Group’s handling upgrade pricing:
Customers who purchased OmniFocus 1 from the Omni Store can purchase an OmniFocus 2 Standard license for $19.99 or a Pro license for $39.99. If you bought OmniFocus 1 from the Mac App Store, you can buy OmniFocus 2 and get the Pro feature set for free. To make these options as easy as possible to take advantage of, we’ve created a separate page with step-by-step instructions.
Omnifocus 2 Mac
You can buy OmniFocus on the Mac App Store or from The Omni Group directly.
To read more about the app, check out The Omni Group’s free user manual. It’s a quick read with loads of screenshots and is a great place to start, even for OmniFocus veterans.
Conclusion
If you use OmniFocus, upgrading to the new version should be a no-brainer. It’s beautiful, fast and packs the same punch the old version did. It doesn’t bring a long list of new features, but it does its job reliably and easily. It’s hard to ask for much more from a tool I depend on daily.