But I do use it for network diagrams, vision maps and several others kinds of drawings then end up in documentation or as grist for the brainstorming mill. OmniGraffle is not the easiest environment to master, and I am far from being an expert. If the princesses in Frozen where engineers, they might sing: “Do you want to design a snowman?” And they would probably reach for OmniGraffle to do that. It has a great reputation among Mac enthusiasts with a need for precise diagramming, but if you don’t already know that, unlike other Omni products, Graffle sounds more like a Doctor Seuss character than a productivity app. The OmniGroup free Omni Sync Server makes this even easier by treating the plan as data rather than a file, eliminating read/write conflicts inherent with shared files.įrankly, OmniGraffle doesn’t have the best name. OmniPlan also tracks changes automatically so that when teams are working on the same plan, updates applied can be quickly retrieved and renegotiated if necessary. The display on the iPad offers clear visuals the reflect what needs to be done next while the Mac version includes sophisticated filtering to simplify projects into more manageable chunks. Unlike some programs that just draw project diagrams, OmniPlan supports dependencies of all types, so that adjustments made along the way are recalculated throughout the project. OmniPlan, with its outline-like front end, makes that easy. Tasks get left out and sequences get rearranged all of the time. People who don’t create projects for a living don’t realize, as they are asked from time-to-time to create them, that the process is iterative. OmniPlan helps by making the tools very accessible, and if you live in Omni-land, consistent with your experiences across the product lines. Export and import is easy enough, but this kind of feature would be cool. Opening the synchronized document reveals just the tasks in OmniPlan, offering a schedule without all of the other notes. The only think better would be a section of my outline synchronized with OmniPlan so that I can have one source of information, with a section set apart for tasks. I can also export parts o the outline to OmniPlan, and then apply dates to create a schedule. All of these steps are there, but I can modify them to meet the engagement. OmniOutline is my go-to app when developing a list of things I repeat but vary, like a strategic planning project. Once you put down the shrimp fork, you can make a final check of that implement and then check off the entire task). Check marks are great when an item needs a number of elements to be completed before it is actually completed (think set table as a task with columns for various types of silverware. Columns can calculate sums and basic statistics, as well as include user interface elements like pop-up lists and check marks. Those lists all work even better in OmniOutliner with check marks, formatting, styles, sorting, and row linking. Microsoft didn’t write Excel to manage lists. Think of all those lists you make in Excel. If I didn’t lose you, then you probably get it, and are looking for a product like OmniOutliner which lets you outline, then add columns of information to a headline. They can help you organize and manage information. Outliners can do a lot more than organize topics for a term paper. Or so you think, but only if you actually buy into your 10th grade English teacher’s linear view of story telling. If you own Microsoft Word, you already own an adequate outliner. You can even designate location-based contexts that remind you to do something when you are in the vicinity (context: Near Seahawks Team Store - Buy stuff on this list). Who wants to go back to their desktop to check off a task accomplished when out of the office, when they can easily check off the task on a mobile device. It is possible to manage your life from just one platform or the other, but the iPad and the iPhone, combined with travel, create a context. The feature, as well as the basic task management capabilities, are implemented cleanly, reflects Apple’s latest design standards. This is a powerful feature that helps people look at the world, and what they do in it, from a different perspective. So rather than looking at the world through the lens of project categories (like: write a post for iPhone Life) I can view the world through contexts (like: what’s next up for me to do when I’m sitting at my desk). The last one, context, may requite a bit of expansion. It synchronizes via OmniGroup’s free WebDav “cloud” service.I still employ OmniFocus as my primary task management tool, and I do this for three reasons:
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