Finally! The Omni Group has released Omnifocus 2 for Mac, its high profile task manager. After an initially halted beta test the Omni folks started seeding updated versions and announced a shipment in June. Now it shipped end of May – Horray !
In my day job I oversee quite a few people each dealing with lots of projects, juggle my own ones, manage my colleagues, sit in (too) many meetings and try to make sure nothing falls between the cracks. Beside work I try my best to raise two boys together with my lovely wife which involves a lot of tiny things to remember as well.
Omnifocus is my weapon of choice to pull all of this off and it has saved my bacon quite a few times. I read David Allen’s book and I totally get it. It helps me to dump everything into Omnifocus which in turns brings an item up when it’s time and otherwise stays out of my way. Omnifocus let’s me be as forgetful as I want.
That’s all nice, but what about the new version?
The Look
Version 1 has not received a visual update in years and frankly, looked pretty dated for quite some time. The new look is much cleaner and in my opinion was worth the wait. The inspector window has been intregrated into the main window similar to what Apple has introduced to its iWork suite.
It’s all very subtle and colours are used only sparsely to draw attention – especially to “Status Circles”. They indicate by a combination of colours and shapes if a task is
- Overdue
- Due today
- Completed
- Selected
- Flagged
- Repeating
It took me a while to get used to it but once you don’t have to look it up anymore, the information comes across quite nicely.
Review and Forecast
Up to this point the iPad version was the only one with the outstandingly well implemented review and forecast view. Not any longer as they found their way into the Mac version. The forecast view let’s you see on a timeline when what tasks are due blended on top with your calendar(s). You can select to see only a week or a month. You can also select specific weekdays, say all tasks due every Friday for the upcoming month – nice.
Quick capture
Omnifocus has always been the tool with the quickest way to enter a new task. On a Mac hit CMD+O and you’re ready to go. A welcome addition is that OF2 now auto-fills suggestions which makes it even faster:
Now in two flavours
Omnifocus for Mac now ships in two flavours – Standard and Pro. The difference in price is significant – €39,99 or €79,99. The Pro version adds the following features:
- Create custom perspectives
- Focus view
- Applescript support
I believe the differentiation to be fair. The Standard version will most probably suit the most people. If you have so far only used the standard perspectives on the iPad, I guess it’s safe to go for the Standard version.
Personally I went for the Pro version as I do use the Focus view often due to the multitude of projects I need to deal with. I have used some custom perspectives in OF1 but I think I would also get away with the standard ones. Applescript support is certainly for the geeks – which I am. I have tied a few folders on my Mac via Hazel to remind me to actually pay bills, review files I dump into specific folders and a few others as well. But that’s just me.
Verdict
The upgrade is a solid one. Fresh look, redesigned Quick Open, Forecast and Review mode, Inspector and pinnable perspectives are welcome additions. I think it is a fair move to differentiate between Standard and Pro with a clear distinction in price. In both versions Omnifocus remains a professional task manager with still a steep learning curve due to the underlying GTD concept. What is still missing though is sharing of tasks – OF2 still is a one-man show and in our increasingly collaborative world this may become a show-stopper for some.
Pricing and Upgrades
OmniFocus 2 costs $39.99, with the Pro License at $79.99. 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. For details see Omni’s upgrade page.
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