OmniFocus 2 for Mac & Scripting. AppleScript support in OmniFocus 2 is a Pro feature—it’s extremely powerful. AppleScript is a programming language that interfaces directly with features of an application; it allows for manipulation of data or interface elements in apps that add support for it.

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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.'

• Omnifocus 2.4 for MAC 如何更改字体颜色？ 网上看到不少教程，发现 Mac 版本的是可以更改字体颜色的。 网上查了下资料，说是“偏好设置－Text Size”，但这个版本的设置界面与之前的不同，我只找到了下图： 打开上图选项，可以看到颜色、字体、粗体的等选项，但.
• OmniFocus 2 for Mac comes with six built-in perspectives that represent specialized, commonly-used view states specifically designed to help you organize, prioritize, schedule, and review your tasks. Note In OmniFocus Pro, you can change the order and visibility of perspective tabs and add custom perspectives using the Perspectives Editor.

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. Subscribe below and we’ll send you a weekly email summary of all new Computer Skills tutorials. Never miss out on learning about the next big thing.

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 Mac

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.

OmniFocus 2 for Mac & Scripting

AppleScript support in OmniFocus 2 is a Pro feature—it’s extremely powerful. AppleScript is a programming language that interfaces directly with features of an application; it allows for manipulation of data or interface elements in apps that add support for it.

OmniFocus 2 has improved AppleScript support but should work with older, already-compiled scripts. Now that OmniFocus lives in a sandboxed environment, though, it’s worth taking a look inside and making some basic changes to bring ‘em all up to date. Get familiar with OmniFocus 2 AppleScript changes here.

If you do run into a problem with a specific script, check these changes first. If there’s a bug, let us know.

Using JavaScript for Automation in OS X

In OS X v10.10, JavaScript was added as an alternative to AppleScript. There’s a must-read site full of documentation about the addition.

The resources listed here don’t yet incorporate JavaScript.

Pretty Common Stuff

Actually, common is a bit of a misstatement! If you can dream it, you can probably achieve it with AppleScript and some glue. Starting with something simple like moving a due date forward by two weeks with the click of a button, to the advanced: generating a PDF of all completed, flagged actions in the last few weeks and emailing it to a partner or manager. (And then this thing and that thing and maybe a thing or two more…)

Folks have added entirely new features to OmniFocus: Curt Clifton’s Populate Template Placeholders script (and Chris Sauves own implementation, a script to find actions from a particular sender in your database from Mail, for deferring, for support documents, etc.

Helmut wrote quite a bit on deferring tasks quickly, made a mashup with a few other scripts, and paired it with Alfred. Massively convenient and all backed by AppleScript.

This won’t be a tutorial or a walkthrough on the entire OmniFocus 2 AppleScript library, but you will get a few examples of the flexibility.

Getting data into OmniFocus

Some people use OmniFocus for everything; here’s an “everything” example:

Radium is an internet radio player that lives in your menubar. Anytime a new, interesting song is played, running this script will add it to your Inbox for later. It’s up to you to process later, but it’s a good example of adding an action via AppleScript.

Views

Switching views quickly is super easy with the new Quick Open feature in OmniFocus 2. Hit ⌘O, start typing where you’d like to go, and WHA-BAM: you’re there. (After you hit return.)

But you can incorporate switching, opening, and adding views to your workflow just as easy with AppleScript. (It’s even more useful with a systemwide quick-launcher like Launchbar, Alfred, or Quicksilver!)

Here’s how to activate a perspective in your frontmost window:

You can also open that up in a new window so you don’t mess with your current window’s configuration:

If you do use Launchbar, just put those scripts in your ~/Library/Application Support/Launchbar/Actions/ folder. You could then open a new perspective window from wherever you are.

A Sandboxing Note

Remember, a requirement to being in the App Store is sandboxing: making sure the application cannot touch anything else on the system you haven’t explicitly given it permission to touch. You can continue to install scripts that live in your toolbar at a specific spot:

~/Library/Application Scripts/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus2

You can get there quickly by heading to Help->Open Scripts Folder.

Mail

• Delegate action via Mail by many, hosted by Jered Benoit.
• Advanced MailMate by Brett Terpstra.
• Flagged to OmniFocus by Hunter Hillegas. Exchange support in comments.
• Complete and Await Reply by Curt Clifton.

Adding Actions

• Add scanned items via Hazel by David Sparks.
• Add current Radium track by Derek R.
• Safari tab list to Inbox hosted by veritrope.com.
• Chrome tab list to Inbox hosted by veritrope.com.
• Add current Spotify track by Benjamin Crist.

Acting on Actions

• Defer Later (random) (by Helmut Hauser)
• Defer actions (by Dan Byler)
• Snooze (by Dan Byler)
• Today (by Dan Byler)
• Total Time (by Dan Byler. Sums estimates)

Omnifocus 3 For Mac

Templating

• Populate Template Placeholders by Curt Clifton.
• Templates.scpt by Chris Sauve; ongoing by Mike McLean.

Other!

• OopsieFocus by Shawn Blanc. Makes sure Quick Entry always comes up.
• Verify Next Actions Exist by Curt Clifton.

Know of something worth including here? Send ‘em our way: inside@omnigroup.com