OmniFocus for iPhone Tips

Posted on Monday, September 21, 2009 .

Since I don�t have a way to record a screencast on the iPhone, I thought it best to just do a list post to show some tips for using OmniFocus on your iPhone.

Sync Files to OmniFocus

I am sure you are aware that you can attach and alias to OmniFocus on your Mac, if not just drag a file to an action and it will attach the file as an alias (or link) to that file. However if you hold down Option while you drag the file in, it embeds the file to the action. This means that when you sync with your iPhone, it will sync that file. If your iPhone can open the file, it will inside of OmniFocus.

Here is what it looks like from the desktop side and then on your iPhone for a simple text file.

Embedded File:

Add Phone Numbers to Actions

If you are like me you have a lot of actions that just involve calling people. When you are on the road with OmniFocus for iPhone it is a great time to make these calls. However if you add the number to just the action line you have to copy and paste to call it. Adding that number into the note field though will make a clickable call link on your iPhone, no need to press any more buttons.

On Computer:

Wrong:

Correct:

Use Location Awareness

On the iPhone OmniFocus has the ability to create a lists of actions you can do, based on where you currently are. Now there is no real psychic genius happening here, the iPhone is just taking your location into account, and the data you must input for each context.

Or in other words you need to tell OmniFocus where each context takes place and it will tell you how far you are from these places.

Here is where you enter in the data for the location:

Here is what a location aware list looks like:

Now the best way to do this is to enter the contexts in as you go from place to place. So when you get home open that context, and hit current location. That one is done, and so forth. This is not the fastest way, but it is the easiest.

Use the Calendar Integration

Get reminder for tasks when they are due by turning on the calendar import option (shown below) to add actions to your Calendar, this will also add an automatic reminder message with it. Very handy.

Speed Up Sync Times

Read through these tips to get your OmniFocus up to speed, no need to wait longer than needed.

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by BEN BROOKS