Looking for a new task manager or getting things done app for your Mac? I recently discovered a very cool app on the Mac App Store called OmniFocus. I was recently using Things, a nice and simple task manager that absolutely fit my needs. Unfortunately, Things wasn’t really my cup of tea when it came to depth and the number of features offered. After exploring around OmniFocus for a few days, I found that not only was the app very deep when it came to actually getting things done, but there was also a ton of customization and options to be seen deep within the app itself, a very useful thing if you are a power user working from home. Interested to learn a little but more about the powerful OmniFocus? Read on for the full review of OmniFocus for the Mac to find out if this is the best getting things done app available for OSX.

The Features
Honestly, since using OmniFocus from the beginning of last week, I have been extremely impressed. The power of the app is absolutely incredible. Since there is literally too much to talk about, I guess I can discuss some of my favorite features of the app as well as explain the things I like most about the app. Before we begin, let’s talk a little bit about the prices and syncing, since those are usually the two biggest questions I get when reviewing todo apps and productivity apps. OmniFocus will set you back $79.99, a little bit more of a heftier price compared to some other apps of the same genre. As far as syncing and connectivity options go, you can do many, many things. I found syncing with MobileMe was probably the easiest way since I like to keep my stuff organized over the cloud. If you are the average user, you can use Bonjour for basic syncing that does not use the cloud. You can also sync over a mounted disk that many other Macs can access. If you have a WebDAV server, you can also sync with that as well.

To start off the review, let’s talk a little bit about arguably the most important feature of the app (at least for me), and that is actually creating and checking off to do’s. Achieving this was relatively simple and took no time at all. To create a new todo item you simply hit the “Add Action” button at the top of the menu bar. You can either add the item to your Library (where all of your items are stored) or in the Inbox (where all the due items are located). From there you can change a number of different settings, from the context all the way down to the due dates. You can also change the category of a specific item, flag it, make it into a project, add a file, and much, much more.

The Buttons & Functions
Let’s take a quick overview of all the buttons and items that are present on start up. Going across the top of the menu bar you have your Inbox, where all your due items are presented. Next to that is your projects category, where you can find all of your projects and items due in those specified category’s. Next up is the Contexts section, where you can find multiple types of context items that you specify your listings under. To the right of that is your Due category, where all your due today items are shown as well as the overdue items. Flagged items are what’s shown next in the menu bar. To flag an item, you simply tap the flag item on the far right corner of the todo. Since you already know how to add an action, the last button you will see on the menu is the Show All button which focuses al of your items and shows everything in your list.

Some other cool and in depth features that I have found very useful was both the View button and the Inspect button, which can also be found on the top of the menu bar to the far right. With the view button, I can see everything that I can do with the highlighted button, such as Action, Group, Project, and Context. With the View button you can take a closer look at specifically grouped items, the sorting, a specific filter, a status filter, and an estimated time filter.

The only thing that I have thought about a little bit more extensively was the purchase price of OmniFocus. Even though it is arguably the best and most feature rich GTD on the App Store, I do not think that the price point ($79.99) justifies all of the features. I have tried many other Mac applications that provide four-fifths the features of OmniFocus at about a third of the price. If Omni Group can lower the price point of OmniFocus, this could well be on the way down the road to the perfect task manager available.

Final Thoughts
Even though I have barely touched the surface of what seems to be a very powerful and awesome task manager, OmniFocus is easily one of the best GTD’s that I have ever tried. The level of power matched with ease of use and clever design make this a great application for your Mac. I can highly recommend this to anyone that leads a busy life or is looking for something a lot more powerful than the average sticky note. Want to get your hands on OmniFocus for Mac? It can be purchased for $79.99 on the Mac App Store or at Omni Groups website. Hit up the link for more info. Also, don’t forget to check out the review of OmniFocus for iPhone, which will be posted in a short while!



OmniFocus for Mac OSX