Omnifocus - TechRadar UK

Omni Group is the team responsible for a clutch of personal organiser apps that use either diagrams or lists to turn your thoughts them into action points and plans. True to form, OnmiFocus is another organiser, and purely a list maker rather than a visualiser like OnmiGraffle or MindMap Pro.

You enter new tasks and assign them to projects and set priorities. New headings appear with every entry and you can drag and drop list items into project headings as you go, or just print a list out and stick it on the fridge. Like other Omni products it syncs information with iCal and Mail. It doesn’t take long to get a list together in OmniFocus and map it onto iCal. The basic functions are all easily accessible, and tapping Enter under each project name brings up a new text box to fill with your next action point. You can perform one-click backups for archiving too.

Basic aesthetics

The look of the app is rather uninspiring – it has that toyish aesthetic Omni seems keen on – but the feature set is decent enough. Like accountants, this software doesn’t need to look flash to be efficient.

Despite the ability to aggregate list items and put them under project headings, it’s not a project management tool as such, as it lacks all the exporting options, charts and precise scheduling and accountancy features. It’s more a tool for making a shopping list than planning a new house.

Some minor scheduling features tell you when errands need doing, and reminders are sent to you through either Mail, iCal or in OmniFocus. These reminders can be deactivated. All in all this is a simple enough application that will keep you focused. We reviewed the beta version. The full version should have been released by the time this magazine is in your hand.