Ken Case, CEO of The Omni Group, was an original signatory of the Manifesto for Ubiquitous Linking. So it’s no surprise that The Omni Group apps — OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle and OmniPlan— are linkable.
The Omni Group has long been a role model for us here at CogSci Apps Corp. (since even before we incorporated). We use their apps on a daily basis. So we’re particularly delighted to announce that The Omni Group is our Partner of the Month for July 2024!
OmniFocus
OmniFocus is a sophisticated task management app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro. OmniFocus allows users to capture tasks and ideas quickly, organize them into projects and contexts, and then prioritize and review them systematically. The application offers a range of powerful features, including the ability to create custom perspectives, use tags for better task organization, set due dates, and utilize location-based reminders. Its clean and intuitive interface, combined with advanced features such as forecast view, custom notifications, and integration with other apps through shortcuts and automation, makes it a popular choice for individuals and professionals seeking to enhance their productivity.
The app supports syncing across devices via Omni’s sync server or other WebDAV services, ensuring that users can access and manage their tasks from any device. OmniFocus also offers a flexible review process that helps users regularly revisit their goals and projects, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. OmniFocus is highly regarded for its depth and customization options, making it suitable for users who need a powerful and adaptable task management tool. It comes in two versions: Standard and Pro.
Practical Applications of Hookmark and OmniFocus
With Hookmark you can bidirectionally link (“hook”) OmniFocus tasks to various kinds of related information. Here are three amongst many practical applications of using Hookmark and OmniFocus together.
- Project Management: Link project plans and related documents to corresponding tasks in OmniFocus, ensuring that all relevant information is easily accessible when working on the project.
-
Email Follow-ups: Link emails that require follow-up actions to tasks in OmniFocus. This ensures that you can quickly refer to the original email when addressing the task.
-
Research and Reference: For research-heavy tasks, link articles, notes, specifications, and other reference materials to the project in OmniFocus. This keeps all your research organized and easily accessible.
From a given source you can create an OmniFocus task using the Hook to New > OmniFocus command, and Hookmark adds a link back to the originating source in the task’s note field. Of course, Hookmark also bidirectionally links (“hooks”) the source and the OmniFocus task together.
For more information visit:
- Using Hookmark with OmniFocus,
- Hookmark @ Learn OmniFocus which contains a couple of videos about using Hookmark with OmniFocus.
Members of Learn OmniFocus can also watch the videos on Linking OmniFocus with Hookmark.
OmniOutliner
OmniOutliner is a versatile outlining tool designed to help users efficiently create, organize, and navigate information. It’s been described as a “Bicycle for the mind.” OmniOutliner is widely used by professionals, educators, and individuals seeking a flexible tool for brainstorming, planning, and managing information effectively.
It allows for the hierarchical structuring of ideas, making it ideal for creating detailed outlines, project plans, and lists. OmniOutliner supports customizable columns, styles, and templates, facilitating the organization and visualization of complex data. It offers robust features such as inline notes, attachments, and checkboxes, enhancing productivity by allowing users to annotate, link, and track progress within outlines. OmniOutliner has an intuitive interface and supports synchronization across devices.
Hookmark enables you to get even more out of OmniOutliner. For instance, we’ve supplied an OmniOutliner-based note-taking (metadoc) template for use with the Hook to New > OmniOutliner command. This helps you use OmniOutliner to take detailed notes about your readings, videos, courses, and other information.
We’ve also provided an OmniOutliner-based composition template folder that you can install in Hook’s custom templates folder. This is to assist you in creating articles, presentations, and other kinds of artifacts using Hook to New > OmniOutliner. We suggest starting by creating a project in OmniFocus, and from that project, use the Hook to New command, and select a folder containing your OmniOutliner documents (such as the one we provided). For more information check out this document.
Here’s a video on using OmniOutliner to plan your work.
Hookmark also enables you to use OmniOutliner as a contact management app.
For more information, checkout Using Hookmark with OmniOutliner here.
OmniGraffle
OmniGraffle is a versatile diagramming and graphic design tool for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. It excels in creating diagrams, wireframes, and visual representations with a user-friendly interface that supports drag-and-drop functionality and customizable stencils. OmniGraffle is widely used across various industries for its ability to efficiently design and document complex ideas, making it a valuable tool for professionals in software design, UI/UX, network architecture, and project planning.
With Hookmark you can of course create new linked OmniGraffle diagrams using the Hook to New > OmniGraffle command. As always, this command names the new OmniGraffle document, stores it, and hooks it to the source.
You can also, of course, link OmniGraffle diagrams to just about anything. For example, you can link an OmniGraffle document to OmniFocus tasks, specifications, drafts, PDFs, web pages and emails that are pertinent to the diagram you are developing. That way, you can navigate back and forth between your diagram and related information without needing to search. (Search is time consuming and distracting!)
With Hookmark, it takes only a couple of seconds to set up a link, but the link can save a lot of time. This is not just about saving time, however. It’s about staying focused and doing less of what you don’t like to do.
Coda
You’ll notice that The Omni Group apps are discussed in many of our examples on our help pages, benefits pages and on the forum.
Congratulations to the Omni Group for being chosen the Partner of the Month for July 2024!