Omnifocus plugin: Duplicate task for a list

macOS
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Hi everyone!

I want to share a plugin I’ve just made for Omnifocus. It takes selected task(s), duplicates them and replaces a placeholder with items from a list you define.

If you define a list of ‘a, b, c, d’ the plugin will clone your task 4 times and replace the variable {var} with a on the first run, b on the second etc.

This list is configured on first run and can be edited when re-running with the option key down.

I personally use this as I manage a lot of people and need to remember to share the same information in 1:1s or review OKRs etc.

I’m sure there are many other uses though.

If you find this useful please let me know how you end up using it and if there are any improvements I can make.

More information can be found on my Blog and the plugin can be found on Github

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Literally just last night I was thinking I needed something like this! Thanks for sharing!!!

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This is you?! GitHub - samknight/slack_applescript: AppleScript bundle for Slack methods

Legend.

Also, thanks for sharing the script. Given you manage a number of team members, wouldn’t you also want to automate the assigned tag/project? Is that possible?

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This is you?! GitHub - samknight/slack_applescript: AppleScript bundle for Slack methods

It is indeed! I hope you’re finding use for them

wouldn’t you also want to automate the assigned tag/project?

The tasks will be an exact copy of the one selected. Project/tag/due date/defer date etc will all be duplicated as well. Is that what you meant?

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I think what @jonathanlaniado might be thinking is assigning tags for names. I manage a large team as well and always put tags for names of team members so then I can pull up the full list for that person when I’m in my 1 on 1 or other similar situation.

Feel free to correct if I misunderstood

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This is precisely what I meant, thank you for clarifying it for me. That is also how I associate tasks with co-workers.

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Thanks both for the clarification.

I’m in two minds on how to add that in. I’ll list them below and I’d be grateful for your opinion.

  1. Add a placeholder in a tag that also gets replaced e.g. selected task would need a tag of {var}

  2. Add a checkbox to the settings prompt on first run that decides whether you want tags to be auto assigned

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+1 for option 2! Auto-assignment seems like something really powerful in my mind. The less you need to go in and manually find/add tags, the better.

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Version 1.2 now available

1.1 includes an update so that when the preferences form appears the placeholder values are your current values

1.2 Adds the ability for tags of the same name as the list value to be auto assigned to the task

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How would you do this on iOS? :slight_smile:

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Hi Rosemary,

This is a tricky one. I’ve just added a new version 1.3 which will bring up the prompt if you’ve never set that preference before. This should at least allow you to use it in the short term.

However, editing this setting once you’ve chosen for the first time won’t work on iOS without a keyboard. I’ve taken influence from omni-automation.com but can’t find any similar mechanism for touch.

I’m asking on the Omni Slack now to see if anyone can help. Otherwise I think my only option would be to recognise if it is iOS and then bring up a prompt before running which asks if you want to edit or run the plugin every time. That doesn’t feel like a great solution to me.