Some possible ways to use Mail Drop include:

• Forwarding actionable emails from your PC at work

• Processing emails on your iPhone or iPad

• Using if this then that to automate all kinds of Internet-y things

• Allowing a partner to delegate actions directly into your OmniFocus system

If you’re already using the Omni Sync Server to sync OmniFocus, you can log in to the Sync Server web interface and create your first Mail Drop address. After logging in, just click or tap the Create Address button to automatically generate the email address (a combination of your account name and a random string of characters, for example).

If you don’t have a Sync Server account yet, you can sign up here. The account creation process includes instructions for configuring OmniFocus to use your new account (it’s as simple as tapping or clicking a link in an email).

When you send an email message to Mail Drop, the subject line of that message becomes the name of the new inbox item. The body of the message becomes the Note, which can contain text, attachments (such as images and files), and simple HTML (more complex formatting is removed).

Working with specific inputs that Siri recognizes, you can use voice commands to add and manage items in OmniFocus in many different ways.

When it comes to describing actions and projects, Siri uses words that are a little different from those used by OmniFocus internally. Siri recognizes action items as tasks, while projects and contexts are understood as lists. Depending on the structure of your request, Siri and OmniFocus work together to provide the most logical output.

“Add a task named ~ in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ to your OmniFocus inbox.

“Remind me to ~ at 5:00 PM (on Thursday) in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ to your OmniFocus inbox with a due date set for today at 5:00 PM. Including additional parameters for the due date (such as on Thursday) can further define the set date.

“Remind me to ~ when I get home in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ to your OmniFocus inbox with the location-aware context Home. If an appropriate context with small radius alert is not found, a new properly-configured context is created.

“Remind me to ~ when I get home at 5:00 PM in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ to your OmniFocus inbox with the location-aware context Home and a due date of 5:00 PM today (this example is a combination of the previous two).

“Add ~ to my * list in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ to a project or context named * (“add eggs to my grocery list in OmniFocus”, for example).

Since Siri’s notion of lists doesn’t distinguish between projects and contexts, you’ll be prompted to confirm the destination for this item (or to choose between available options, if you have more than one project or context with the same name).

“Remind me to ~ when I get home in my * list in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ with the location-aware context Home. If * is a project, the item is added to that project; if * is a context, the context is discarded in favor of the location-aware one (and the item is added to the inbox).

“Remind me to ~ every Thursday at 9:00 PM in OmniFocus”

Adds an item named ~ set to repeat every Thursday at 9:00 PM to your OmniFocus inbox. Siri understands OmniFocus’s repeat rules pretty well, so feel free to try any repeating items you can think of.

Some example phrases:

“Create a list called ~ in OmniFocus”

Adds a project named ~ to OmniFocus.

“Create a shopping list with bananas in OmniFocus”

Adds a project named Shopping and adds the action Bananas to that project in OmniFocus.

“Mark ~ as complete in OmniFocus”

Marks an action or project named ~ as complete in OmniFocus. (Projects of the single action list type can’t be marked complete in this way.)

Some example searches that you can do on your OmniFocus data are as follows (these don’t make any changes to your actual content):

“What lists do I have in OmniFocus?”

Shows a list of all the projects and contexts you have in OmniFocus.

“Show me the ~ list in OmniFocus”

Searches your OmniFocus projects and contexts and shows those with names that match ~. If multiple projects or contexts match the name, all are shown.

“Read me my lists in OmniFocus”

Shows all of your OmniFocus projects and contexts with their included actions, and reads them aloud, 25 at a time.

“What reminders called ~ do I have in OmniFocus?”

Shows a list of all items matching ~ that you have in OmniFocus.

“Read me my ~ task in OmniFocus”

Shows and reads items matching ~ aloud. (If a due date is set, that is read along with the item’s title.)

To set up OmniFocus so it captures your reminders:

• Tap Settings in the secret bar.

• In the Capture section, tap Reminders.

• Finally, you’ll see the Reminders screen, where you can turn on the capture option (an alert pops up asking you to let OmniFocus connect to your Reminders; tap OK) and, if you have multiple Reminders lists set up, choose the list you want OmniFocus to capture from. (If you only have one reminders list, OmniFocus assumes that’s the one you want).

To record a new inbox item with Siri, try these phrases:

• Siri, remember to… records a task to the system default Reminders list. OmniFocus grabs it from that list if it’s the one you have chosen to capture.

• Siri, remind me to… records a task to the default list, and Siri asks for a due date.

• Siri, remind me when I get to (or leave)… records a task to the default list with a contact location attached. If you choose a specific location, make sure it matches an OmniFocus context location.

• Add … to my OmniFocus list records a task to a list named OmniFocus if you have one set up in Reminders. OmniFocus captures the task if that’s the list you’ve chosen.

Replace OmniFocus with the name of whatever list you’d prefer!

To keep your data safe, there are some Reminders items that OmniFocus will not claim. (Reminders will retain ownership of the data and it will not be lost.) These are items that have data beyond what OmniFocus can track, such as contact locations outside the set of small-size OmniFocus context radii you have established.

For this reason, the location-based aspects of capture are most effective when you tailor the locations of your OmniFocus contexts as closely as possible to your location-based Reminders contacts.

If you decide to set up calendar export, you’ll first want to enable sync either via Omni Sync Server or another WebDAV server (see Getting Synced at the beginning of this manual for instructions).

Once sync is up and running, tap Settings in the secret bar, and then tap Calendar Alarms. You’ll see the option to view some important security information about the link to the Calendar app before proceeding. If you store potentially sensitive information in your OmniFocus database you’ll want to check this out.

When you’re ready, turn on Calendar Alarms. You’ll have several options for when you’d like to be reminded of your upcoming tasks. Pick the one that works best for you, and then tap Synchronize Now.

Since you’re setting up the link to the Calendar app for the first time, you’ll need to enter your login information next by tapping the Subscribe in Calendar button which appears in the place of Synchronize Now.

After you’ve authorized the new calendar subscription, due date reminders will appear in Calendar for all the upcoming actions and and projects you’ve scheduled.

If you have opted to receive push notifications from Calendar on your device, these too will pop up when your to-dos are due. To see what your Calendar settings are, open the iOS Settings app, tap Notifications and then find Calendar in the Include section. You’ll want to choose the number of items to Show in Notification Center, and choose settings for your Upcoming Events alerts (the other Calendar alerts settings don’t effect what OmniFocus-related alerts you’ll see).

You may see some Calendar entries, perhaps a Reminder or two (or the weather, as shown above), and you’ll notice that at the bottom of the screen there’s a button labeled Edit. Tap it and you’ll be brought to the edit screen, where you can add other custom widgets to your Today screen – OmniFocus among them!

Tap the green plus icon next to OmniFocus and it’ll be added to the list of extensions shown on the Today screen. Use the reordering handles on the right to change their order, and when you’re happy, tap Done. From now on you’ll see OmniFocus items that are relevant today alongside events of current interest from other apps, and you can check on their status (or check them off as complete) from anywhere on your device.

OmniFocus uses the Today & Watch settings to determine which items are displayed in your Today widget. Due Today is the default, but you can choose another (or multiple other) task attributes to suit how you personally describe priority in OmniFocus and put the most important things front and center.

The OmniFocus widget shows a single item by default (the one it deems most relevant based on your settings). Tap Show More to see an extended list of upcoming actions as they appear in chronological order.

In the Sounds, Alerts, and Badges section of Notificiations settings, you can choose to have a summary of the OmniFocus icon badge count (a badge that displays the number of OmniFocus items deemed important based on your settings) as part of the Today widget. This adds a row beneath your actions that contains the badge count and its breakdown by item type.

If you have an Apple Watch with OmniFocus enabled, the display settings you choose for the Today widget apply to the OmniFocus for Apple Watch home screen and Complications as well (see this support article for help setting up OmniFocus on your Apple Watch).

Now, when you see a banner or an alert for an OmniFocus item you’ll have some options. For alert-style notifications, you’ll have several options:

• Open

  Open OmniFocus directly to the item in question to take further action on it.

• Complete

  Mark the item complete, effectively checking it off in your OmniFocus database. Done and done!

• Snooze

  Delay consideration of the item for another 15 minutes. This doesn’t change its due date or defer date; it just reminds your device to check in with you again later.

• Close

  Dismiss the alert for good.

When a banner-style notification appears, swipe down on it to reveal the Complete and Snooze options.

You’ll get a simple “quick entry”-style form to create a new item, with a field for its title, notes, project, and context; it’ll be populated with some information relevant to the data you’re sharing back to OmniFocus (website URLs in the note field and title pre-filled in the title field, for example), which you can edit to your heart’s content and then hit Save when you’re ready to send it to your Inbox.

With 1Password installed, OmniFocus adds a 1Password button to password fields throughout the app, as well as in the username field of the Omni Sync Server setup screen (this appears when you first install and launch the app, and also in Settings). Tapping the 1Password button presents the iOS standard share sheet, which contains 1Password as an option; tapping it pops up the 1Password extension.

After unlocking 1Password with your Master Password or Touch ID, you’ll be shown a list of existing Login entries that match the server you’re trying to log in to (either Omni Sync Server or custom WebDAV). This list is filtered based on the hostname of the service, so if you have other entries for *.omnigroup.com and are logging in to Omni Sync Server, you may see those other entries offered alongside your sync credentials. (The same goes for multiple logins to different services on the same third-party server that provides your custom WebDAV hosting.)

When you pick an entry, the credentials are sent back to OmniFocus, and it fills out any information you haven’t already provided. Notably, this means that if you typed in a username by hand on the OSS setup screen, then picked credentials from 1Password with a different username, OmniFocus will only use the password and not the changed username. On the other hand, if you chose 1Password from the Omni Sync Server setup screen or in a prompt with both a username and password field, OmniFocus will use both the username and password provided by 1Password.

If you cancel at any point during password selection, OmniFocus makes no changes. You’ll need to tap the 1Password button again to start the process over, or provide credentials by hand.

You can use 1Password to store both your sync password and your encryption passphrase, if they’re different. In this situation, you’ll go through the 1Password connection process twice: once during sync setup to add your Omni Sync Server or WebDAV credentials, and again in the Encryption section of Settings or when otherwise prompted to enter your new encryption passphrase.

When setting up your encryption passphrase, 1Password can be used in one of two ways.

• First, it can store a passphrase you create in OmniFocus. To do this, enter the passphrase in the password and confirm fields shown in the screenshot above, then tap the 1Password button and choose 1Password from the share sheet. This creates an entry in 1Password that is populated with the new password; assign a username to it (anything will do, since there is no username associated with the encryption password), save the entry, and you’re good to go.

• Alternatively, leave the password field blank and tap the 1Password button to open 1Password and create an empty Login entry. You can use 1Password’s built-in passphrase generation tool to create your new encryption passphrase there. Follow the same steps to roundtrip back to OmniFocus, and the passphrase you created in 1Password will be pre-filled in the password and confirmation fields.

OmniFocus uses the same hostname to identify both the sync server and encryption password requests, so it’s likely that the 1Password extension will show both sync and encryption Login items on each request (assuming both items contain the sync URL). It’s a good idea to use a unique Login entry title to differentiate these; for example “OmniFocus sync” and “OmniFocus encryption.”