Filed under: Software
OmniPlan Beta Released
Come one, come all: get your copy of OmniPlan beta, straight from the...code...thingy. The Omni Group has officially released the public beta of OmniPlan, their brand-spankin'-new project management doohickey which manages projects and such. Their website boasts a "user-friendly interface, easy task management, efficient resource allocation, smart scheduling, visual timelines, violations and critical paths, options for sharing data," and other features I really don't understand. But it looks purdy, and I'm sure many of you will find for it many pertinent uses.Note, though, that the current release expires on August 26th, and the final version will set you back a gut-wrenching $149.95. See the website for more details.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brendan said 9:27PM on 7-26-2006
Why make plans more complicated than they need to be. I honestly think this app. is completely unnecessary.
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Derek said 9:43PM on 7-26-2006
I'm not sure this program will totally suck, but every 1.0 introduced post-Shipley/Matas hasn't been too appealing. Gut-wrenching isn't exactly a good description right now, as I was opposed to Omnigraffle's price until I used it. The price may be very moderate if the usability is amazing.
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Jay Contonio said 9:55PM on 7-26-2006
I agree with the first poster, this app is so complicated. I opened it, moved my mouse around, and deleted the app in less than 1 minute.
Nothing touches Basecamp / Backpack with the Backpack widget and subscriptions to iCal for me. Let me decide how I do my data...just do what I want you to do.
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scralpha said 10:09PM on 7-26-2006
Looks like it's intended to be a full-fledged project management app a la Primavera, MS Project, etc. If you've never heard of those, or don't know what Critical Path Method is all about, it's probably not intended for you.
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Chris Decker said 10:18PM on 7-26-2006
This is something I'm interested in because my colleagues exist on maintaining our application schedules in Project. I tried importing our standard 9 MB MPP, but the helper app, mpp2mpx, (Java-based) died with an OutofMemoryError. :-(
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ciprol said 11:50PM on 7-26-2006
Obviously this app is not designed for the first poster. Gosh!
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FoxyOrb said 2:28AM on 7-27-2006
What is complicated about ordering your important projects in 3 easy steps.
- what
- who / how
- when
Scheduling apps are probably not the most convenient way to follow your simple daily routines. That is a "just do it" kind of thing. But they should definitely be considered to clarify your thoughts on overseeing any important expenses. For example buying a car or planning a vacation, your next party or your marriage. If you clarify your ideas on what needs to be done, who is concerned and when it should be started, you will be empowered.
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coalxman said 2:32AM on 7-27-2006
Considering the creativity of this company and the magnitude of the core apps this app is SAD. The icon is the only thing that was good. I understand this is not made for a personal Project planner but more for extreme projects that take some amount of time, money, resources and of course people. With that said lets start their. People make the project come together, thus I would make an app that would allow me to note with a icon the type of person on each and every job of the project rather than just a name such as the following; Lazy Bob, Brilliant Susan, Extreme Mike. Idiot Mickey, slowpoke mary. Annal Andy. Superstar Ted and Genius Allan. This is the reality of what goes on when creating a project and names just do not cut it. So when I see a job going bad and taking to long I can access the Superstars, the Brilliant one and the genius in seconds when looking at a rather large staff of people all i have to do is see the icon , so having an icon to represent each type of person would be a HUGE plus not just a stinking name. Second every project should have a place for pictures so as to see a visual result, the picture dose not have to be big ,and their should be a small picture for each job being done within a project. This alone would be a breakthrough in this type of Project planner. The next break-though would be each and every job would have a countdown timer based on how long I believe each and every project should take before I evaluate the job, this would get rid of the silly sliding Gantt bars used today . Each digital clock would have a color based on if it was years, months, weeks , days, hours, min, that would allow me to see in an instant how many jobs are being finished this week or in the next couple of minutes, and of course each clock would have a simple alarm or even email that would be fine. I like the countdown better than a date as the countdown seems to put more pressure on those working on the jobs and of course they should see the clock on their end, very nice . I also hate having to resize the fonts on the software, so to make it simple I would preset it for the size screen you are using, this is a better way to go, or you just constantly find yourself resizing windows and that is slow and gets tedious. Each Personal Icon that I use should have a place for Notes and Personal Info, 9 times out of 10 the most important aspect of the project are the people. If the app was done right anyone should be able to use the app even a single college kid who pastes a picture of his very first car that he wants to buy. Label the project, paste the picture write down the task, events, outside and inside ideas that could make it happen, including cool questions that could jog your mind into taking action, such as what could I do today to make this a reality in the future, answer collect some credit cards make timely payment and build some credit. and of course start the countdown timer. I have a lot more ideas , anyone want to buy my program I would call it the OMNI PERSONAL ICON PROJECT PLANNER, getting anything done is about people including yourself and don’t let anyone tell you different its has always been about people and people are much more than a name..
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coalxman said 3:04AM on 7-27-2006
I posted a poll as to whom shoud get fired :) at OMNI
The owner
The designer
The guy whos idea it was to make a quick buck
or the guy who hyped the app as a secret project.
Should be interesting.
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Alexis said 5:11AM on 7-27-2006
Surprising how people are smart and fast on this site. The beta has been released a few hours ago, and you already get long comments about how it sucks, as if their writers had had the time to implement a large project, explore the different ways of creating it, track the remaining bugs... Wow ! 10 minutes for pushing a software to its limits and have a definite opinion on it. Must be some sort of site for geniuses here. Maybe I'm too stupid, then, as I am in the process of re-creating a large multi-partners project, trying to understand the logic, strength and weaknesses of the soft before deciding whether to buy it or not. I've done the same with Merlin (too limited in my opinion, especially w.r.t. to the treatment of ressources), and I hope this one will be better. My advice : take the time to explore such complex softwares (that is unless you're working for the competition).
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Jack Beckman said 6:04AM on 7-27-2006
$149 for a full-fledged Project Management program isn't gut-wrenching - it's actually at the low end of the scale for these type programs. Price out the competition.
I haven't had a chance to play with it much yet, but I hope to try a few sample projects and imports over the next few days.
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Tony said 11:30AM on 7-27-2006
If you're not a PMP (or at the very least, don't know what that is,) perhaps you shouldn't bother posting your comments.
This is *not* a personal productivity app. Period. It is intended to be a full-blown project management application.
When you have 20+ people in several departments (or companies) to manage, with timelines spanning (in many instances) several years...then you'll understand the value of a project management app...and laugh at the comparisons to Backpack or Basecamp (both of which are *excellent* at what they do, but we're talking completely different scopes here.)
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Alex said 2:19PM on 7-27-2006
What other options do we have under OS X for heavy duty MS Project compatible file creation project management software?
I'm joining a new work project in a few months where I will need to either use Windows and MS Project, or come up with a Mac compatible alternative that will share files with all. I'm hoping this program is the answer! If so, $149 is cheap.
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Paul said 2:41PM on 7-28-2006
Tony and some others hit this spot on. This is not a program for everyone, definitely not a personal productivity enhancer, and with much more limited application to people who are not project managers and understand resource allocation and time lines. What the heck was all that nonsense about pictures instead of Gantt charts? Sorry man, that's not the way it's done in serious project management. I'm just beginning to look at this, so I cannot comment on its feature set or capabilities in comparison to MS Project, which is really the only program worth comparing it to in the real world (BaseCamp, sorry, not for serious project managers).
If this program does what it sets out to do (including interoperability with MS Project), even after a couple revisions, it will be a great boon to Mac users who don't have many options here now; plus it looks like a Mac program (that much I can tell from just the screen shots) and an Omni program. This will be a big deal.
I didn't see one legit comment from a real PM. Just a bunch of bozo comments that reflected ignorance when it comes to PM software. You people should stay away from this program and commenting on it if you don't understand its purpose, which is what your comments indicate. It's really a disgusting reflection on the Mac user community.
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