JD Huntington

It's 6pm, I'm driving home, and I get this text

Hey can you grab this on your way home? Thanks!
Milk
Bread
Eggs
Butter
Cheese
bananas
lettuce
Coffee (whole bean)

Since I'm hopeless when wandering through a grocery store, I'd at least like this as a quick checklist in OmniFocus so that I keep track of what I've got so far. I can't just copy and paste the text into OmniFocus, though, because it'll all be one item. I need to split it up.

For that, enter Split Item, a small bit of automation you can install to use on your phone to make this just a touch easier as you're walking in to the grocery store.

Usage

First, create a new task and add the list of items as a note.

Next, make sure the Project and Context (err, I mean Tags) are set correctly.

Then, hit the "Share" button and select "Split Item". (The share sheet has all of the OmniFocus automations inconveniently hidden. This took me quite a while to find the first time!)

And now you're done!

Installation

Grab this code:

/*{
    "author": "JD Huntington",
    "targets": ["omnifocus"],
    "type": "action",
    "identifier": "com.jdhuntington.omni.Split item",
    "version": "0.1",
    "description": "A plug-in that splits items into smaller items based on notes",
    "label": "Split item",
    "mediumLabel": "Split item",
    "longLabel": "Split item",
    "paletteLabel": "Split item",
}*/
(() => {
    var action = new PlugIn.Action(function(selection) {
        const task = selection.tasks[0];
        task.sequential = false;
        const newTasks = task.note.trim().split("\n").filter(t => t);
        newTasks.forEach(t => {
            let newTask = new Task(t, task);
            task.tags.forEach(tag => {
                newTask.addTag(tag);
            });
            newTask.dueDate = task.dueDate;
            newTask.deferDate = task.deferDate;
            newTask.flagged = task.flagged;
        })
    });

    // If needed, uncomment, and add a function that returns true if the current selection is appropriate for the action.
    action.validate = function(selection){
        if(!selection) {
            return false;
        }
        if(!selection.tasks) {
            return false;
        }
        if(!(selection.tasks.length === 1)) {
            return false;
        }
        if(!selection.tasks[0].note) {
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    };
        
    return action;
})();

And put it in your OmniFocus plug-in folder. More information on that on Omni-Automation.