iGTD and Things join forces, Things 1.2 released
With the release yesterday of Things 1.2, Cultured Code announced an exciting new addition to their company: Bartek Bargiel, the creator of the venerable program iGTD. Before the Things public beta, I was a user of iGTD, for although I despised its interface I could not resist its sheer power. Sadly, shortly after the release of OmniFocus and Things iGTD faded into abandonware as Bartek evidently lacked the time to bring the fabled iGTD 2 to fruition.
Now Bartek is the newest employee at Cultured Code and we’re already seeing the benefits with Things 1.2. Aside from even better keyboard navigation support, Things 1.2′s greatest improvement is the inclusion of Quick Entry Autofill, previously known in iGTD as the “F-key trick”. By using Quick Entry Autofill instead of the standard autofill shortcut, you can have your task autopopulated with the selected text and—if possible—a link back to the source when you invoke it from just about anywhere on the Mac. Also included are LaunchBar and Quicksilver plugins to allow easy, text-based creation of tasks for those who prefer that method. Things 1.2 also adds Spotlight compatibility, so you can search your tasks from anywhere. Read more about 1.2′s featureset.
To say I’m excited by Bartek’s addition to the Cultured Code team is an understatement. I’ve always thought that Bartek was a talented developer who needed an equally talented interface designer to complement him, and now he has that in spades. Hopefully we will begin to see bits of iGTD’s power and flexibility make their way into Things but refined and simplified by the Cultured Code team’s skill with interface design. I was getting mildly worried if Things would be able to keep up with applications like The Hit List or would begin to integrate more powerful features (like hierarchy) similar to OmniFocus; with the Bartek on board, I am now much more hopeful for Things’ continued appeal not only to those who like a simple and attractive task manager but also those who need a bit more power and flexibility than Things has historically offered.