Do you have a 2nd monitor where you can open up a second window and thus have two versions of the sidebar at once? Or use a second MacOS Space to accomplsh this?
Do you mean with a custom script added to the toolbar, or through the Actions button?
First option, with a script.
Yes to both (2nd monitor depending on where I am, but I always use Spaces. It’s one of the many things that I love about macOS. Windows’ implementation of a similar thing is very clunky in comparison). I know it may sound like I’m stuck in my ways, but using another window still feels much more fiddly than when it was all just there in the one consolidated package.
Understood - I get it that we all get muscle memory to do things in a given way
For what it’s worth if you use multiple windows, I think the recently added feature to right-click on a Group in the sidebar and then quickly open a window with that group is a very nice bonus to any DT3 workflow.
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Unfortunately, I believe I have found an instance when even the sidebar in 3.5—infuriatingly—does reset all of my custom group expanded/collapsed states. When I tried switching the sidebar from Navigate view to Import view (in order to archive mailboxes from Apple Mail), when I returned to Navigate view, the sidebar had hidden my database contents and automatically collapsed all the groups—exactly the same problem that I previously described above wasting huge amounts of my invested time and ruining my user experience with the Item List.
This discovery is frustrating, particularly since otherwise, so far I have been inclined to remain cautiously optimistic about the new sidebar behavior in 3.5, feeling that it has allowed the re-creation of some of the key functionality of 3PV—which I really appreciate having at long last. So far, other than during the switch from Navigate view to Import view, when working with all my different databases and groups in Navigate view, I have not (yet) encountered an instance of the sidebar automatically collapsing all my groups the way the Item List does.
Please, is it possible to adjust the sidebar behavior further so that simply switching the sidebar view does not cause this kind of unnecessary and time-consuming aggravation?
Thanks for that, I appreciate it
A screenshot of the window before/after switching views would be useful plus one of Preferences > General, thanks.
Preferences>General:
Sidebar, when I have set a custom expanded state for groups:
Same space in the sidebar, after I have switched the sidebar view to “Import” and then back to “Navigate”—DT3 has now automatically hidden the database contents:
Same space in the sidebar, after I have hovered over and clicked “Show” to restore the view of the contents—DT3 has automatically also collapsed all the groups:
Thanks, fixed.
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Was just about to chip in here to say that I’m seeing the same behaviour, great to see a fix coming.
Great to see it will be fixed in the next update. I Just want to add that clicking on the “…” icon in the sidebar also caused the same collapsing behavior for me in the current release.
I just received a cheery notification that “new extras are available.” When I stupidly clicked to see what they were, the switch of the Sidebar to Support view happened automatically and wiped out a couple of hours of accumulated work during which I had, once again, reset my main database group list to my preferred state of expanded folders. So I now I have to do it all once more.
I won’t go on any more about how infuriating this continues to be. If a fix for this is on the way, it cannot come soon enough.
(EDIT: Sorry @NGNear, I didn’t mean to reply directly to you, but to the thread.)
Thank you for the fix, the collapsed sidebar after switching views is now no longer happening for me, after the last update. That’s a relief.
Pending any further discoveries of behavior along those lines, I think I am ready to say, having registered previously at some length my very specific complaints and frustrations about the loss of 3-pane view, that DEVONthink 3.5 finally now offers an alternative that I am sufficiently happy with to put this topic behind me and re-embrace the user interface of DEVONthink with enthusiasm.
The new sidebar behavior introduced with DT 3.5—revealing and maintaining the expanded/collapsed group list of only one selected database at a time—now allows me to dedicate the item list window in the horizontal “Standard” view for the purpose of viewing group contents across the top in the same way I used 3-pane view, while still allowing relatively quick access to the list of databases with a quick upward scroll of the sidebar. In practice, for me, so far, this works well—much better than I thought it would when I first heard of this forthcoming tweak and tried to imagine what it would be like. Perhaps other users have usage patterns that are not sufficiently addressed by this tweak, but personally I am satisfied and ready to move on.
THANK YOU to the development team for listening and coming up with a solution that, for me at least, does bring back enough of the elegant navigational functionality I so sorely missed. I’m happy to be able to feel restored faith in DEVONthink and excitement about turning more of my energy back to getting things done.
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Thanks for the nice feedback and you’re welcome of course!
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The recent update is much appreciated! For me, there is much less friction in moving from one Db to the other.
Question: How do I get it to remember which document it was on when I switch to a different Db and the switch back? The Inbox remembers which document I was on, but I can’t get that to work on the other databases.
Hi All,
Would someone kindly summarise (perhaps with some screenshots) the way I need to set up to get an experience most like the old 3PV. I have been reading this thread occasionally and know that DT3.5 is out with improvements but haven’t found anywhere aside from the brief release notes that summarise what the new 3.5 gives (& how) for those wanting a 3PV like experience.
Thanks
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- Disable Preferences > General > Sidebar > Unified Databases
- Ensure that the main view uses List view (see View > as List)
- Enable View > Show Only Documents
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I concur. 3.5 is a massive improvement.
@quirkt - I think that explanation finally clicked with me as to why some users felt so passionate about the loss of 3PV and others (including me) did not understand the lost utility. I think you are saying that you have a very large number of database (maybe in the hundreds or thousands), i.e. if you were an attorney you would put each case in its own database rather than in its own group. Is that correct? If so, then regardless of whether 3PV exists or not, what do you see as the pro/con of having a different database for each “case” vs a different group for each case?
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