3-pane view

DEVONthink Feedback
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An idea. I like the 3 pane view, but it is easy to “lose” documents that are in any Group that has other groups in it – especially documents that are in the root Group since you must actually select “no Group” in order to see them. It would be helpful to have some sort of symbol that showed there were files directly in a folder. The numbers of files in each help to indicate that, but with more complex file systems this is no help – too much adding in the head. Perhaps a little symbol next to each folder icon that showed it contained documents directly within it would help. Then, to solve the lost docs in the root folder area perhaps the root folder should be listed at the top of the group pane in a special shaded field or something, and the special symbol could be there too.

Is this a problem with anyone else? Any other ideas on dealing with it?

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frmoses wrote:

I think that is a great idea! I, too, have missed files in a group that contains multiple groups. Regarding documents at the root folder, when I first starting using DT, there were times I couldn’t find files that I had just created, because they were at the root level. By trial and error, I figured out that they were at the root level because I didn’t any folder selected when I created the document.

Thank you for these great suggestions. Maybe we will see them in 2.0?

Karen

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Having someway to see a flat list of all entries in the 3pane view would be great. An entry listed above all folders in the folder list, perhaps called Database. Just like iTunes or iPhoto where you can see it all.

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Several comments:

Christian has noted elsewhere that he’s thinking about some different approaches for the root view. That may alleviate some problems and may show up in version 2.0.

The idea of a complete, un-grouped listing of all the documents in a database has been discussed. Remember that there’s already the History view, which lists all the documents in the collection, normally sorted by Age. In version 1.2 Christian has added the ability to add columns to the Tools > History view.

How to: With the History view frontmost, select View > Columns > option, e.g. Kind. Sorts of this flat view of the database can be made by several parameters, such as name, size or file type. As I’ve got about 20,000 documents in the database, I’ll probably not use most of those sorts. :slight_smile:

Tip: DT Pro will let one open multiple views of the top-level or a group view. And one view can be 3-panes, the other Vertical Split, or perhaps Collumns. The ability to look at the same complex of groups and documents in different ways can be useful sometimes.

Possibly useful tip: If you’ve got a selection made that seems to be interfering with your ability to “see” another group, or individual documents, Command-click on the selected item. Example: On my MacBook, the list of groups in a couple of my views extends below the screen and there’s no space "under’ the list to click on to clear the selection. Command-clicking solves that problem.

I don’t normally work in the 3-panes view, but I use it most of the time for my top-level view, as any “straggling” unclassified documents there are easily identified.

I also use the 3-panes view for my Incoming group, which usually has lots of unclassified stragglers. Sometimes I dump them in by the hundreds. I’ll probably never catch up. But I do try to classify new content as often as I find time. Sometimes I can move multiple related and selected items to an appropriate location. Sometimes I hit the Classify button to see if DT Pro can figure out where to put an item.

When I come across items for which I don’t have an existing group into which they would fit, I just create a new group in Incoming and add them there – worrying later about where to file the new groups. So I break the rule that a group should hold either documents or subgroups, but not both.

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No kidding. :slight_smile:

The Age column would be much more useful to me with absolute rather than relative dates, as I’ve mentioned a few times before.

Yep, and I deeply appreciate the Kind column there.

Thanks for the Three Panes view usage tips.

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Something else about 3 pane view. I’m not sure if it’ll be standard in all variations of DEVONThink and DEVONnote. Since it’s the standard view used by many Mac apps, it might be a good idea to add them to all apps and make it the default view.

I’ve upgrade to DTpro so maybe it doesn’t matter for me any more. :slight_smile:

Being able to disable some views would be great too. There are some I never use. It’d be great to cleanup the toolbar a bit.

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There are both some advantages, and some disadvantages to the three-panes view as a layout of information on the screen. I don’t like the three-panes view for reading, writing or for viewing Web pages, for example, especially on my 15-inch MacBook Pro screen. So I write in Vertical Split mode; I rarely move to full-screen view, because I want all my information resources at my fingertips. I find that I do pretty much the same when using the 24-inch screen on my Power Mac.

I’ve always got several views open at any one time. The top-level view of the database and my Incoming view are usually (but not always) i n the three-panes view mode. But my actual working projects are usually in Vertical Split and individual document windows. And I’ll often have another view of the top-most database view in the List or Column mode, as that can often provide useful overviews. I use Exposé to quickly move among windows.

I’ll often bring in a group of photos and graphics that I’ll use as illustrations in a project. For looking at those and choosing among them the Icon view is perfect, and I love the slide bar to control image size.

Is there a “standard” Mac view? I don’t think so. But there are views that fit well the context of what one is doing, and DT Pro provides a variety of choices for the user. Personally, if presented the situation that the number of views in DT Pro had to be reduced to 4 of the current 6, I would give up the Horizontal Split and Three-Panes views.

But that’s just me, and the way I’ve set up my working environment. :slight_smile:

Choice is good, and that’s Mac-like.

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