I use DN’s “Take plain/rich note” function in the services menu a lot. Now, when you make a new note, it appears at the bottom of list of groups and files in the left hand column. What I wind up doing is leaving the document I extracted the note from, going into Devon (whose icon is bouncing annoyingly in my Dock), retitling the card, then dragging the card into its destination folder. This seems a bit clunky to me.
How would you guys feel if the function was changed so that, when you select “Take note,” you’re offered a dialogue box that asks you title the new note and to designate where it should be saved (i.e. what folder), sort of like what happens when you create a duplicate and you get the “duplicate to…” dialog?
You can set the destination Group for new notes in the Preferences panel. I have mine set for a “To Be Filed” group which I then periodically go and clean out.
About your other suggestion for a dialogue box when a note is taken. I like the note being taken without me having to interupt the application I am currently in. If it was an option that could be turned on and off in Preferences then I could see it’s usefulness, but I’d really rather not ALWAYS be pestered by a dialogue box when taking a note…
We agree with Father Moses that taking notes should be a silent process. We also think that setting up a “To Be Filed” group is th best solution (we suppose almost every DT user has a similar set up).
But where does one find the preference to set the destination Group in Devon NOTE? I’d think that’s where it’d be more needed, for those of us who use DN to make short clips. Is this only available in DT? This is the main reason I still use Stickybrain - the convenience of clipping a quote directly to my quote folder, for example. And with a contextual menu, even more convenient.
Well, how about the StickyBrain-style compromise, in which one can specify that a particular group is to be included in take-note services? That’s still no-interruption note-taking: When I go to take the note, I can put it in any place that I have made a candidate for receiving things. Ie, instead of Take Note'' I'd see Take Note and file in Group A, Group B, Group D or Unfiled’’ Clutter’s not an issue because I designate the groups for the list. Group C isn’t on my example list because I didn’t include it.
I’m not crazy about To Be Filed groups. Personally, if I don’t do some preliminary categorizing IMMEDIATELY I always end up with a huge ``deal with this later’’ file that never gets sorted. But maybe it’s just me.
I actually agree with the original post. A popup dialog for naming clippings would be incredibly useful for me workflow. I do use a ‘To File’ folder, and I can see how many people would prefer to not have a popup, so it would be best if this function could be toggled on/off. But this is a fantastic idea!
Sadly, it sounds like the powers that be don’t agree. C’est la vie, I guess.
NoteTaker handles this by adding an additional service, maybe this could be done in DT. It has “clip to notebook” that gives you the means to find any notebook and clip to any page in it but it also had “clip to previous location”, making the process silent once the original location selection has been made.
Actually, I’m more into this idea from the standpoint of being able to title the note on the fly. Sorting them out later isn’t that much trouble for me, but I’d really like to give the notes custom names while I’m in the groove of whatever I happen to be researching.
Oh yeah, sorry, I guess I quoted your note and responded to a previous one. Still, it seems as though your need could be managed with the programming of one more service.
Since I was the one who first mentioned the “To Be Filed” group let me clarify my position on this subject: I use a “To Be Filed” group for my service clippings precisely BECAUSE there is no way to file directly into various groups. The ability to add services which would allow you to clip directly into various groups would be a great addition, like StickyBrain and NoteBook allow you to. This would allow users to do this if they want to, and if they don’t, then they could just ignore the feature.
Also, I reiterate that I definitely want the clipping action to be visually and interface “silent”, w/o a pop-up window, in fact it could be even more silent then it currently is – StickyBrain lets you take a clipping w/o even booting up the application which is nice. The first time you clip in DT, DT boots if it’s not already running – not a big deal, but the SB action is nicer.
On this, one other small feature that StickyBrain has is that it allows you to assign a sound to be played immediately after a clipping had been made. I found this comforting, since the clipping was otherwise a totally “silent” action, it audibly let you know that what you had just grabbed was truly now in the database. The preference to play a sound when a service clipping has been made in DT would be nice – but make it an option, because I know ther’s many out there who won’t want it
Thanks for all the suggestions. V1.9.x or V2.0 will introduce preferences to rename taken notes immediately, to select a destination and to clip to the previous location.
That’s great news. Now, any chance it could be added to DevonNote as well as DT? Since I started this topic, I’ve done a LOT of rich-note taking, and I wind up having to rename and file all of those notes at the end of a work session, so the ability to rename and file as I’m making the note would help a lot. It seems like this is a basic notetaking function and therefore should be part of the basic note program.
Is the major distinction between those who buy DN and DT the kind of files the programs will handle? That is, DT handles pdfs and other graphics, while DN is mostly for working with text and RTF? If so, seems like the option to file and rename via services should be in DN.
I don’t know if this would fit in with your plans or not: StickBrain preferences allow one to set a key command to send a selection directly to a specific folder. So, for example, I could select text, hit com-opt-shift-r and the selection would be sent immediately to my Receipts folder in SB.
I had a lot of folders, but only used this technique for a few of them as it could get confusing pretty quickly.
I see from this thread that it should be possible to make clippings in DT ‘silently.’ Right now, every time I make a clipping (e.g., Services, DT, Take Rich Note) it brings DT to the forefront each time, which is quite distracting when I’m on a web site, for example, and just want to stick a note into DT but not go there yet.
Is there a way to tell DT to stay in the background when clipping? I’ve looked under Prefs, Import and nothing seemed to work. Haven’t seen anything specific to that on the site either.
Thanks in advance.
Alexandria
PS Is there any plan to make this something accessible via the contextual menu, like Circus Ponies NB? I use that feature a lot, but it would be more helpful with DT since I use DT to archive most things.
Try this: Preferences>General>Startup (it’s about mid-point down the pref pane) > Do nothing. Close any open DT windows, and quit. Then clip something from, say, Safari. DT will bounce once in the dock, but no window will open.
But if I then go to DT and then move back and forth between DT and other programs, I have to keep closing the database to keep it from coming to the front again (didn’t have to totally quit DT, just have the database window closed). So the key is that you have to have the database unopened?
I wonder if there couldn’t be an easier method to making sure it stays in the background. Maybe for future versions?
But I usually prefer the default setting. If I clip a note from Safari to DEVONthink, I can see the DEVONthink window “through” Safari. If I want to jump to DT, clicking on the visible DT window brings it to the foreground. But if I want to return to Safari, I just “swoop” the cursor to the upper right corner of my screen and Safari is back in the foreground. (Exposé does this.)
