Better capturing of notes

DEVONthink Feedback
1

Working on my Mac, ideas not related to the work at hand pop into my mind. We all have a lot of ideas and DevonThink is the ideal place for capturing them. However, this should be done with minimal effort and minimal distraction. Currently I’m not very happy with the way this can be done. Other software like OmniFocus have done better. Here are a couple of suggestions:

  • An input window should be accessible at all times by means of a global keyboard shortcut. The way I understand it, this can only be done with the sorter and is already implemented. However, the notes window appears on the edge of the screen which is not very ergonomically when working on a large display. Could you not position the notes window on the center of the screen?

  • Minimal distraction means quick capture: Within the notes window of the sorter I have not found a way to navigate to the tags section by using the keyboard. I’m forced to use the mouse. Am I missing something?

  • For me, the main problem with the Sorter is, that notes will go into the global inbox. When capturing any selection of text (Command-}) using the DTPO preference “select group as destination”, I can sort the note into a database on the fly with all tags working which is not working from the global inbox. Why not use a window like this one for notes capturing? There is only one thing I dislike about this UI: When using tags it is redundant to also select a destination group. Why not simply let the user select a destination database and sort it into its inbox? Thus, one can quickly go over all captures of the week in the inbox at the end of the week with minimal effort.

To summarize my request:

  • Show a global notes capture window at the center of the screen.
  • Allow full keyboard navigation within this window.
  • Let the user add tags and select destination database for the note.
  • Optionally add date/time or any other kind of template into the note.
2

Great ideas.

Especially the minimal distraction style window. Shovebox has a nice, clean “QuickJot” window.

3

Some of this is already available with Take Note.

In Preferences > Sorter set the global shortcut key for Take Note. (The Take Note shortcut key does not invoke Sorter, Sorter doesn’t need to be open, and the keystroke opens Take Note regardless of what app you’re working in.)

Press the shortcut key to open Take Note. Press escape to close it.

Take Note remembers its last size and position on the screen. Put it in the center or anywhere you wish.

Navigate between Title – URL – Note – Tags using ctrl-tab. Take Note remembers the last destination for your notes - or you can use the dropdown box.

The template suggestion has come up before - and I agree it would be a good to have templates. (There’s always, of course, TextExpander, Typinator, etc.)

Would also be useful if