Can't make static cross-links or URL links

DEVONthink Tips
#1

I am still learning DT, so this may well be a matter of misunderstanding, but…

In the Preferences I have WikiLinks set to “Automatic”, and this seems to work just fine. I type in a document name in some other RTF document and the link is created for me.

However, it I try to create a static link or a link to a URL, I cannot.

The Help says: “Select any text you want to use as a link, then choose “Link To” and the link target in the contextual menu.” The problem is that there is no such choice in the contextal menu I see.

The Help (and the Manual, which seems to be the exact same text) say that if there is no go with the contextual menu, there is a command. I do have a Make Link command in the Formal menu, but it is ALWAYS greyed. Entering the keyboard shortcut, Shift-Cmd-M, does nothing other than to give me an error doink.

If I try to create a link to a URL, I get the same result. The URLs I am testing with are google.com so there should be nothing questionable about either their recognizability or existence.

MY THEORY (In the event this is not just the result of a dumb user error):
When I was originally trying out DT in February, I downloaded it and ran it for a few days. Then I decided to try DEVONnote, which I downloaded and tried only briefly. I then simply discarded the DEVONnote application, bought a license for DEVONThink, and continued forth.

I am also having an odd problem with the Back, Forward, Reload, and Keywords buttons not working which I reported earlier, and which, so far, no one has been able to suggest a solution for.

Is it possible that when I loaded DEVONThink it some kind of configuration file that overwrote a file with the same name that is used by DEVONThink? Since DEVONthink was already installed prior to the installation of DEVONnote, it would have no reason to suspect that such a file would have been overwritten. Unfortunately, I have no idea whether my problems started with the installation of DEVONnote or not.

#2

You cannot make links in plain text documents. Convert the document to rich text, then it’ll work.

Best,

Eric.

#3

All of the many documents I have tested with are RTF documents. As I mentioned in my note, automatic Wiki links work, but I cannot create any other links. I have tested with documents that I created as RTF, with documents that I imported as plain text and converted to RTF, and with documents that I created as plain text and then converted to RTF.

Some additional information. Using the “Make Rich Text” and “Make Plain Text” buttons in the Tool Bar, I can convert a document from one type to another. I can also convert between types using the Shift-Cmd-T. However, in the Data : Convert menu, both options - “to Plain Text” and “to Rich Text” are always greyed out and neither ever works no matter what kind of document I am working on. Don’t know if this is of any significance here, but it seems that it might be relevant since it is the menus for creating links that also do not seem to be working properly.

#4

mdn:

What version of OS X are you running?

Have you logged out or restarted since you installed DEVONthink? If not, please do so (preferably a restart) and see if the linking functions are now working. Please post again with your experience.

#5

These two commands are only available for converting PDF files to plain or rich text. They have no relevance for your problem.

Best,

Eric.

#6

I am running OS X 10.2.8 on a 450 Mhz Power Mac with 512 Mbytes RAM.

I have logged out and back many times (usually daily), and restarted my computer twice (for other reasons) since installing DT. I originally was running DT 1.9.1, and have upgraded to 1.9.2. I also downloaded and installed 1.9.2 a second time. This problem has been there since the original installation of 1.9.1 in February.

In regard to the “to Plain Text” and “to Rich Text” menu items, I was off the track there, but now I am confused as to what the Help/Manual is referring to when it says, in regard to creating links using the Contextual Menu: “If there’s no or only a white selection, an “Insert Link To” command is available instead.” Where is that command supposed to be? In my contextual menu which I see if I open it on text selected in an RTF document, there is an “Insert” item but it’s submenu displays only “Bullet”, “Page Break”, blank line, “Date”, “Time”, blank line, “Picture”.

Since the Wiki links work, I can make do for now. I like this product a lot and will upgrade to DT Pro when I can. If nothing else has turned up, hopefully that will clear up both this problem and my problem with the “Forward”, “Back”, “Reload”, and “Keywords” buttons. (See my message “‘Back’, ‘Reload’, ‘Keywords’, etc.” in this forum.)

Thanks to everyone for their efforts.

#7

That’s the problem. Static links only work on Mac OS X 10.3 and above because they need the enhanced TextEdit engine.

It’s in the contextual menu, when you control-click WITHOUT any selected text. When you control-click selected text, this command makes no sense and so is not visible. Also, it shouldn’t be there on Mac OS X 10.2.x.

Best,

Eric.

#8

OK, that’s what I needed to know. I should have included my system info in the initial post and made everybody’s life easier.

I will be upgrading my OS when OS X 10.4 is released so I’ll just hang in until then.

Thanks again for your help.

#9