Our bank sends us .csv files as mail attachments, and they would import beautifully into DT except the sender has given the files an .xls extension! When I drag the file into DT, it thinks it’s an Excel file and cannot display the contents as a sheet.
So instead of importing the attachments with drag-and-drop, I have to save the file in a temporary folder, change the extension manually to .csv, then drag the file into DT.
Is there any way I can change the file “kind” to “sheet” after the file has been imported? Then I’d save at least one of the two extra steps I have to take to save these files.
That’s not possible. The best automation is probably to create an AppleScript droplet which renames the dropped files first and imports them afterwards. The Extras folder of the disk image contains a simply import droplet but the renaming functionality needs to be added.
I’d just like to add a vote for some sort of ability to do this. I currently can’t import some webpages from firefox (example w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bru … rs.article) by dragging and dropping it into devonsync/the sorter, as they come up as type article and DevonThink has no idea how to display them.
I checked out your URL example. The problem with it is that the file displayed in Firefox has the .article filetype, which isn’t recognized by DEVONthink or Quick Look.
So importing .article files as such doesn’t do much good; the text isn’t recognized, cannot be searched and cannot be displayed.
Capture as PDF is a possible solution in such cases. PDF capture of a displayed Web page can be done by bookmarklet, script or by ‘printing’ as PDF to DEVONthink Pro. I captured the page as PDF, with the result that the database can search the text content and display the article.
I don’t think that DT should try to build in this kind of capability when there are existing utilities that can do it better. I use File Buddy, but there are others (google “batch rename mac”), including the donationware program NameChanger.
I think it would be a very nice feature. I have a kind of similar problem with file names. For example I dont want the “the free encyclopedia” in the name of my wikipedia bookmarks.
I use Name Mangler to change extensions & filename but it’s annoying to have a intermediate process before adding stuff to DT.
Another option might be to force a specific data type on an extension; so force DT to load .article-files as .webarchives.
It solves the problem with files whose file extension may not be changed due to the usage by other software.