"Clippings" to sub-folders

When I use the dock menu to put clippings, say from Safari, into a folder with subfolders, there is one aspect of the process that seems illogical and requires extra remembering. Say the folder is entitled DOGS and within it are subfolders, MASTIFFS, RIDGEBACKS, MALEMUTES. Now I am in Safari, wanting to add an article to the folder DOGS but not put it into any of the subfolders.

I use “New with clipboard” from the dock menu. I see a hierarchical menu which has at the top the most recently used folders or subfolders, then an alphabetical list of all folders. A folder with subfolders has a flippy triangle which makes the subfolders appear and it is at this point that this little bump in the road appears. If I hover the cursor over the folder DOGS and drop the article right there on DOGS it will not go anywhere. I may think it did, and discover days later that it didn’t, no trace of it. Why? It is necessary to hover over DOGS, then follow the flippy triangle to the right where DOGS appears again with the subfolders underneath it. Then I can drop the article in that appearance of DOGS, as if it were a subfolder, and it will be put into the folder.

If my destination folder did not have any subfolders inside it, there would of course be no flippy triangle, and I could successfully drop the article on the name of the folder in the main list. But dropping an article into the folder name where it appears in the main list will not work if the folder has any subfolders.

This seems like more trouble to explain, than it is worth, and many may think so. But I find it a little jarring each time, because I have to remember to do something that seems out of logical pattern. I did in fact lose a number of items before I figured out what happened.

I can construct a view of the program in which it makes sense–it just doesn’t make sense to me as user. So I’m not asking for an explanation but wondering, if it is easy to change, whether you would consider changing it.

Some programs have an option of making a sound when an item is successfully clipped and saved, so if there were such a thing that would be a warning, albeit intrusive.

Hi, cycheney. Although it’s possible to drag & drop selected text/images into a database using the Dock icon, I don’t do that.

Let me suggest an alternative approach that has the advantage that it reliable copies the URL of the source page when you select a clipping in Safari.

In DT Pro/DTPO Preferences > General make sure that the option ‘Hide ‘Groups’ panel when inactive’ is unchecked.

Select Tools > Show Groups. Move the Groups panel to the right side of your screen and minimize it to the Dock (Command-M).

In Safari, select some text/images. Click in the Dock to float the Groups panel over your Safari page. Click in the selected material and pause for a moment. Now drag the selected material to the desired destination in the Groups panel. (The destination can be, if you wish, a group that has subgroups).

Now, in DT Pro/DTPO navigate to the group in which you located your new clipping. Open the Info panel. Notice that the URL of the source page is included.

Although user documentation discourages placing ‘mixed’ documents and subgroups inside a group, such as your “Dogs” group, I sometimes find it convenient to do that, e.g. for a new document about Irish Wolf Hounds if I haven’t yet created a group for that breed.

Note that this approach works to clip from any type of document that can have text and/or images copied to the clipboard, such as a word processor, an OmniOutliner document, etc.

Try this approach. I think you will prefer it to dragging to the Dock icon. I find it much faster, especially for my larger databases with many groups and subgroups.

That’s a general limitation of Dock menus - menu items with submenus can’t execute actions (contrary to contextual/action menus of DEVONthink for example).

Thanks, Bill, for the suggestion about text-dragging. It didn’t work for me; I had the same experience as another recent poster, over in Tips and Tricks http://www.devon-technologies.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3750&sid=82d227ce8ac3e5e0d7b07a3bb03936a0 in that the selection doesn’t stay selected in Safari. Someone pointed the way to a hack,

but I’m leery of such things. And really, when all is said and done, it seems easier to me to select, copy, and paste into DTPro using the Dock Menu.

Hi, cycheney.

I don’t need or use hacks to select text/images in Safari and drag them to the floating Groups panel.

It just takes a little experimentation and practice. Select material, then hover the mouse pointer over the selected area for a few moments, then click and drag.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. :slight_smile:

And your long-run experience with the floating Groups panel will be preferable to dragging to the Dock. Note also that this procedure for moving selected material is useful for writing/editing purposes, too. Want to move a word or text string to a different location in your text? Select the string, hover briefly, then click and drag it to a different location. Wonderful!

Still another approach I could recommend for capturing rich text notes from Safari is to select text/images and press" Command-)" (Shift-Command-0). The captured material will be sent to the group as designated in Preferences > Import. (I’ve created and designated a group called ‘Incoming’.)

Finally, I do most of my own rich text captures using DT Pro’s built-in browser. There are convenient contextual menu options for capturing selected material to the database as a rich text note, or for capturing an HTML page or WebArchive to the database. I’ve created bookmarks in my database for all of the sites that I regularly visit, such as Science Magazine online.