Confirm deletion?

Is there a way to have DEVONthink Pro ask me to confirm that I want to delete a document? (I’m a little concerned that while thinking that I’m deleting text inside document, the document itself might be highlighted and I might accidentally delete it.)

If there isn’t currently an option to do this, please think about adding it.

Deleting a document in DTP is not immediate-instead DTP moves it to the trash. If you do accidentally move a document to the trash, you can remove it manually or type Command-Z to undo the delete. When you do choose to empty the trash, DTP does have a warning to let you confirm that you are about to delete the items in the trash permanently.

And even this is a lie: DTP moves the item from the DTP trash to the system trash on your desktop.

I’ve always been a supporter of having an option to confirm deletion. I am very clumsy and have often deleted something without realizing it, and then emptied the trash without knowing there were jewels in it. :cry:

(Done this in the real world too. If only there were on option on dust bins to prevent us taking them to the curb without confirmation … )

I hate confirmation dialogs. Most of the time they interrupt my flow. They make me angry because I have to do things twice and when I really do something stupid I have already hit the confirm button before realising it.

(And I am very happy that my dust bin does not ask any questions :wink: )

Johannes

Which I strongly dislike:

It really bothers me that DT documents I want permanently deleted appear in system Trash.

… and made this suggestion:

Hope you’ll consider my Option key suggestion or any other method for bypassing system Trash to permanently empty DT’s internal Trash.

… that only Greg acknowledged:

I’d vote for this also, and would even like to see the items securely deleted.

I agree with Johannes: confirmation dialogs are irritants, nothing more, for me: they simply teach me to press “backspace-enter” rather than backspace (or whatever the relevant combination happens to be).

I guess this comes down to how much motor memory takes over (c-x-s etc), which in itself depends on the type of user.

I think DT’s “multi-modal” usage can contribute to increased vulnerability to accidentally trashing documents so I wouldn’t mind using Command-Delete (sans confirmation, like Move to Trash in DT, Finder, et.al.) instead of a simple unconditional Delete. Until focus limbo becomes relatively non-existent I’ll remain slightly more careful not to trash a document instead of simply erasing a character while in one.

And get rid of the double-expunge, first emptying DT Trash then system Trash, to permanently delete DT documents (as previously suggested). It’s bad enough that an always-empty DEVONthink Pro folder appears in system Trash after every system restart if DTPO is run after the previous restart. Maybe that’s unavoidable but the reliance of DT Trash functionality on system Trash isn’t.

This topic could be endlessly debated with well-reasoned arguments on all sides. :slight_smile:

Yes, command-delete would be a good idea I think. And yes, eliminating focus limbo would simplify things!

I agree.
(And empty trash with option key should skip the confirmation there as well like in Finder).

Johannes

Thank goodness. It’s not just me. Eric, Christian, are you watching? I brought this up in a support request a several months ago & was told this was a “design decision” not to use Command-delete or to have a warning dialog. C’mon guys, at least add a preference option.

Not sure how to interpret that since Command-Delete is the default shortcut for Data > Move to Trash. Anyone know how it differs from Delete (which doesn’t have a corresponding command there’s no way to change it and favor Command-Delete usage instead)?

It would make more sense to me if (by default) Delete tossed up a confirmation dialog and Command-Delete didn’t to differentiate them, plus adding a Move to Trash… command with Delete as its default shortcut. That would allow swapping of shortcuts for Move to Trash (unconfirmed) and Move to Trash… (confirmed). The latter command could fit between Move to Trash and Move All Instances to Trash under the Data menu.

And it seem to me the current Empty Trash command should really be Empty Trash… (with the trailing ellipsis) since it has a confirmation dialog. Add an Option modifier and it would change to Empty Trash (unconfirmed, and bypass system Trash) under the main app (e.g. DEVONthink Pro Office) menu.

Would that sufficiently satisfy everyone’s usage scenarios for document deletion/trashing/expunging behaviors?

Wonderful proposal!

Full “Yes” … excepting my miscreant dustbin :wink:

Having the option to confirm deletion would not incovenience you.

Yes to your suggestions.

Options are fine of course :wink:

Johannes

The idea behind the Delete key is to move items fast & easily to the trash, e.g. like in Apple Mail. Adding a confirmation is kind of the opposite.

V2.0.2 will fix this.

I understand that, but thanks for a specific example. What I still don’t get is how it differs (if at all) from Command-Delete.

I’m still hoping for functional adjustments eventually, like I suggested, too.

They’re identical.

V2.0.2 will be only a maintenance release.

Okay, so they’re functionally identical except that only the Move to Trash Command-Delete shortcut can be changed.

Sure hope that includes maintenance for my document titles vs. exported filenames issue. :slight_smile:

I see your point, and I am new to DEVONthink so I did not know that deleted files are recoverable.

But I’ll trade you an Apple-based counter-example: when I Delete a song or podcast in iTunes I’m asked to confirm the deletion. (And they let you remove this confirmation process.)

Still, it would be very useful to me (and perhaps others, based on the thread discussion) to have an option in the preferences for a confirm-delete. This way we can choose to operate as if in Mail (as default) or as iTunes if we choose… :smiley: