When I fired up DT for the first time I didn’t get a blank database like the user doc shows (the user doc seems off more than its on). DT scanned my hard drive and duplicated my file structure for my home folder. I thought that was reasonably cool until I discovered that it only creates links to what it recognizes, so there’s a ton of stuff on my hard drive that DT doesn’t know about.
At this point, my thinking is that with EasyFind able to search through ALL of my files, I don’t see the point of having any of my finder contents in DT. All it does is muck up my search results when I’m trying to find something in DT.
Am I missing something obvious? I’m about to delete the home folder link out of DT (ensuring it’s just for the database, of course) but want to give this issue more consideration before blowing it away.
I would not recommend trying to link your home folder into DT. I don’t regard DT as a substitute for the Finder, but as a knowledge miner of my collection of reference documents.
So I pretty much stick with importing file types that are known to be compatible with DT. (Some documents that I don’t import into DT include package files such as CP NoteBook files, NoteTaker files, Keynote files, Create files etc. – DT treats them as folders rather than packages, which can cause all kinds of problems.)
There’s a discussion of linking to unsupported documents in this forum at http://www.devon-technologies.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1118&highlight=. I like subscriber3’s technique of using HTML links (the HTML file in DT can contain information about the linked file) to allow quick and safe linking to unsupported file types, such as PowerPoint files, Excel files, NoteTaker notebooks and so on.
But I generally do this from a rich text document. To do this, create a new rich text document in DT. Enter whatever descriptive information desired into the document. Now enter the URL path of the linked file in URL field of the document’s Info panel. Example: [file://localhost/Users/billdevi/Documen … ages.cre8/](file://localhost/Users/billdevi/Documents/Create%20Tests%20July%2002%20f/Ethics%20PDA%20Web%20Pages.cre8/) (of course, this link won’t work for you if you click on it!)
Now I can launch the Create file simply by choosing Content > Launch URL while viewing my rich text document in DT. Note: the “%” symbol replaces any spaces that may exist in the path URL of the file. My Create application will open and I can read/edit the file. If I wish, I can copy text from this document to the clipboard and paste it into my DT rich text document, so that DT searches will be able to look at the text of the Create file in this way. (Similar approaches could copy or summarize the text of a Keynote presentation into the DT rich text file that links to the Keynote file.)
Alternatively, I could use the UNIX path of the Create file, and copy this path into the Path field of the rich text document’s Info pane. Example: /Users/billdevi/Documents/Create Tests July 02 f/Ethics PDA Web Pages.cre8
Now, from my rich text document, I can open the externally linked file by choosing Content > Launch path. (Note that spaces are OK in the UNIX path of the file.)
I suspect the folder icon was accidentally dropped on the DT icon.
DT does not scan the folder by default. Just delete it.
DT will scan a folder or package for items it understands.
try dropping an application icon on DT, it will extract various items you can find by selecting the application icon, choosing Show Package Contents and looking around. this does’t alter the application, you can just delete the material from DT afterwards.
thanks Bill. I read your posts about Notebook, an application I use and enjoy. on that note, I’m finding that the trio of DT, NovaMind and Notebook offers an incredible array of possibilities and power. People say there isn’t enough software for the Mac platform and I just laugh. Maybe the quantity is less but the quality of apps here is so much better I could never go back to my PCs.
re DT and Finder, that’s what I thought. I was confused when DT auto imported all that stuff. My intent is to use it as a knowledge repository, so having home folder stuff in here just muddies the search waters.
and truly, EasyFind combined with Quicksilver makes finding what I need a snap anyway.
I suggest the ability to automatically create an rtf with the original file’s path would a useful alternative to the current method of importing unsupported file types. The ability to store sections of the document in the rtf for searching and indexing seems, to me, much easier than using the comments field.
Any chance this could be implemented in a future release?
Strange (not useful at best, and potentially unpleasant) things can happen when using Link To unsupported file types, such as a Stone Designs Create file.
True, I can create a new RTF note in DT and drag a Create file from the finder into the RTF note. That generates a clickable link to the Create document (but the icon looks ugly and the file name is an image, not text). I’ve still got to manually name the DT note.
So what I do is create a new DT RTF file, then enter the path to a Create file, then name the DT note. I will generally copy/paste from the Create document into the DT note, so that I’ve got searchable text.
I wish DT had a File > Path To option. Here’s how it would work. When selected, one could choose an unsupported file type such as a Create document. DT would generate a new RTF note, name it with the filename of the Create document, and insert the path into the Path field of the Info pane. Then Launch Path would open the Create document under its parent application.
