Contextual Menu/Pref Option: Open Recent DB in New Window

DEVONthink Feedback
1

Two requests:

  1. There is now no way to directly open a Recent DB in a new window. Please add this as a Contextual Menu option and create a preference that double clicking a Recent DB “always” or “never” opens it in a New Window.

  2. When a single DB is open, let “Close” (preferentially) leave the main viewer window open.

These won’t solve the problems discussed in viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9138&p=42533&hilit=+new+window#p42533, but

Thanks,

Sampler

2

File > Open Recent does that here, in pb7. If you mean from the sidebar (you didn’t explicitly mention it), I’ve suggested something similar in:

create new window when opening/switching database

But this implies the sidebar:

I don’t think this needs a preference.

It’s counterintuitive to me that when a db name is clicked under RECENT DATABASES in the sidebar the only feedback is the selection changing while the current db content being displayed remains the same. Makes me wonder what RECENT DATABASE is doing in the sidebar.

Might make more sense if, for instance, a single-click opened the db in the current window and a double-click opened it in a new window. That db name would then appear, selected, under OPEN DATABASES.

What’ll appear, and how it’ll behave, under the sidebar context menu when opened over certain items is still not always clear to me.

For now, the main menu File > Close Database serves that purpose. In general, I don’t think sidebar actions need preferences.

3

Not here, it doesn’t (DTPO pb7, OS X 10.5.8, PB G4).

Great! I was sure that it had been suggested, but couldn’t find your post.

For the rest, I don’t disagree strongly with you. I find myself using the sidebar a lot, and so I’d like more control, via preferences, over its behavior. I appreciate your posts about these topics. Thanks.

-Sampler

4

This time I won’t dare speculate why not. :wink:

It’s been working consistently well for me. But since pb7 I have to be more cautious closing databases/windows to avoid accidentally changing default window attributes that’ll be used the next time dbs open with new windows. More details about that later in a more related thread.

There’s no harm requesting preferences, but it’s worth knowing DTech has said they generally disfavor adding them.

Seems the sidebar is still a work-in-progress , which is a better time for suggestions and feedback about it than if it were more finalized.

Thanks.

5

I wrote:

and sjk replied that you could do it via the File… Open Recent command. I said “not here”.

But sjk was right and I was wrong. A new window is opened, but it exactly overlays the previous one, so that the new DB name appears where the previous DB name appeared. The result: I saw only “one” window.

I’ll submit this as a request in the Suggestions forum: to position the new window so that it only partly overlaps, not coincides with, the original one.

-sampler

6

Where it opens seems to partly depend on how/where the database was last closed.

7

Thanks. It is not easy to predict which windows will open, where they will appear, and what DBs will appear in them, whether I open from the Recent menu or by clicking in the sidebar. I look forward to seeing the results of your investigations.

sampler

8

I agree there’s still at least too much apparent unpredictability, though Christian said:

File > Open Database… and File > New Window > … open always new windows whereas the sidebar (e.g. double-clicking on favorites or recent databases or using the contextual menu) does never open new windows.

To which I questioned:

Maybe you meant File > Open Recent > … always uses a new window (or is intended to)?

… and that’s been how it works for me with pb7.

Summarizing:

• The most consistent way to open a database that uses a new window is with the File menu commands.
• The most consistent way to open a database that reuses the current window is with sidebar actions.

What changed (for me) between pb6 and pb7 is where a new window opens in the former case; it’s now more dependent on which window the database was last viewed in before it was closed. The trouble (for me) with that it’s now more easily likely to cause the behavior you mentioned earlier:

A new window is opened, but it exactly overlays the previous one, so that the new DB name appears where the previous DB name appeared.

The most consistent way I’ve found to avoid that is to always close a database from a window where you want it to reopen next using a new window. If you reopen that database from the sidebar it’ll reuse the current window and retain that window’s size/location if it’s closed and reopened in a new window again (causing windows to open on top of each other).

Or so I thought. If a db it opened from the sidebar, followed by running File > New Window > , the new window will (to my surprise) use a previously retained size/location. Keep invoking New Window with that db and it’ll eventually start creating overlapping windows, like you suggested:

position the new window so that it only partly overlaps

I’ll go nuts trying to analyze behavior of other db/window opening/closing permutations right now. If it’s deterministic then I wish DTech would explain it. I think a lot of it might be clearer if this question can be answered:

• When a db is opened in a new window, or a new window for a currently open db is created, what determines the size/location of the new window?

I’ve determined that sometimes a previous size/location is reused and sometimes it’s not, but not exactly which it’ll be under which conditions.

Thanks, though your patience might be tested trying to comprehend what I’ve just described. :wink: