This is probably a stupid question, but I can’t find an answer. I often create empty groups, and then want to populate them. Where a group already has items in it, then a newly created item (if the group is highlighted) is placed in the group. But if the group so far has nothing in it, then a newly created item is created as a sibling to the group, and not a child. In a long list, this is really quite inconvenient because the new item may be out of view, and I have to scroll to find it so as then to place it in the (previously empty) group.
I can get round this issue by creating the item (eg a rich text note) first, and then using the Group Items command. However, usually I forget this workaround, and end up cursing myself.
Am I missing some obvious preference option, hidden option, or other way to resolve this behaviour?
I can confirm that behaviour; I assume you are list view; here, when you highlight your empty group, that group is not opened by the act of highlighting, and as such the new item is not created within the group. As soon as the group contains at least one item and that item is revealed in list view, the behaviour when adding a new item to the highlighted group is as expected.
Two options: select the group from the sidebar, at which point the empty group is displayed in the list view; adding a new item from here does put it in the group. Equally, double-clicking the group from the list view will open it up in the list view, again showing you an empty list into which you can place new items.
The location (child vs. sibling) depends on the expansion of the group in list views. That’s a compromise as some users prefer children, others siblings and we didn’t want to add even more preferences.
Thanks for the feedback. I actually don’t expand the sidebar because I usually have at least 15 databases in place and prefer to work the “old” way, and in list view. If I double click a group, it creates even more work! My little vote would be to have populated and unpopulated groups behave the same way, or at least to have an option for this behaviour. But it is a small thing!
Not knowing your workflow, this may be equally useless: if double-clicking the group creates more work because it takes you away from your current workspace, an alternative would be the preference “Double-click opens groups in a new window”; using that would allow you to go back to where you were seamlessly by simply closing the new window.
I guess what you want could only be achieved by having the option to reveal empty groups (i.e. have the > symbol next to empty groups as well as non-empty groups); that may well seem inconsistent to others.
