Difficulties in moving items

DEVONthink Tips
1

I am a long-time, somewhat “power user” of DEVONthink Pro Office. Yet I have a frequent and increasingly nagging problem I would like addressed. I don’t think there are any current solutions within the app, but if someone has a solution I would be pleasantly surprised and thrilled to hear it. Otherwise, I hope this can be addressed in a future update.

Let me try to explain…

I frequently file things from within my Inbox to other folders. I always know where I want the file to go first, so I try using the magic “See Also & Classify” button first. About 50% of the time the target folder I want is there and I hit it and done: awesome! :smiley: …BUT… the other 50% of the time it is not there and I need to then file the document manually, this is where the pain starts… :confused:

First, to set the stage, I have A LOT of folders and groups scattered over half a dozen databases that are usually all open. It is a deeply nested and organized system that works great for me, with replicants and the whole deal. I always have the file in the Inbox of the appropriate database when I am doing this. So, I have two options to move the file:

  1. Drag and drop
  2. Use the “Move To” contextual menu item

Option 1 can be challenging when I need to open it to Groups with long lists of Sub-groups that push the lists way off my visible screen and require lots of scrolling and precise dropping.

Option 2 is also challenging for the same reason, in that I have a long list of Groups and I also have to navigate it among all the currently open databases. It’s a great feature but when I have to go 4 levels deep and some of my groups have 100 or more subgroups it gets hard.

So, I desperately want some more options to help with moving files within DEVONthink. Some ideas:

  1. A Yoink-like shelf. DEVONthink could really use a shelf that can serve as a place to stash a document temporarily, exactly like the Mac app Yoink works with files in the Finder. In fact, DEVONtech has even recommended Yoink to users in the past as a great app, and it is, and I use it all the time. I just so desperately want the same feature within DEVONthink …or…

1A) Work with the developer of Yoink and make it so that Yoink itself can handle move and copy (and replicate) actions within DEVONthink. This would be amazing. :slight_smile:

  1. Allow a document to be selected and then allow some sort of search to occur that can act upon this document. This way an item could be selected and then “dragged and dropped” via a search. I see this as something like how Alfred or LaunchBar can act on items via multiple steps involving a search.

These are just 2 ideas that I hope the developers can look at.

Now, if there is some way to accomplish this that I am missing please let me know what I am overlooking. Thanks!

2

Thanks for the idea, that has potential, but I currently have all my databases set to “Exclude Groups from Tagging” because I want tags to be more intentional and not so numerous. I might give that a try on a test database though.

Even so, this is still a workaround and my feature requests stand.

3

I feel the same pain…

Another option is to add a Search function when clicking “move to”, so that we could much faster locate the target group by typing a few keywords.

4

We are working on some things in here that may be of interest. Stay tuned for good things to come in the upcoming year!

5

Great! I look forward to it. DT on the Mac is in need of some love. :slight_smile:

6

I don’t see anything in the new DT that addresses this concern of mine… am I missing it? Moving items still seems as laborious as before.

7

Use go->to group (ctrl-cmd-G) in the menu. The list can be detached (just drag it away from the menu after it is shown) and stay on screen. You can drop any items to any groups by expanding any/all groups u need to access frequently.

8

That’s great, but even better yet is the new “Move To” command (ctrl-cmd-M) which works similarly and will move the currently selected item to the found location. The Move To window can’t be dragged out like the Go To window, but that makes since, as it is part of an action step to be enacted on an item.

This is fantastic! It pretty much is “idea #2” in my original post. This will save me lots of time. Beautifully implemented…

…but one minor suggestion on it. When you arrow down into the window BEFORE a search is initiated you can’t burrow down into the databases with the arrow keys. It seems like a logical option if you want to navigate that way instead of searching. Maybe it adds confusion in actual use, if so, this is just fine.

Thanks, this is a fantastic little new feature! It should be promoted a bit as a new feature for DT3 :slight_smile: