DT does external file links!

DEVONthink Tips
1

External file references can be placed in DEVONthink using path URLs. I use Path Finder (a Finder replacement and supplement utility) to select the desired file and (from the Path Finder Edit menu) copy the path URL. The URL is then pasted into a DEVONthink content from the Clipboard.

It works! With ICeCoffEE installed, this tip not only works within DEVONthink text content, but also within text in NoteBook, TextEdit, OmniOutliner, Okito Composer (Nisus X?), PocketNotes and probably other applications (but not Mellell). The trick even works with Microsoft Word X and Entourage X. Of course, the specified file must exist on your local computer or your network.

This means that if I reference external files in DEVONthink content, I can move that text to any of several other applications I use, with the links intact and working.

Source of this tip: Jayson Adams, the programmer of NoteBook. Jayson came up with the idea last Saturday, in response to a suggestion about NoteBook.

Here’s what such a path URL looks like:
[file://localhost/Users/billdevi/Documen … PDAs.cre8/](file://localhost/Users/billdevi/Documents/Create%20Tests%20July%2002%20f/Ethics%20PDAs.cre8/)
Note that spaces in the path name are replaced with ‘%20’ as a filler. This is a Stone Design Create document. The path URL trick works with every application type I’ve tested, including PDF, Word, RTF, JPEG, etc.

How to get the path URL for a file? If you use Path Finder, you’re home free, as noted above. If not, I haven’t found a freeware utility that does this directly. The closest I’ve come is CopyPath 1.0.3 at VersionTracker OS X versiontracker.com/moreinfo. … amp;db=mac
This provides a contextual menu plugin that copies a file’s path from the finder. Unfortunately, you’ll have to go to a text processor and do the following edits: [1] remove the quotation marks; [2] type or paste “file://localhost” (without quotes) at the beginning of the text string; [3] find and replace any spaces in the text string with “%20” (without quotes). The path URL will now be a clickable link (if you’ve installed ICeCoffEE).

Christian, how about a little app or script to pull path URLs from the Finder?

Where do you find ICeCoffEE? See the link at
devon-technologies.com/download.html

Regards,
Bill DeVille
;D

2

Yes Bill,

As mentioned three weeks ago in an answer to the topic, ‘How do you use DevonThink??’, ICeCoffEE does provide a way to link to external files. In addition AmCopyPathCMX provides a contextual menu to get the URL-path of a file. Find it at: vector.jp/soft/dl/mac/util/se263564.html

Hopefully DEVONthink-SE will be released soon and this workaround will not be necessary any longer! What is your use of NoteBook that cannot be done in DEVONthink? I had a look at their webpage but do not see the need for this software beside DEVONthink.

Kindly,

Rudi

3

Rudi:

Thanks for the URL for the AmCopyPathCMX.plugin Contextual Menu plugin. It does the job perfectly, and it is free (even though i can’t read the ReadMe file).

I’ve been using ICeCoffEE for a long time, and had seen your post on this forum. I tried the browser trick, but many of the file types I wanted to reference were dimmed out in the Open window, so that didn’t work for me.

Dragging and dropping external files into DEVONthink content from the Finder actually incorporates the external file into the database, rather than establishing a link. That wasn’t what I wanted.

Frustration! I knew that it was possible to do what I wanted – establish textual hyperlinks to external files – but I couldn’t find a simple how-to set of procedures with the necessary tools to set up the links in DEVONthink. I’m on a mailing list where a substantial number of people using DEVONthink were equally frustrated with the problem of external file links.

Path URLs work for every file type I’ve tried yet, are recognized in most of the OS X Cocoa applications I’ve tried, and are recognized by MS Word and Entourage, as well. That means external file links in DT content can be transported to other applications and remain clickable links, with the caveats that ICeCoffEE is generally required and that the file must be in the specified path on the local computer or network. That works for me.

Why do I use NoteBook? It makes a good ‘front end’ to DEVONthink. NoteBook is a Cocoa outliner and can export outlines as XML – so that an outline can be transferred over (via OmniOutliner) as a Word outline document. Every word, number, URL, keyword and attachment is indexed. Every entry is indexed by creation date or edit date. That makes it a good tool for my daily journal and project notes, and for laying out/drafting articles.

DEVONthink is my big reference database for storing, classifying, relating and retrieving information. It holds over a thousand articles, papers and books and continues to grow rapidly. My major interests are environmental policy, environmental science and technology, and international information exchanges. Those interests span many disciplines, from pollution control engineering to conservation ecology, energy, sampling and analysis procedures, regulatory analysis, risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis, statistical techniques, biosciences, economics and finance, and so on.

DEVONthink’s abilities, not only to quickly find information but to suggest related information, continue to amaze me. That’s particularly important for my cross-disciplinary interests.

Thanks to the magic of Mac OS X Services, I can initiate DEVONthink searches from within NoteBook, send selected excerpts (text, bibliographic information, whatever) of DEVONthink content to NoteBook, and organize my notes and drafts in NoteBook. When I finish a project in NoteBook I can, if I wish, select it and press Shift-Command-), whereupon it becomes more grist for my DEVONthink mill.

That’s synergy.

;D

4

Bill,

Thanks for the info on NoteBook. Maybe I will give it a second look but not before I can get my hands on the Standard Edition of DEVONthink. I would not like to shuffle my data between too many applications if not necessary. It will be interesting to see how DEVONthink integrates outliner features and the export of such outlines. The improved AppleScript capabilities will be another reason to switch to the Standard Edition as soon as it becomes available. The Services of MacOS X are a very useful feature but still a bit troublesome, let’s hope for 10.3.

Kindly,

Rudi

5

Rudi:

I’m eagerly anticipating both Standard Edition and DEVONagent. As to the latter, I spend hours every day scanning a mix of science journals, news sites and governmental sites (U.S. and foreign)  for topics of interest, and adding new items to DEVONthink. I hope DEVONagent will help reduce the drudgery of daily Web scans.

Addition of outlining capabilities and some improved text formatting features to DEVONthink would enhance the application for many people – including me. Such features can help DEVONthink grow its market. With multiple databases becoming a reality in DEVONthink SE, something like a NoteBook model could help tie them together.

NoteBook and NoteTaker are both based on the original NeXT NoteBook application written by Jayson Adams. They illustrate some of the potentials of Mac OS X Cocoa applications and can serve as models for some of the new features developing in DEVONthink. OS X Services let me "add" outlining capabilities to DEVONthink now, using NoteBook.

DEVONthink has much more powerful data management, storage and retrieval capabilities than NoteBook or NoteTaker. I think that will ultimately be recognized in the marketplace. Obviously, the DEVONtechnologies team recognizes this, with its plans for Personal Edition, Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition versions.

Of course, there are many more things I’ve got to plan for. I’m writing articles that draw upon my DEVONthink information resources and that will be published on the Web. I’ve got a growing wish list of items that could make it easier and simpler to get to final product.

Regards,
Bill DeVille ;D

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Bill,

As you mentioned it already, DEVONthink is a database and it should stick to this main purpose. The program should be improved to allow:

  • links between database contents and external files
  • internal links between database documents (including graphics)

it should be possible to display these links in a treelike structure (MacSoup)

What I would like to see is a little cli tool that allows me to get stdout directly into DEVONthink (similar to the bbedit tool) for a better integration of the unix side of MacOS X.

Formatting of rtf text documents is sufficient for my needs. DEVONthink allows to show a ruler to adjust formatting, it is easy to change fonts and their styles. If formatting has to be done across several documents it should become possible through AppleScript in the Standard Edition. Let’s not forget the services which allow additional manipulation of text. Search/replace and check spelling is possible. Everything beyond this should be done in a word processor. If this can be automated via AppleScript even better:

Select one or more documents (by whatever means), have them opened in your word processor, apply whatever formatting you need (automated if possible), get them back into DEVONthink replacing the old versions.

The same holds true for graphics, html etc., automated export, manipulation in a suitable editor, and import back to DEVONthink.

As for the outline features of DEVONthink, let’s wait and see what they will look like.

Is their any limit on the size of NoteBook & NoteTaker databases, do they keep a lot of the database in memory like DEVONthink? This is actually one disadvantage of DEVONthink, if you have a large database the program will use a lot of your RAM. Are these programs scriptable?

Kindly,

Rudi

7

Rudi:

Neither NoteBook nor NoteTaker emphasizes scripting at this time. I suspect that the underlying capabilities exist and may or may not be emphasized in future versions.

OmniOutliner is an example of an OS X outliner that is highly scriptable, with a user community that swaps scripts freely. Like NoteBook and NoteTaker, OmniOutliner can do XML. If you want to do heavy-duty scripting between an outliner and DEVONthink SE, you might take a look at OmniOutliner. As I mentioned previously, there’s a routine that converts an OmniOutliner file into a Word outline file. Personally, I did some heavy duty programming years ago, and I’ve gotten lazy. I prefer finding things that do pretty much what I want at the outset.

I first encountered NoteBook some years ago in its original incarnation on a NeXT computer in a research lab, where it was being used as a lab notebook. Each item is date-stamped as it is entered, and changes are also date-stamped. The price of NoteBook was $495.

I’ve done bench science in the past, keeping lab notebooks of daily observations in the lab. Meticulous record-keeping is important, but it’s also drudgery. And finding stuff means a lot of page-flipping. I was impressed by the computerized version.

Lab notebooks aren’t very big. People use separate notebooks for different projects, fill them up, and then start a new continuation volume. There’s an interesting Web site that has scanned images of Linus Pauling’s notebooks – a great number of them.

I don’t know the ultimate workable size of a NoteBook file, although I suspect that a single file could easily hold a year or more of my daily journal or project notes. Because everything is indexed, search speed would remain quick – although the index files would grow. My guess is that RAM is used a good deal for the files.

But the model on which the program is designed assumes one would probably want multiple notebook files. That’s the way I’m used to working, so I’ll use NoteBook that way. As NoteBooks are finished, they can be exported via RTF or RTFD into DEVONthink.

Just looked at RAM use for my DEVONthink database. With 15 windows open at the moment, DT is using about 128.5 MB RAM, and I’m using 1006 MB total RAM – with lots of programs open. I’m still not getting paging, but may need to close some windows or apps if  paging starts – my TiBook is maxed out at 1 GB RAM.

Downloaded Nisus Writer Express OS X beta last night. It’s not yet a fully serviceable Cocoa word processor – doesn’t do tables yet. But OS X Services work. It was fun to select several noncontiguous words and initiate a DEVONthink search for multiple words via Services.

Regards,
Bill DeVille

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[quote]
Rudi:

OmniOutliner is an example of an OS X outliner that is highly scriptable, with a user community that swaps scripts freely. Like NoteBook and NoteTaker, OmniOutliner can do XML. If you want to do heavy-duty scripting between an outliner and DEVONthink SE, you might take a look at OmniOutliner.

I first encountered NoteBook some years ago

I’ve done bench science in the past, keeping lab notebooks of daily observations in the lab. Meticulous record-keeping is important, but it’s also drudgery. And finding stuff means a lot of page-flipping.

But the model on which the program is designed assumes one would probably want multiple notebook files. That’s the way I’m used to working, so I’ll use NoteBook that way. As NoteBooks are finished, they can be exported via RTF or RTFD into DEVONthink.

Downloaded Nisus Writer Express OS X beta last night. It’s not yet a fully serviceable Cocoa word processor – doesn’t do tables yet. But OS X Services work. It was fun to select several noncontiguous words and initiate a DEVONthink search for multiple words via Services.

Hello Bill
thanks for that posting. It was very helpfull. I m cheking this tools at the moment. At a fist look I was impressed with the NoteBook, Notetaker metapher, especially by the automatic indexing. But finally I found these tools  confusing. And - as you explained with other words - you buy a lot of work with that… Until now I do all organisation of files with Notepad Deluxe. But it s not a Cocoa App - hence no services. So I m looking for a tool which can do a "service-like job" with a key stroke like Macrotool f.e. Keyboard Manager, KeyXing HotApp or iKey, Quickeys etc… Because some short keys do not work well with services.

I found out: the key point for me is to put the info, you see anywhere, right to the place where it should be and where you can fint it later on eaysily. If you do not so, all these important infos are nearly useless or cause a lot of work to find them. I hope DT can help me to do that.

I will now have closer look at Omni Outliner (OO) . First I thougt I should wait until OO reaches the level of Omni Graffle 3.0 .

Tried to check Nisus too, but it was down…
Did you ever check Mellel?
Do you think OO can be a kind of Outliner UI to DT…?

I have a lot of different documents to organise and still looking for the best way to do that…

wolfgang

ps to myself: I have further developed Tony Buzans paper notation method Mindmaps to a brainfriendly multimedia self learning tool - called Trainingsmaps©.
Its a kind of interactiv GUI wich can be adapted to any theme. Because of its way to use both parts of the brain from  and the integration of a speed reading technology in the Map- and outliner structure, it can help the learner save up to the half of learning time compared to "other" methods. And all that with fun, based on a simple oneclick GUI.

9

You can have services in Carbon also, in fact I email the author about Notepad Deluxe about some other stuff and he said that they now could implement services (the carbon API has changed so it allows it) it just needs some work to do it.

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Bill,

Just curious as to why you chose NoteBook over NoteTaker?

Adrian

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Thanks for that info, ill watch that. But if I understand you right, than this means: its up to the developer to implement services to a carbon app . So if the developer doesnt do it… no way…?
I need this to a lot of different apps, thats why I m thinking in a macro tool.
wolfgang

12

Adrian:

You asked why I chose NoteBook over NoteTaker – sorry I didn’t answer sooner.

Both programs are based on the source code of NoteBook written for NeXT by Jayson Adams. They are, therefore, quite similar in many respects. In fact, it is easy to transfer files between the programs using OPML export/import.

Both programs are excellent. Both make good use of Mac OS X Services.

But NoteBook for Mac OS X was written by Jayson Adams and, in my experience, is more polished and stable than NoteTaker. NoteBook screens (text and background) look better and are more readable than NoteTaker screens. NoteBook’s Super-Find and indexes are much better than comparable features in NoteTaker. However, NoteTaker’s ability to do searches across multiple notebooks may appeal to those who like to have multiple notebooks for different purposes.

NoteTaker recently released version 1.6. One of the features that caught my eye is the ability to export notebooks to the Web. That could be very useful. I’ve been playing with this feature but find it somewhat flaky and still needing development. Maybe in the next version?

Regards,
Bill DeVille

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Update on NoteTaker:

Version 1.5.1 was released as a maintenance release yesterday and seems to have fixed the problems I had with creation of Web pages from notebooks. NoteTaker worked well for me last night and I can recommend it for quick development of structured Web pages.

I still prefer NoteBook for daily journal notes, but will soon put up some Web pages using NoteTaker. Here’s one of my tests, using a sample NoteTaker file:
<http://homepage.mac.com/wbdeville/NoteTaker/Second_Test/Third%20Web%20Test/MyCollegeNotebook.ntweb/>