I want to put my documents into a group structure with many replicant instances (for now, let’s not debate whether this is good practice). For example, for my research, I want to replicate a single document into several categories: (1) the relevant project (2) the topic(s) covered (3) technique(s) described in the paper, (4) special tags such as “good intro for my students”, “follow up” etc. In short, typically I have to replicate a file coming from the inbox into a handful of categories, sometimes more. Here is my problem: I have to do this by
(1) cmd-opt dragging the file over and over again into the suitable groups/tags on the left side of the DB window or the Groups & Tag window.
(2) repeatedly using the contextual menu “replicate to” and following the hierarchical menu to my destination.
Both methods are not satisfying if you have several replications to make per file.
I have been trying to come up with better ways of assigning groups/tags. Here is what I think would work well, at least for me: Select an item, then launch a contextual menu item “assign replicants”, which would bring up a window that contains the whole group/tag structure. Each group/tag has a checkbox next to it. I can then go one by one through the list and check all the groups/tags that apply. I can make corrections, and I don’t have to hold cmd-opt all the time. When I am finished, I will press an “assign” button, the window will vanish, and all replicants have been assigned.
Do you also think that this would be the best technique for making multiple replicants for a single item? Or do you have better suggestions? Something that already is implemented?
Something like the checkbox approach might not find its way into the main DTPO, but would it potentially be doable in AppleScript? Not at my current proficiency, though.
Feedback would be welcome.
P.S.: There are standalone programs, e.g. “Keyword Sidekick” that put a list of keywords onto the clipboard after selecting them from a list. One could re-create the DTPO group structure in KS and then copy the list into the tag window in the DTPO inspector, but that’s not very elegant.