I have a group in DTPO that is a mix of imported and indexed items. The indexed items have their origins in disparate parts of the Mac filesystem.
I would like to export the group from DTPO to a folder in the Mac filesystem. Is there any way of doing this so that the indexed items become aliases in the exported folder? As far as I can make out, all the existing methods create a file on the exported folder for each indexed item, which are then duplicates of the files that were originally indexed into the DTPO Group. What I really want is for the imported/indexed mixed group in DTPO to become a file/alias mixed folder in Finder, so that I continue to have only single instances of the previously indexed files. Is this possible?
Apologies if this has been discussed before but I couldn’t find a reference in a search of the forum.
It’s not possible to export an alias of a document from DEVONthink. If you want to have only a single instance of indexed files in the filesystem, you’ll need to move them into the database, then move them back out to a common, indexed folder. That of course then means they will no longer be located in the original, “disparate parts of the Mac filesystem”.
Thanks Greg. I feared as much. Unfortunately the aliased files need to be where they are in the various parts of the filesystem, so that is not an option. Is the process scriptable in any way? DTPO knows where the indexed file resides in the filesystem, but as a script novice I don’t know if that information is accessible to Applescript.
Sure it is. The “path” property. And to make an alias, tell Finder to “make new alias” at to file . Just browse Google for details on making aliases with AppleScript.
I’m not sure why do all this work, though? You could just select the indexed item in DEVONthink, reveal in Finder, and option-command-drag it to the new folder to make an alias.
Thanks Korm. The reason for wanting to automate it is because there are a lot of mixed imported/indexed groups. I was wanting to export an entire database containing them. Having said that, as a script novice, it may well be quicker to work through every group than try to write a script! It seems like a script would be a useful addition to DTPO though - or perhaps I am the first person who has wanted to export a database while preserving indexed items as aliases.