This would be specially interesting for groups with “manual” sorting (“unsorted” option in the sort menu):
I’d like to see an option of a new view mode, which could be called “outline content” mode, which would be similar to the LIST view mode, but with an “arrow” toggle on each item that would allow their CONTENTS to be seen AND manipulated directly on the ITEMS and GROUPS outline.
This would only be possible, of course, for some kinds of items. Bookmarks, Web Archive and HTML Items wouldn’t be possible to be seen on that way. They would, instead, open their contents on a separate window, like it is today on list view mode.
Hard to implement? Maybe. But this would make Devonthink a more comprehensive information manager. As it is today, the “manual”/“unsorted” option in sort menu, offers little use - I mean, what’s the purpose on manually manuplating only the “titles” of data? The name of the items? If you want to manually manipulate items, you’d be better off manipulating its contents, as well.
I’m a bit confused – what’s “new” here? Three-pane view with a group sorted by “Kind” will give a clue on which items can by “manipulated”. (Does “manipulated”==“editable”, or something else?) Already, DEVONthink allows groups to be sorted on any of ~30 different factors (see the Sort menu), plus ascending or descending, and the contents of any group can be also sorted by ~30 factors – so we have now 1,800 combos for configuring Sort. Why is another one needed
Don’t get me wrong – there might be an interesting new invention here, but personally I don’t understand what’s “new” or even how it would appear to the user?
But I do not mean a new sorting method. I mean a new VIEW Mode. (command+1 to command+6 currently).
There are already infinite sorting possibilities, actually, since the “manual” sorting makes any order of items possible.
What I mean with my feature request, is to have a view mode where you can see and edit the content of items directly on the group listing. Let’s call it The “content-editable-on-group-listing” view mode.
This would be interesting for editing and viewing multiple items at the same time without breaking your chain of thought, what happens currently when you have to alternate windows (or alternate items on the split-view mode - cmd+4). You have to do some window management if you want to see two items at the same time.
Maybe also allow items that are in the same group to be indentaded onto one another, without having to resort to a group to do the job of creating hierarchy.
The idea is to have a view mode where Devonthink turns itself into an omnioutliner of sorts. Yes, a different animal. But why not? Devonthink is already so flexible.
This proposed “indentation” would be possible only on manual sorting, so we can say that my new view mode goes hand-in-hand with the already existing manual sorting feature.
But in some cases it could also be used separately. One could go to the “content-editable-on-group-listing” view mode, and apply a “rigid” sorting method to the current group. No indentation/hierarchy would be displayed in that case.
