I have a question and haven’t been able to find an answer through the tutorial or searching. Perhaps because this is something too obscure. What I’m wondering is whether there is a way to have a floating document that is available in other applications. For example, with Hog Bay Notebook, I can designate the db to become a ‘floating window’ that stays in the front of other windows. I would love to be able to do this with an individual file in DT, where I can open it as a separate document and have it accompany me when I explore other files in other applications.
For instance, I am working from an old paper of mine and I’m copying and pasting particularly useful sentences from the paper (a Word doc) to a DT Pro file. I need to work in Word (or other word processor), since there are footnotes that won’t transport into DT Pro.
What I am wanting to do is make the DT Pro file ‘float’ so I don’t lose it when I go back and forth amongst many programs and files. This would be quite lovely if I could do something like this.
Any suggestions? I realize I can have my DT file window side-by-side with the file I’m working on, but as soon as I move to another program, I lose it.
Does this make sense? No telling, as it’s late in the day and my brain is weary.
Alexandria
PS I noticed today that I have become a god. Now how often does that happen!
Now if I were truly godlike, I could make any window I want float without having to trouble other users with pesky questions!
Congratulations on your god-like status, such as it is (I’m one, too, but I still have to pay for a cup of coffee).
Oops! Just noticed. I’m not a god anymore. Now I’m a “Global Moderator”, whatever that is. I still have to pay for coffee, though.
You may be able to do at least some of what you wish by minimizing a DT Pro document page to the Dock. Move to a different application. Make the DT Pro document float over by clicking it in the Dock. If the windows are properly placed so that you can see what you are doing, you can drag & drop a selection from one window to the other.
Many thanks. Hadn’t thought of minimizing. That would keep it from getting ‘lost.’ I do have the Dt and other file windows side by side so I can move things back and forth. But I often have several such files, so, well, you get the idea.
But this could be a help. Many thanks for the suggestion, as always.
Now that I’m a god, I should have thought of this. I mean, aren’t gods supposed to be all knowing? Or maybe that is just global moderators!
You two have nothing on me. My ignorance is all-encompassing!
BTW, I paid for the cup of coffee I’m currently drinking but wondering how long I’ll be able to afford another cup. They’re expecting the prices to go up by something like 50%. Evidently a lot of the facilities for storing/roasting/etc. were in the New Orleans area.
You may be able to do at least some of what you wish by minimizing a DT Pro document page to the Dock.
Hi there,
I do minimizing thing a lot, only I have taken a different approach. I use Windowshade X which has many options one of which is minimize in place. Instead of the minimized window going to the dock, I have minimized windows arranged left to right along the bottom of my iBook screen. They are easy to see and a click expands them. I have found this (haxie…Oh no!) to be very stable and have nevere encountered a problem. This sounds to me to be an ideal solution for your requirements.
the haxies are seducing, I used some in the beginning of my first Mac OS X days. But DT does not like haxies. So if DT starts behaving weird, that may be due to these haxies. However, if there are people who never encountered misbehaviour with certain haxies, could you tell us about the particular one?
if there are people who never encountered misbehaviour with certain haxies, could you tell us about the particular one?
Hi Again,
Actually I use all the Haxies from unsanity and have only encountered one problem with one application (iClip) which is being addressed. If there is any odd behaviour one can put the application in the haxie exclude list which generally corrects the issue. I have never experienced any problems with DTP and haxies.
What problems are you having with iClip. I’ve noticed a few issues with the new beta, but nothing that interferes with the system. I didn’t know iClip was a haxie.
Thanks for your reply. iClip isn’t a haxie. It’s probably the way I wrote the post that would lead you to your conclusion. iClip has a visual glitch when used with Shapeshifter. It’s Menu Bar icon is not rendered correctly. Other than that it works okay. We are way off the post subject…Hope we don’t get into trouble.
Well, since it was my post to start with, they’d better not yell at me.
I didn’t think iClip was a haxie, but I am no expert on such things, so I wasn’t sure. Thanks for clearing that up. I haven’t had a problems with the latest version of iClip now that you can get the bins out of the way. I didn’t like the last version which made the iClip dock act like Apple’s Dock. I really prefered it when I could move the bin dock where I wanted to. I’m looking forward to the time when we can navigate bins via the menu icon. It can get hard to find things when the bins get filled up!
Incoming freight and storing. A lot of roasting happens where Bill is: you can smell the Community Coffee plant in West Baton Rouge for miles on I-10. Sometimes, that’s not a good thing.
I like to have a DT window opened in a corner of my screen, when working with TeXshop, just to keep useful data within reach. The problem is that I’m not able to make the DT window small enough, so that it does not overlap too much the TeXshop windows. Minimizing may be a solution, but making DT windows smaller could avoid coming and going to the dock all the time.
More generally, a small floating (thanks to WindowShade) DT window might be kept open, providing a drag and drop area to take or to read notes.
The groups panel (see Tools > Show Groups) is already able to float above other windows, see Preferences > General > Interface. Therefore it’s possible to use this panel as a drag & drop destination and to take new notes that way.
Right, but the group panel shows only groups; I can’t access to data inside the DT database this way. My problem is mainly redimensionning DT windows. My screen is not that large, and TeXshop opens at least 2 windows. Thanks, anyway, for the reply.
Yes, but where do I create the notes? That’s the crux of my original post. It was about having a floating file window that I could have available when switching between other programs so I can collect information and make notes as needed. As I mentioned, Hog Bay Notebook does this. I create a new rtf file, open it as a separate window, size it, make it floating, and go on my way. It’s great. I can surf the net, read Word files, eBooks, copy stuff to and from my Mellel project, whatever—hop around from program to program, go wherever, and the floating window is always there to help me collect material for what I’m working on and store it for me as needed. Then, if needed, I copy the contents of the HBN file into a DT file when I’m done for storage.
If it is possible to make the groups panel floating, would it be possible to have the option of opening a file as a separate window, as we can now do, and make that floating? That’s the only step that is missing. Using HBN as an intermediary works fine and it’s no biggie. It would just be nice.
WindowShade does half of the job, by making floating whichever window you want. But it is not possible to resize windows in DT as much as in HBN, for example. For me, this is also an important point. Using an intermediate notebook is OK for creating documents, as you explain. But still, no possibility to access the DT database in this way.
