Glaring feature gap? Copying a text clip from a doc with source link in 1 step

DEVONthink Scenarios
1

Use Case:

  1. Import documents and highlight sections of text that are important.
  2. Create a note in DT to begin assembling those sections of text as the start of an outline.
  3. Open document ‘A’ and copy highlighted text.
  4. Paste text into note that includes a link back to the document in DT.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all relevant reference documents have been “mined”.

Expected Result:
DT simply pastes the copied text and appends a link back to the document the text came from.

Result:
After much searching, reading, and watching of videos, I’m left to believe this can only be done by:

  1. A two-step copy/plaste process that is slow with multiple clicks.
  2. An AppleScript someone wrote that may or may not continue to work.

Summary:
I am a big fan of DT. However, the purpose of this is to act on the information we collect. Which is the stage I think it is not good at. Unless I have overlooked a feature capability.

Is there something I have missed here?

The usability of assembling different pieces of information into a draft note in a usable way is very cumbersome. And really requires a dual monitor setup to even begin to use it efficiently.

Proposal:
If I copy any text from one document, I should have the option (with keyboard shortcut) to include the source link in the same step. Without toggling back and forth to “haul” information in multiple trips back to my the note draft I’m working in.

1 Like
2

Welcome @cbzen

Please be more specific in your inquiries.

  • You import and highlight in what documents?
  • You create what kind of note you expect to paste into
3

Coincidentally I just discovered that Tools > Summarize Highlights does EXACTLY what I have in mind except… it creates a new note for that information. Which then has to be copied, and then the summary note has to be deleted. That is a lot of clicks, window jockeying on a laptop monitor, and slow.

I feel this would be much faster and less error-prone if a “Paste with Source Link” action was available.

But this forum is about user scenarios so I am definitely open to any efficient and reliable way to do this.

4

Looks like I can select multiple notes and Tools > Summarize Highlights will pull all highlight annotations into one note. That solves my user scenario I think. That works better than what my original proposal! Great stuff.

Although, I can still the need for a ‘Paste with Source Link’ action as well.

5

Glad to hear it :slight_smile:
Are you using the rich text, Markdown, or sheet option for the Summary?

6

Using the Rich Text for the Summary for now. May switch to Plain Text if I copy it into a separate writing tool like Drafts.

7

The next release will add a new command (Paste with Source Link) that might be useful for you too.

6 Likes