I’ve been using the Global Inbox as a holding place for anything that I want to go into DT. This works great as I just drag files into it on my doc. How ever once it’s in there it feels quite cumbersome to move it to the relevant database.
Does anybody have any tricks or short cuts to get DT to do the heavy lifting for you?
I use the Global Inbox only for things that I must to read soon - most of which I will probably discard after I’ve read it. If it’s stuff I might (but not “must”) read soon, I use Instapaper.
Contrary to most advice, I rarely use the Global Inbox as a collection point from which I later disperse documents into other databases & groups. My default setting in Preferences > Import > Destination is Select Group - so when I print PDFs to DEVONthink, etc., then the group selector pops open and assign the document directly into the database and group where I want it to live. I also have my own version of DEVONthink’s Inbox folder - my version has a folder action attached that opens the group selector. I did this because DEVONthink doesn’t respect the Import setting mentioned above when it comes to the Global Inbox.
From a workflow perspective, if I don’t manually classify documents when I collect them, then things like the Global Inbox become graveyards of deferred work, which never gets done. I rely on manual classification and my own understanding my data to select destinations - the DEVONthink AI is interesting but imperfect, IMO, because Classify rarely suggests useful destinations, and Auto Classify always seems like Wile E. Coyote being tricked into racing off the cliff in an old Roadrunner cartoon.
This is not to say these tools cannot be immensely useful for some users – the literature and this forum are full of contrary opinions from wise folks (esp. Bill DeVille) whose experience seems solid and worth examining. Over here, though, my databases are either for my day job (organized by clients, tasks, and actions) or my research efforts. When I’m working for money or researching for pleasure, I know what my focus is at the time - so I know already how and where to group the data - and taking two seconds to organize data as I collect it has proven more useful than putting into the Global Inbox and then parsing it out in the future. YMMV.
korm, is that folder action supplied with DT? (I’m ashamed to say that I’m an Applescripting ignoramus.)
[As an aside, I agree with whoever wrote that a set of Hazel-like rules to help automate imports would be a valuable addition to DT. Probably a big development ask, and an even bigger support burden, but still potentially very useful.]
It might be, but I wrote my own.
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
try
if (count of added_items) is greater than 0 then
tell application id "com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2" to launch
tell application id "com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2"
set theGroup to display group selector "Select the destination group"
repeat with theItem in added_items
try
set thePath to theItem as text
if thePath does not end with ".download:" then
import thePath to theGroup
end if
end try
end repeat
end tell
end if
end try
end adding folder items to
Sh/could be modified to also look for .crdownload for Chrome users.
Thank you!
H
Thank you very much Korm!
It was not deleting the file for me so I added the missing part.
-- DEVONthink - Import & Delete.applescript
-- Created by Christian Grunenberg on Fri Mar 26 2010.
-- Copyright (c) 2010-2012. All rights reserved.
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
try
if (count of added_items) is greater than 0 then
tell application id "com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2" to launch
tell application id "com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2"
set theGroup to display group selector "Select the destination group"
repeat with theItem in added_items
try
set thePath to theItem as text
if thePath does not end with ".download:" and thePath does not end with ".crdownload:" then
tell application id "com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2"
set theRecord to import thePath to theGroup
if exists theRecord then tell application "Finder" to delete theItem
end tell
end if
end try
end repeat
end tell
end if
end try
end adding folder items to
I’m just getting started with applescript and this was a great lesson.
Thanks again!
Sincerely,
Just updated my DTP setup a bit, and included the features in this post. @korm created a brilliant little script, and @devananda was a welcome update since it ensures that the folder is properly deleting files.
I sure hope DTP includes something like this for future additions! In my view, it’s much needed…
By the way, is anyone still using “Default Folder X” when saving files to DTP (or similar apps)? If so, why? Namely, how does it help your process?
Thanks!
I’ve used Default Folder X since it first came out, and every three months I think “why am I using this” – then I turn it off and a few months later I turn it back on because, well, I own it so maybe it will be useful. It is rarely useful. Someday I’ll just uninstall it.
Hmmm… Not exactly a ringing endorsement! Well, if you made the case for using it in some meaningful way I might consider it… Anyway, thank you for your response. Appreciate it.
I find Default Folder X very useful for saving to the OS filesystem through its Favourites icon - it is much faster to work through a hierarchy of sub-folders that way than using Finder Favourites. It’s also convenient for adding Spotlight Comments and I occasionally save in a different format using its options. Perhaps not a compelling case for buying it, but as Korm says, once you have it …
Ok, great. Thanks. Could one use Default Folder X for going through DTP’s hierarchy of sub-folders (or groups and subgroups)?
Thanks!
No, unfortunately, only Inbox is accessible through Default Folder X. My workflow for saving a file to DTP’s hierarchy (for example a file currently being viewed in Preview) is to drag the mini icon on the title bar (of Preview in this example) onto the DTP icon in the dock. This opens up the hierarchy, which you have to click through to get to the one you want. An alternative, if you have DTP’s Groups & Tags window open, is to drag the mini icon onto that - this reveals sub-folders as you mouse over parent folders with the dragged icon, so can be quicker.
DFX Favorites can be useful in Save As dialogs when you have indexed those Favorite destination folders into DEVONthink.
There seems to be a bit of overlap here between this thread on this post, and this one: [url]Any new, improved Phone Note scripts or templates?] But it seems that the original query is contained to this post, so to that end…
I’ve been using the script that was created by @korm and then revised by @devananda (the main change being that it automatically deleted files from the folder). It’s a brilliant script, and I really wish DTP would appropriate these functions in future editions. Anyway, I’ve not been making additional changes to the way in which I tag-and-replicate files that I store in DTP – and therein specific groups/subgroups (per @korm’s advice). I confess I haven’t fully implemented this yet, since this it’s a very new process and modality for me! Anyway, it seems like a way to more easily, and quickly, store and replicate files.
So…even though this might be a bridge too far (and if it is, please say so), I’m wondering if there’s a way to add another feature to the folder script: namely, one that would allow users to also add tags to files that are being saved/stored in DTP (in the way that DPT’s browser clippings functions). In that way, it seems that the folder function will allow users to kill two birds w/ one stone, right?
I have not expectations about this – just tossing this idea out there… Really look forward to hearing your thoughts about this… Thanks!
For my use, I have written a folder action script that does this bit of prompting for tags (I don’t post scripts here anymore so won’t be adding this to the reply).
In practice, I found it an annoying add-on for two or three reasons. I frequently put more than one item into a folder and a “tag me” dialog opening for each one is too much of an interruption. Also, OS X does not always process folder actions rapidly and when a dialog is involved in the action OS X frequently gets “confused” and forgets to pop open the dialog. Finally, this bit of adding tags is better handled by DFX – or, better yet, natively in Yosemite’s Save As dialog at the time the file is saved in the folder-action folder than after the file is saved.
Gotcha. So…if I understand this correctly, DFX cannot be used to save files in DTP’s hierarchy of sub-folders (or groups and subgroups), but can be used to apply tags to files (as one is saving them to DTP) – and those DFX-applied tags are transferrable to DTP. Is that correct…?
If so, why then is it preferable to use Yosemite’s Save As dialog to apply tags rather than DFX (given some of the shortcuts you mentioned for DFX)? Thanks…again!
The former is free. The latter isn’t.
I’ve been implementing many of the suggestions outlined in this thread, and it has been very helpful. So, thank you all for your input. In so doing, I just remembered the one part of this process that tripped me w/ the trigger script. Again, it’s a wonderful script, esp. the latest iteration. But I forgot that one cannot save to a file that has been created outside of DTP, and then stored in DTP’s groups through this method – that is, until one closes the file, nagivates to its newly-stored location in DTP, and then opens it from there (in the case of a Word file, one typically opens such a file externally – at least in my case).
Is there an recommended alternative to this? Or a fix to this problem? Or even a script that can provide a solution?
Many thanks…
The script above is not a “trigger script” - it is a folder action script. There’s a difference. Doesn’t matter what it is, but there’s a difference.
Let’s say you create a Word file and save it to a filesystem folder that has the folder action script attached. (Using Word just as an example – the following applies to anything created outside of DEVONthink.) The folder action activates, asks you where to stuff the file in DEVONthink, and then does so. But, you want to continue editing that file. It’s no longer where Word thinks it is.[^1}
Don’t be looking for a new script to address this[^2] – there are much simpler approaches.
[size=85][^1] There are a few Mac apps that have sufficient situational awareness to know when a file that is open in the app has moved somewhere else in the filesystem. Unfortunately this is the exception, not the rule, and one cannot rely on developers to do things this way.[/size]
[size=85][^2]Here’s the thing – a script that tells an app “that file you’re editing? it’s moved. here’s the new address” will not be possible because most applications will ignore the message – and for reliability and the sake of your data, you don’t want an app to be receiving external commands like this.[/size]
Thank you very much for this…I apprecaite it. Yeah, I figured it was a bit of a reach to put something like that together, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. It definitely requires a different work approach; in a way, I have to think in reverse – opening a file from within DTP to create a file in Word (or perhaps in Ulysses, if I can get a better sense of how it best serves my interests). Plus, I don’t necessarily have DTP open all the time. I hadn’t thought of the Index option you mentioned in #2. (I don’t use Index often, just for media files, so I’d have to think through how best to set something like that up.)
Let me ask you this… Is there some kind of shortcut for option #3? – Anything that could just expidiate the process? I sometimes launch various kind of templates / folders w/ Quicksilver. Any chance there’s a way to create something like that w/ a DTP template? Maybe it’s even possible to open such a template through that (or other) means w/o opening DTP…?
Thank you again for your generous help.