Inconsistent behaviour double clicking on smart group

DEVONthink Tips
1

I have noticed that the behaviour when double clicking an in-databse smart group differs depending on the view you are using.
I should preface this by saying that I (almost) never use icon view, and live mostly in list view.

For example,

  • icon view: double clicking a smart group takes you to its contents.
  • List view: double clicking a smart group presents the smart group criteria pane
  • Most other views don’t really have a need for double clicking so the behaviour is reasonably consistent.

I’d love it if double clicking a smart group in list view took you inside that group. I constantly find myself double clicking on a smart group (as I do every other group and every other object) only to find the criteria menu!

It seems to me (and I have no data to back this up other than my own experience) that the most common interaction with a smart group is to view its contents, not to edit the criteria. I only edit the criteria if the criteria change or are found to be wrong, which is somewhat rare, certainly rare compared to instances where I actually need to access the contents of that group. Given this to be the case, shouldn’t double-clicking the smart group in list view take you to its contents? There is no other object in DTPO that, when double-clicked, takes you to its properties or to anything other than its contents. Tags take you to a list of the objects tagged with that tag, groups show their contents, documents and files are opened up. Double click on a smart group: Criteria.

I know that double-clicking in three-pane or split view also brings up the criteria rather than takes the user “into” that group… so it is consistent in that regard (except in icon view where double clicking opens the group instead!)

Maybe I’m the crazy one who isn’t constantly editing their smart group criteria. There may be some rationale for this behaviour but, as I see it, it is problematic:

  1. It is inconsistent across at least the List and Icon views.
  2. An interaction that is used throughout the List View (double clicking) behaves differently on this, and only this object
  3. What I suspect is the most common interaction with a smart group (accessing its contents) requires right-clicking to “open (in tabs)” or using the disclosure arrow (not great for large number of files).

Anyhow, minor little hangup, but interrupts my workflow constantly!

2

For any kind of group, I believe Data > Open [size=150]⌘O[/size] works the same work – displays the contents.

In Icon view – how else would you edit the parameters of the smart group since merely selecting something in Icon view does nothing to display the contents of that thing?

3

Thanks for the feedback! A future revision of the user interface will also change this.

4

Correct you are! I had forgotten about this since I only ever use it on files and not on groups. This is a helpful reminder!

This is great news. Thanks for taking my feedback into consideration and for the heads up on the update!