Is it not possible to create keyboard shortcuts to edit smart rules and groups?

DEVONthink
21

I too am spending lots of time editing rules and that means slowing down a bit, shifting from the keyboard to mouse, to carefully find the Edit link.

Is it still true there is no native keyboard shortcut or menu option for the right-click Edit on the Smart Group/Rules? I understand it may be crazy to put ALL contextual items in the main app menus, but if we were to take a vote (or the devs were to analyze keystroke usage as Microsoft has been known to do when they introduced the infamous Office Ribbon) I think right-click Edit would be near the top.

Thanks

22

Shortcuts donā€™t apply to contextual menus.
Also, you can simply open the contextual menu and press E then Return.

23

Good tip! Eliminates one mouse movement at least.

Thank you

24

On Sequoia itā€™s possible to open contextual menus via Ctrl-Return (in case of the sidebar keyboard navigation has to be enabled first in the preferences)

25

Guys, really, 24 posts and 3 years of discussionā€¦ ))
Maybe just double click on the name of the smart rule will make you happy?
Instead of all these UI scripting and a bunch of additional appsā€¦

2 Likes
26

Whaddya know, that trick works also! But it has the side-effect of selecting & showing the Smart Rule/Group first. Sometimes I want to see the output of one rule while editing a different rule.

So I will try to add these two tricks to my muscle-memory:

  1. Right-click rule, press E, press Enter (edits a rule while leaving whatever view is present on screen)
  2. Double-click rule (edits a rule after updating the view to show the output of that rule)

These might be worth a DEVONthink blog post or call-out in the manual.

Thanks all!

27

Just for fun and doing something unnecessaryā€¦

viaā€¦

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28

You didnā€™t say what app you are using, but after I searched for ā€œTipTapā€ I found BetterTouchTool, which Iā€™ve never heard of. I noticed it is part of SetApp, which I pay for, and installed it. I couldnā€™t get the sending of E and Return to work as you did (perhaps some keyboard timing issue?), but I think I found a slightly better method, which is the Action ā€œTrigger Context Menu Itemā€ where you can have it choose the Editā€¦ item itself, without sending any keys. This is working for me!

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Thanks for sharing. Looks like BTT is a very deep rabbit hole to fall into, kinda like DTā€¦

29

It can be if youā€™re so inclined. The app is always in development and the developer is a good guy.

but I think I found a slightly better method, which is the Action ā€œTrigger Context Menu Itemā€ where you can have it choose the Editā€¦ item itself, without sending any keys. This is working for me!

Nice. I was just quickly mocking up a proof-of-concept and went with the first option I found. :slight_smile: