I have been getting rid of manuals for stuff I own by finding the PDF on the manufacturer’s site, rather than dealing with scanning. Chrome (what I usually use) now renders PDFs in the browser window, so when I find what I want, I right-click then “Save As…” to the downloads folder then drop it in the DTPO Inbox in the Finder sidebar (or just save straight to the Inbox). But sometimes (frequently enough to get really annoying) DT can’t import the PDF. It just sits in the Inbox. DT periodically tries to import it but can’t and puts an error message in the Log window. There’s no immediately obvious notification–either I happen to notice it’s not showing up in DT, or I open DT’s Finder Inbox (which I usually have no reason to do) and see that files are still there, when normally they disappear after getting imported.
If I do the same thing with Safari there is no problem, which is fine, except I’d rather not have to switch back-and-forth between browsers.
Any ideas?
Also, when using the contextual menu to save a PDF that’s displayed in a browser window, would there be any advantage to choosing “Print…” as opposed to “Save As…” or even using the extension button instead? In other words, does one or the other improve the searchability of any text? Or might one method capture a URL while another won’t?
No, the PDFs saved from Chrome sometimes work but often do not import. They get dropped into the Inbox folder (the one in the Finder sidebar), but they do not import. They generate an error message in the log, but otherwise stay in that Inbox folder.
If I save the exact same documents saved from Safari, it works. That was my main issue: some PDFs saved from Chrome won’t import, and there’s no obvious error message that the import failed. Either I have to open the log, or open the Inbox in the Finder to see if something’s still stuck there. But I never do both of these things, so now I don’t trust that the PDFs are always getting imported, at least the ones from Chrome. I’m really tired of having to switch browsers around for very narrow, specific actions though…
If it’s a Chrome issue, and not a DT issue, I’d like to see the log or some other window pop up with a beep or something when an item I drop into the Inbox in the Finder doesn’t import. The whole having-to-check-manually thing makes me nervous.
Next time I find a document that does this I will reply again with a link to it and you can try it.