Keyboard shortcut to enter comment field

DEVONthink Tips
1

Is there a keyboard shortcut to quickly enter the comment field of a selected file/note?

2

No. But there are two possible alternatives:

  1. Press Cmd-Shift-I and Tab multiple times to switch to the comments field of the Info panel
  2. Activate the comments column via View > Columns > Comments (supported by list view, three pane view and vertical/horizontal split view)
3

Here’s a REALLY kludgy solution doing what Christian suggested, but having a script do it instead:


tell application "DEVONthink Pro"
	activate
	tell application "System Events"
		delay 0.35
		keystroke "i" using {command down, shift down}
		keystroke tab
		keystroke tab
		keystroke tab
		keystroke tab
		keystroke tab
	end tell
end tell

I used Fastscripts to assign it a shortcut (CMD-OPT-I), but the same thing could be done if you stick it in the DTPro script menu and assign a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences. I’m not sure why the delay is needed, but it is if you want to use a keyboard shortcut (selecting it from a menu, it works without the delay - must be something with OSX polling the keyboard).

4

The thread Christian provides in the next topic on how to assign the same comment to multiple files works for single files as well: http://www.devon-technologies.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1465

I saved the script in the script folder and assigned a keyboard shortcut. Voila![/url]

5

Or Cmd-Shift-I for Info panel, then Sift-Tab twice to enter comments field. Less key strokes… :slight_smile:

6

Just curious…

Why cmd-SHIFT-i?

What does plain old cmd-i do?

As a longtime mac user, I usually hit cmd-i first and worry that it actually has an unreported function in DEVONthink.

I should have used the past tense because, since I’ve added the Comments column to my views per suggestions here, I no longer have many reasons for opening the info panel.

7

This shortcut is used for italics.

8

Command-I for italics is, of course, a Mac standard in applications for text formatting, along with Command-B for bold and Command-U for underline.

The Mac UI sometimes uses the same keyboard shortcut to do different things, depending on context. So, in the Finder, Mac uses Command-I to show the Info panel for a selected file.

DT Pro allows character formatting in plain and rich text documents, and uses the standard Mac shortcuts to accomplish that.

Shift-Command-I is used in DT Pro to display a document’s Info panel (which isn’t the same as the Finder’s file Info panel, of course – but is analogous).

The developers have put a lot of thought into the UI of DT/DT Pro. As DT Pro is a Cocoa application, it uses the standard tools provided by Apple to the maximum extent. As DT Pro is a document management system, it uses a UI that’s intended to be as familiar as possible to Mac users and has many resemblances to the Finder. But it’s not the Finder nor is it, strictly speaking, even a superset of the Finder; it’s more than that.

As a Mac program written by developers who love the Mac, DT Pro strives to be as familiar and intuitive as possible to users with Mac experience.

The developers have always welcomed suggestions on how to improve the UI and user experience and have adopted literally thousands of user suggestions – and will continue to do so.

But no single approach to the UI, whether from the perspective of Finder UI expectations or word processor expectations, can apply precisely to the purpose and design of DT Pro. DT Pro has hundreds of commands and operations. The continuing “struggle” is to make those commands and operations as familiar as possible to Mac users, to make them self-consistent and reliable, and to keep expanding the features and capabilities that users need.

9

Average Guy:

Let me suggest an alternative way which is the one I’m using.
First you must hve the text entered into the DB.
Then select View as Three Panes
Select Columns “Comment”. I only select this one for sake of space, so I have the Name and the Comment columns.
Then by double clicking on the “Comment” space for each entry you can enter, modify, whatever, the comments.

Rgds,
tomas

10

I use comments extensively. When I’m coding, it’s part of my “poor man’s” CVS. When I’m researching, it’s part of my first pass note taking.

I tend to use the same steps oz-nom does (whip out the info panel, shift tab, shift tab). I’m still searching for that shiny single keystroke combo…

Here’s the thing. Sometimes FUNCTION + TAB seems to work? (In column view panels where Comment is second column. Sometimes it can be third or fourth…) I use it happily when this is the case!

But then the party’s over, this behavior stops, and I can’t figure out why. FCTN + TAB reverts to selecting the initial column (Name, generally…) just as it does when I press only TAB. It seems this happens when there is a URL column in the view. (I move between several databases using Office 2.0 b8 and hence the different window configs.) Or is it when devon looses focus as I switch between apps?

One last workaround that I’ve just started to try: dragging the comment column into first position (left of Name) and TABing in. It’s working so far! I’ll post again if anything wicked happens :confused:

[i]Well, I guess I am testing how well the “long tail” of this forum holds. My hat’s off to Average Guy who over three years ago took the words right out of my mouth!

Devon rules! [/i]