Keyboard shortcut to open a file for editing in DEVONthink?

Alexandra · April 30, 2021, 1:33pm

Hi all, I am new to DEVONthink and I may have missed it till now, but is there a way to open a file for editing inside DEVONthink with a keyboard shortcut, forgoing the mouse?

Or should I use an app like Keyboard Maestro?

Thanks!

cgrunenberg · April 30, 2021, 1:51pm

When exactly do you want to use this shortcut and where’s the file located? In a database or in the filesystem?

Alexandra · April 30, 2021, 2:00pm

Hi @cgrunenberg, it concerns notes (files) in the database. I know I can press Enter or Cmd-O on entries to open them for viewing, but then I have to use the mouse to actually make changes to them. Hence my question.

cgrunenberg · April 30, 2021, 2:22pm

What kind of files do you want to edit? E.g. Markdown documents, plain/rich text, formatted notes or PDF documents?

Alexandra · April 30, 2021, 2:40pm

They’re mainly Markdown files.

cgrunenberg · April 30, 2021, 2:43pm

A screenshot would be useful, thank you!

Alexandra · April 30, 2021, 3:47pm

Here you go

I would like to know how to open the selected file for editing (using the built-in editor in DT), using a keyboard command.

cgrunenberg · April 30, 2021, 4:28pm

You can switch between the sidebar (if keyboard navigation is enabled in the preferences), the main view, the preview/edit pane and the inspectors (if visible) via Ctrl-Tab and Shift-Ctrl-Tab. In case of the screenshot pressing Ctrl-Tab once should be sufficient.

Alexandra · April 30, 2021, 5:53pm

Thanks for showing me how I can cycle through those different panes. The thing is: I can get the focus to the preview/edit pane using those commands, but it then stays in “view only” mode, until I use the mouse to klick on the middle icon. (But my whole point was trying to avoid using the mouse.)

Update: Take Control of DevonThink 3 revealed that I can then press Cmd-Ctrl-X to switch to edit mode for HTML and Markdown files.

Problem solved