How about making this the default behavior when one is working with another database that is already open?
Suppose I’m working in a tightly-adjusted three-pane view on classifying documents into folders with the help of the AI. One of the documents needs to be removed to another database, which is not previously open. Open a new database and what happens?
The glorious three-pane view gets stolen by the new database, and there appears to be no way to “undo” this action. So now one has to re-open the original database in a different viewer window, reselect three-pane view, re-open the classify window with the “Sorcer’s Hat” (which looks to me like a trash can, when I can actually find it), re-adjust the window dimensions (including pull down the bottom border of the Classify drawer portion), and on and on and. . .
Unless I’m missing something here, this is a real productivity speed bump. It’s crazymaking. What good is the new ability to copy documents into other databases when window control is this challenging? One may as well let those documents languish in the original database’s inbox. Copying them to a different database is just too much trouble.
Yes, I understand you. If I’ve selected a range of documents that I want to move into another database (which isn’t currently open) and then click in the sidebar to open that database, that foremost view window, with all my selected files, vanishes and is replaced by the view window of the newly opened database. If that happened, I would mutter some unkind words and redo the selection of the items I want to transfer. Wasted time and effort!
But there’s a simple workaround. Use File > Open New Window for the database in which those files have been selected. Then click in the sidebar to open the other database. The frontmost view window will change — but not that window in which my selections have been made.
Now choose Window > and choose the window in which that group of selected files still resides safely — or swoop the mouse to the upper right corner to see all the open windows in DEVONthink and choose the one that displays your selected files (nicely highlighted, so easily identified).
Drag those selected items to the desired open database in the sidebar. That copies them into the other database. Now, still selected, the items in the first database can be deleted — sent to the Trash of that database. The transfer is complete. No sweat, if the workaround to a potential problem has been used.
Redacted’s suggestion seems like a no-brainer to me. One of the key advantages of 2.0 is the ability to open multiple databases at the same time. The ability to transfer groups and documents between those databases should be as easy as possible. Some suggestions are idiosyncratic. I don’t think this is one of them. I think redacted’s idea would benefit the vast majority of users who operate with more than one database. People would be using this feature all the time. So I suggest it as development priority.