I’ve upgraded to DEVONthink 2 and love the multiple database capability. 
However, there is no longer the option to right-click on a web link in DEVONthink and open the link in an external web browser like Safari. This is driving me nuts. 
The right click menu has options for “Open Link” and “Open Link in New Tab”, but both of these open the web page within DEVONthink, not within Safari which is what I want and need. 
Is there any way to change this behavior?
OK, I found out that command-click does what I want. Hooray! (How was I supposed to know this?)
Suggestion for your forums: If you could automatically list other forum topics that might be relevant, it might help avoid redundant questions.
Nice suggestion (and any others that could help reduce redundancy 
) though I don’t recall seeing that feature on any forums running phpBB3, only vBulletin.
There should be a “Open Link In Browser” item too in the contextual menu, assuming that you’ve right/control-clicked on a link in a web view.
But if you’ve right/control-clicked on an item (e.g. a bookmark) having a URL, the contextual menu should contain “Launch URL” (like in v1.x).
I’m using DevonThink Pro Office 2.0.2 (“enable tabbed viewing” is off in preferences) and regardless of whether I hold control, option, or command, the right click contextual menu always shows:
Open Link
Open Link in New Tab
… (more)
When I right/control click it does open in the Browser instead of DevonThink. (Also works for right/command click or right/option click).
I never see “Launch URL” but I’m not sure how “link in a web view” is different from “item having a URL”.
–ErikN
Right-click on a document that has a URL assigned to the document (Tools>Show Info):
Right-click on a link in a Web view/HTML document:
Right-click on a link in a RTF document:
Not all links are URLs to Web pages-could be a link to other documents, an email, etc.
Hi. Is this going to be fixed in a new version?
It’s the #1 most annoying thing about DevonThink.
It would be enough if command-control-clicking http(s) urls opened them in Safari, though I would prefer a Preference option to always do it.
As it is I don’t really understand the suggestions above, because there is not even an entry in the contextual menu for opening urls in an external browser.
The behavior may not be what you are expecting, but there is nothing broken that needs fixing. The items in the contextual menu are… contextual. If you right-click (Control-click) on a link, you will get one of the above screen captures depending on what you are working with. To illustrate further, below is a bigger screen capture of right-clicking on a link in a Web view. I have a Web view of Apple’s site selected in DEVONthink. I now see the option of opening a link on that page that I have right-clicked on (Hot News Headlines) in a) new tab in DEVONthink, b) in my default browser, and finally c) DEVONagent (if installed).
To illustrate further, below I have right-clicked on a link in a RTF document. The contextual menu choices as the context of the link has changed. It no longer makes sense for the link to say ‘Open Link In Browser’ as the link could be, and is in this example, directed to another document in the DT database. If the link was instead to a Web URL, selecting ‘Open Link’ will now open the URL in the default browser while selecting ‘Open Link In New Tab’ will open a new tab in DT with a Web view (page) of the link, and fetch the data from the link.
One additional thing that has not been mentioned yet, and may be worthwhile to do so, is that ‘Open Link In New Tab’ always means to open a new tab in DEVONthink-not in the default browser. Opening new links in the default browser (Safari, Firefox, etc.) will be handled according to the preferences set in the browser (open in new window, open in current window, open in new tab, etc.).
Thank you - that was helpful. The “Open Link” menu item works as desired, but I never thought to click on it. “Open Link in Browser” is more clear.
I use DevonThink for research, and this includes RTF pages with many links in them. I’ve click on these dozens of times a day and always want them to open in Safari.
You could argue it isn’t broken, but it’s a fine line since every other application handles urls the way I like but DevonThink works in a different, inconvenient manner.
I don’t know how http(s) urls could point to another DevonThink document, but that’s why I suggested Modifier-clicking. However, I can live with the contextual menu item.
Not trying to be argumentative, but am seriously curious-what other applications (other than browsers, and a news reader is a specialized browser) handle URLs and links in Web pages, both internally and externally as does DEVONthink?
DEVONthink knows that a link in a Web view is a URL and not a link to another document. In a PDF or Rich Text, the link could be anything-a URL, a link to a document, a link to a an email, etc., thus the generic ‘Open Link’ name. Really it is just semantics as to what the menu is named. I will say that the menu commands should appear consistently in the menu, that is if the Web view menu reads:
Open Link In New Tab
Open Link In Browser
then the RTF view menu should read:
Open Link in New Tab
Open Link
instead of being flopped as is now.
About handling links: Text editors, email clients, office suites, PDFs, and basically anything where it make sense. Office documents, PDFs Indesign, and structured editors have internal links too, but they handle internal links differently then external ones - which is easy, because external links start with “http”.
Please don’t make the change you just suggested. It would remove “Open Link” from the top of the context menu.
I don’t get why you treat urls differently in webarchives and RTF documents. HTTP and FTP and SMB and MAILTO urls, for example, should all behave the same in both.
None of the above are examples of applications that handle Web URLs both internally and externally. I suppose that an exception could be made for the email clients Postbox and Thunderbird as they can display Web pages with an add-in, but what else is TextEdit, Word, or Preview going to do with a URL but open it in the default browser?
Another way to look at this is to give usage examples of what happens within browsers. If you have both Firefox and Safari installed, and Firefox is the default browser-would you expect that clicking on a Web link in Safari would open the page in Firefox? It does not open the URL in Firefox-it opens in the current app (Safari) which is also what happens when opening URLs in DEVONthink.
As clarification, I’m not one of the developers-I’m just a (long-time) user like yourself. The URLs are treated the same in Web archives and RTF documents-the only difference is that the menu name is different. In one situation is says open URL, in another situation it says open link, but the behavior when a link is clicked is the same.
OOo and Word and TextEdit can open and display web pages and I would hardly compare DevonThink to a browser - it’s more like those former apps.
Most importantly, the current behavior is really annoying. I always need to control-click-move-mouse-click-again whenever I open a link, which I do a lot.
Have you ever used the Web browser in DEVONthink? Some users of DT use its browser exclusively to navigate the Web, so I would absolutely say that it is not a stretch to compare it to a dedicated browser. However, I personally have no idea how one can connect to the Internet and navigate Web pages within Word or TextEdit. If you will share how that is possible, I’d like to learn what I’m missing.
This sounds like some fanboi echo chamber in here, full of awe-smitten apologists.
We want to be able to open links in our main browser and not in Devonthink. We bought the software and we had this functionality before upgrading.
Give it back to us.
Does anyone have a workaround for this apart from
What should be one and a half steps is six.
The toady apologies are even more aggravating than the broken functionality if possible.
I gather that reading comprehension is not your strong suit, so I am going to type this very slowly…
Well that’s very logical (not).
Actually I don’t care about the logic at this point as long as I don’t have to copy and paste the links anymore.
Thanks for the clarification.
I fail to see how it’s any less “logical” than a commonly supported method for externally opening links with a multitude of other apps besides DT.
To be honest, even having to right click is a pain.
I don’t want to use Devonthink as a browser ever. I want URLs to open up in Safari (actually in Choosy so I can choose which of 8 browsers to use: don’t start complaining now rabid Devon fans, my company does web development and SEO and using multiple browsers is part of our work).
How about a simple preference: Use external browser for links.
Default it to off for all I care. But give us that choice.
Is there a hidden preferences function I can toggle via terminal?