Hi All,
For the longest time, any URL I paste in a Devonthink document would automatically convert to a clickable link (hyperlink) if I hit the [Space] key after pasting. Which is awesome.
But since a couple of days ago, this stopped working. Every URL I paste now stays plain text. I have double checked and ‘Smart Links’ is turned on. I even tried disabling/re-enabling Smart Links, and rebooting the Devonthink3 app, to no avail.
Can anyone help point out what else could be preventing my pasted URLs from getting clickable as before?
Thanks in advance.
DT supports several types of documents: HTML, Markdown, PDF, RTF(D), Formatted Note, images, and any other kind you care to put into your database. Perhaps telling us where (in what type of document) you paste the URL might help us helping you.
As well as letting us know which version of DT, MacOS and which kind of machine you’re on.
Hi there. Thanks for responding.
I normally create a document on my Devonthink Pro (currently 3.9.8) with a ‘Formatted Note’.
I currently use a Macbook Pro M1, OS version Sonoma 14.6
The automatic links have been working for years until very recently. On many notes, previously added links are still clickable, only the newly pasted ones get displayed as plain text, even after I end with the [Space] bar after pasting. Could possibly be a bug with the newest update or something as I did not change any settings on DT.
FYI…pasting links work as normal on other writing apps, which automatically ‘linkify’ the urls. It’s just not working on DT.
Posting here because I’m out of ideas.
Welcome @ateth3bra
I am not seeing any issue pasting a coped URL into a formatted note in Ventura or Sonoma.
- Does this persist after a quit and relaunch of DEVONthink?
- If so, how about after rebooting the Mac?
I do see what the OP described. I select “Smart links” from the Edit menu and paste a link in a new formatted note in DT. The link appears as pure text.
I do the same thing in Apple’s Mail (in a new message) and the link is transformed into a clickable one (blue and all that) as soon as I press return after pasting. Same with TextEdit.
It’s not that one can’t paste into a formatted note – it’s not inserted as a clickable link though it should be. If I understand all that correctly.
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Hi there, thanks for chiming in.
Yes, problem persists after quitting and relaunching Devonthink, and also after restarting the Mac.
To elaborate, if I copy a link that’s already formatted to be clickable and then paste it in a DT note, it will paste as a clickable link, but if I copy a link in plain text and paste it, it will not transform into a clickable link like it used to.
Copy and pasting any links using other writing apps work as normal, such as Apple Pages, textedit etc. They all transform into clickable urls. Just DT is being stubborn haha
Smart Links is enabled but doesn’t seem to work.
I’m seeing something different with DEVONthink 3.8.9 and macOS 13.7.1 on a new “Formatted Note” created in DEVONthink.
Edit: Smart Links turned “off”:
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Thanks for taking the time to help folks. No solution in sight yet, but I will try to fiddle more with the settings in the next couple of days. Will live with this annoyance in the meantime.
From where and why would this be prevalent? It sounds like it’s something specific to your method.
Here is a new formatted note, showing the substitutions that are active on the document, then pasting the URL and pressing Return…
Here is a new formatted note, showing the substitutions that are active on the document, then pasting the URL and pressing Return…
I’m glad to announce that I’ve just solved the problem! I was checking your screen recording and saw that your ‘Substitutions’ Drop down menu had 3 areas checked: Smart Copy/Paste, Smart Links, and Text Replacement. Whereas mine had only Smart Copy/Paste and Smart Links checked.
So I experimented by also checking Text Replacement too and that did the trick. I’m not sure whether everything worked without checking Text Replacement before or if it had accidentally gotten unchecked recently. Don’t fully understand the inner workings of this.
But thanks a lot, everyone who contributed, for spending time to help fix my issue. Much appreciated!
Blockquote From where and why would this be prevalent? It sounds like it’s something specific to your method.
Sorry. I’m don’t express myself very well using technical jargon. When I wrote copying a link in plain text, I simply meant something such as going to top of this page and then copying the page’s url displayed on the address bar with ‘cmd + c’ "https:// discourse.devontechnologies… ". I consider it copying as ‘plain text’ since the url isn’t highlighted/clickable in any way. Hope that satisfies your curiosity.
Blockquote I do see what the OP described. I select “Smart links” from the Edit menu and paste a link in a new formatted note in DT. The link appears as pure text.
Thanks for checking, now that I have finally solved the problem, I think in your case not having ‘text replacement’ checked could also be an issue, even though I don’t exactly understand why that matters, or how my link-pasting worked fine before without.
Hi there. I replied earlier with a long post to thank you and to report that I had solved the issue, and also to address one of your questions. But while editing a typo in a url I was posting, my post got deleted somehow with the explanation that urls are not allowed …
Anyway I’ll try to remember what I wrote earlier…
I was checking your screen recording and noticed that in your ‘Substitutions’ Drop down menu, you had 3 areas checked: Smart Copy/Paste, Smart Links and Text Replacement. Mine had only the former 2 checked, and Text Replacement unchecked.
I decided to experiment by also checking ‘Text Replacement’ and that did the trick. Not sure why it worked before without this checked, or if this had always been checked and got unchecked accidentally recently…
Too lazy to retype the rest. But thanks again to everyone who gave a bit of your time to help silly me solve my puzzle!
OK I made 2 long replies but the first reply got deleted while I was trying to edit a typo and the second didn’t get posted at all. I just wanted to report that I have solved the issue and explained how I solved it. But it was not to be. Hopefully this reply will get seen so I can thank you all for helping.
And how did you solve it?
I just spent the last 15 mins explaining how I solved it, together with a screenshot. That was before I replied to you, but my post got deleted (apparently I’m not supposed to post urls and after successfully posting the explanation, I decided to edit the post to correct a typo with a url, and the whole post got deleted (not sure if it was my fault or otherwise).
So I tried again, and my 2nd reply didn’t get posted at all, and I got fed up haha.
Let’s see if 3rd time’s a charm…
I checked out BLUEFROG’s screen recording and noticed that his substitution’s drop-down menu had 3 areas checked: Smart copy/paste, Smart Links and Text Replacement. Mine only had Smart Copy/Paste and Smart Links checked. Text Replacement was left unchecked.
I decided to experiment by also checking Text Replacement on my end and that did the trick. Not sure how link pasting worked fine before without checking this, or perhaps it had always been checked and was accidentally unchecked recently.
I’m sorry for the troubles but the forum automatically marked them as spam and the posts were therefore stuck in the review queue. I just released them.
Aha. I was so confused why my posts just disappeared into thin air. Thanks for releasing them.
