Would it be possible to prevent the user from accidentally deleting or making other changes to a group in the classification sidebar?
This is a regular source of irritation to me, when I’m filing documents. For example, I file a document by double clicking on a group in the sidebar. My attention is then turned to the next document in the list, but if don’t explicitly select the new document the focus is retained in the sidebar, which means that when I press delete or label, I’m deleting or labelling the sidebar group, not the document. The group stays in the sidebar, but it’s now filed in trash.
I can’t see how this would ever be the desired outcome - why would you want to delete a group from within the sidebar when this feature’s whole reason for being is to file things in groups? Labelling is less of an issue, but it’s still irritating enough…
So, please could you make it impossible to delete groups from the sidebar? If this isn’t possible, how about returning the focus back to the document list window after a double-click classification action? That would have the same effect, I think.
I’ve been trying over here to reproduce the steps @brookter listed in the second paragraph
But, I can’t get anything in the classify sidebar deleted. IOW, I’m not able to reproduce the bug. Is there possibly some keyboard combination not explicit in the OP that’s making this happen?
A list of documents in a database inbox, Classification sidebar visible, view = three panes.
Highlight the first document in the list.
File it by double clicking on a group in the sidebar. That group is now highlighted in blue. The next document (now the top one) in the view is now also highlighted, but in grey - i.e. selected but it’s not got the focus.
I can see that I don’t want this document, so I press opt-cmd-delete to delete it - but I’ve forgotten that I don’t have the actual document in focus, so the group is sent to trash every time… Of course I should remember that I have to click back in the Document list, but I often don’t.
I use opt-cmd-delete, because as I go through the list of documents I’m often working either in the document pane or in the tagging bar - using cmd-pagedown to go through the list - rather than in the document list, and here the delete key obviously has a different function (delete text or tags).
Of course, the ‘bug’ also happens for labels, but that’s not so serious as it’s instantly visible.
The real problem, I think, may be that the focus isn’t being returned to the document list, but is being retained in the classification panel. (I realise that dragging and dropping avoids this problem, but I suppose that if you can double-click, then the program should prevent unwanted behaviour.)
That’s it. The “bug” is that command-option-delete (Move All Instances to Trash) trashes the item in the Classify sidebar – and, I assume, all other instances (replicants) of that item. In the Classify sidebar the “Move all Instances to Trash” contextual menu item does the same thing.
Makes me wonder if this is a bug, or an intentional design element (The Help file discusses the ability to use Move All Instances to Trash in the Classify sidebar.) I also notice that when an item in the Classify sidebar is selected, then in the Data Menu the Move to Trash command is unavailable, but the Move all Instances to Trash item is available.
Until the designers resolve this question, you can always use command-Z to undo the deletion — if you notice immediately after it happens and perform no other action.
I do usually pick it up - I’m a fairly frequent user of cmd-z… But it does seem to be strange behaviour if it is designed, rather than a bug - I can’t see the circumstances when it would be useful to trash groups from the sidebar, when the whole point of the sidebar is to file documents in one or more of those groups!
The “bug” is that command-option-delete (Move All Instances to Trash) trashes the item in the Classify sidebar – and, I assume, all other instances (replicants) of that item. In the Classify sidebar the “Move all Instances to Trash” contextual menu item does the same thing.
(The Help file discusses the ability to use Move All Instances to Trash in the Classify sidebar.) I also notice that when an item in the Classify sidebar is selected, then in the Data Menu the Move to Trash command is unavailable, but the Move all Instances to Trash item is available.