In my opinion, the Quicklook “hit the spacebar blow up preview” for documents, images, videos, etc… that was introduced in Leopard is one of the most useful features added to macs in a long time. A number of other PIM type applications have integrating the feature into their apps so you can hit the space bar and get a preview of items when you want to have a closer look. I want to put everything into Devonthink because the search features is so great. But sometimes you want to visually browse your files. This is where the Quicklook and HTML icon previews, would be so nice. Has there been any thoughts on adding this?
Hi marshallj, thanks for your post and welcome to the DT Forum. I’m not sure about QL and the spacebar, but see this post about using QL with a function key combo:
Hope this helps you for the time being.
I too would love to see quicklook implemented and the ability to browse and search by icon instead of always having a list view. If you have every tried Leap or Yep it would be great to see Devonthink be able to browse and return search results that way or at least give the ability to click on an item in the top view list and have the icon view below change to show that particular document. If we could do this, I could see Devonthink becoming my one stop program for managing, viewing, and searching my documents!
Thanks, the Script is nice. I don’t know how to assign a short-cut to a script though. Can I also use the short-cut to close the QL preview?
I did try Leap. It is very nice to browse files but it doesn’t let you to search for results inside of files the way that DevonThink does. I love the power of DT but a lot of times I can find what I need better by browsing visually. If DT could have some type of Loupe for peeking at the contents of a file or a smooth integrated QuickLook preview I would be sooooo happy. Leap is nice for browsing but not for searching, categorizing or collecting information.
marshallj : One way to assign a short-cut to a script by is by downloading FastScripts Lite from Macupdate, Versiontracker, or the developer’s site, and follow the instructions in the readme or documentation. (For the time being I drag DTPO files to the QL Droplet in my Scanning dock, created using DockSpaces at nscoding.co.uk/.)
Can I you use the short-cut to close the QL preview? Not sure what you mean. I think that the QL window has a close box like any OSX window.
“Loupe:” What is that?
Definitely agree with you that tight Quick Look integration needs to be a top priority for the DTPO developers, who I’m sure are paying close attention here. There are many times during my workflow that I need to quickly locate a file even before I’ve had a chance to assign titles, either manually or with my autotitle script, to the batch of serialized files created by the documents I just scanned.
Thanks for your remarks.
Loupe is a tool in Yep and Photoshop and other programs that magnifies a portion of a document or image when you roll over that section. Basically a zoom without zooming the whole document.
The software loupe takes its name and function from a small magnifying lens that is housed in a plastic device that can be set on a physical photograph. The lens is thus held at the precise focal length so photographers can check out their proofs.
Also a similar device is used by jewelers - it is typically “screwed” into the flesh around an eyeball and held there by basically frowning. It allows jewelers to examine their wares closely.
Further discussion can be found at Wikipedia.
You CAN search inside documents with Leap - not as accurately as with DT but cou can.
See here:
In Leopard you hit the Spacebar to invoke the QuickLook preview and hit the spacebar again to close the window. Very handy. If I hit the hotkey to run the Quicklook script, is there a way to close the window without switching to my mouse and clicking to close the window.
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate it. I will download that application you mentioned.
Thanks, I do see that you can search inside documents in Leap. You can’t compare to the way you can search inside of documents in DT. I don’t know an efficient way to take advantage of the features of both DT and Leap. Leap is very nice to browse but does not seem to fit my need to have my files inside DT so I can search inside them.
Hey, so the new beta of DT 2.0 now has Quicklook. Thanks so much. It’s fantastic. DT is becoming more and more indispensable for me.
At this point I would love to see previews generated of bookmarks and HTML pages. I have previously used Safari Stand which generates nice little previews of .webloc files. This is very handy for when you don’t want a pdf of an entire page but you want to have a visual representation of the content.
Thanks again
Actually it’s the HetimaWebThumbnail plugin included with SafariStand that generates them.