Retaining & Exporting URLS with clippings

DEVONthink Automation
1

I’m hoping somebody might know how to configure Devonthink or write a script that would include the url’s of clippings I am making from the web so that I can print or export them for further processing. I’d like to do on my Powerbook what I have been doing on Windows using Zoot for years: clip articles from newspapers, export them into a txt file, import the file in Word, and run a couple of macros that move the url below the title, put the title in H1, the text in H4, format the whole business in two columns, create a table of contents with the titles, and presto! a newspaper with urls for every article. I’d greatly appreciate learning that someone has figured this out, or at least, who might outline the strategy I might use to write my own script. Thanks! Bruce

2

You could use a script like the following one:


tell application "DEVONthink Pro"
	set theSelection to the selection
	if (count of theSelection) is 1 then
		set theURL to URL of item 1 of theSelection
		if theURL is not "" then
			tell text of think window 1
				make new paragraph with data (theURL & return & return) at beginning
			end tell
			tell think window 1 to save without asking
		end if
	end if
end tell

Note: This script requires a visible & editable plain/rich text document in the frontmost window.

3

Hi Christian! MANY thanks! I’ll try it! All the best, Bruce

4

It works beautifully, Christian, thanks so much. Now my question is (begging for assistance): how can I script this to perform this operation on every file in a group. I’m new to this scripting business, am not finding relevant examples readily but am looking. If there is a quick solution close at hand I’ll very much appreciate learning about it! Thanks! Bruce

5

Switch to vertical or horizontal split view, select all rich text contents of the group and then use this script:


tell application "DEVONthink Pro"
	set theWindow to think window 1
	copy the selection of theWindow to theSelection
	repeat with theRecord in theSelection
		set theURL to URL of theRecord
		if theURL is not "" then
			set the selection of theWindow to {theRecord}
			delay 1
			tell text of theWindow
				make new paragraph with data (theURL & return & return) at beginning
			end tell
			tell theWindow to save without asking
		end if
	end repeat
end tell

Warning: This script will fail if you’re not using the recommended views or if the selection does contain non rich text contents.

6

Thanks, Christian! This script works just fine! It really does go through each file, insert the url, and leave me with files I can then merge, export, and then process in Word with macros as I had hoped. MANY thanks! Bruce

7

I’m having trouble submitting this request: twice now I thought I hit “submit” but received a “save to drafts” message and I can’t find my drafts in this interface.

I’m trying to export a group of 30 urls, urls alone, so I might eventually share a list of them in html format, with the name as it appears in devon on top and html links below. So far, I can export text files, but the only export of urls I have found that works is opml. I don’t know what to do with opml. Is there a way to export urls into a format that I can work with, or is opml the way to go (in which case I’ll appreciate advice on what app might read opml and help me convert to html).

Thanks!

Bruce

8

You might have a look at the script posted in this thread:
http://www.devon-technologies.com/scripts/userforum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7535