Touchbar Support for Devonthink 3

Hi,

Touchbarsupport for Devonthink 3 would be awesome.

Thank you

Best Regards
MaK

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Any concrete workflows/features you have in mind?

I have some:

When viewing PDF, annotation tools (take a look to PDF Expert, for example). Same (bold, italics, so) when editing texts, some kind of mixed annotation/formatting when viewing Formatted Notes and HTML.

A button to open favorite listing and go across the favorited folders.

Next unread, next, capture (button to open sub-menu to select capture kind, with option to capture clean)…

My two cents. :smiley:

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Same as rfog already mentioned - also a adjustable Touch Bar support would be great - so I can choose which functions I have as a shortcut - for example special search operators or to go straight to the Inbox etc., switch between search mode (i.e. just name:, text: or all for example).

Regards
MaK

Would this be actually useful? Because you need the mouse anyway afterwards.

I think this is a general discussion about how useful the Touch Bar is. I think if you can configure the most relevant actions for you, icons on the touchbar can be kind of useful, because the click on an icon on the Touch Bar (like a shortcut) could be faster than moving the mouse to the icon - also some user may find them quicker, because there are less on the Touch Bar (only the favorite ones for example)

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If the number of requests we’ve received since the first appearance of the Touch bar is an indicator, then it’s not that useful. Or our users think that other improvements are just more important.

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I use it with PDF Expert and Preview. Assuming right hand user, select a text (with mouse) with right hand, then, toolbar changes to selection modes, instead of press shif+cmd+L (in DT) with your left hand, you press the selected color in toolbar with left hand, and then perhaps the add a comment button. Start typing and then press the X in the toolbar.

And the summum of the utility, when not in specific tasks like inside of a PDF, will be put in the toolbar the most used icons, dynamically in base of a statistical anlalysis and program usage. Different for each user… For example, toolbar is showing “your” icons, then when user is scrolling a PDF, he can select the “annotate” one, or react on selecting a piece of text… I think this need a little bit of experimentation but could be worth it.

I’m using BetterTouchTool for this.

Here is my set now (still testing it; it might change according to my needs):

Left to right:
Escape key (global key, not only on DT3)
Workspace 1 (⌥⇧⌘1)
Workspace 2 (⌥⇧⌘2)
Workspace 3 (⌥⇧⌘3)
Workspace 4 (⌥⇧⌘4)
Open with… (⇧⌘O)
Flag (mark as flagger/unflagged) (⌥⌘K)
Info (Inspector — general) (⌃1)
Metadata (Inspector — custom) (⌃2)
Comments (Inspector — annotations & reminders) (⌃3)
Classify (Inspector — see also & classify) (⌃S)
Brightness keys (global keys, not only on DT3)
Sound keys (global keys, not only on DT3)
Fullscreen key (global key, not only on DT3)

BetterTouchTool has a learning curve, but it is worth it. Just to give you an idea of the settings:

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@valente, these are great! Can I ask where you got the icons from?

I love BTT for use in DT (it’s actually the application I use it most in), but do wish there was a way to change the toolset based on where in DT I am. I have a single set now:


Left to right:

  • Create new markdown note, formatted to start the title with the current date in YY-MM-DD format, by linking together a few actions in BetterTouchTool
  • Create new annotation markdown file (something I used a lot in DT2, and am still considering for adaptation in DT3; I like markdown for annotations on articles better than .rtf)
  • Shortcut to a script to make a new note from a quote, with a link to the original article
  • Shortcut to page count script
  • Shortcut to highlight tool (primitive, but at least its something)
  • String of keyboard shortcuts to open a new window and start a search (replacement for Command-Shift-F in DT2)
  • Same as above, but adding the text “name:” to search within the filename

I may add some of the shortcuts you have, though!

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I’m nerdy enough to do the icons myself (using Sketch.app). :blush:

If you want, I can send you a copy of these icons.

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Thank you for sharing your setup.

I would appreciate your icons, maybe you can upload them via dropbox to share?

Thank you

Regards
MaK

I doubt that future MacBooks will have a Touch Bar. That was the wrong concept. Apart from software-generated volume and brightness controls, it offers things I can make better with hardware buttons, and it doesn’t make serious work any easier. I’m convinced that development is better invested in other areas

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Maybe some people will agree with you.

However, I shall say I fully enjoy the Touchbar and use it extensively. In fact, I find the regular bar quite limiting now in my other MacBook.

I think the path is to make the Touchbar more easy to customize. Nowadays you have the limits of what the app developers come along with or you have power user apps (like BetterTouchTool) which are amazing but also have a learning curve most people do not want to deal with. The secret might be in the middle.

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The download link is here: http://pc.cd/f3dctalK

A great place to get some alternatives is https://www.flaticon.com/. It allows you do download png files (in several sizes) and vector files as well (great to customise).

Best,
/mjvalente

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Thank you very much valente

I also agree with you - I think the power of the Touch Bar is, that it’s flexible and offers unlimited options - but it should be easier to configure so that it make sense for everyone’s needs.

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@cgrunenberg Actually, I haven’t asked too much for official Touch Bar support because I find that BTT allows me to create my own Touch Bar sets for any app. And that’s almost always better than anything else!

:wink:

If Apple would give the Touch Bar a future, they would have had time enough to offer a keyboard with a Touch Bar but they didn’t’t. Somehow I have the feeling that this feature has only been implemented in fragments.

For me personally, it doesn’t fit at all with the way I use a computer.

just an example of BetterTouchTool’s replacements for the touchbar:

For me Touchbar support is marginally if not at all interesting, I use it seldom and when I have t to hit Esc on a hard surface it’s just plain annoying (vi use).

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