I am tryig real hard to understand the many many ways to capture Safari pages into DT. I tried many ways, sometimnes with unexpcted results… Or maybe I am just confused. Let’s say that I always RTFM but the docs and the scirptsm and the workflows… that is a lot to digest. Is there ONE location that explains the pros and cons of the many ways to move content from Safari to DT?
Here are a couple of things I want to do:
“capture” a static page from Safari AND have the content indexed (not just the title of the pages like some techniques do). I also want the URL of the page be saved in DT. This means that when I view the document in DT the page will NOT refresh.
Alternatively, sometime I want the page to refresh, which is the equivalent of saving a bookmark to DT. Again, what is the quickest way to do so?
I understand that there are some features available from within DT (like the contextual menu option “Capture Page”) but I do not want to browse from DT, altough I find very convenient to be able to see a web page with the integrated browser.
I also know about the PDF services, which indeed make a “copy” of the page and then DT can index it like any other document. I just find this option a bit cumbersome.
Finally, the icing on the cake: is there an elegant way for DT to ask in which group I want the Safari document to be filed? I would invoke a command in Safari, the “snapshot” of the page would take place, then I would be offered with a list of my groups in DT? I am sure I am not alone with this need to “harvest” content from Safari without always going back and forth between Safari and DT.
Most likely my questions have been answered before. Pointing me to the right posts will be very much appreciated. Sorry for the long post, but this is quite an important issue for me. I might end up writing the How To… Thanks a lot.
As you mentioned pages and bookmarks only, I won’t go into other types of captures.
[1] Capture page. Assuming that you are using DT Pro, there’s a script that will capture the frontmost page (or a selection, links, etc.)in Safari. The script is in the “main” scripts menu on the right side of the screen. (If you don’t see the Scripts menu (stylized S), launch Applications > AppleScript > AppleScript Utility.app. Check “Show Script Menu in menu bar”.) Choose Scripts > Safari > Add page from Safari.
Note: Study the Scripting topic in the user forum. Users have modified scripts to allow choice of destination, etc.
[2] Capture bookmark (URL). Drag the URL from Safari to the Groups floating panel. Here’s how: In DT Pro, select Preferences > General. Make certain the option " Hide ‘Groups’ panel when inactive" is NOT checked. Then select Tools > Show Groups. Move the Groups panel to the right side of the screen, then minimize it to the Dock. Now, the Groups panel can be used as a floating panel in many applications. To activate it click on its icon in the Dock, then drag selected text or a URL to the group location of your choice.
Personally, I rarely capture pages, because they tend to be cluttered with ads and other extras. Even scientific journals clutter up their Web pages with items that I don’t want to capture. For that reason, most of my captures are rich text selections. That lets me capture graphics along with text.
I do almost all of my captures from the DT Pro browser, using bookmarks for the journals and other sites that I routinely visit. The contextual menu options available in the DT Pro browser (and in DEVONagent) provide more options and make for quick and easy captures. My DT Pro Import preferences are set to send new material to, e.g., the Imports group. Later, I’ll review and organize the new documents.
There is a script that another user posted a while back that does exactly what you stated you wanted—creates a snapshot of the page, then asks you what group you want to put it in. Here is the url for the thread and the script:
(just did a search for ‘script save safari’ using all the terms to find this)
I did as the other user suggested and saved this script as an application and then assigned a hot key combination with Butler. I use it quite often and find it very useful.
Thanks for the info. I really like the trick with the group window. You wrote “I won’t go into other types of captures”. Well, be my guest. I would like to have a better understanding of the types of “capture” we can do from the contextual menu in DT Pro while we are vieving a page from the integrated mini-browser. Is there any benefit from capturing a page from withiin DT Pro vs straight from Safari? Maybe there is a benefit I am not aware of.
Also, I saw a lot of posts regarding “web archive”. What is it, what are the benefits, how does this compare to other ways, and how do we do it.
Sorry to ask so many questions… I am an avid collector of tech and marketing info, and I need a quick way to collect and share big amounts of data. Once I have a thourough understanding and some experience, I think I will write a document about DT PRo and web pages. Importing files and the rest is pretty straightwfor. For web page, I find the doc lacking. OR we need to put a lot of time reading lots of posts…
Again, thanks. I will return something to the community the moment I can contribute something valuable.
Yes – it’s quicker. Just Control-click and select the Capture Page option.
A Web Archive is a proprietary Apple file format that holds the contents of a Web page – images, text, links – so that it can be viewed offline and will look like the original page. Therefore, the file size will be larger than an HTML source code file. In the DT Pro browser, just control click to invoke the contextual menu and choose Capture Web Archive.
A Safari page capture is ok for most needs. I often want to keep articles or web pages with a fix URL. But sometime a web archive is the only viable option (like the main page of CNN that changes all the time, or if I am testing a transactional web site and I want more or less a “screen dump)”
From within Safari, what is the quickest way to get the page I am viewing to open in a DT Pro browser window so I can use the contextual menu to do a Web Archive?
Is there a way to do a “screen dump” similar to what is done with Snapz Pro X?
Is it possible to modify the behavior of the workflow “Capture Page from Safari” so it asks for the group or create one? Also, it opens the folder in DT Pro. Is it possible to remove this step? I just want the view to stay the same in my app.
When I use the script and workflow that capture a page from Safari, DT Pro then build an index based on the content of the page at that moment, right? Days later, if something has been added to the page (like a forum) an I wan to update the inexign of the page, what do I do?