I have been using item links for a very long time, particularly so in OmniFocus, linking to PDF files from actions.
For the longest time, I remember clicking on the menu to copy the item link, then pasting it into OmniFocus or anywhere else really, and the link would not be shown as x-devonthink-item://UUID, but would rather be immediately shown with the name of the document into DT, which is very nice to have.
Right now, if I do this, all I get is an x-devonthink-item://UUID link, which works perfectly well, yet the label of the link does NOT get updated with the real name of the object linked to.
I have done a few searches on the forum but did not find anything specific about it.
Granted, there is the the “Update Name of Item Links” menu in DT3, but I am not talking only about the issue within DT3, rather also outside of DT3.
Did anything change recently and I missed it? Is there a setting that can be changed to restore this function?
DEVONthink provides only the data to the clipboard, it’s up to the receiver to use & store the provided information. E.g. apps which store rich text (like a rich text document in TextEdit) should show the name but apps which store only the URL don’t.
Interestingly, if you “Paste and Match Style”, you’ll only get the URL. Are you inadvertently doing that? For instance have you remapped your CMD-V in Apple Notes?
No, I have not remapped Paste and Paste and Match Style.
What’s funny is that they in fact work very much the same for me in Apple Notes, as both create a valid link, which becomes underlined and thus clickable when I move to the next line. No difference whatsoever between the two commands, but since the text is infact “plain” in terms of fonts, size and italic/bold, maybe there is no difference there after all.
The issue is shown also in other applications like OmniFocus, where I integrate quite a few links to content in DT3.
@cgrunenberg is there any way for me to provide more feedback? Is it worth opening an official ticket for this issue?
Another option that works is to paste the DT item link into Text Edit (in a rich text file) and then select and copy that text (not using copy link) and paste it into something like Workflowy. Only then the hyperlink with document name will be shown.
Except that in my case I am stack at your first step, with the x-devonthink-item://UUID not being resolved to the document name… see the above screenshots I have just posted!
Which version of macOS do you use? Did you use Edit > Copy Item Link or the same contextual menu item? Any third-party software that might change or use the clipboard?
It’s the latest Big Sur, just updated recently to 11.6.3. The issue was present before the 11.6.3 upgrade, to be clear.
Yes, I use the Copy Item Link contextual menu in general.
I have been having some issues with TextExpander not properly restoring the clipboard lately, so I have shut it down, but I still run into the same issue.
I also use TextSniper, which is a nifty small utility turning anything captured on the screen into text into the clipboard via OCR, and have also turned it off, but the issue is still there.
And dang, I have found the culprit!
It’s my clipboard manager, Copy’Em, which has a very neat “plain text mode” which I used in the past, and left it turned on…
It’s off again now! And it’s easy to see the results:
Many thanks for giving me the clues to look for 3rd party software modifying the clipboard data “in transit”.
TextSniper is great, but Monterey has completely eliminated the need for it in my case because of the Live Text feature. You can just select any text in any image and copy it. Poor dev got sherlocked.
Do you know if there is a way to get the hyperlink with document name pasted directly into apps like Workflowy?
I currently need to paste the DT item link into Text Edit rich text and then copy that selected text again before it shows up like in Notes with the document name.
DEVONthink provides both the name and the URL on the clipboard, this information is e.g. used by apps like TextEdit (rich text only) or Notes. But only the URL seems to be used when directly pasting to this app, it seems to ignore the provided name.
