A Tool like CopyWrite with LATEX Support would be quite amazing 
Archive for February, 2005
I am forwarding a request from Merlin Mann’s Google Group “43 Folders”:
What I envision is a services menu utility that will enter, by autocompletion or expansion of an abbreviation, a tag from a predefined index of tags. If a new tag is needed, I would like it added to the index with the first usage.
Anyone willing to hack one together?
Over at the DevonThink Forum the folks are talking about ways to easily add URLs to DT and import the corresponding sites into the database. As I see it there are these ways to do so efficiently: 1. AppleScript: works fine from within Safari, OmniWeb and Camino (I guess), as they are all more or less Cocoa-Apps. 2. Services: Works in all Cocoa-Apps and some Carbon Apps. Just select a URL and hit the corresponding keyboard shortcut (such as “apple-)”). But this only adds a URL into your “import folder” 3. Drag & Drop: You can also drag and drop links/URLs from any app to an open DT window. 4. Print the webpage to DT using the PDF services 5. Save the page to a “hot” folder (with an attached “import to DT” folder action).
Method 1 and 2 are pretty cool as you can select text on a website and it imports that only into an RTFD document (or text if you wish so), keeping the reference to the current open URL.
Methods 2 and 3 generate URL or “bookmark” objects in DT that need to be imported separately into the database. I believe one could add an apple script to the target folder that would import the page automatically (or add it to the downloads window), although I have not seen a way to do so yet. If I remember correctly these scripts do not get called when a folder in DT changes (like finder folder actions do), but only when you click/open the folder. So maybe there should be a function within DT for this - “automatically import bookmark’s content”. If you really want so.
Or you can browse from within DT and then add bookmarks, content, pages and whole sites (with the download manager). Although I am not quite happy with the dl-manager, I prefer a CURL or WGET on the site for this, although for some sites a FUSKER is even better.
What kind of irritates me is that within DT when I browse a site that contains links to PDFs these are not loaded and imported - at least this has never happened as expected yet.
Arg, and then there is that weird problem with FireFox not being able to drag images to DT directly, it always inserts the URL of the image instead of the image itself - the only way to get the image there is by making a bookmark and downloading the image directly into DT from within DT.
Fred On Something… talks good stuff about blog titles, but I think people should take things a bit farther: full content feeds. Yes, I admit, I am quite an offline-whore when it comes to keeping up with the blogs I read. There are some exceptions, but usually this is because: * they are well designed and it is quite a pleasure to look at the sites * they contain photos/pictures or other media that is worth looking at (and I hate to admit it: this is the most missing feature of feed readers - lack of support for offline readers like me: download the pictures, even if they are just linked and not feed-enclosures!) * I like to look at their blogroll, sidebars or I just stumble there because I want to scan the archives or whatever.
The list of feeds I read regularly is quite extensive, unordered and just sorted by date. Usually I read the like this, flag items I want to check out later for link surfing or posting. But then there are those “I will only give you a title and 100 character”-posts that usually only generate one response by me: kick them out of the feed list as soon as I have seen too many un-interesting posts. Bloggers out there: if you want to get read - do not force people to browse your site! Make the site’s visit speak for itself but don’t cripple the content! Hey, even place ads in your feeds, those I can filter out - but a feed’s text that is incomplete usually is not worth the hassle of going to the flagged item again as soon as I am online.
Maybe I am overreacting, maybe everyone else has broadband at home and doesn’t do offline anymore. Nevertheless - I can’t think of any reason why feeds should be crippled. Bandwidth and Traffic may be a reason - but when your feeds generate that much traffic you either need to upgrade your server or whatever… I certainly don’t believe many out there will have these problems. And when I look at my traffic logs it seems the search-engine-spiders are generating way more traffic than anyone could do with feeds.
There has been talk about a web-enabled version of the GTD “Incompletions” list (on 43 Folders Google Group). I much rather have some more input on what the “mile high” perspectives would look like. Some kind of check lists that give inspiration, questions to ask yourself etc.
But maybe I am still too young to actually know about this stuff - and missed goals in my life. Nah - I am still struggling with my “purpose”, my “vision” for myself.
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