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-   OmniFocus 1 for Mac (http://forums.omnigroup.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38)
-   -   Missing Features (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5602)

brianogilvie 2007-11-19 02:35 PM

[QUOTE=Usable Thought;25141]Right now, it's too much work to get an address book reference into OmniFocus! Open address book; find address; fuss with window positions to make dragging feasible; and then do the drag.[/QUOTE]

I have Quicksilver installed. I hit my hotkey, type a few letters from my contact, and then use the arrow key to select the info I want (address, phone, email, etc.) and then hit command-C. Dismiss Quicksilver and hit command-V to paste.

It's not a solution to your problem, but it's an elegant workaround.

iBsteve 2007-11-19 03:17 PM

[QUOTE=Usable Thought;25141]Right now, it's too much work to get an address book reference into OmniFocus! Open address book; find address; fuss with window positions to make dragging feasible; and then do the drag.

When running Windows, I use Intellect as my contact manager/e-mail client - not that well known but does certain things very well, including very easy integration with contacts.

This is a real shortfall in OmniFocus's functionality right now, like it or not.

My ideal would be to type a name or nickname, right click and be able to select fields from Address book for pasting, e.g. phone or e-mail. I wonder if a script could take care of this sort of thing ...[/QUOTE]

I agree UT. That would be a great feature.

Usable Thought 2007-11-19 03:20 PM

[QUOTE=brianogilvie;25216]I have Quicksilver installed. I hit my hotkey, type a few letters from my contact, and then use the arrow key to select the info I want (address, phone, email, etc.) and then hit command-C. Dismiss Quicksilver and hit command-V to paste.

It's not a solution to your problem, but it's an elegant workaround.[/QUOTE]

Just tried this out. Pretty neat - thanks.

OOWriter 2007-11-19 05:13 PM

Storing a web archive in OF
 
Many posters assume that the OP wanted to turn OF into a database, but that's not necessarily so and a straw man. A user may want to clip a page as additional information for an action and have that live only with that action.

I think the inability to do this at present is first and foremost a weakness of OS X's clipping services. OF allows you to create a clipping from rich text or a file, because those are the two things that OS X Services allow it access to.

Thus, if your browser does not provide a web archive representation, for you to drag into OF, then it would require a lot of extra coding, possibly browser specific, to add this feature. Probably, OF would have to download the page directly and create a web archive out of it.

Until Omnigroup can contemplate such a feature (and assuming it's even desired by other users), it seems like an ideal job for a third party application, applescript, or automator workflow. I wish I could recommend one to you...

One thing I can recommend, is use the save as web archive feature in your browser, then activate your downloads stack (or open your downloads folder) and click and drag the file into the notes section of an action in OF. Alternatively, select the file in the Finder and use the clipping service to send it to a new action.

iBsteve 2007-11-19 08:00 PM

I would like to mention that Yojimbo has a very elegant scriptlet that sits in your browser bookmarks. Click on it and boom a web archive is placed in Yojimbo.

OOWriter 2007-11-19 08:49 PM

adding an action with an attached webarchive programmatically
 
[QUOTE=iBsteve;25269]I would like to mention that Yojimbo has a very elegant scriptlet that sits in your browser bookmarks. Click on it and boom a web archive is placed in Yojimbo.[/QUOTE]

I hadn't thought of using a bookmarklet for clipping to OF, but that's a good point. Yojimbo implemented a URI handler "x-yojimbo://CreateItem?" for that. ( javascript:window.location='x-yojimbo://CreateItem?kind=WebArchive&name='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+'&location='+encodeURIComponent(window.location); )

Regarding adding features to a URI handler in OF, you may also be interested in this thread:
[url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=4970[/url]

Still, the key step (however the interface is implemented) is a routine that actually fetches the webpage and saves it as a web archive. Yojimbo has implemented a browser and maybe they just get this from Cocoa (?).

In the mean time for OF: there used to be an automator action (search on automator world) that would save a web archive to the downloads folder. Assuming that can step can be attained, I think you'd just need an applescript that builds a <furl> or <hfs > data type with the URI for the web archive, sticks it on the pasteboard, and creates a new action in OF from this data (using AppleScript?). When I have some more time, I'd be glad to implement, but maybe some other intrepid scripter can pull it off more quickly.

iBsteve 2007-11-23 06:27 AM

Thanks OOWRITER for the correction on the "bookmarklet" and the thoughts.

My feeling– it is a developers obligation to provide good tools to provide the user the easiest and most comfortable way to work. Again not the kitchen sink. Although it's nice to have scripts and add-ons you should need nothing but the program and what those developers provide to accomplish what you need. Anything that comes from the outside is gravy. All of the suggested work arounds I see in these forums should not be needed for the basic running of a for profit tool. And yes I do realize this is alpha.

Thanks,

Steve S.

Stormchild 2007-11-23 04:55 PM

[QUOTE=Usable Thought;25141]Right now, it's too much work to get an address book reference into OmniFocus! Open address book; find address; fuss with window positions to make dragging feasible; and then do the drag.[/QUOTE]

Learning how to drag and drop more effectively in OS X will help you here. There is no need to move windows around. You can begin dragging any item or selection, then use Exposé or Command-Tab to switch to the program you want to drop it in. With a little practise this is quite easy to do in one motion.

This even works across Spaces.

soundsgoodtome 2007-11-24 08:48 PM

[QUOTE=Usable Thought;25141]Right now, it's too much work to get an address book reference into OmniFocus! Open address book; find address; fuss with window positions to make dragging feasible; and then do the drag. [/QUOTE]

What about Exposé?

I open address book, find and select address, drag selected text -- and in the same motion, I move my cursor to the upper-left corner of the screen, which reveals other open windows. I position the cursor over OF, then hit the spacebar with the other hand to bring OF to the front, and voila....

The procedure sounds more complicated, when described in words, than it is to implement. After the text is selected, the rest takes about 2 seconds.

soundsgoodtome 2007-11-24 08:52 PM

[QUOTE=iBsteve;25269]I would like to mention that Yojimbo has a very elegant scriptlet that sits in your browser bookmarks. Click on it and boom a web archive is placed in Yojimbo.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it does -- and so does Journler, which I believe, respectfully, is a much better app than Yojimbo. (I own a license for both.) :-)

Here's a 3rd-party podcast with an overview of Journler's features. Note that it's 6 months old, and additional features have been added since then:

[url]http://www.tuaw.com/2007/05/24/tuaw-podcast-24-journler/[/url]

When viewing a web page in Safari, in the Print dialog box's "PDF" menu, both Journler and Yojimbo add menu commands there. So with your own keyboard shortcut (defined in the "Keyboard & Mouse" preferences), you can save a web page directly to Journler or Yojimbo with one command.


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