[caek]

When printing hard copy, is there any way to persuade OO Pro to print the full URL of a URL that has been converted to an attachment? The full URL has obvious uses for people who receive hard copy of an OO document but do not have access to OO or the original file.

With OO Pro 3.7.5 I can see no way to do this. The attachment/link is created in the OO document and automatically given the title of a truncated version of the URL. E.g. "http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7031/full/434294a.html" becomes "www.nature.com—434294a.html". I understand the motivation for doing this. It reduces clutter in the OO document (although if that was the idea, wouldn't it be better to use something human-readable like the <title> of the website?). The problem, however, is that this truncated version is the one that appears in the printout, and it's next to useless for someone without access to the OO document. I realize I can turn off the option to create attachments from pasted URLs, but having those working links in my OO document is extremely useful.

Unless I'm missing a fix that's already there, it seems like there are three options:

- write an Applescript to change the title of URL attachments to the full URL
- change OO's default behaviour to do this
- a preference in the Print/OmniOutliner dialog box to print full URLs

The first two have the disadvantage from cluttering the OmniOutliner document.

[DerekM]

Sorry, the only way to print the full URL is to change the title of the link to the full URL. URLs can be really really long which was the primary reason for this behavior. We will be looking at this issue again for OO4.

[caek]

Thanks. I'd love to see my final option (a preference in the Print/OmniOutliner dialog box to print full URLs) implemented, as the approach you've chosen does work well when at a computer.

[scotty321]

Yes, can you please work on this issue? This is a truly annoying feature of OO3. We're currently in the process of typing up a big study guide for our students, and it includes a lot of URL's for them to visit. However, OmniOutliner keeps converting these URL's into attachments that don't print properly. So now we have to manually & painstakingly go back through and edit the title for each & every attachment, just so the full URL's print on the study guide.

[caek]

Yep, this is still a pain.

And in spite of all the complicated alternatives I describe upthread, I still prefer the current, much simpler OmniFocus behaviour: keep the whole URL and make it clickable. Sure, URLs can be really long. But making arbitrarily shorter is like throwing away the last four digits of a phone number. You save space but you make them useless.

[scotty321]

Greta analogy, and I couldn't agree more with you. This is such an important issue that I would consider this more of a bug in OmniOutliner than anything else. They have got to fix this ASAP. Have you sent them feedback directly at <omnioutliner@omnigroup.com>?

[caek]

I haven't sent them email. Derek's comment above ("We will be looking at this issue again for OO4") is good enough for me for now.

[scotty321]

Wait a second, Monica from technical support just emailed me and there's a preference right on the "General" panel of the preferences to disable OmniOutliner from turning URLs into attachments. So this feature is already there.

What's missing, however, is the ability to click on those links once that feature is turned off.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by scotty321

What's missing, however, is the ability to click on those links once that feature is turned off.

Select the text of the URL, then use Services->Open URL to open it. No, it isn't single-clicking, but it isn't very difficult, either.

[caek]

Clickable links are kinda useful on a computer with a GUI! OmniFocus manages it.

The feature as currently implemented is "destructive" too; if you turn it back off then links added while it was enabled do not turn into clickable links.