Auto-updating of collections

One thing I wish the collection could do, is that every time I add a new document with the label that I had used to search for and created a collection, that collection would automatically update with the new entry (and in the right order among the documents already in the collection according to where it is in the binder).

So for example, if I tagged some documents as “romantic subplot,” and searched for that tag and then made a collection of only documents with that tag, I can then look at the romantic subplot in one folder without any other distraction and work on the order of events in that subplot.

Currently, if I add a new document in the Binder and tag it “romantic subplot,” I’ll have to manually add it to the collection, as well as manually drag it to its proper location among the other documents so it’s in the right order. The idea is to make this automatic, so that as soon as I tag a document “romantic subplot,” it’ll automatically be added to the collection for the romantic subplot.

Right now, my workaround is to just delete the entire collection and search for the tag again to recreate it–then the newly added documents for that tag would show up in the new collection, in the right order. But that’s still a clunky workaround and not elegant at all.

If Keith doesn’t want this to be a forced behavior, it could be an option in preferences called “automatic update collections” or something similar.

How are you creating your collections after you run the search? It sounds to me as though you might be selecting the search results and then using the + button to create a static collection. This would be the appropriate move if you have no wish for the search term itself, and would like to be able to curate it. But if you wish for a dynamically generated list that is always in binder order and maintained off of your original search criteria, what you should be doing is clicking the magnifying glass in the search tool (where you can adjust search scope like label, etc) and at the very bottom select “Save Search”. Call it what you want to name the collection and now you’re done. Note this new collection has a magnifying glass icon on it, like the Search Results tab does. That signifies you are looking at a search collection, and it will perform exactly as you describe. It won’t update in real-time, this is considered a feature as it lets you work through a list of things without them immediately disappearing as soon as you remove a matching criterion (accidentally or intentionally). However whenever you click on the tab it will re-query and form a new list for you.

AWESOME! That is EXACTLY what I wanted!

Thanks!