Transfer Devonthink Scrivener

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

Just a quick query: how do you transfer files from Devonthink to a Scrivener project. I’d like to be able to search DTP, select a few documents (mostly pdf) and import them to the research folder in a Scrivener project. Drag and Drop doesn’t do it, and nothing shows up in the services menu. Presumably this is a common activity, so some of you will know exactly how to go about this.

Thanks.

Declan

2

The simplest way to do it is probably to export the files from DevonThink and then to drag them into Scrivener from the Finder. Presumably DevonThink doesn’t put the files on the pasteboard as proper files when dragging which is why Scrivener can’t pick them up directly (in fact, if I remember correctly, I think DT puts them on the pasteboard as something called “promised files”, which is perfectly valid but Scrivener has problems reading that sort of drag; I could be wrong on how DT puts files on the pasteboard though).

Best,
Keith

3

That’s fine, thanks. I had that much. It just seemed like something that might appear in a services menu, or that could be achieved in 1 rather than 2 steps. No problem though. It’s not as though 2 steps are too many. It’s just that the more elegant solutions are … well, more elegant.
Thankee,

Declan

4

When I was using DTP as an intermediary between Sente and Scrivener, I would export the notes from DTP as OPML, and import the resulting OPML file into Scrivener while the Research folder was selected.

It would be trivial to write a one-step process for it in AppleScript, except that Scrivener has only the most basic AS support (i.e. no scripting dictionary for functions like import). Someone handy with AS could script the export-import process using the User Interface Scripting functionality, although UI scripting is a bit inelegant and not entirely reliable…

5

I use DT’s Show in Finder command, and then drag from the resulting Finder view.

Obviously this works better when the files you’re looking for are all in one place in the Mac filesystem. DTP 2.0 has a better correspondence between DT’s file structure and the Mac’s.

Katherine