Feedback and a few items for the wishlist

Hello!

I downloaded the demo a few hours ago – now I play a little with the features and see how I can integrate EF into my workflow. So far, I really like EF.

While surfing the web, I print loads of pages into PDF files for later reference. Sometimes I save a Webarchive if I do need the links inside the page later on. My primary usage would be the organization of all those files (right now I use a bunch of folders).

What I like most on EF is its support for a structure (unlike Yojimbo) and the PDF service for printing files directly into the EF library.

But I do have a few questions and feature requests:

"From" field
Webarchives: The “From” field should contain the complete URL, not online the domain.
Save PDF to Eagle Filer (from Safari): The “From” field should contain the URL rather then the user’s name. I guess this is limited to what Mac OS X offers.

Searching
The search field is great (as mentioned by another user: I think that the default should be “anywhere”).
I wonder how useful it might be a few weeks/months down the road: How about an “advanced search” like the Finder’s Command-F, where one is able to create complex search queries?
BTW: I really miss that feature in Mail.app (only available through creation of a Smart Mailbox) and do hope that 10.5 will bring an improvement here…

Startup
The application should remember which files where open the last time and restore the session on the next startup.

Automator support
Are where any plans for an Automator support? For example, adding processed files to an EF library at the end of a workflow.

Status bar
How about a status bar stating the path to the currently selected file? I like OmniOutliner’s behavior on this.

Renaming
The behavior of renaming the “Title” field should work like in the Finder or in iTunes (one click to select the row, another one to change to the edit mode).

TextClippings
Some of the clippings inside my clippings folder were imported, others not.
Error message: “Unsupported File Type – well.textClipping”
I can provide you with the text clipping, if needed.

Minimize of panels
It would be nice if I could minimize a panel to its title bar only.

Save PDF to EagleFiler
The best feature of all, but unfortunately, it’s not reliable: I was able to save a number of web pages as PDF to EF, except some (tried multiple times and they do worked in Yojimbo). Examples:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,druck-432581,00.html
http://zeus.zeit.de/text/online/2006/40/Lebenslagen
Import via Drop Pad worked (after saving the PDF on the desktop).
Saving as Webarchive worked, but I’m not a friend of those. BTW: It would be great if the capture key for Safari would optionally support “Save PDF to EF” instead of Webarchives (maybe a different behavior if the alt key is pressed?).

When the page title contains a colon, the file name will contain a slash. In my opinion, file names shouldn’t contain special characters like colons, spaces, or slashes (I really like the “sanitize” function of DropDMG).
Right now, I have to “clean” every file name by hand (does anyone know of an Automator action for this one?).

Spotlight Comments
How about transferring Spotlight comments into the “Notes” field after adding a file via the Drop Pad?

Library
If I sort by file type, the items are sorted by those (as expected) but I do not have an option how to sort the items within that. The files are sorted by date as second priority (first priority being file type) but I would like to be able to sort them by title or file name as second priority.

Screenshots
Sometimes I just need to make a screenshot of a beautiful web-page and annotate it. It would be cool to make a screenshot of the current window or even a rectangle, save that to EF and annotate it there. Imagine a feature within Snapz Pro X which allows to choose EF as a target rather than a folder… That would seriously kick some ass!

Regards,
Stefan

Made on a Mac.

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I agree with most of your suggestions.

Why? The whole URL is available if you use “Copy Source URL” or “Open Source URL.” I think the domain is a better match for the From field, where you want something short to view in the column and sort by.

When importing a PDF, EagleFiler sets the From to the PDF’s author, and OS X puts the user’s name in the author field when you print to PDF.

At present, Automator’s built-in “Open Finder Items” action should work if you tell it to “Open with” EagleFiler. It will add the items to the current library. I plan to add EagleFiler-specific Automator actions in future versions.

I have OmniOutliner, but I’m not sure what you’re referring to. If you need to see the path of a file, just hover over it in the records list and watch for the tooltip.

There are several different kinds of textClipping files, and the current version of EagleFiler only supports the kinds I’ve encountered. Please send yours to eaglefiler@c-command.com and I’ll add support for them.

Do you mean like OmniOutliner’s Inspector?

I believe the problem with these is the extremely long file names. I’ve already fixed this bug for the next version.

Sorry, I don’t think that’s possible.

Agreed. Probably the best way to do this at present is to take and annotate the screenshot using FlySketch and then import it into EagleFiler.

Agreed, the domain only is useful for sorting or (maybe later) searching or tagging. I didn’t thought of the “Copy Source URL” feature.

Sorry, the sentence about OO should have gone below “Startup”:
“The application should remember which files where open the last time and restore the session on the next startup. I like OmniOutliner’s behavior on this.”

Exactly.

Great news!

Thanks,
Stefan

Further suggestions
WebArchives
When viewing within EF: Enable Command-Plus and Command-Minus for change of font size

Capture Key
File the captured item inside the selected folder of the foreground library rather than treating it as “unfiled”.

I guess you’re already having quite a list of whishes for future versions – maybe too much whishes for a single update. Do you mind giving us a hint what to expect from future updates? Or which features you need to postpone?
Of course I would fully understand if you cannot share your plans (business secret) but I thought I gave it a try! :slight_smile:

Thanks,
Stefan

I like to use the “unfiled” folder as my inbox. As I go along I add stuff and when I get a chance I go through and file everything that is in the inbox.

I’d be afraid that filing into the selected folder could end up causing more work. If you forget which folder is selected then things could end up in the wrong place. It’s another step to remember which folder you have selected before hitting f1. I like the total lack of thought that is required now

Those are my two cents. :slight_smile:

The alternative for me would be: After one pushes the capture key, a window would pop-up which would ask the user:

  • where to file the item
  • which tags to assign
  • what to name the item
  • what notes to store together with the item.
    Yojimbo does this (“Quick Input Panel”) and I think it already has been suggested for EF by other users.

I would like to file items directly after capturing (without switching to EF), like some kind of “fire and forget”. But I do understand your preference/workflow.

This is on the to-do list.

I think this is too error-prone. Instead, I’m planning to have it (optionally) ask you where to capture the files to, and this will also provide the opportunity to ask you for other metadata.

I have enough wishlist items (including ones I thought of during development of 1.0) to keep me busy for years, I think. :slight_smile: That said, I think the next update will address most of the common ones. I’d rather not discuss the specifics of what will be in each release.

EagleFiler 1.1 addresses these issues.

As of EagleFiler 1.3.4 the default is Anywhere, and as of 1.4 you can do complex searches by creating smart folders.

This is an option in EagleFiler 1.4.