Note taking in Tinderbox

I don’t, but it’s probably time to take that step too. (I have used TextExpander for years and maybe will see if it can handle this. Update TextExpander does the job, thanks.)

Smile suggests not using TextExpander for scripts with dialogs – second paragraph on that page. If you’re not having issues, of course don’t worry about the warning. That’s why I removed TextExpander as a suggestion from my post.

You can also assign a gesture (Corner Click Bottom Right in my case) for activating an AppleScript using the amazing BetterTouchTool app. You can use for example the predefined action “Run AppleScript (enter directly as text)” without having the need to assign a custom keyboard shortcut to the AppleScript.

Also you can currently cheaply buy Keyboard Maestro as a part of a 10 app bundle https://creatable.co/bundle/pick-a-bundle-2017.

Or pay $36 directly for KM.

Update to say that I took the plunge and paid for Keyboard Maestro; have set up this script with a hotkey sequence; and everything is going swimmingly. Yes, KM handles these script-dialogs more easily than TextExpander.

Still having the phenomenon that each time I add a note to a container using this script, I end up with another tab in the window too. But that is manageable – easy to trim the tabs back when they become too numerous.

Because the URL in this line

property inboxURL : "tinderbox://demo/?view=map+select=1492694214;"

tells Tinderbox to open that document and open that tab. Tinderbox does not parse the environment and decide “aha, I have that tab already open and ready”. It just creates the tab regardless. If you paste your local version of that URL into a browser and hit refresh repeatedly, you’d get the same result – new tab + new tab + new tab …

btw … now that you’ve joined the KM crew you’ll find lots of reasons to wonder why you never did that before … and you can eventually replace the script, above, with a KM macro.

Thanks, makes sense (the multi-tab explanation).

On Keyboard Maestro, had thought that TextExpander was taking care of my normal text-only macro needs, but I already can sense the orders of magnitude difference in possibilities with KM. The temptation with these tools, as we all know, is to spend 10x more time learning new techniques than you recorded a “save” once you figure them out. But I am sure that a while from now I’ll report back on having recorded a KM macro that “solves” the oh-so-burdensome multi-tab problem. :smirk:

My reading of the code – and a quick trial – says that opening the URL

tinderbox://untitled/Foo/BAR?view=map+select=1492822569;

will select an existing map tab if a map tab exists whose parent is /Foo/BAR. In your example,

tinderbox://untitled/?view=map+select=1492822569;

will select an existing map tab for the root - a top level map. If there’s no such tab, we create a new tab.

Mark B – And to make this very specific, here’s the setup I have:

  • Filename is Inbox.TBX
  • The container I have created is at the root level, and its name conveniently is INBOX
  • The relevant line in the script is: tinderbox://Inbox/?view=outline+select=1492717748;

Are you saying that I should move the collection container INBOX away from the root level, find the right URL for it at this new location, and adjust the script accordingly? Or should I leave it where it is and adjust something in the current path statement in the script?

Thanks!

Update Mark B, I have tried the remedy that I think you have suggested, putting in this line in the script (for a different file and inbox):
tinderbox://ProjectsAndTasks/DATA?view=outline+select=1478230117;

This is where the file is named ProjectsAndTasks, and the root level container is DATA. The container I am aiming for is just below that, so its immediate and only parent is DATA. But this is still giving me the new-tab-each-time result, fwiw.

This link no longer works (“Warning! Domain mapping upgrade for this domain not found.”). Is the script available elsewhere? Is there a better alternative? Thx — and sorry for bumping this aging thread.

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The new address is How to Create an Inbox in Tinderbox – John Sidiropoulos

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:sunflower: Thanks John! Looking forward to putting it to use.

And how can a single agent be deactivated? Is it writing false in $AgentAction?

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Set $AgentPriority to -1

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Or, use the pop-up on the Get Info/agent pop-over or the Query tab of the Action Inspector, or use the Quickstamp dialog (or a Stamp) to set $AgentPriority.

Note: as with the previous suggestion above, these all act on the same underlying system attribute $AgentPriority.

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Hello, @johnsidi I get an error when trying to reach the link you provided.
Thanks!

There’s an updated link in post #38 in this thread

Thanks! That link works.

With the Watch folder feature, any note writing application can serve as an Inbox.

Curiota, for example, can successfully deliver notes to Tinderbox inbox. What you need to do is just watch the Curiota storage folder.

My favorite part: the Scratchpad of Scrivener can be used to inbox to Tinderbox as well as scrivener. You can scratch with the scratchpad of Scrivener and have them all inside Tinderbox as well.

isn’t it so cool?

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My only issue with Watching Curiota is that Curiota uses a heavily nested folder structure that can bury notes 6 levels down (Curiota/Collections/Collection Name/Notes/Year/Month/note).

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