I'm not sure it's appropriate to use Tinderbox to manage and organize local files

On the Mac, my files were cluttered and unorganized, and I wanted to put some ZIP and DMG files in Tinderbox and back up this TBX so I could back up ZIP and DMG at the same time.

But I was confused because I couldn’t export the zip file when I was dragging it around in my notes.

This makes me very confused, whether I can use tinderbox to organize ZIP, DMG files, whether I can use tinderbox to backup files?

Tinderbox is designed primarily for textual annotation, although images can be inserted into a notes text. For managing files, a more appropriate tool is DEVONthink.

You can use File-type attributes to store the location of files, but I would not advise using Tinderbox to store the files themselves as it is not intended for that purpose.

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That is nearly the equivalent of adding a zip file to a txt file and then trying to export it again from there.

Seems like you are attempting to expand the Tinderbox approach and apply it to files, rather than text notes. As @mwra and @Bernard-0 indicate, this is not workable.

Really speaking, this is a file management issue. There are dozens of blog posts on the web that address various approaches to dealing with data file proliferation and bloat - all of them acknowledge that the job demands effort, trial/error, and consistent housekeeping practice. There’s not a “one size fits all” solution out there.

You could look into EagleFiler for organizing files, as it handles a wide variety of file formats and annotation. You might also just use a good zip application like BetterZip to bundle a bunch of files, and peruse the contents later without needing to unzip the sets. Good luck.

Edit: this article might be a good starting point - 5 Apps You Can Use to Take Tags to the Next Level on Your Mac

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Well, I’m not trying to use tinderbox to manage local files.

You can also point to the location of the file through the File attribute.

However, I have a problem that I still don’t understand, that is, how to export the txt document that I drag directly?

IIRC you can’t export files that are directly dropped into $Text attribute (except images).

What do you mean is that you can only export pictures and text, and nothing else?

@ShiJianhui is correct, you can’t export such a file. Indeed, I suspect all you’ve embedded in the example in your screen grab is a JPEG of the file icon, not the text file.

Tinderbox is not a file store!

You can embed some image types in $Text but that is not the same as using Tinderbox as a general file store.

In fairness, there is nothing written that says this is possible, so it’s worth checking avilable documentation a bit before assuming too much. :slight_smile:

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