Jasondm007

@vitor & @dfay Thanks for your thoughtful responses! And, sorry for the slow response on my end - family emergency this weekend, but everyone’s in good shape now. @dfay Thanks for the helpful workflow details. To be honest, I’m one of those dinosaurs that still writes his citations out. Don’t get me wrong, I hate it. I just never bothered to adopt a citation manager because they were never well equipped to deal with the style that I most frequently use (Bluebook). However, that seems to have changed over the last few years, so perhaps I ought to consider taking the plunge. That would help with the metadata and filename issues. For me, the metadata issue came to head when considering whether to adopt DEVONthink Office Pro. While I have always maintained a pretty simple filename approach for my PDFs (journals, chapters, books, etc.) and corrected their metadata as needed, DEVONthink’s displays made me realize how many old PDFs that I have on my computer that are still a mess. Unfortunately, DEVONthink’s tool for correcting PDF metadata is terrible, so I was hoping to use Alfred. Prior to testing out DEVONthink, I used to just correct PDFs’ metadata through Adobe Acrobat Pro (one at a time … or through PDF Expert, as I read them). Although I’m not sure if I will ultimately adopt DEVONthink Office Pro, I’d love to use Alfred to visualize and correct metadata in PDFs. I am still a little surprised that a workflow didn’t already exist for this issue. Relatedly, have you guys considered using DEVONthink Office Pro to help organize your files? At the moment, I use a pretty intricate series of folders (and aliases/shortcuts where there is overlap). And, I also have a few tags that use as visual cues in Finder for the more important files - and because my eyes are terrible - but I’ve never done much with Finder’s tagging system, in large part, because it’s not built for more complex tag hierarchies (you can’t visualize them easily, they’re a pain to update and reorganize, etc.). While Alfred is great for supplementing Finder, there’s only so much that it can do on this front (searching for and applying variations of tags, etc.). This is what pushed me to consider using DEVONthink Office Pro. Simply being able to see my tags and fluidly apply and reorganize them is super helpful. It gets around the complicated Finder folder structures (and the stupid alias/shortcut approach that I use to avoid duplicating PDFs - which comes up a lot because of all the interdisciplinary work that I do). In addition to organizing my PDFs, I also wanted to replace Evernote - which I use for web-clippings - and the Notes app - which I use for short notes on everything. That way, I could place everything in the same receptacle, and apply the same tagging structure to it (everything except OmniOutliner, anyways, which I use for outlining research projects, teaching outlines, etc.). Have you ever considered using DEVONthink for these purposes? I’ve only used the application for a few days, but I have mixed feelings about it. My knee-jerk reaction is that, if they hired a good UX designer, it could probably be the best app ever created for the mac (no offense Alfred, I still love you). But there are so many stupid little things about it, that I’m not sure if I’m going to adopt it. DEVONthink feels like it’s capable of doing anything … but everything requires an AppleScript or some weird workaround to accomplish really basic stuff (I’m not talking about its aesthetics either … just basic usability issues). Is BibDesk’s tagging system comparable to DEVONthink’s? Can you create complex hierarchal tagging systems to find everything for your projects? I’m a Scrivener user, so that complicates things a little. I usually have to export things to Word at the end, anyway; so, it shouldn’t bee too bad. If you were to start new, today, would you use BibDesk again? If not, which app would you go with?

@dfay You deal with a ton of PDFs, right? What do you use to edit their metadata? Thanks!

I understood what you meant. And, at a high level of generality, I understand what's going on in the workflows you suggested (which are great, btw). I just don't understand if what I suggested is even the right tool, let alone the best approach to updating a PDFs metadata through Alfred. Thanks!

@vitor I'm afraid these examples are a little over my head. Honestly, any Alfred-based metadata editing method would work just fine for me.

Yes - In order of importance, I always update the (1) Title and (2) Author fields, and sometimes the (3) Subject and (4) Keyword fields. However, I don't always update them at the same time. That's why I was initially thinking of creating a sperate file action for each field using the EXIFTool. However, I couldn't figure out how to attach it to an argument correctly (i.e., the input from the user that would be triggered once the file action was triggered, allowing them to input the value for the field, like the author's names), and still get the shell script's syntax to work. For example, it might look something like the following: File action Arg/Vars Utility - save variable with Name "FilePath" and Value {query} Keyword w. space & Argument Required - this is where the user could input the authors' names, separating each with a comma. So, for an article with two authors, it might look something like this: "FN1 LN1, FN2 LN2" And this is where I get lost ... Do I save this new argument as a variable or can I dump it right into the shell script? Run NSAppleScript - Depending on the previous step, you could essentially run something like this: exiftool -author="AUTHORS NAMES FROM PREVIOUS STEP" {var:FilePath}. However, this syntax would have to be changed. I'm sure there are a ton of other ways to update a PDF's metadata, like using the PDFTK utility or the XATTR command. I don't really care if the solution uses the EXIFTool. I'm just throwing it out as an option here because I know it would work if I could figure out steps 4 and 5. I've used it through Terminal in the past (and have it installed). I'm just new at scripting, and Alfred for that matter. Thanks again @vitor !

No - the fields' values change each time (e.g., different authors, titles, etc.). Ideally - it'd be great to see them first, but this isn't necessarily required. Thanks!

By chance, does anyone have a workflow for editing the metadata of a PDF that they'd be willing to share (Fields: Title, Author, Subject, Keywords )? I have a huge library of PDFs for academic articles, and I am constantly stuck updating the metadata in new PDFs that I download. To edit these fields, at the moment, I have to open the entire file in an all-purpose PDF editor, like Acrobat Pro or PDF Expert. However, I was hoping to find an easier way of doing this within Alfred. Ideally, I'd love to be able to both view and edit those specific metadata fields within Alfred (i.e., without having to rely on Finder, Terminal, or some other tool). If Alfred's not good for these tasks, what tools do others use? I imagine there are lots of researchers, journalists, students, etc, with similar problems. Thanks for any help you can lend!

@nikivi Did you ever find a solution to this issue? Like yourself, it drives me crazy, too. I'd love to attach a hotkey directly to the Quit function. Just searching in Alfred using the keyword brings in unnecessary clutter. I've tried one or two workflows in the past - from Packal, I think - but I remember them being unusually slow, at least compared to Alfred's built in Quit function. Thanks!

@dfay Thanks for taking a crack at it! @deanishe Thanks for the suggestion, too. It works!! So, for others that might be interested, the following modification to @dfay's code does the trick: import json, os, subprocess, sys cmd = ['./tag', '-r', '*'] + json.loads(os.getenv('filesList')) subprocess.call(cmd) Thanks a ton, @dfay & @deanishe!!

@dfay Thanks for sharing the link to the command line tool! I tried adapting the JSON approach in the workflow above: (1) removing the list filter, and (2) updating the second python script. But I still haven't had any luck. As modified, the workflow looks something like this: And, the second python script now reads as follows: import json, os, subprocess, sys cmd = ['./tag', '-r \*', json.loads(os.getenv('filesList')) subprocess.call(cmd) Any idea what I might have overlooked? I'm a newbie, and assume that it's something with the python script. To make things easier, here's a link to a workflow containing the original process, and the new one outlined above: https://cl.ly/94d9b6ccc66d Thanks for your help!

@Simon A Thanks for sharing this workflow! Is there any way to get it working for more than one file (i.e., if you highlight more than one file in Finder)? Thanks for your help!

@dfay By chance, did you have a file action that removes all the tags on the selected file(s)? I used your JSON string method for adding tags, and love it! However, I haven't been able to figure out how to remove tags. Thanks for your help!

@vitor Thanks for the suggestion! That would work just fine, too. @Tsunami I'm starting to wonder if it's an issue with dual screens, as it seems to be working fine from my laptop. In any event, thank you both for all of your help!

@xilopaint Works like a charm! Thanks a ton!!

@jordic Thanks for posting this workflow! Does it still work in Alfred 3 (& current Mac OS)? On my machine, I can only get the file action to work for 1 file at a time (not multiples). In addition, the search feature is a little sporadic. However, it might just be my machine. Thanks again!

@N0vi - Thanks for posting your Menu Bar Activate workflow to Packal. It's great and has made using the "Move focus to menu bar" feature much easier. This isn't an issue with the workflow, but I was wondering if you - or anyone else - knows how to get this feature working with apps in fullscreen (i.e., where the menu bar doesn't show up until after the cursor is moved to the top of the screen)? For example, if you're working in full screen with Safari, the menu bar is completely hidden. For some odd reason, Apple's shortcut to "Move focus to menu bar" doesn't work in these cases (and, therefore, neither does the workflow). I'm not sure why Apple did this, but it has made it rather difficult to use the feature. In any event, I was just curious if there was a way for your workflow to work in fullscreen mode? Is it possible to reveal the menu somehow in these circumstances (e.g., by mimicking the cursor or some other method)? Thanks for your help!! PS - For others reading this post, the "Move focus to menu bar" shortcut can be found in your System Preferences (System Preferences - Keyboard - Shortcuts - Keyboard - Move focus to menu bar) (third shortcut from the top of the list). PPS - I have not turned on the feature to "Automatically hide and show the menu bar" (in System Preferences - General - Automatically hide and show the menu bar) ... so I have no idea why it's even doing this. To be clear, I like the fact that it's hidden in full screen, I'm just confused why the "Move focus to menu bar" shortcut would not automatically reveal it.

@xilopaint - Oops - Let's chalk that one up to exhaustion. In the previous post, it should have said: 2-15, 1 As for the generic reference point, "blank" would be great, too. That would make the following syntax work: 2-blank, 1 In any event, I'm not sure if it's helpful (to you or anybody else), but I created a file action that counts the pages in the pdf and then copies the total to the clipboard. Since I wasn't sure if these things would be incorporated into your workflow, it made it easy for me to run this file action and then yours. I'm an Alfred/scripting neophyte, so the workflow comes with the usual caveats ... File Action: https://cl.ly/2r3E2k3p243F Cheers!

@deanishe No problem. Thanks!

@deanishe I use this workflow a ton. Thanks for posting it! By chance, is it possible to view recently closed tabs with this workflow (i.e., listed like the "History - Recently Closed" menu)? There's a lot under the hood of this workflow that's a little beyond my skill set, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks for your help!

@xilopaint Of course! If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know. All the best

@dfay Thanks for the heads up! I'll poke around the Omni Group's forums to see if anybody has posted anything there. All the best!

@xilopaint I love this workflow! Thanks a ton for sharing it. Quick Question: Is there any way to quickly view a selected PDF's info (e.g., total page numbers - or other info)? For example, I love using your workflow to quickly move the first page of a PDF to the end of the document. While the Slice file action (single file) is great for this, its syntax requires knowing the total number of pages in the PDF (e.g., for a 15 page PDF, it would be 2-15, 1). Is there any way to get the page count through the workflow (kMDItemNumberOfPages - I think ...)? I understand that the "Get Info" default file action in Alfred can do this, but it's a little clunky to manually open/close, etc. I was just wondering if the workflow displayed this info internally. If not - and, of course, assuming that you're looking for suggestions for future updates - I was thinking that it might be cool to display the relevant file information in the file action's title. So, for example, in the slice file action for a single file, it might do something like this: Current Title: Enter page numbers and/or page ranges (e.g. 2, 5-8). New Title: Enter page numbers and/or page ranges (e.g. 2, 5-8) of X pages. And, for the resolution or size file actions of a single file, it might also provide their respective details. Alternatively, adding generic reference points to the end of a document might also do the trick (e.g., last, blank for remaining pages, etc.). So, users could do the same thing without knowing the actual page count (e.g., last, 2-). Thanks again for posting the workflow! It's awesome!!

@marlowe By chance, do you know of any OmniOutliner scripts for searching (a specific outline, all outlines, etc.)? You're one of the few people I've seen post about OmniOutliner, so I figured I'd ask. There are a few great OmniFocus search workflows, but I haven't been able to find any for OmniOutliner yet. And, to be honest, I hate OmniOutliner's built-in search! Thanks for any help you can lend!

@40-02 I'm afraid I don't think you can go that route, as Alfred uses Spotlight's indexed metadata for its own results (i.e., and you're effectively telling Spotlight, not to index several things that you'd probably like to see in Alfred's results, like Images, Folders, etc.) (See #3 - https://www.alfredapp.com/help/troubleshooting/indexing/)

@sballin Is there any way to get the workflow to search the full body of the notes? At the moment, it looks like it's only searching for matches with (1) the first line of text in a note, and (2) folder names. Thanks again!