Default behavior when adding Attachment

[Paul Z 0]

Under the heading "Feature that would make my Evernote life better..." There should be a Preference setting to control two behaviors when adding an Attachment to a Note from the Finder.

1. "Always send original file to the Trash?" When a macOS file is added to a Note, make it a default behavior to send the original file to the macOS Trash. Can't tell you how many hours I've spent doing this manually.

2. "Always add <Tag> when adding an Attachment from the Finder." Adding a standard, user-defined Tag to a Note when attaching a file will make it easier to locate Notes with macOS File Attachments created by the user. The user might make the value of <Tag> a file Type, like "Photo," or more generic like "macOS Doc." Currently, the Search tool can find all Notes with Attachments, but cannot filter down to the ones the user attached manually by dragging from a Finder window or using "Attach Files..." menu command.

Being explicit about what happens to a file when it's attached to a Note will reduce confusion about where a file is actually stored and how to find it later. Right now, it's not clear—did the file get moved to Evernote when I attached it, or not? Are there two files or just one?

[gazumped 11,656]

Hi.  If you're editing a file that's attached to a note,  do you open the version that's attached to the note,  or do you have an 'original' file somewhere?  I thought it was standard behaviour for edited note attachment files to replace the original file when saved.

[DTLow 5,736]

18 hours ago, Paul Z said:

There should be a Preference setting to control two behaviors when adding an Attachment to a Note from the Finder.

Use an import folder; you can define the "behaviors"

 

[Paul Z 0]

It's true that, within Evernote, the Attachment can be opened in its original app, edited, and saved again within the Evernote database. However, the original file remains where it was in the Finder when it was attached. It's one of those things you learn to work around.

DTLow's suggestion about creating an "import" folder sounds elegant. I'll give it a try, see how it works for me.

[Paul Z 0]

After some fumbling and puzzling (and discovering the Evernote Dictionary for AppleScript for the first time), I came up with this Folder Action Script. It does what I intended.

Thanks, DTLow.