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View Full Version : Drag / Drop Files Out of Ultra Recall


bkonia
11-25-2004, 11:43 PM
I just encountered a pretty severe limitation in Ultra Recall. I had previously imported a file into UR and I wanted to use that file as an attachment in an email. So, I dragged the file from UR into an Outlook email. When you do this from Windows Explorer, it automatically inserts the file as an attachment to the email. However, when I dragged the file from UR, it did not create an attachment. Instead, it just copied the text description of the Info Item, which in this case was the file name.

That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part was that the file then disappeared entirely from Ultra Recall. It seems that it treated treated this drag/drop operation as a "Move" rather than a copy. Fortunately I had a backup of the file saved somewhere else, but both these problems need to be addressed:

1. Dragging a file out of UR should copy the actual file to the target, not just the text of the Info Item.

2. The default behavior for this action should be "Copy," not "Move."

One of the most appealing features of UR is the idea that you can bring all your files into the UR database, rather than having them reside in the Windows file system. However, if there's no easy way to get imported files back out of the database, this functionality is essentially useless.

kinook
11-27-2004, 06:19 PM
The easiest way to send document(s) from Ultra Recall as attachments is to use File | Send (alternately you could use SendTo from the Explorer context menu [Ctrl+E or Ctrl+Right click], and the this context menu can also be used for any other functionality that is provided by the shell for a particular document type).

Another way to export documents is using the Export Wizard, accessible using File | Export.

Currently the only formats that are available for dragging are 1) text (which is the title) and 2) a proprietary format used for dragging Info Items within and between Ultra Recall Info Databases. The default drop effect is governed by the target application; if it signals a move action, then Ultra Recall will delete the source Info Item when completing the drop action (this is an undoable operation within Ultra Recall). To enforce a copy on drag, hold down the Ctrl key when dragging.

We do also intend to support native drag & drop of documents out of Ultra Recall in a future release.