Importing from Info Select

[FlagTech]

I've begun importing topics from Info Select (ISW). It's a big deal for me, since I've accumulated around 15 years of tidbits of data, contacts, emails, archived emails, old customer orders, and a more in ISW.

Here are few thoughts on things that might ease importing--whether from ISW or many other systems/text files/etc.

You probably know that ISW and some other PIMs allow Notes (tree nodes containing text) to automatically get their node label from the 1st line of text in the Note. UR supports this for Web pages; would be nice if it was an option for Notes also. This would benefit most kinds of text imports (plain text, .RTF, .DOC files, HTML, etc., whether from the clipboard or a file), because very often the text being imported has a title on the first line. Please tell me if UR already supports this & I've just missed the option setting that turns it on.

Something I miss from ISW is the ability to change the color and font of tree nodes. Flags are nice but don't offer the same variety for highlighting the status of items, so a quick visual scan up/down the tree doesn't convey as much information as it did in ISW.

Another thing I miss: ISW nodes can have a ToDo attribute applied--very similar to UR's flags. The difference (and it's a big one) is that the ToDo attribute automatically propagates to parent nodes when those parent nodes are collapsed. In other words, if a child node has the ToDo attribute applied to it and that branch is expanded, showing the child, then the ToDo flags the child node. But if that branch is collapsed so that the child isn't showing, the ToDo flag appears at the parent node...which lets you immediately see that either the parent or one if its child nodes is flagged and needs attention.

Thoughts about these as feature possibilities?

To repeat from my earlier post though, my appreciation for UR continues to grow. Nice product.

[kinook]

When pasting text/RTF into the tree or importing via File | Import -> A text or rich text file, UR does use the first line of each item for the item title. See here for instructions for Info Select: http://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=1077

When importing HTML, PDF, XLS, DOC, PPT, or EML files, UR will use the page/document title for the item title if the related option at Tools | Options | Import (More) is checked.

We will take your other suggestions into consideration.

Thanks.

[FlagTech]

OK, I see. Pasting from the clipboard works fine: if the contents of a text file containing three lines of text is copied to the clipboard, then pasted into the Data Explorer pane, it comes in as a new Item containing 3 lines of text and the tree node named the same as the 1st line.

The File > Import instructions you linked to were confusing to me initially. I didn't get that two carriage returns need to be entered in the String Delimiter box to make it work; I see that now.

FYI: another automation feature that would help, is if there were an option to automatically change the node name whenever the 1st line of the text changes in a note. That's how ISW works, and it's really handy.... If I start writing an article an article about citrus fruits, with the title "Citrus Fruits of the World", then change my mind and re-title it "Growing Kumquats for Fun and Profit", the node name would automatically to reflect the change.

This need to change node names happens often. I have various lists contained fully within single notes. Often the content and purpose of the list begins to change, so I re-title it to reflect that change. It would help if the tree reflected the change as well.

[kinook]

This is an extra step, but if you select the new text in the item (Shift+Home if you just typed a new title), and choose Item | Rename To | Selected Text on the menu (or press Shift+F2), it will rename the item to the selected text.