Easy drag n drop pdf from attached reference to email

[nanoboy]

I like the attachment function a lot so I can organise all my papers within Bookends, without having to build a folder system myself in Finder.

However, if I want to send a paper to someone either by email or drag it to someone's USB stick, within Bookends I can't find an easy way to do this.

The only thing I could do is under "Action" then choose "email..." then a new message window from Mail will be invoked with the .pdf file already attached in it. But, with it comes a black colour background that I could not get rid of. (See attached image)

Also apart from within the black colour area, I could not move the cursor to the white plain area, therefore I could not even type normal text in the Mail message.

I would really like to see a new way to easily drag (copy) an attached .pdf out from Bookends (which is good for organisation and searching) to Finder window and Mail.

Thanks.

[Jon]

Hi,

The black background in the Mail message is a known bug introduced in a recent update in Mail.

But it's easy to do what you want with drag and drop from Bookends. Here are two ways:

1. Display the pdf in the lower pane of the List View window. Make sure "Use WebKit to display pdfs" is unchecked (Action menu). Drag and drop the pdf to the email.
2. Display Attachment Inspector. Drag and drop the pdf to the email.

Jon
Sonny Software

[nanoboy]

Thanks Jon. Problem easily solved!

The "Use WebKit to display pdfs" was checked by default, and I didn't know that prohibited me to drag the .pdf to anywhere at all (I have obviously tried before asking on here).

[Jon]

BTW, here's a link that discusses the bug in Mail (seems to be in WebKit, actually):

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20007447-263.html

And here's a workaround mentioned at the end of the article:

"Until this is addressed by Apple, there is a workaround that can be used. When the script is completed and the attachment is appended to the message, go to the Format menu in Mail and choose "Make Plain Text" (also done by pressing shift-command-T). This will get rid of the HTML formatting, and leave the message with just the text and the attachments. Using this option again will re-enable Rich text in the message body and allow for colors, stylings, and other formatting options, but this time without the black background."

Jon
Sonny Software

[nanoboy]

I would suggest to make "Use WebKit to display pdfs" in the Action menu unchecked by default in your next update, so that people like me who likes to drag and drop stuff in the Mac fashion would have it to work the first time we try doing it.

Cheers.

[Jon]

What about those who like to copy/paste text from the pdf to notes (or where ever)? I'm not sure if one default is more obvious than the other.

Jon
Sonny Software

[nanoboy]

That's true.

What about in the Action Menu, add a "Enable pdf attachment drag and drop" option? That'd be more obvious and if I had seen that the first time I wouldn't have needed to post on here in the first place.

Cheers.

[Jon]

I think that's too specific -- there are a lot more things that differ between using WebKit or not. For example, I never drag and drop attachments, but I do use the contextual menu all the time to Detach, Move the attachment to the Trash, and Reveal in Finder.

Jon
Sonny Software