Best workflow for "merging" two references

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iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Best workflow for "merging" two references

Post by iandol »

Perhaps I've forgotten or my morning coffee hasn't kicked in, but if I have this situation where I have an existing reference and a blank ref from a downloaded PDF that couldn't autocomplete that I know are the same; what is the "easiest" way to "merge" them to 1 reference?
Screenshot 2023-01-06 at 09.36.14.png
Screenshot 2023-01-06 at 09.36.14.png (14.15 KiB) Viewed 2955 times
If autocomplete worked then i could use the excellent duplicate editor, but it didn't at all.
Jon
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Re: Best workflow for "merging" two references

Post by Jon »

Good question, it got me thinking. Here's one approach. Select both references and then do Refs -> Compare References. At the top of the list of fields you'll see Attachments. Click on the blue symbol and a pane opens at the bottom with the contents of the field. Click the "move to" arrow to move the attachment name from the blank reference to the one with metadata, then click the Save button. Now you'll have two references with the same attachment (and you can delete the empty one the normal way).

Jon
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iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Best workflow for "merging" two references

Post by iandol »

Yes, :D that is a perfect solution. I'm not quite sure why I missed "Compare References" (i've used if before but it slipped my memory and my caffeine-deprived scan of the Refs menu)...

A merge function would simply combine this UI with a feature that the "selected" ref would be kept and the "unselected" one would be sent to trash. But as this is only going to save one keypress, there doesn't seem a point...
Bernardo
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Joined: Wed May 15, 2019 7:52 pm

Re: Best workflow for "merging" two references

Post by Bernardo »

Ian, why not use a simple Ruby or AppleScript? Select both, check which one has the “attach…” in the title, get filepath, attach to other ref, delete first ref. Assign to a simple keystroke using Alfred and done :)
iandol
Posts: 465
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:31 pm

Re: Best workflow for "merging" two references

Post by iandol »

Indeed an option, though sometimes I am too preoccupied with my real job to nerdle my automation workflows :lol:
Bernardo
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed May 15, 2019 7:52 pm

Re: Best workflow for "merging" two references

Post by Bernardo »

iandol wrote: Tue Jan 10, 2023 8:29 am Indeed an option, though sometimes I am too preoccupied with my real job to nerdle my automation workflows :lol:
Fair enough!
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