Note: The preference settings affect all datafiles.
(Also see the chapter on using iData Pro Services.)
What Are Services?
Most applications have a Services sub-menu in their Application menu (the menu with the same name as the application). These provide functions that can be used from within other applications.
iData Pro places two Services in the Services sub-menu in Safari and other Web browsers.
The first option is Grab URL and
Selection. When you are using a
Web browser, you
can
highlight some text on the web page. Then invoke Grab URL
and
Selection from the Services
sub-menu.
The web page address (URL), page title, and highlighted text will be
added
to a new record in the datafile indicated in the Services Preferences
(see below). If you select this option in an application other than a
Web browser, the default browser will open and the page address and
page title will be taken from that, but the selected text will be taken
from the application from which the service was invoked.
The second option is Send Selection to iData. In any application that has selectable text, you can send text or graphics to a new record in an iData datafile. You don't have to leave that application to do this. Just highlight the text and/or graphic(s) and select Send Selection to iData in the application's Services sub-menu.
Activating Services
After iData Pro has been installed in the Applications folder (it must be there for Services to work), you must log out or restart to activate the iData Pro Services.
Setting Services Preferences
There are several options with Services that can be set in the iData Pro Preferences. Open Preferences from the iData Pro menu and select the Services icon.
Choose Datafiles
The iData Services function needs to know which datafile to use. Select a datafile in the popup menu for each action. If you wish, they can both be set to the same datafile.
Sounds
If you wish, feedback sounds can be set
to
tell you if the action succeeded or failed. Enable the checkbox and
select
the sound you want for the Success Sound and/or Failure Sound. This can be handy, since these services
will not cause iData to come forward.
Using Services
One thing to note about Services: text must be highlighted for Services menu items to be active.
Key Commands
We have set command-shift-R for Grab URL and Selection and command-@ (command-shift-2) for Send Selection to iData. There were not a lot of choices available to us. These should work for most people, but they can potentially be usurped by other applications.
