This describes use of plain text files (e.g. '.txt.'). Rich Text (RTF) files are not supported for drag/drop
Dragging onto an Outline, Map view
Dragging a file onto a major view window creates a new note whose $Name is the filename of the dropped file. The new file is added at the top of the outline; i.e. $OutlineOrder position '1', or first in sibling order if the view focus is a container. Chart view does not support a general drop, but also see below. When a text file is dropped, Tinderbox will try and find embedded formats: see 'other types of data' below.
Dragging onto a note icon in Outline or Chart view
Dragging a file onto a note icon in a view window creates a new note whose $Name is the filename of the dropped file. Use the normal note-positioning tell-back to see see if a note is added as a sibling or child of the note under the drop. Note that Map view does not support this degree of placement.
In Outline view, dropping onto a note icon is just that: the icon at left and not its badge or title.
Dragging into the $Text area of the text pane
Copy the note's contents and paste instead, otherwise the dropped note is embedded in $Text—as opposed to extracting and adding the text therein.
Other types of text data
Be aware Tinderbox handles drops of other textual data in particular ways:
- Browser URLs (including local pseudo-protocols used by DEVONThink, Bookends, Yojimbo and other apps).
- Address Book info & vcards.
- Emails.
- Tab-delimited or CSV tabular data. ('spreadsheet' import)
- HTML: this is teated as plain text, i.e. the resulting $Text shows the source code and not as rendered HTML.
- OPML files.
- Old version of the app supported drag-drop of tab-indented outlines but this is not supported in current v5 releases.
- Bookends selections.
- FreeMind '.mm' files.
- tabbed outlines (tab per outline level). Produces nested notes as per tabbed outline.
- iCal calendar events.
Text formats not supported
These formats not supported for drag/drop:
- RTF (Rich Text Format).
- Word-processing app-specific documents, e.g. for Word, Pages, etc.
- Scrivener project files, although they can be opened directly from the File menu.
Styled text such as RTF, word processor test, rendered HTML can be imported by copy/paste to the $Text of a selected note; there is no automated method for multiple imports of such data.