Note: The preference settings affect all datafiles.
(See Chapter 1-6 for information on using iData2 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 2.1 adds two Services to the Services sub-menu in Safari and other Web browsers. The first item 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 select Send Selection to iData in the application's Services sub-menu.
The second is Grab URL with Selection. When you are using a Web browser you can highlight some text on the web page. Then invoke Grab URL with 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.
Activating Services
After iData 2.1 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 2 Services.
Setting Services Preferences
There are several options with Services that can be set in the iData 2 Preferences. Open Preferences from the iData 2 menu and select the Services icon.
Choose Datafiles
The iData Services need to know which datafile to use. Select a datafile in the popup menu for each action. If you wish, they can be set to the same datafile.
Sounds
If you like, 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.
Using Services
One thing to note about Services, text must be highlighted for Services 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 to us. Hopefully these will work for most people, but can be usurped by other applications.
