What does Cmd+space do in OmniFocus? (I don't have the app). Is the problem with sending info to Tinderbox while in a different app?

I've written OS services (using Automator) that will put the contents of a text selection in the current app into the front open TB document, if that helps.

I mainly wrote it for clipping text - Safari was the original test case.  You type something in the app you're using, and then use the Services menu to send the data to Tinderbox.  It's not sophisticated, but then it's an hour fiddling with Automator instead of $$$ of bespoke application development.  

See more here. It worked on Snow Leopard and now I'm on Mountain Lion it sees to work but throw an error. So you may need to test a bit further (using Automator) to tweak it for your OS.

Later: it seems Lion/Mountain Lion break Automator generated services written in Snow Leopard. I think it's related to sandboxing but there seems no info on how to resolve the issue.

I'm forced to eat my words - the services do work - we just had to work around an obscure AppleScript issue. See here for more detail and for links to revised (and tested) 'clip-selection to' services for Tinderbox and Twig.

Doesn't seem to work with Tbx6

The reason my clip to Tinderbox automator action fails, even when written for the new TB6 UI (as inspected with UI Browser), is that it appears v6 is not currently AppleScriptable - or so AppleScript Debugger tells me.

M. Renauld: Merci! J'aime toujours vos images belle de Tinderbox.

I've recently been experimenting with a similar solution, to replace a "dump everything in it" mega-Tinderbox that I used heavily for several years, until a few years ago when it sort of got sick and died. When TB6 came, I found I was able again to open and use it, but have realized it got a bit too unwieldy with the combination of everything from GTD project lists to journals to book notes to odds and ends to a large compendium of 'how to use TBX" notes and emails and so on. Not sure what I'm going to do with it.

But the problem of rapid entry of on the fly notes remains. What I've been trying is a bit different. I merged, cleaned up and converted my various DEVONthink databases into one master database; this works well for a sort of "everything in my life" database with main headings of personal things (including project files on everything from medical records to notes on the best riding mower to buy), a professional articles collection in psychology, a large set of misc articles I call the "Library" file (history, public affairs, climate change, books to read and notes on books), a professional practice file, and a large set of notes on various apps and software and Mac OS issues. (Incidentally, Tinderbox docs seem to live happily in DEVONthnk and are loosely searchable there; not so in Evernote.)

One key point: there is a nice DEVONthink widget that allows for instant addition of notes to the database. There are other ways to drag things into DEVONthink quickly, such as dragging a quote or link to the dock icon, etc. It allows me to catalog and tag them and add notes, etc., on the fly.

Where Tinderbox comes in is in the "son of Intellect," the original huge file being on hold for now. The new one is also arranged like a sort of Commonplace book by date but without mixing journal entries with collected notes. So I set up a smart folder in DEVONthink of anything added to it between one and a few weeks ago. My routine is to go through this folder after things have cooled, and see if there are articles, quotations, notes, journal entry passages, to put in the new Tinderbox doc. It results in a smaller Tinderbox document that still has a rapidly growing set of nicely labeled notes on basically anything that interests  me, quotes from a NYTimes article, an old comment in journal entries (I'm rereading these), quotes I especially like from books, and thoughts on any and all of these things.

I'll sort and explore them over time, but they seem likely to become a more efficient and more useful commonplace book type thing for me. For me that works because I usually have about five writing projects going at any one time (currently a few novels in revision, a self-help book and an essay) and connecting ideas this way is most useful.

It may be a lot of work to review the 11,000 notes in my older bigger "everything" Tinderbox file, but the slow process of reading through it (whether old book notes, movie ratings, essay and writing ideas and so on) seems to be exactly the kind of "pondering over notes" process that Tinderbox is designed for. As a place to dump everything and search it with AI, both Tinderbox and DEVONthink are good, but the latter makes a better warehouse as it holds everything from videos, images, audio files, and so on, while Tinderbox is the place to take that raw material from the lumber pile and explore it and shape it.

That is a very nice point about Tufte, and you do have a good visual sense like that in your maps. I agree when it comes time to actually work with and explore the notes, Tinderbox has many more options.

You bring up a useful distinction between one's "thoughts" and brief quotes, and all the other things that for instance, I also dump into DEVONthink. I do find myself saving the various thoughts, quotes, sometimes first in the Tinderbox doc. Today I saved your blog post in DEVONthink, but some of our discussion also was copied into my Tinderbox "commonplace" book.

Partly for me, it's a matter of wanting a more carefully curated collection. Last week I saved 79 articles, notes, NY Times articles, book reviews, conference papers and notes, and various other things in DEVONthink. A single conference I attended resulted in a folder of about 15 notes, documents, conference receipts, and so on.  I'll review them next week or so and may find five about which I'll write brief excerpts (or just copy)  for my Tinderbox document. Each will have attributes such as an url or link to the DEVONthink original. It may evolve over time....it always has before.

And of course, I also have several other working Tinderbox documents, such as a "manual" on Tinderbox itself where I save relevant forum posts and and hints for later sorting, and a place where I do a lot of my original writing and planning of writing projects. I still may go back to one massive Tinderbox doc, but I will see.

Thanks again for your nice posts.  G