10/8/2020 SMD Quick Start

Quick Start Tutorial

First of all, please verify in your Chrome Download Settings that the following option: Ask where
to save each file before downloading is NOT checked!
Otherwise, for every item in the download queue   you will be prompted to choose a
name/directory  via a Save As dialog (try to figure out what that means for a list of, say, 500
downloads or more)!

Basic usage A more flexible workflow Download list panel Some random tips

Basic usage

The user go to some web page, right click and from the contextual menu choose the
. This will show a quick download dialog:

The user checks de desired file types (in our case pdfs) and optionally choose a download directory
(defined as a subfolder of the Chrome main Downloads directory) and finally clicks the Download
now button.

The files start to download and, if all goes well, the user will found them in the Downloads/Algebra
subfolder.
That's all!

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Tip: If the user make a text selection on the web page, the addon will try to include only the links
from that selection (the context menu will also include the option )

This minimal workflow lacks advanced filtering/renaming options but may be appropriate in many
situations.

A more flexible workflow

Say, for example, you visit a math Lecture Notes type site (with many pdf resources) and you need to
download only the resources that include the term "group" inside their link text (as user see it on
page):

The typical Simple mass downloader popup window will look like this

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The steps explained:

First step: you press the Load page links button. This usually fills the resources list with all
sort of links, not only the desired pdfs.

Second step: you have to filter this list, such that only desirable links stay here. You can start
filtering process by writing pdf in the dedicated extensions field (or pdf epub doc if you seek
more types) and next write the term group in the Text filter box

Now you have isolated all desired pdf. Next check all items at once (using the top master
checkbox) or only a range (using shift + click )

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Third step: setting a custom download directory.

By default, all downloaded files go to the Chrome global download directory

(usually named Downloads)

My addon cannot set folders outside this main download directory (a known webextensions
system limitation) but what it's possible and really useful is to set subfolders inside it.

So you write Algebra/Groups in the dedicated directory field. Now all downloaded files will go
specifically to the Downloads/Algebra/Groups subfolder.

Fourth step: setting a custom name mask.

All files have a default filename. For example the highlighted item from the screenshot above
will get the name MIT18_703S13_pra_l_1.pdf But many times it's better to use as name the
text of the link as the user see it on the web page. For this you have to use the name mask
{text}.{ext} .

Now the same item from above will get the much more descriptive name The alternating
groups (PDF) (at least for mathematicians...) As you see, this specific mask is useful enough
to deserve a dedicated button but the user can use a lot of other masks (click the
corresponding help button for more details).

Last step: Now you only have to click the download now button so that the checked
items will start downloading immediately. Or, if you prefer, only send the items to queue by
clicking on the other button and later selects the items for downloading.

Download list panel

Here you can do the normal download management: start items individually or in groups, pause,
resume, cancel, remove items etc.

Note that there is a Select all button and also is possible to select only a range of items using
shift + click or individually (using ctrl + click )

The inactive items from the queue can still be edited before downloading, either individually (using
the corresponding button) or in group (using the multirename dialog). Note that the selected
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items can be moved up/down using ctrl + up/down arrow keys . This can be useful when using
contor masks, for example.

The multirename dialog it's a more advanced version of the simple name mask dialog from the
resources list panel, with search/replace or preview functionality.

Finally, the user selects the desired items and clicks the Start selected button. A finished item looks
like:

You can directly open the file clicking its name or open the directory where the file was downloaded
using the corresponding folder icon.

Some random tips

1. Those items from the resource list that are also on the download list use a distinctive color for
their checkboxes ( or ) and cannot be sended again on download list (unless they are first
removed from the download list). So, in general, you should not worry for sending the same file
multiple times on the download list.
2. The extension remembers if an item was downloaded in the current session or recent history
and make them visible on the resource list using a green color text

The user can even remove this items using the Remove already downloaded command from the
hamburger menu
3. Note that the user may get all attributes/information available for an individual item from the
resource list by right-clicking it. This will open an informative popup with all attributes available
for that item ( url/title/text etc.), including a thumbnail view for image type items (see the
image above for an example).

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4. The user can adjust the addon popup width using the button
5. There are some hotkeys available:
Ctrl + V for paste/import from clipboard (on both resource and download list panels)
Ctrl + A for select all items (on download list panels)
Ctrl + S for start selected (on download list panels)

What's next
There are many other features. For example:

The links can be imported from clipboard, from a text file or generated using a Pattern URL
dialog
Also, the links can be exported using a flexible mask system (this can be useful if the user
wants to use the generated list with an external file downloader). See the menu button.
The user can create complex filters and save them as custom categories (see the Custom
Categories section from the settings dialog)
The addon has a built-in routing system (see the Automatic Folders section from the settings
dialog). Here the user can define custom folders where downloads can be automatically
directed based on user-defined rules.
For images, there is also a special thumbnails view where items may be filtered by size or
ordered by size descending order
The addon has (an experimental) tabs dialog where the user selects tabs (active tab, all tabs,
left or right tabs) and optionally filters pages items by various criteria. Finally, the found links
are added to the resource list and ready for further operation (see the button).

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