Good news, rjbull. Another user recently submitted the same suggestion as yours in the BdJ comments (copied below), and got a positive reply from Rael. Nice  8) http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/rightnote?utm_source=SiteMail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1#comments68275

Brian W - Question: How best to easily manage where new clips go?
Suggestion: Add option: After Win-V to create a new note, change the focus to that note so that additional Win-A appends are added to that note.
Why: Typically, I will want to make several notes on one subject (win-A) but when I change to another subject, I would Win-V for a new note and then win-A to continue on that subject. If I want to go back to the first subject, I probably just Win-v again to create a new note, then later go back to RN to combine or file the notes, but at least all win-A appends are on a single subject.
With the current setup, before taking any clippings, one must open RN and set a focus, otherwise the notes could go somewhere unexpected.

Rael Bauer - @Brian: Yes, someone else has asked for this behaviour, so I hope to add it as an option for the next release. (i.e. move focus to newly created note after clipping).

In sum, I wanted the action of clipping something to a new entry in RN to make that entry the current one, to simultaneously put the cursor on that entry in the tree (same thing, I suppose) and to scroll the tree to show it.  The way RN currently operates seem to me less than logical.  It's presumably the author's preference, but maybe my preference could be made a configuration option.

-rjbull (August 09, 2013, 03:50 PM)

I just realized that there is at least one workflow context in which RN's current behavior is logical and beneficial; I should have thought of this earlier because I often use it myself! Let's say we are collecting web excerpts or pages on topic A, and want to have each as a separate note (or sub-node) under topic A. If the tree focus is on the A node as parent, then RN's behavior allows us to successively clip as many items as we wish from our web browser without ever going back to RN. The result will be as many new sibling notes, all under A.

So RN provides the following two options for clipping web excerpts or capturing web pages, each with its own dedicated, configurable hotkey:
1. Add new notes under a parent node.
2. Append new content to an existing note.

In both cases, the action applies to the focused node of the tree, and the focus remains on that node after the action. Because the focus doesn't move, we can continue to add more notes or append more content from the browser without returning to RN.

And likewise in both cases, we must first select the target node in RN before clipping or capturing from a web browser. If we do that, I think RN will easily compile multiple clips into one note just as you described. Now that I understand this, I see that it is logical and consistent.

The auto scrolling is a separate but related matter which I think could be improved. I will send Rael my suggestions for that.

[EDIT: I just found that the method for inserting a new Web clip can be configured in Tools > Clipper Options. It can be added either as a child of the current note or at the bottom of the tree.]

RN's default seems to be to make a new clip if you tell it to, but not to make that the current clip.  Consequently if you use the add-to-entry hotkey, the addition goes to the entry the cursor is on, which from my point of view is the previous one (getting tired, not sure I'm making sense).

In sum, I wanted the action of clipping something to a new entry in RN to make that entry the current one, to simultaneously put the cursor on that entry in the tree (same thing, I suppose) and to scroll the tree to show it.  The way RN currently operates seem to me less than logical.  It's presumably the author's preference, but maybe my preference could be made a configuration option.

-rjbull (August 09, 2013, 03:50 PM)

I can confirm that when RN adds a new note from a web clip, the focus remains on the current note in the tree and does not shift to the new note. So if we want to append subsequent clips to the new note as you describe, we must first manually scroll the tree and change focus to the new note. I agree that is an awkward work flow.

I had already intended to submit a wish for improved auto scrolling of the tree after I purchase my licenses. Your comments here have been very helpful, and confirm the need for that improvement. I will refer Rael (the author) to this thread. I will also second your desire for new notes to be given focus.