Correct. You should never put your DEVONthink databases in a cloud-synced location. DEVONthink specifically disallows database creation in such a location. It also will not open a database it detects is in such a location. It will warn you and give you the option of manually moving it or letting DEVONthink move it to a ~/Databases folder.
Okay, this seems like one of the most active Devonthink threads. How do you get academic citations from PDFs in Devonthink? I saw a screenshot in the past few days on here where someone showed an article with an academic citation. How was this achieved? I see there’s an option to import citations from Bookends.
In DEVONThink, I have a link (alias, whatever they call them) to my PDFs stored in Bookends (they are in iCloud). I do citations from Bookends. DT can do its thing (indexing, searching), and Bookends and do its thing too.
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Actually, going forward, it would probably be more helpful to start new threads so others can read more focused discussions about DEVONthink.
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Why would you advocate this?
@Robert @omarruvalcaba Here’s something I forgot to add, and could make a difference in regards to the pain-point you raised about not being able to save directly to a folder from the Save Dialogue box.
I generally make a point of converting virtually everything I save into DTPO, as a PDF. Granted, that isn’t always feasible (webpages etc.), but if you do this as well, then see below.
When I call up the Print dialogue, by hitting Cmd+P – under the dropdown arrow at bottom right, when clicking there, you will see further options, as per my screengrab.
One of those gets added, I believe, via the ‘Install Add-ons’ option inside DTPO - I think it’s the PDF Services check-box – and you are then presented with the “Save PDF to Devonthink Pro” button.
Clicking on that, calls up DTPOs floating window, which allows you to specify any Folder within your open DBs, that you want the PDF to be saved to. You can rename the file, and add tags, all inside that Window.
So, along with all the other options listed above, this is a quick way to also get files into specific DTPO folders – especially when you have associated a shortcut command with is, as I have, with Cmd+Opt+P.
Hope that helps!
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That’s interesting. But still I frequently have to save new docx-files that I would keep in DTPO if it were easier.
@Robert Ah - yes, I then use Default Folder X’s Favourites pane (that sits around the Save Dialogue), to drop it into a specific Folder, which has a Folder Action attached.
DFX just makes it quicker to access that Folder, but you could have it as a destination in the Finder Sidebar, so DFX not necessary at all.
When the File is saved there, the DTPO window pops up, asking where I want to import the File, and I can select the DTPO group…
Granted, it’s still a two-step process, but its almost instant, and will get you there.
If this is something that you do frequently, might be worth setting up.
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I don’t understand something in DTPO, maybe I missed something in the forums.
I created a file on mac in Byword, saved it in Byword.
I shared the file (using Share extension) to Add to DevonThink.
I kept trying to find and search for the txt file, no luck whatsoever. I assumed it would put the file in the Database I had last opened (or currently open).
For some reason, it put the file in the Global Inbox. Is this standard behavior? Is there anyway to specify where it should go?
Thanks.
@FrMichaelFanous By default, getting information into DTPO, will place it in the Global Inbox, for you to sort to specific folders/DBs.
But that’s the default option. There are a fair number of alternatives to this, either using Folder Actions attached to a particular Finder folder, or the DTPO Sorter (with specific groups being added to it), or even Hazel.
Folder Actions are relatively simple to implement, and that would be your best bet most likely.
I think having too many databases can be overwhelming and simple is better.
The more I refine my DTP use, the more I set up databases primarily for syncing granularity.
I want different files on my home desktop, my work desktop, and my iOS devices. I have just enough databases to allow for that granularity and no more.
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For me, I have DT databases that correspond to my “Areas of Focus” as in those in the GTD methodology. I didn’t plan it that way. It seemed like a natural way. I am 15 months in using this approach and it has worked for me so far. I also have a few databases setup with large items that I don’t want to sync everywhere.
My Areas include:
- Home (Personal, school stuff for kids, recipes, receipts, manuals)
- Work
- Research(Work)
- Exams (I take professional exams)
- Knowledge (that is like a wiki or knowledge base across many topics; all markdown docs)
I learned from this forum recently that you DON’T have to save the PDF as a new file. Download PDF Viewer. It works seamlessly on iPad and your edits find their way back to Devonthink immediately.
That might be part of the problem. Start smaller. I had one project I wanted to do and I started putting those files in DT for that one project only. Now, I really like it. You might want to think of one area of your life you could try DT if you want to attempt to get up a little hill before you climb the mountain.
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Yes, this works perfectly.
For those interested about selecting the database in DEVONThink when importing…
Make sure in your settings under Import at the bottom, change the destination to “Select Group”, “Global Inbox”, or inbox of current database. If you choose “Select Group” you get a really nice dialog that prompts you.
When using Select group:
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Just decided to give DT Personal another try with a folder of about 800 PDFs of academic articles.
Two observations:
- PDF rendering is terrible - articles that show up instantly in Quicklook in Finder take much longer to render in DT, and frequently there are large white rectangles which never display, and the occasional beachball.
- AI isn’t working – after classifying about 70 articles into 40 groups, it still can’t auto classify anything, The “See Also” isn’t bad but it’s not much better than searching the folder for a lead author’s name in Spotlight. Isn’t this supposed to be “magical”? Even when the top hits in “See Also” are in the folder where I’d expect an item to be auto-classified, it doesn’t even suggest anything.
Thanks for pointing this out! I never noticed this down there in the PDF drop-down! Heading to System Preference to create a shortcut key right-now…
Aside…yet another +1 for Discourse: to test this DT tip I tried it on this very thread (now at 113 posts and counting!). The resulting PDF is so nicely formatted (see below). A print stylesheet in 2018?! What? Imagine what saving off a pdf from facebook would look like.
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1.) Regarding the rendering, what macOS version are you running?
2.) I hardly ever use the AI to auto-classify research articles.
There are many posts over on the DTPO forum, explaining the process and underlying structures best suited to having the AI work effectively, but given it is essentially running algorithms that are based on content, one would need very diverse ‘areas’ of research, to have it work effectively in all scenarios.
The – justifiable, imo – refrain from some long-time DTPO users is that the AI cannot replace your thinking/insight into the content of the data, it is there as an Assistant.
I agree with this, but as is apparent from my points below, there certainly are scenarios where it works so well, to the point that it does do the thinking for me, in sorting specific types of data.
Simple example - click to open:
But by way of (silly) example – and purely for new users to DTPO who might not be familiar with what you raised:
Imagine a sports-journalist A that covers F1, NHL, Football/soccer and Curling.
This person is going to see far better AI/Auto-classify results, where he/she has different folders and sub-folders that cover those distinct sports.Whereas sports-journalist B that writes solely on football/soccer, and has groups focusing on the different international leagues/World Cups/Fifa regulations/Rules/Major players/Games etc., is probably going to have less accurate results – given how a single article could talk about Messi in the Fifa SWC, his career at Barcelona, playing for Argentina, and why he thinks rules X/Y/Z, need to change.
That’s not necessarily a given. But it can pan out that way.
As can the scenario where journalist A runs into similar problems to journalist B, but in the context of the individual sport types he/she is covering.But depending on how journalist B’s folders are sorted – and how many other articles are already in those folders for the algorithm to learn from – I think it is understandable that the AI is not necessarily going to know whether to file that article on Messi under the Spanish League, World Cup, Rules or Major Players folders.
However, if journalist A had folders in their NHL group, where each week an Excel spreadsheet containing that week’s league scores were placed. Or had these, but based on years – over time, again depending on how much is already in there – the AI will work out where that new Excel spreadsheet on the NHLs scores needs to go.
Similarly, if journalist B always downloaded a particular reporter’s review on games played in the Spanish League, over time, the AI would be able to auto-classify these as well.
Turning to something more concrete, I ran into this problem constantly in the beginning, since I had 4 major comparative areas, all in one DB.
So Article A would be talking about what is happening in Country’s 1, 2, 3 and 4…
Added to this, similar terms are being used in all for comparative areas – so that doesn’t prove a point of distinction either.
I then split that DB into 4.
But that still doesn’t necessarily solve the Messi example (collapsed) above – again, depending on one’s own data.
But in spite of this, I still see the AI as being very useful in specific examples – where I am more interested in filing repeatable instances of a type of file, or where I have those top-level broad groups, that I just want to get things into initially – as filed from the top-Inbox – before I get more granular after the fact.
Put differently, I view the Auto-classify feature as something that works very well in specific contexts, but is not something that will work in all contexts, equally well, if at all.
That said, the See Also/Magic Hat function is something I use frequently, even if just to quickly cycle through 2/3 articles about a specific point.
In other words, I know Author D, G and Y wrote about it, and I could search for/navigate to each – but find that when reading that article by D, the See Also prompts me with the articles by G & Y in any event, so I often use it instead of searching/navigating, since its quicker.
I’m not aware (but would love to hear of examples) of any consumer products that have an algorithm that will be able to magically sort text-heavy journal articles, in a manner that the average/bulk of users would find useful.
But I am from the liberal arts/social sciences side of the World – so that’s simply my perspective, given how I know the articles to be written in my context.
And I’m (obviously) not sure what your field is – and maybe, given what it is, and what you fed into DP – the AI should have been able to do the necessary, and didn’t.
But there are many factors at play – so what doesn’t work at first, can very well start working over time, as the DB grows and more structure becomes apparent to the AI.
At least that has been my experience of it.