DTP is a great document manager and I too had trouble getting started with it when I wanted to move from EN.
To help myself start, I imported all my EN stuff into one database, with all the messiness that is part of the transfer, and then promptly forgot about it.
I then started a brand new database and started adding documents (bills, receipts, web clippings in the form of PDF or webarchive) to it, creating folders/structure as I go.
Then when I find a little bit of free time, I take a few minutes to look through my old database and move a couple of files from there to the new database.
By moving everything to DTP in one go I eliminate the awkward phase of being in two apps at once, and by storing old stuff in a separate database Iām free to create a new working environment without legacy structures getting in my way.
Another tip (from a guy who recently made just this same transition): Start slow. Donāt even THINK about importing your Evernote notes to DevonThink at first. Just start using DevonThink for new projects while continuing to use Evernote for anything thatās already in Evernote. Use them both side-by-side for a while.
Thatās the opposite of @vishaeās advice, of course!
Itās been a couple of months for me and Iām STILL using both Evernote and DevonThink. Iām now going whole days without opening Evernote at all. Iām starting to think now is the time to import some of my most important Evernote notes into DevonThink. But Iām in no rush.
Iām still finding DevonThink sync to iOS slow and confusing. I donāt trust it.
@handyman Iām another happy Bear user. The web clipper was a major attraction with Evernote - i clipped everything - and recently Bearās clipper - under Share on IOS- has become as good as Evernoteās clipper.
The thing about Bear is i enjoy using it, this is why i keep using it.
And Bear syncs MacOS / iOS fast and flawless.
There is a learning curve to DEVONthink, but as many have pointed out try starting with a small problem you are trying to solve. For example I started scanning our kidsā artwork and using tags for each childās name to see a combined total per child of their artwork. Then we focused on capturing receipts. Once we got the database setup it was onto the iPhone as a capture device using Scanbot or Scanner Pro. As soon as either app uploads to iCloud, Hazel then runs on one of our Macās at home and files it into DevonThink. My wife loves these two workflows! She said the interface makes more sense than Evernote did (although DTP is much uglier, especially on the Mac, than Evernote). We did this slowly over several months and left Evernote as is during this time. Then we imported all the Evernote databases into a single DEVONthink database so we had all the notes, but started with clean databases and moved content as needed. We also exported all of our Evernote notebooks as .enex files just in case weād ever need to import them again into Evernote or DTP.
DevonThinkās web clipper also has a ton of options. You can clip as a web archive or as markdown with an option for clutter-free layout. This drastically reduces the size of the files. The web archive downloads the images and the text, markdown just the links so each time you view the file you download the images. However, you can also easily edit the markdown file down to just the content you need for your reference file. Other options for clipping in DTP are plain text, rich text, bookmark, formatted note and one page and paginated PDF. Bearās clipper is really good as well. Especially if you like markdown. There are times when DEVONthink has not been able to clip a web page so I switch to Bear and it almost always can do the trick, then I move the markdown into DTP.
DEVONthink also just came out with support for iCloud for database sync stores and this makes the setup a lot easier across multiple devices. However if you want to share databases with another DEVONthink user, then Dropbox, Box.com or a WebDAV server will be your best bet. Note that you can encrypt your databases on cloud storage which gives another layer of protection, and you can have some databases in iCloud and some in shared cloud storage providers.
I do not regret the move from Evernote to DEVONthink. At the same time, I still recommend Evernote to a lot of people. Both great reference tools and each has their downsides and strengths. And as a few have mentioned, Bear is another option for reference and notes. In terms of simple to more complex, Iād rank them as Bear, then Evernote and last DEVONthink. And the more data you collect, the more likely you may want to consider moving towards DEVONthink.
I have one database for personal, one for work, another for Evernote files that had been imported, and then another called research. What do other people use for databases?
Mine are:
Personal records
Personal research and web clippings
Work records
Work research, law, and web clippings
1 database each for 3 local bar association committees I sit on
Contacts and Experts
Presentations
Jury Verdict database
Seminars
Daily notebook
Evernote (just an import of my Evernote files from years ago)
I also have a few databases for some one-off things. For example, if it is a year where I sit on an arbitration panel for a week, I start a database for that and all the info for the cases Iāll hear goes in there.
Iāve thought about combining the two personal databases into 1, and the 2 work databases into one, although I seem to recall them being combined in the past, and I had a reason for splitting them apart that I no longer remember.
Fantastic! 2 days on this forum gave me more ideas than 2 months hunting online. @MitchWagner@schmidgall@vishae@FrMichaelFanous I will give many of your tips a try. @Simonbnz and @Handyman Bear sounds great, but I have very little text-based data in the flow I am looking to optimized.
Thanks again to all!
Maybe now I wonāt have to be embarrassed with these two buttons fighting it out in Safari:
Exactly. This screenshot shows that I can open and annotate a PDF from DT. When I save and close PDF Expert, the annotations I made are saved to the PDF in DT. Works like a charm!
I use bothā¦ Evernote for work and DevonThink for personal items. The reason I still use Evernote ā it syncs with the Windows computer Iām forced to use at work.
Clippings - All the non-work articles I read on the web get clipped here. I want a personal Google for those I-know-I-read-that-somewhere moments.
Informa finance and benefits - the company I work for is called āInforma.ā Possibly I should make that a group of my Misc database. There isnāt much in it.
La Mesa-Foothills Democratic Club - I volunteer for that organization.
Light Reading content - Light Reading is the name of the publication Informa pays me to write for. This is my primary database; itās all my research for all my articles. It also includes all my work-related web clippings, including random articles I might find useful later.
Light Reading misc - policies and procedures for work.
Misc. The most random of random databases. Current contents include a map of some local walking trails, tickets to a Wordcamp (I ended up not attending), my United MileagePlus number (other frequent flyer numbers are spread out among Evernote and 1Password) and, oh, yes, notes toward a blog post on first impressions about Evernote.
Similarly, I write my articles using Folding Text, which is a very nice MultiMarkdown editor. But I first create the document in DevonThink, and it lives inside DevonThink ever thereafter.
Now I just need a workflow to scrape my old file structure for PDFās that do not have text and OCR them in placeā¦
Has anyone solved that one?
@Isaac, you can use DTP to determine whether PDFs have searchable text or not by adding the āKindā attribute to the document-list view. PDFs that are searchable will have a āPDF+Textā value, whereas those without OCR, will have a āPDFā value.
From your question it isnāt clear to me whether you have already mirrored your old file structure into DTP using the āindexā feature. If you have not, you will have to index the highest-level folder containing your PDFs in your old file structure. Once the folder (and its subfolders) are indexed, you should be able to search using the āKindā attribute in order to limit what you see in the document-list view to those items that are āPDFā (i.e., without text). Select all (command + A) within the document list and then go to the Data menu in the menu bar, select Convert, and then āSearchable PDF.ā After a little while, all of your PDFs will be made searchable.
Iām still relatively new to DTP, but one thing I learned: Create the databases you need, and then make groups within them. Setting up a database and getting it to sync across multiple Macs and iOS takes some time, so I set up three and no more (for now):
Clients - for current client projects
Ongoing - for clients that have āliveā websites, for ongoing smaller tasks
Archives - for inactive projects
The key is I only sync Clients and Ongoing between my Macs and iPad Pro. Archives only lives on my desktop Mac.
So no more time setting up databases and getting them to sync (I use Dropbox) - I simply add a new group for a new client/project in the appropriate database. When a project is done, I copy it to the Archives database as a group, and when the copy is successful, I delete the group from the original database.
So the syncing setup does not change, and everything appears magically where it ought to be
Hokey smokes you have a lot of databases! Iād personal advocate if youāre willing and comfortable combining into just 2 or 3 databases. Just me personally though. When you clip stuff from the web or add stuff into DevonThink, do you send it to itās respective database or have it go to the inbox to sort later?
Ok. Is it ok to admit that I purchased DEVONThink on a deal not too long ago. I bought it because David spoke so highly about it at one point and I remember that he noted that the files you put in stay easy to access and pull out if needed (his roach motel analogy worked on me regarding Evernote).
With that out, I have to also admit that I have absolutely no idea what DT does. I thought that buying it and installing it would helpā¦not so much. With that Take Control book help with learning what it actually does?
I am struggling to get my digital life in order. I have a sense that DT can help, but at the original post implied, I too am stuck at the bottom of the hillā¦and I am not even sure if it is a hill!
@SteveT I admitted it yesterday when I started this discussion and 38 posts later there are some really good tips to dig in. Check out post #24 above as a great start.
I usually send it to its database. I even have some Drafts actions for notes to go to different Dropbox folders that are automatically pulled into the right databases on my Mac.
I know of other people who have many more databases than me. If I recall correctly, Gabe Weatherhead (Macdrifter.com) is someone who has a ton. I started a few years ago with just work and personal, but I like the segregation I have now.
