Nice Update to DEVONthink

1

For those considering DEVONThink, or have not used it for a while, I thought you might appreciate knowing of this update. I’m especially interested in the new linking capabilities. Here is a screen shot of DT scanning my links:

Screen Shot 2020-11-19 at 10.13.35 AM
Screen Shot 2020-11-19 at 10.13.35 AM962×434 46.7 KB

This release brings compatibility for macOS 11 Big Sur, with both cosmetic and technological improvements. Also, document links are a focus in this version. Databases are scanned for link relationships between documents: either outgoing links or incoming Links (“back links”). The numbers of incoming and outgoing links can also be used to search, as smart criteria, or to sort the item list.

Other enhancements include better in-document searching via the Search inspector which now allows wildcards and operators, e.g., DEVONthink NEAR support. We have added more Markdown support including a new Daily Journal template and creating a table of contents file in Markdown. There is now the ability to duplicate and replicate via the Move topopover when modifier keys are held. PDFs with a table of contents can be split by chapters into separate documents. The AppleScript dictionary also received several additions and improvements, including faster processing of selected items. Lastly, there are performance and reliability improvements for DEVONthink and its synchronization.

NEW

  • Added support for scanning documents for links to and from other documents. This is supported for all newly created files in DEVONthink’s native formats. Existing databases will be scanned the first time they’re opened.
  • Added File > Close > All Except command to leave the current database open.
  • Added an Enable Operators & Wildcards option to the Search inspector allowing use of operators and wildcards for in-document searches. If disabled, the search terms will be treated as substrings. The Edit > Find > Find Next/Previous commands and next/previous buttons in the inspector are available when this option is enabled.
  • Added Tools > Split PDF into Chapters command to split one or more selected PDF documents having multiple pages and a table of contents with multiple entries into the separate chapter documents.
  • Added Go > To Document to quickly open a document in the current main window if the View/Edit pane is visible or a new document window, if not.
  • Added Copy Section Link and Copy Page Link to the contextual menu of the Table of Contents inspector, for Markdown and PDF documents.
  • Added an Incoming Links pane to the Document > Links inspector showing incoming links (“back links”) from other documents. This includes WikiLinks from plain and rich texts, as well as Markdown documents. Clicking on an incoming link displays the backlinked document. Dragging incoming links to Markdown or rich text documents with Command-Option held is also supported.
  • Added support for querying or sorting on the number of incoming or outgoing links to many sections of the interface, including smart groups, smart rules, advanced searching, sorting the item list, etc.
  • Added property icons to the item list denoting items have incoming or outgoing links.
  • Added Daily Journal — Markdown template to Data > New from Template > Productivity. Also, updated and renamed the original Daily Journal template to Daily Journal - Text.
  • Added two new services to capture bookmarks, DEVONthink 3: Capture Bookmark, and to add links to the Reading List, DEVONthink 3: Add to Reading List. Both require having a URL selected.
  • Added a File Location pop-up menu to the Tools > Filters > Info pane to filter imported or indexed items in the current location.
  • Added a submenu to Tools > Create Table of Contents to create a table of contents as rich text or Markdown document.
  • Added Copy Section Link to the contextual menu of the Markdown editor.
  • Added Any Extension criterion for use with smart groups, smart rules, and searches. This can be used to check for filenames with or without an extension, e.g., Extension is not Any Extension.
  • Added AppleScript terms incoming references and outgoing references to get explicit link relationships between records.
  • Added AppleScript terms incoming Wiki references and outgoing Wiki references to get automatic WikiLink relationships between records.
  • Added AppleScript term selected records for application and main windows. Contrary to the still supported selection property this supports bulk retrieval of properties of the selection. Queries like name of selected records or UUID of selected records are up to 100 times faster.
  • Added a generic UUID for the global inbox for use with item links, smart groups, and smart rules.
  • Added hidden preference DisableHighlightColorMapping to use the same highlight colors for web documents in both light and dark mode on macOS Mojave and later.
  • Added hidden preference ExcludeOpenedDatabasesFromTimeMachine. This option is off by default.
7 Likes
2

So many new great features and even more rabbit holes to dive down

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the heads up, I updated. Looking forward to seeing how it works.