BAW
Beck Always Wins
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Phenomenally informative! Is Hazel able to integrate into DevonThink? I’m always looking for further ways of automating. Also I feel like I need to get into the habit of throwing stuff into DevonThink. It would help my brain for sure. Do you also place items in folders and tag them as well? Do you foresee this changing with the release of DevonThink 3?
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I just worked on a final paper and a final exam of a class that handed out multiple PDFs a week and also had a textbook. The test was open book and timed, so the professor gave the usual disclaimer that “if you searched for each answer you wouldn’t finish in time”. So I said “not today satan” and I just indexed my Dropbox folder with the lectures into a database and imported my Kindle highlights and began the test. It was very helpful to type in a search phrase and confirm my answers for the test and to cite examples in my paper.
I do pretty much everything else in Evernote, but Devonthink really shined in that moment. It was perfect for that one “project” at that one time.
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DT3 has a new smart rule feature that replicates a lot of the functionality of Hazel internally.
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And you can use both if you want. Hazel on files DEVONthink has indexed, smart rules on anything in DEVONthink 3.
Travel Data
Into trip-specific groups inside my “household” database, I collect all relevant information for upcoming trips; Hotel and air booking info. Boarding passes. Airbnb entry codes and other QR codes I might need for tickets. Info about places I am going to visit. Theatre ticket receipts. Emails received from venues or purchases related to the trip.
For business trips, info about the trip plan and agendas, etc. That database is synced to DEVONthink to Go on my phone (the free version is just fine for this).
Having everything I need for my trip inside this group makes it sort of like Apple Wallet on steroids. On the phone, I make that group a “Favorite” so it is available from the landing page in DEVONthink to Go.
Also results in an archive for future reference and, for business trips, the info I need to claim reimbursement.
Meetings
I do a similar thing, with different documents of course, for major meetings, workshops, and the like. A specific group for each meeting / workshop. In this case I sync this info to my iPad Pro. I take notes by annotating PDFs for meeting handouts (the usual PowerPoint dreck, saved as PDF). And I take notes in Notability, etc., then export the PDFs back to the meeting’s group in the database on DEVONthink to Go. Synced back down to the desktop and I have a complete record + notes.
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I do the same thing for travel, though here’s a twist from me: All of my databases save one are set to leave content on the server from the iPhone/iPad and just download on demand.
The one exception is one that is cleverly named “mobile.” Everything in that database is set to download to the mobile device by default. I move everything I’ll need on a trip into that database, including especially itineraries. Then when I’m done with the trip I move that content back to the appropriate database for permanent residence.
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I love this. I’m trying to understand how I would use devonthink. I appreciate all the different use cases.
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Can you expand on this? How do you use DT to synthesize information?
What I’m looking for is a place to store reference materials and also create a summary or table of contents where I can link to the source/reference materials. Is that possible in DT?
I keep hundreds of articles and info in there including a bunch I edit and use just within DT. I have several databases. One of them syncs to all my devices and in it I have a lot of reference material that I may need out in the field. Things like doses for various sheep drugs or pictures and information on weed identification. I have one database that is my queries I use in LambTracker on my desktop. It’s referenced to text files that are in a Git Repo. I can more quickly bring up the queries, copy them out and paste into my SQLite tool than I can to open up the text editor and do the same thing.I can make changes in the queries and they are done in the real file and once a week or so I can commit and push them to my repository on GitLab.
I have folders for various projects that pull together all the emails, quick notes and links to other references I need for that project. Makes it faster to update, edit and deal with working in the project on various tasks.
I have a shopping list folder that contains picture sof things we need, or in some cases pictures of the broken part so when faced with hundreds of options at the farm store i can look at where it actually has to go and get the correct one.
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I am by no means an authority on DT even after using it for many years. Each use-case I applied DT to is quite different, some may not provide you with any relevant application info at all. Did you have a read of the link I provided in my first response? That should give you a feel for what I do with DT.
Yes, DT allows you to select a set of documents and create a ToC that back links to the documents you selected. I dont use that function much so don’t know how configurable it is. I find that a combination of grouping, tagging and search capabilities of DT far more useful than a ToC (which is really just an indented grouping method).
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A feature that is new to DT 3 (I believe) is its ability to live in the menu bar. From there, you can open databases, take notes, record audio, video, take a screen shot and use a web clipper.
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Thanks. I read your post. It’s good to see the different use cases and how I can apply them to me. I’ll check out the ToC.
It’s the Sorter, which has been around since DEVONthink 2 was introduced. Formerly, the Sorter was just a dock tab, and now the Sorter UI has been redesigned, added several features, and can be a menubar extra or (still) a dock tab, like this:
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That’s how much better it is, it seems like a completely new feature 
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Index versus import,
I know that Devonthink doesn’t lock you in and you can always export your files but when you do that I believe that you lose the additional meta-data that is in Devonthink.
If you imported your iCloud drive into DevonThink wouldn’t it then pretty much totally replace finder for those files?
I think I am going to try and experiment and import one of my folders and then index a different one and then work with him to see where the problems are.
Step one to set up the databases
This has been the biggest hurdle for me, I have 10 folders in Finder that I used to store the files that I use.
So as I understand it I need to set up 10 separate databases as those 10 folders as combined are about 400 GB so I can’t just do it in one database, as I understand it.
Getting the databases set up and syncing across all my devices has kept me from moving forward. I have two iPads, an iPhone and Mac notebook and a M1Mac mini.
I have backups of course but sometimes you can mess things up so bad that you don’t know what point to go back to.
I feel like I may not be organized enough or smart enough to use an organizational tool like Devonthink.
I have set up a standalone database on my Mac mini and definitely recognize the benefits of Devonthink when it works it’s awesome. I’m not sure which option I checked but somehow it went through and assigned hundreds and hundreds of tags to different files.
I have to get on the forum as I understand there’s a way to reverse that.
I purchased MacSparky‘s field guide spent a lot of time and effort trying to configure this and get it to work. I sure hope the juice is worth the squeeze. (My new favorite saying)
Where did you get that understanding? Far as I know, that’s not at all a requirement. Try it with one database and index 10 folders. Or import 10 folders into 10 groups. What happens?
Bigger issue for you is the expectation of synching 400 gb of data across all your devices. Why? Really think you want to put that much data on your phone? If you really want those 10 folders on your other devices, without getting into DEVONthink, use one of the many other ways to sync data on computers (Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, et. al.).
Note: DEVONthink is not a Finder nor a Spotlight replacement. You should be judicious in what you put into your databases.
See…
as well as the Help > Documentation > Getting Started > Building Your Database.
So as I understand it I need to set up 10 separate databases as those 10 folders as combined are about 400 GB so I can’t just do it in one database, as I understand it.
It partly would depend on what’s in those folders, e.g., having mostly media files would be different than 400GB of PDFs.
Also, as @rms mentioned, you need to think about what you’re going to be doing sync-wise, if at all (since it is optional).
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No. Not at all. DEVONthink is not a Finder replacement by any means.
DEVONthink databases are folders within the file system. They are not obviously folders, but they are folders (called “packages”). So, if you import all your iCloud files into a DEVONthink database, then you’re left with all the files in two places: inside iCloud and inside the DEVONthink database folders. Twice the storage for what purpose.
Jim you should change the name of your product: to DEVONthink – We’re Not Finder.
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