So earlier this month I had reason to check on my DEVONthink license info for my account, and I saw this interesting bit of info. Today marks 18 years since I first registered a DEVONthink license! I’ve reflected back on just how I’ve used DEVONthink in so many ways, as a doctoral student in knowledge and learning management, as an instructional and curriculum designer, as a professor, a researcher, an author, in my roles as a spouse, parent, volunteer service, and now the various activities I engage in during my retirement… I’m thankful at how valuable DEVONthink has been, and how flexible it is, to adapt to all those roles.
I’m also thankful for the people that stand behind the product, Eric and Criss who have been here even longer, Jim and the rest of the staff, and for the wisdom and friendship of Bill that is no longer with us. Here’s to another 18 years!
Thank you for the wonderful feedback, your longstanding support and especially your valuable feedback while testing the (not always reliable) internal betas
I do not. I thought I might still have some of my notes from when I had volunteered to proofread the version 2 manual before it was released, but it’s gone now. I also looked for an early version of the Take Control book, but couldn’t find that either.
Fifteen years for me, and I keep learning new ways to use it. This week, while finding myself reluctant to go off on a tangent lest I lose my place, I realize a tab would let me go down another rabbit hole without having then to feel around for where I left off. Now I’m using tabs all the time. (Probably dumb of me not to have known that before, but there’s an awful lot to keep discovering here.)
Thanks to everyone at Devon for keeping it going so well.
I first purchased DTPro 10 years ago. But I only discovered how engaged this developer/user community is within the last year when the DT3 betas were in development!! Where was I the past 9 years?
DT has been the backbone of my knowledge management system. Dare I say my second brain. (and good to know at least one of those is still getting updates!).
The engagement in this community really took off when the forums were moved to Discourse. Certainly one of the better decisions that the Devon folks have made.
Good to know a bit of the history of the community!
The current structure definitely works very well. Easy to comment, easy to read the other comments. Hope the momentum continues.
I signed up in 2003, and it’s never been off my dock since. I’ll wait for my 20 year anniversary to send flowers, but also a sincere thanks to the DT team. No other piece of software has been as indispensable to my work as a journalist and writer, or as robust.
I learned about DEVONthink from James Fallows (a prominent American journalist) from his article in the NY Times in Dec 2005. I recall I bought my first license of DEVONthink just after reading that article.
I stopped reading James Fallows (now in the Atlantic magazine) and the NY Times years ago. DEVONthink has stood the test of time since!
I’m not sure when the tab functionality was implemented, but assuming that you used the app without realizing such a vital functionality existed for a few years, this functionality should be made (way more) discoverable.
Indeed, I was happy to see from your comment that tabs existed in DT but it took me a few minutes of digging to find it. Finally I discovered the menu item under “Window → New Tab” with a rather strange shortcut. So, no, I really don’t think that’s dumb of you. Even as super-mega-power-user, I probably wouldn’t have come across it for a long time it if I didn’t stumble upon your comment. Many thanks! I guess I’ll go and make a feature request to help those poor souls who may not discover the tabs in DT for several more years!**
** And in case one of the DT staff comes across this comment, even though this is probably not the best topic to give feedback:
I think the fact that none of the usual tab-related actions exist/work make this feature quite hard to discover: there was not the usual ‘+’ button in a toolbar (as tab bar is initially hidden), nor the usual “File > New Tab” menu item, and the usual “CMD + T” shortcut did not open a new tab. Perhaps a point of improvement.
That’s very cool Greg, you’ve got me beat by a couple of years. Mine goes back to 2004 for both DTP and Agent. I’ve never regretted it and have in fact been a strong unpaid marketer for the company . I keep everything important to me in a collection of databases. Even in the beginning with v 1 I found it such a great way to keep my documents ‘findable’. I’m in the visual creative end of things, animation and visual effects supervision. It’s important to portably have related docs with me and keep all my work organized in there. These days having all this synced also means I always have a demo handy on my iPad if need be. There’s still nothing else like it.
I too have been impressed with the personal touch over the years, never without a strong feeling of quick expert support. Thanks for your post, it gave me an excuse to also crow about this great product and the company behind it. Cheers.
