Just a side note et al:
You may all be surprised to know how many people not only didn’t like Three Pane view, but were also confused by it. In fact, I dealt with two DEVONthink 2.x tickets just last week with complaints about it not making sense and “Why would anyone want to use that?!??”
This is not saying it’s the reason for the deprecation of the feature, but I think it serves to underscore that everyone’s experience is different and not everything is useful to everyone.
Unfortunately neither of those replicates the features of the 3-pane view. As the poster lower down pointed out, it’s very hard to implement workflows and systems that worked beautifully in 3-pane view but fail in DT3.
Not really. At least not for how I use DT. I also used 3-pane view exclusively.
I also use 3-pane view exclusively. I’ve tried implementing all the changes suggested here but nothing comes close to relicating the workflow of the 3-pane view. I routinely use several databases, one is an indexed set of files of code that is actually GIT repository. One is my DT Database with test code I am working on . One is my normal notebook for all other stuff and then I have several other databases that I open or close as needed. The loss of that view has me going back to DT2 when ever I need to get real work done and has relegated DT3 to only using it in the morning when I only look at a single database.
As an additional side note, DEVONthink 3 was in a closed beta for, shall I say, a very long time before it was released as a public beta. Many of us used the Three-Pane view in DEVONthink 2, and it was a challenge switching back and forth between the different views of DT2 for my real work and and DT3 while testing on dummy data. Once I made the switch to DEVONthink 3 full time, I quickly adjusted and I prefer the new view options. I cannot speak for the rest of the test group, but I got the impression that they had a similar experience.
Not everyone will have the same experience, but I would expect that as long as users are bouncing back and forth between DT2 and DT3, the adjustment period will be a lot harder and longer.
Hmmm, but nobody forced them to use the Three Panes View — it was an option. That’s what I mean with not considering power users/user diversity. Reducing options might make it less confusing for people who do not use this feature, but you lose hardcore users who depend on it. (And those are the people who likely do word of mouth recommendation for your product, or blog about it … positively.)
One way to prevent confusion: Allow users to customize the toolbar and add the Three Panes View manually. People who search for it will find it — if only once enough people have blogged about it. People who have a high affinity for technology interaction will do the same, by digging through the customization options. But please, don’t remove features because some users don’t like it. AFAIR nobody hear claims that the Three Panes View must be used by everyone, but that is a crucial — if only once its gone missing — feature for them.
I doesn’t surprise me at all. But in any case, it doesn’t alter the fact that I personally did find it useful, and find it difficult to work without it. Indeed, I have just taken the plunge of exporting all my data to the Finder and deleting all my DT databases. I’m going to try working without DT for a while, and see if I actually need it. I’m not really happy about this as I’ve used DT for something like ten years, but time has moved on, and I’m not sure the program is helping me any more.
Indeed, I have just taken the plunge of exporting all my data to the Finder and deleting all my DT databases.
I’m not sure why you did this, as DEVONthink 3 uses the same databases as DEVONthink 2.
et al: I have well over 22,000 working hours in DEVONthink - mostly in 2.x (Pro Office which I still have to use for support daily). I am more aware than most about the habits and behaviors that get ingrained. However, within the past month it became clear to me there’s no reason to continue with or go back to DEVONthink 2 (except for my support duties, obviously). There’s just too much new, improved, and better about 3.
PS: The transition, as @Greg_Jones astutely mentioned, will be easier if you’re not flip-flopping between versions.
Because I want to see if I can do what I need in the Finder, without DT. Using DT had become a bit of a habit, but I am not sure if I was getting a lot of benefit from it lately, particularly as I have HoudahSpot and Hazel – and I find HoudahSpot’s interface much more congenial than DT’s.
Which is great if the new, improved and better things are useful to you. Sadly, it has been my experience over many years that new versions of programs often add new features that are of no interest or use to me, but remove the things that were useful, and were one of the major reasons why I used the program. This can be frustrating!
There were actually very few features in DT that I used regularly, and the update to v3 has made me question if I really need DT at all. Maybe I do, but I won’t know until I’ve tried.
I agree that v3 has lot of great features and I was really looking forward for the day of release !!!
But just like you say some people don’t need 3 pane view I actually don’t need many of the new features as much as I need a tool that gives me power in organising my data. You are proud of the modern clean interface… yea, it is.
But I don’t care about the design - if I do so I would never have decided for DT.
I decided for DT mainly because of the support and the philosophy of how they implement a sensitive trustable enviroment that I can rely on in future! Now my workflow is broken and I have to spend time in overthinking everythink. Is this really necessary ?
At least I would like to see that DT is starting a poll. If most users don’t want it … okay. Then I know I am not flexible enough, I should overthink my workflow or I should find another solution.
I’ve been waiting for multiple selections and keyboard navigation for the sidebar since the first beta to approximate the 3-pane view. Glad this hasn’t been forgotten about!
Completely agree
Bill
In my humble opinion, I don’t think that would tell the developers very much. I’ve no idea what the user base of DT is, but suppose for a moment it is 10,000 people – so far only 39 users have posted here, and not all of them are complaining about the lack of the three-pane view. Is it really likely that DT would get worthwhile data from such a poll? And what would it tell us users? That maybe 25 people agree with us? Personally, I wouldn’t find that particularly helpful, and I wouldn’t want to base my choices on such a poll. I feel it is up to me to conduct my own experiments and find what works for me. After all, others may be doing completely different kinds of work that require quite different workflows. Their opinion is likely to be based on their work and how they do it, not on whether the software is “right” or “wrong”. My personal view, of course. 
Add another one for bringing back the 3-pane view.
Someone may want to take a look at this Switcher - Fast jump, save horizontal space, perhaps for those who wants 3PV.
I am not saying that the script accomplishes what 3PV can do, but it may help a little. I am assuming that those who need 3PV will know how to enable showing local database inbox and tags in the list view. This script will fast jump to the root of any opened database in the currently active window. And can open most frequently used sidebar, view, preview, inspector bar by one shortcut and three steps. Activate the assigned shortcut to the script, hit a number in the popup, and hit enter. To me, it’s faster and easier than click, click and remembering all those different shortcuts.
No doubt about it - and I respect the need to balance the needs of different users.
I don’t really have an opinion one way or another about the 3 pane view. I wonder though - is it that much effort to make it an option or even a hidden preference since you have already written most of the needed code as part of DT2?
In the spirit of being constructive rather than critical, could folks who have transitioned from the 3 pane view to the new UI of DT3 successfully describe how they navigate now, at a really concrete level? I struggled when I looked at the beta and am definitely feeling lost with the full upgrade.
Thanks for that. I’ll experiment with it.
I, too, miss the 3PV. It took me a long time to find a comfortable UI with DT2. I chose the 3PV because, for me, it had the least friction to get to the data I wanted to see. I agree with DanielWessel in a lot of what he’s put forth. It’s hard to verbally describe why 3PV worked as well as it did, but it did. For me, I think one of these intangible aspects is the ability to better mentally visualize the data structure; somehow the 3PV just made it easier to grok the various connections to data/info located in the various databases and groups.
One issue I’m having in trying to acclimate to a 3PV analog is the area that lists the files cannot be made any smaller than 8 rows. In DT2, I could make this very small to maximize the viewing pane below, which I find very useful on the modern screen (more horizontal and less vertical real estate).
Perhaps the transition to DT3 will be much smoother when/if keyboard navigation in the sidebar can be enabled in the next version update. However, I vaguely remember DT2 users also keep complaining/mentioning that it’s hard to switch from one pane to another since only mouse click is supported, I suspect that the demand on using keyboard to switch from sidebar to the list pane will come next… which I think will be another very convenient feature.
PS. IMHO, perhaps it is easier for DT to work on further refinement by suggesting what changes can be made on the “Navigate” view of the sidebar to make the transition from 3PV to DT3 smoother?