I have imported a load of emails that I wish to get into a database in Notion.
Given Notions limited ability to import, my best option seemed to be convert to text.
However, it looks like Notion will only turn a CSV into a Database.
What I would like to do is select the 500 odd emails and automagically add them to a DT Sheet.
I can then fiddle with the columns until I get them right.
The final stage would then be exporting the Sheet as a CSV.
My Problem:
I cannot see how to add the text files as separate rows on a Sheet
Sure, Notion might have issues for some, however, I have finally found the tool I need to get a Smörgåsbord of information online.
Must admit I had no idea it was me whom made that post
I now know of the Tool>create metadata - which does what I want, almost - it has everything other than the body of the message.
Am about to add the mailbox again and see if a refresh works.
Once I have pulled this off, using Notions ability to turn a mild mannered CSV into a DB, it will give me a muppet front end to see to whom each was sent, what was said, did toys stay in pram
I have tried and tried to make a Sheet out of all the emails I have.
if I use the Create Metadata overview - it does not contain the body of the email.
I have tried to figure out if I should be creating a Custom Metadata field that contains the body of the email - but I failed.
I tried added the emails to a sheet, but also failed.
If anyone has any help / pointers on how to export emails, inc. body, into a .csv I would be most grateful.
I have had some luck in exporting as .txt and importing into Numbers.
I then save as a .csv and open in Notion.
And, Im so darn close!
The problem seems to be that the body is split into multiple cells and that is screwing up the import into Notion.
Thank you for the reply, as you seem to be The Fountain of All Knowledge, any ideas please?
I normally would just move on and make use of a “make do” - thing is that this is important for me to make available to others.
I have no idea what “Notion” is, nor why it is on topic here.
But it seems that you want to kind of store the complete body of an email together with it’s content in some kind of database record. And this does not work the way you’d like it to because your process splits the body at paragraphs.
Then you should modify your process so that it keeps the body of the mail together. Since you don’t tell us how you go about doing what you’re doing, it’s difficult to help.
And I still think that all this is not on-topic here (besides, you’re trying to replicate the functions of a mail server, namely storing email bodies and metadata so that they are easily accessible).
Add a custom metadata attribute of Body with a data type of Multi-Line Text.
Create a smart rule like so, with the Scan Text string having a single space as the prefix before the asterisk. So technically you’d lose the first word in the body. Development would have to assess grabbing all the text if no prefix was specified.
Change the Body attribute to the Document String placeholder.
Use Tools > Create Metadata Overview.
PS: The Tags are optional but helps denote what has been processed.
Actually, it appears that the OP wants to store their data in a DEVONthink database and then refactor that data elsewhere – in this case Notion. Notion happens to be commonly used for collaboration.
It is very much on topic for this forum to work though techniques to use our databases in conjunction with other tools we use. These are my favorite kinds of topics here. I learn a lot and get to see Gandalf (aka @BLUEFROG ) at work. I appreciate @edgley being persistent in accomplishing their goal.
And I, as I have for over three decades, am internal grateful for the help that I have got over forums allowing me to do things I might not have been able to on my own.
Well, I followed the instructions, the only thing I couldn’t see was how to change the Body attribute at the end.
Here are the options I get:
I have spent ages looking for a “front end” to DT, not just for me, however to allow other people to get access to all this data I have spent seven odd years collecting.
DT was one of the reasons I even ended up going Apple.
For Change Body, Control-click the text field, the choose Insert Placeholder > Document String instead of typing in the asterisk. Then test on a document again and check the custom Body field.
Well, I had good feedback from the UK Police about Notion - made the information very easy for them to access, allowing downloading of embedded videos went down very well with them apparently.
