Greetings:
I am using DT to organize all of my teaching and writing documents from the last ten years. I imported most of these in the folder structure I had in my Documents folder. Naturally, there are duplicates of many of the files I imported into DT. I love the program so far, but am having some problems understanding how the filing system works. I am used to tags and Smart Folders from Macjournal.
First: I have 422 files in my duplicates smart group. I understand that the files are not actually in this folder, that ‘duplicates’ is like a tag on each of these files. This means that each file shown must be in at least 2 other places. In the info panel, some files appear twice, but others do not. The only way to delete one is to delete all instances of it. Do I have to delete them individually? How do I find out where they are so I can get rid of redundant copies?
Another thing I can’t figure out: In the location column, quite a few files show that they are in various tags folders. I have 3735 tags folders. Are these tags folders smart groups or regular folders? Do they hold actual copies of files or just replicants? How do these folders and tags work? I thought they were really the same thing, but they seem to act differently.
Moving files is confusing me. I did read the description in the help manual, but as I am moving files and using the info panel to see where things are, it doesn’t always make sense to me.
For example:
I just wrote this as a new note in my inbox. I tagged it ‘devonthink,’ named it ‘DT forum questions’ and moved it out of the inbox into another file called ‘crap.’ While it was in my inbox, it showed ‘inbox’ as its location. After the move, its location is ‘tags > devonthink.
Why doesn’t it say ‘crap’ for its new location? Should I have created the note within the folder where I wanted it kept? It is not blue or red, so I know it hasn’t duplicated or replicated. Where is the file? I can see it in my ‘crap’ folder; why doesn’t the location column in the info panel show this?
Is there any way to see all locations of an individual file so the redundant ones can be deleted?
Maybe I don’t have to understand how this works for it to work, but it bothers me.
Thanks for your help! 
Calais Reno