Applying a new Tag structure, to an old DB

DEVONthink Tips
1

To date, my use of Tags has been random and therefore I have literally thousands of useless Tags which in turn renders them useless for meaningful searches.

I have spent the last week constructing a mindmap of critical Tags/Keywords list of approximately 100 Tags. My plan is to use tagged folders as much as possible to minimize my having to actively “Tag” files on a one by one basis. Then, only as needed, tag an individual file. This would provide extensive search capabilities when used with Boolean operators.

My question is, what is the best way to a) clean out the old useless Tags and then how best to insert the new nested Tagging system?

BTW, what does it mean when it says “Tags 35/2532” on one DB and “Tags 124” on another DB?

A related question, what is the best way to make a duplicate database so that my “rebuild” experiment doesn’t endanger my data. BTW, before you ask, I have a multitude of backups include Time Machine, and a daily Carbon Copy Cloner (7 day rotation) to my NAZ and lastly a BackBlaze offsite copy.

Thanks
Larry

2

Though this is a suggestion, I personally wouldn’t do this. I would start a new database and create the Tags in it. Then I would copy data between the existing database and the new one, building it up. And personally, I would not add all the data at once. I would leave the old one open for a bit, cherry picking as I needed to.
I did this with a major database about four years ago. Not only did I have a nice new database to work with, but it gave me a chance to explore new organizational approaches.

The first number is the unread count. The second or singular number is the total number of tagged files.

You could do a File > Export > Database Archive, but you have plenty of backups to draw from already.

3

Thanks. I must be getting the hang of this because your suggestion was almost exactly what I thought, with the exception of doing a little at a time.

Thanks again
Larry

4

You’re welcome.

I encourage people to remember that databases are not sacrosanct things. We should all allow from flexibility in our mindsets regarding our data organization and processes. A new database gives a chance to test these things out, even if with a subset of data. If successful you could switch to the new one. If not, delete the test database and move on.