I understand that DT Pro Office can apply OCR at the time a pdf or image file is imported in the database [File>Import>Images (with ROC)].
As a former DevonNote user who has now upgraded to DevonThink Pro Office, I have a database that includes numerous pdf and image files as attachments to rtf documents. Is there a way to use the DT OCR engine with those attachments? If not, would a script be conceivable that would take those attachments, turn them into stand-alone documents in my database, apply OCR to them, and finally move them back to their original parent document?
Scripting of rich text attachments is limited. It might be possible but would definitely require a lot of work & testing and it might be easier to drag & drop the attachments to the desktop and to reimport them again.
Thank you for the response. This is a genuine weakness, in my opinion, because the distinction between a pdf attachment and a pdf document placed directly in the database belongs at the technical level, not the user level. Conceptually, there is no reason why OCR should be applicable only to imported pdf and not to attachments, as well. I see an inconsistency here in terms of usability—an inconsistency that calls at least for some fine print, if not an explicit clarification, in the DT Pro Office presentation on your website.
Please consider adding such functionality in a future beta. In terms of implementation, a dialogue box could pop upon drag-and-dropping a pdf/image into a document, asking the user whether OCR should be applied before attaching.
[UPDATE] As a better alternative, the user would right-click on the attachment and select a “Perform OCR” command in the contextual menu.