I’ve encountered a serious problem with Devonthink Pro. I often take notes directly in Devonthink. To do this, I open a rich text file in the inbox, name it (e.g. with the title of the article I’m annotating), and then open the file in a separate window. Since many of the text I read are .pdf files, I but the text file next to the .pdf file to read and annotate at the same time. HOWEVER, the notes I take are not automatically saved. Only if I close the window, the program asks me to save my changes. The problem is that if I have the document open as a windowed file and I open the file again (e.g. a few hours later, not knowing the file is still open), it opens the document WITHOUT the changes and closes the version I was taking notes in. The result is that I loose all my notes.
This has happened several times already and because I often have many different text files open in different windows and often browse through my notes, re-opening already opened files, I have lost several pages of notes and entire chucks of finished texts. I always end up looking for them like a madman and only realized today what I did wrong (did I do anything wrong?).
So, what to do to prevent this from happening again? Is there a setting that makes it possible to auto-save? Or close all windows? Or show in the database when a files is already opened?
Seriously, though, I don’t want DTPO saving my data until I decide I want it saved. So, the feature is useful to some, not to others, which means it has to be an option, etc., etc. Over here, I write hundreds of lines of stuff in DT daily, and never lost a thing - cmd-s is my friend.
The only autosaving I like is Emacs-style auto-save-backup-until-original-is-saved, which later (e.g. post-crash/restart) offers to restore from a backup that’s newer than the original.
Like a wrote in another post: DTPO is such a smart thing, it should be a bit more idiot proof. Luckily, idiots can be trained, so I’ll have to make a habit of using ctr-s. Still, it would be nice to have the option at least.
auto save is really must-have these days, I just lost a note of 600 words twice as I wanted to switch back-and-forth between two notes in order to set links within. Huge annoyance and really kills the idea of using DT for note-taking, Zettelkasten, and any other form of creative work.
Are these postings being read and/or answered by the developers?
