Hi,
from DTP 1.x I remember the option to automatically index a folder into a database. How can this be done in DTP 2.x? Same question about synching (though I this context I believe it is the same).
Thanks,
Rolf
Just use File > Index to index the folder and File > Synchronize to synchronize it. To automate this, you could attach the script “Synchronize.scpt” (see Extras of disk image) to the group/folder via the Info panel.
As a newbie, could I ask you to clarify a bit?
I found the script for synchronizing in the Extras folder of the disk image. I am assuming I have to:
- Place this script in a specific folder related to DTPro
- Single-click the Database or the Folder I want
- Click the Info button in the toolbar
- Navigate to the script I want to be run
Are there options for how often synch is performed? Is this even necessary? Is synch performed whenever DTPro is opened?
Thanks!
The script can be attached to a group (or document) in the designated area of the Info panel. It cannot be attached to a database.
Synchronization occurs when the group (or document) is opened.
The script is applicable to groups that have been Index-captured. It does nothing when attached to a group that resulted from an Import capture.
Thanks, Bill, for the quick reply.
But I still don’t know how to implement this.
Where does the script go?
By ‘Attach’ to a group or file, do you mean to go into Info and select the script by navigating to it?
Thanks!
Yes.
The script goes…where…?
I haven’t checked, but as DEVONthink Personal 2.0 isn’t scriptable, the ability to attach scripts may not be available in that edition. DT Pro and DT Pro Office are scriptable.
Here’s a picture of the Info panel, showing the Script field for a document in my DT Pro Office 2 database. Click on the Select button and navigate to and choose the desired script to install it.
As I don’t use Index-captured files in this database, there’s no need for the ‘Synchronize’ script.
Thank you again, Bill.
Please allow me to run my proposed set-up by you, and let you critique it or refine it (and please forgive me for writing a smaller version of this in another post; since you have answered so many of my questions on this thread, I will try to focus here):
I use Papers for a lot of pdfs for medical research. I would like to be able to keep using this to help me find, download and organize journal articles. I will also scan some paper articles that are not available online.
Papers stores these articles in folders labeled by year. However, I have the option to store all papers in one large folder without subfolders. I can easily move all my papers to such a folder if it will help my use DTP correctly (at least, in the way I wish).
I have DTPro Office version 2.0b7.
I would like to be able to use DTP to index my Papers library, since I am regularly adding articles to the Papers library. I would like to be able to use Papers just to download and organize such articles, to keep track of which ones I have and don’t have, and to be able to transfer references to a word processor or Bookends when I write papers. So I don’t think I can do this all in DTP.
My main goals in DTP:
-
Index the articles from Papers, and keep the index updated after I frequently add new articles. It appears I can do this by adding the synch script to the Info window for my main research folder in DTP. I believe that DTP will automatically index those missing articles that I have added to Papers in the interval, when I open the database in DTP.
-
Have searchable articles in DTP. Most of the downloaded articles in Papers are searchable, I believe. I would guess that indexing these in DTP will allow me access to the power of DTP’s AI. Please correct me if I am wrong, or let me know how to test this searchability in indexed articles.
-
For the articles I scan directly from paper, I would like to add these to my Papers library, have them indexed by DTP when I open that database, and have them searchable in DTP. How do I ensure that these are searchable? Must I separately scan or import them into DTP? Is there a way to find non-searchable articles that have been recently indexed, and then to OCR them? Or is there an option to index and OCR at the same time (I am doubting such a capability exists…)?
-
I would like to be able to classify my articles and replicants within DTP, regardless of how they are organized in Papers/Finder. I am sure this is necessary in order to be able to use DTP’s AI. Should I do this through replicants? Is there a way to ignore the folder hierarchy in Finder (created by Papers) when indexing in DTP? And, if so, do I add the synch script to EACH folder in DTP (because I don’t believe you can synch a database)? How does this affect the different Groups/Folders in DTP vs. Papers/Finder?
In short, I would like my workflow to be:
a. Download and scan articles into Papers.
b. Index this library in DTP, without maintaining the folder hierarchy.
c. Classify in DTP.
d. Have total searchability in DTP.
Doable? Refinements?
I thank you all in advance for reading a wandering post!
A few additions:
From continued reading through the forums, I believe I have answered my question about indexing from folder hierarchies in Finder/Papers-I would have to retain that hierarchy in DTPO.
Also, I only have 600MB of articles, and the growth is fairly slow, adding two or three articles once every week to two weeks. So I should be able to keep my articles in Finder/Papers, AND import into DTPO, without too much strain on my disk space.
Therefore, I should consider importing all my articles into DTPO from Finder/Papers, without deleting those articles, creating my own classification in DTPO. That approach might also solve my searchability issues-I would scan paper-based articles and run them through DTPO OCR, then export them to Finder/Papers.
Thoughts on this alternate approach?
Hi Bill,
a question related to the screenshot you posted: Is this beta 8 (already)?! I am asking because of the tag you added in the tags-field. On the other hand “Taging” is not checked and greyed out… I can check “Tagging” in my info-panel (beta7) but cannot add anything in the panel below.
Regards,
Rolf
@ sawxray:
Given the growth rate of your Papers database, either Index or Import of the PDFs would seem workable.
If you Index the PDFs in Papers’ database into your DEVONthink database, you should retain the organization of the Index-captured group(s), so as to retain the ability to synchronize back to Papers’ database folder structure. You can, however, replicate the Index-captured PDFs into other groups in your database as you may wish.
It’s not necessary to reorganize Index-captured PDFs to take full advantage of searches and See Also.
@ Rolf:
Yes, I’m running a pre-release copy of DTPO2 beta 8. It is being reviewed by the beta test group. Tagging has been activated in beta 8, which will be released before the expiration of beta 7.