I had been looking for a way to accurately convert articles read in Pocket & Feedbin/RSS to PDF and archive for future reference. This has been particularly useful for how-to articles, longform content and legal knowhow (for my day job).
The beauty of this automated method is that I have an instantly searchable archive of content available on iOS and macOS (and any other locations I choose to sync to) from a few simple inputs (starring an RSS item, or tagging a Pocket article).
I’ve put together an admittedly long but extremely flexible workflow and have tried to set it out here:
I like Zapier (more than IFTTT), but $240/year is way too much, and the basic service is very limited.
To get articles from Pocket to DEVONthink I use it’s version of “share” as shown – which opens the DEVONthink clipper with all its variety of import options.
I agree, paying for Zapier for just this usage scenario would be overkill.
However, it’s still possible to convert a Pocket link to PDF in one Zap and have it saved by CloudConvert to Dropbox in the free plan. What you wouldn’t be able to do is have the Pinboard archiving included (a multi-step zap), that would need to be separate (and using 2 of your 5 free zaps).
If I am using my own MacBook then I’ll use the Share functionality directly. The above need is driven by a locked down office PC with no DTPO installed, and for directly saving from Feedbin’s RSS feeds.
Just an update on this, I’ve actually stopped using Pocket and Zapier, partly to save the cost of Zapier and also because I’ve switched to a self-hosted solution. I use Safari’s Reading List and when at home quickly click through, Ctrl+P+P to PDF on my Synology and DTP picks it up from there.
That being said, the methods I described should still work fine.
EDIT: I also remembered, I had issues with Zapier timing out with the upload of any large PDFs to Dropbox, and CloudConvert sometimes choking on image-heavy pages.
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