Bible Reference Searching in Devonthink Pro

DEVONthink Tips
1

I’m using Devonthink Pro for Science studies as well as Bible study & other things.

Has anyone got a good way of searching for Bible references in a Devonthink database?

E.g. I want to find a talk or some notes on John 6:51-18, but I don’t want to find all the docs with just the word ‘John’ in it, and docs on John 6 might be useful, as might docs on John 5-8

Any ideas?

Thanks

Tim

2

You could use phrases, e.g. “John 5-8” OR “John 6”, or proximity operators and wildcards, e.g. John NEXT [5-8]. The last one is identical to John BEFORE/2 [5-8].

3

Christian

Thank you for this.

How would that work when:
(1) I want all documents relevant to John 5:45 - 6:8 [i.e. this goes over a chapter into the verses in the next chapter]?
OR
(2) I want all documents relevant to John 5:35 - 45 ?

Thanks

Tim

4

Could Smart Tagging be used for this?

Any suggestions?

I’m looking for functionality like:
sermoncentral.com/

Thanks

Tim

5

It would also be useful if a search for revealed all Devonthink documents with e.g. John 5:45 -6:8 anywhere in the text, but particularly highlighting those where it is a primary focus: i.e it may be referenced in many documents but is a particular focus of only some such documents…

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Tim

6

Ok - so now we have tagging in Devonthink Pro 2.0 …

I’m trying to sort out a particular challenge – searching by Bible verse …so:

(1) I want to find a talk or some notes on John 5:45-6:8, but I don’t want to find all the docs with just the word ‘John’ in it, and docs on John 6 might be useful, as might docs on John 5-8
(2) I want all documents relevant to John 5:45 – 6:8 [i.e. this goes over a chapter into the verses in the next chapter]?
(3) More simply, I might want all documents relevant to John 5:35 – 45

  • It would also be useful if a search for revealed all Devonthink documents with e.g. John 5:45 -6:8 anywhere in the text, but particularly highlighting those where it is a primary focus: i.e it may be referenced in many documents but is a particular focus of only some such documents…

What route would be best? I’m wondering about the new tagging functionality which has just come out

Thanks

Tim

7

The search term…

John NEAR (“5 [4-9]" | "6 [1-8]”)

…might be a solution.

8

Thank you - I will get my head around it and give it a go

9

Thank you for your help.
Can this sort of search search in tags?
Thanks
Tim

10

Not yet.

11

Wouldn’t searching for key words and phrases accomplish much of what you’re after? I can’t imagine how much time it would take to tag every article or even personal notes with all the relevant info. Let the spirit and letter, rather than clumsy, modern chapter and verse notations, guide you!