Can't edit RTF

DEVONthink To Go Tips
1

Howdy friends,

I created a rather long, well formatted RTF in DTPO that remains editable to me. It syncs just fine via WebDAV to my iPhone, and I can see all of the content. However, it appears to be locked for editing in DTTG on my iPhone, and I can’t figure out why. When I look in Info, the document isn’t locked, and I can’t think of anything else that would prevent editing.

I’m using DTTG v2.7.1 with iOS 12.1.4.

Thanks!

2

If your document has images – it’s kind will be RTFD or Rich Text Document with Images – then it will not be editable in DEVONthink to Go. RTFD documents are “packages” and are not editable on iOS. Because Apple.

This has been covered previously here.

3

Yep, it’s an RTFD, as it has a single large image in it. So my assumption is that if I remove the image, then I’ll be able to edit the RTF?

It’s interesting that I didn’t find the other threads, as I looked for “can’t edit rtf*” in the DTTG forum, and only got 11 hits, and none of them were relevant.

Thanks!

4

Yes, fortunately you have a simple case, and if you remove the image you can work with it on iOS, then add the image back later.

Your search was probably hyper narrow since this is the only thread I can see with “can’t edit rtf”.

Search for “RTFD” in the DEVONthink to Go sections.

5

Mine is a “living” document, meaning I’ll continually be making updates to it, so I’ve just placed the single image into a Formatted note.

Yep, I found a larger discussion about RTFDs.

Thanks

6

Be cautious about this. Formatted Notes contain embedded image data which can quickly blossom a file’s size when adding more than one. Due to them being an HTML based format, the expectation is to remain under 10MB (as would be the case with normal web pages).

7

Thanks Jim. I think it’s going to be a single document, but if it swells beyond that then I’ll convert it to a RTFD, but not plan on adding any text to it. Unless you think there’s a better document format for multiple images?

8

Try a test using Pages. If you save a Pages document in your database and sync that database to DEVONthink to Go, then in Pages on your phone or iPad you can access the original document in the database using iOS Files. DEVONthink to Go supports iOS document provider technology so that your databases can be “locations” in Files – and Pages uses Files to open and save documents. So, all your edits in Pages are saved right back to the original file in the database and synced back down to your device.

Same approach works for Word and many other text editors on iOS.

(Note: open and save the DEVONthink to Go files from Pages on iOS – do not use the Share menu’s “Open In” command from DEVONthink to Go, otherwise you’ll generate extra copies of the document and defeat the purpose of using Files.)

9

korm’s suggestion is a good one, given Pages is a solid word processing app and available on iOS and macOS.

10

@korm,

Thanks for the suggested use of Pages (and Numbers). I already do that with a few other documents that I share with my wife via DEVONThink. I’ll give it a shot, as the apps are currently on all my devices.