They went into your database. A DEVONthink database is a package - a kind of folder that has its own internal set of subfolders where the documents are stored in the filesystem. But, you don’t need to use Finder or Spotlight to locate your database files.
You use DEVONthink’s Tools > Search, or the Find box in the toolbar (Edit > Find, or browse to the group where you put the file when it was indexed and where it should still be now that you’ve moved it into the database. The files aren’t hidden, they are listed right there in the database. If you want to email a file, drag it out of DEVONthink and into an email document, or add the Send by Email icon to your toolbar and click that and send the selected document(s) in a new email message. (BTW, if you can locate a file in Finder or Spotlight and it’s shown as a “DTP2” file, then it’s certain that the file is inside one of your databases and you will see it in DEVONthink.)
If you really need to see where a file is located in the filesystem, then click it and use Data > Show in Finder. But why use Finder if your files are stored in the database? I’d suggest you might enjoy reading Help, or the Manual, or several of the Tutorials in the Support Assistant (Help > Support Assistant, or even Joe Kissell’s book about learning and DEVONthink.
Finally, it’s useful to know that DEVONthink never changes a file from one type to another – PDFs are always PDFs, .docx are .docx, etc. The original file is stored in the filesystem by DEVONthink unchanged. Spotlight will display “DTP2” as the type merely because the file is stored in a database - but your PDFs are still intact PDFs.
To see the group location of a document in DEVONthink, select it and choose “Command-R” (the Reveal command).
To attach a DEVONthink file to a new email in Mail, just select one or multiple documents and drag them onto the Mail icon in the Dock. A new message is created that contains the attachment(s).
I don’ think that it is masochistic to use finder AND DT on the same items. If this was the case, there would be no indexing function. Surely the intension of the feature is not just to use Punekea for tagging. Because I am not doing the same work in both DT and the finder, I am using these two systems to do different tasks. I use finder to download and structure my items quickly. I find it easy to download new files from my Universities WebCT through safari, drag and drop and to move these to a USB or anything I need. I use Totalfinder and that tabbed interface makes these sort of tasks very easy. Unlike DT, ALL the programs on my mac are designed to interface with the finder. That means any downloads, saves or copied files can go straight into the finder. This is in this particular example a lot easier than dragging into the sorter. If I were to simply save or drag into the global inbox, I would then have to also go into DTs inbox and drag it into a new place, in this case adding more steps than currently.
While in this particular instance I prefer to use the finder, I still make excellent use of DT, using it every day for creating clippings from the internet, and storing items that are less amiable to being organised in the file system. I currently have over 40 000 documents in my main database. To suggest that I should use DT only to work with files is to suggest that DT is indeed just another flavour of the finder. While I probably have more documents in my database than in the finder, I still find it useful to work with the finder for specific purposes. My university studies provide just that purpose. However, I use DT when I wan’t to get nonlinear. I might get some example PDF articles of psychology journals provided by the lecturer that are in my university folder system on the finder and replicate it into a group for that research area. Or tag them. I don’t want to duplicate it because its a waste of space and I want to make only one set of annotations. In another example of duel use, I use Circus Ponies Notebook. Sometimes I want to put an alias of a pdf in a notebook as well as in my database. I can put an alias in the notebook to the article that has been downloaded and dragged into my folder hierarchy, so now the same article in accessible from my finder, DT and Notebook. This works for me because I learn through association. Just using aliases in the finder wont give me the power I have with DT.
However, so long as changes to the finder (e.g. folder name, moving a folder etc…) totally disconnect the indexed items from any work you have done with them, the actual use of this valuable feature is undermined. I don’t want to use DT as another flavour finder, I want to use it as DT but in such a way that it complements the items I have in the finder. Part of my question was regarding the technical feasibility of this feature extension. Perhaps it is technically difficult, I don’t really know what’s involved. However, from a usability point of view, I think the current situation is confusing and inconsistent. Perhaps indexed folders don’t need to be completely mirrored to DT. Perhaps DT could just retain some continuity when you move folder or change names. This would retain any replicants you have made. Being unable to alter indexed items without undoing your work in DT is a big problem- you risk having those items stuck forever as they are.
When you reindex an item after changing the name, It seems to remember any tags that you assign. Some aspects of your work in DT seems to have become associated with the file. Why can’t it also remember if the item was replicated and where?
What I said was is that trying to “largely match a dynamic structure of the documents in the Finder is masochistic.” I didn’t say that one couldn’t use the two systems to do different tasks. Clearly in my own case, indexing documents and using Punakea to tag/search on tags is using the system to do different tasks. You go on yourself to mention all the challenges of changing folder names/locations (dynamic structure of the documents) in the Finder. When you move/rename folders in the Finder, the database structure breaks and you have to take time to reconstruct it-i.e. masochistic.
If you have Imported your files into DEVONthink, search for them in DEVONthink.
Tip: If you have checked the option to provide a Spotlight index in Database Properties for a database, you can then do Spotlight searches on the contents of that database. When results are displayed, choose the option to view all results. Items contained in a DEVONthink database are identified by a blue shell logo. Select such an item and press Space for a Quick Look view, or double-click it to open that document within the DEVONthink application.
Tip: if you wish to attach one or multiple documents to a new Mail message, just select the document(s) within DEVONthink and drag onto the Mail icon in the Dock. A new email message that includes the attachment(s) will be created, waiting to be addressed.