I had read online that Devonthink is able to handle a variety of non-PDF file types including .PPT, .DOC and .PAGES.
However, non-PDF files are not showing in my Devonthink database. Is Devonthink PDF only?
Personal supports the fewest number of fileTypes. This is shown here: devontechnologies.com/produc … rison.html
Thanks Bluefrog. I have Devonthink Pro Office. According to your links, MS office & Apple iWork documents should be supported. But the folder I indexed contains these kinds of files, yet they have not appeared in Devonthink?
I also note, rather bafflingly, that in the “import” preferences in Devonthink, a range of file types are mentioned though not the above. There is an “other” file types at the bottom of the list which may or may not include these, it doesn’t say.
Yes, they’re supported. I’m looking at some now.
And no, we don’t list every possible fileType in the Prefs.
Considering you’re having issues with indexing, have you tried the same operations on a different database?
Is there anything reported in Window > Log?
I have separate work and personal databases. The non-PDF files are not showing in either. Nothing in the logs window. The non-PDF files are just not appearing in Devonthink.
On a separate note, it would be helpful to be able to see in Devonthink which folders are indexed. I cannot see this information anywhere.
What also makes me worry about this is the folder that automatically appears in any database called “all PDF documents”. This suggests that other file types are not supported, otherwise it would be called “all documents”.
Regarding listing the file types in prefs, I don’t suggest that every file type should be listed. It does seem odd though that a number of lesser-used file types such as various messenger logs, applescripts and movies are listed, whereas the big guns (such as .doc and .ppt, the majority document types for most perhaps after PDF) are not listed. Seems bizarre to me.
Edit: I just dragged a non-PDF (.doc) file into a Devonthink group and it appeared there OK. Don’t know why they haven’t appeared on indexing. Do you need to import rather than index non-PDF files?
There’s a curved arrow to the right of indexed items. This is documented in the manual.
This doesn’t suggest other fileTypes aren’t supported. It’s merely a built-in Smart Group for PDFs, as they are prevalent in many facets of use.
Actually, I would not imagine .doc, and especially not .ppt files, to be the “majority types”. Our User base is broad, so it’s not a conclusion I would draw.
No. You are having atypical results.
Yes, that indicates which files are indexed. But I want to know which folders are indexed. As you will be aware, in the Yep preferences there is a list of the folders in finder which you added to be “watched”. Hope this makes sense.
I have not been able to get Devonthink to “see” the non-PDF files using the methods you described. What I ended up doing was using Yep to show all the non-PDF files, and then dragging them to the Devonthink inbox. Now then appear in Devonthink. A workaround solution but I’m still keen to get it working as it should!
Folders on the hard disk that are indexed in DTPO appear as a group with the curved arrow, just like documents.
If you want to have an “inventory” of all your indexed folders (I wouldn’t because I have probably over 100 indexed folders so it wouldn’t be terribly useful to me), you can always create a Smart Group with the following criteria:
Instance is: INDEXED
Kind is: GROUP
It is very strange you are not seeing some files show up in your indexed folders. I have lots of documents, including some more esoteric ones like Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OmniOutliner files (which are supported for viewing in DTPO but not editing, and those not terribly well-supported by DTPO (I get some strange machine-readable files that represent my heart hrecords from my doctor which can only be read by a small handful of applications and DTPO is not one of them!). No problems with them appearing in indexed folders at all.
You can create smart groups to surface almost any type of file. You want a smart group to show all images? All markdown files? All Word Documents? Totally possible.
I suspect the inclusion of the default All PDFs smart group is just to demonstrate this capability with a very common file type that is likely to appear at least once in many users’ databases. An “All documents” group wouldn’t be a good demonstration of the power available in Smart Groups if you ask me. Certainly though could have chosen almost any other document type (“All PowerPoints” for example…) but PDF seems sensible as any.
(I deleted that smart group, however, because my work database has 1600 PDF files and an undifferentiated list of those PDFs isn’t terribly useful!)
If you are adding indexed files to a group created in DEVONthink, that does not make it an indexed group (folder). It just is a group in a database with indexed files. It doesn’t matter where you’ve indexed the files from. This would just be a group with indexed content.
I have no folders in Devonthink with a curved arrow. I made all the folders (groups) in Devonthink myself.
Microsoft Office is the most popular productivity suite in the world and tends to be the industry standard in this regard. I have no idea why you referred to it as esoteric!
Exactly, Bluefrog. I only have groups with indexed content. I don’t have indexed groups. So does that indeed mean that I cannot update these groups by clicking somewhere else and then back on the group again?
Umm… there is no place I called anything “esoteric”. I stated that your judgment that those types of files are the majority after PDF isn’t factual.
Correct. You should read on this in the manual and/or search for posts by Greg Jones here, as he uses indexing almost exclusively.
Thanks, I’ll look into those. And I wasn’t referring to you with the esoteric comment but the other poster 