Conditional Meta Data Fields

hi there, and happy new year

I was wondering if there is a way to make custom Meta data fields only show conditionally.

I have some receipts I want to have Meta data corresponding to insurance Details. on those I’d like to see say fields a, b …up until… h

then I have files where I want to See fields m till p

and then some files where I need fields x,y,z

so I don’t want to have a-v fields on that last file. would make it horrible to change values or quickly check stuff.

any way to do this?

thanks!

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Hi, there is an option to create custom meta data fields in the preferences. These show in the inspector.

It’s just that all of those fields show on all files.

I want just some of the fields on defined files (like clicking a checkbox-field reveals more fields for example. Or if a tag is set. Or all files in a certain group. Something like that. :wink: )

No, currently this is not an option in DEVONthink. Perhaps in a future release.

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i did search the forum last night with some different search terms and found that this is requested by a few other users already some time back as well.

its really an amazing feature to have custom meta. but really using this feature leads to a lot of meta fields - most probably not used on all files.

would be really amazing to have this in a future update. thank you!

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fwiw When processing records in my inbox, I use an applescript for assistance
The script presents the metadata based on note type
For example;
. receipts get a budget category and vendor (tags)
. tasks get a status (label), an optional project id (tag) and optional due date (metadata)

that kind of sounds like what I would like to do. would you mind sharing? I’m novice in apple script. thank you!

I posted sample code at How to group Smart Groups / Rule for DTTG based on tags? - #6 by DTLow

For specific selection lists, here is sample code
I populate variable notetypeList with a choice of options

set theNoteTypes to (choose from list notetypeList with prompt "Specify Note Type" with multiple selections allowed)
repeat with theNoteType in theNoteTypes
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havent been here in a while.

any updates on custom meta data fields depending on tags/rules/filetype etc?

i was wondering if spliting into different databases would help this?

what i want to do is:
i have a bunch of medical bills i have to send to various insurers to pay me back. but it needs to happen in sequence. first state, then private… and i need to keep track somehow. their websites and upload forms and feedback loops are horrible and i loose track and then in the end i loose money, because the process is so hideous. so i try to do this in devonthink. dont know if this is even the right place to do this…
but i dont want to have all that metadata of insurers issue numbers and payout sums and stuff on all my pdfs …

how would you keep track of something like that?

thanks!