# Creating a commonplace book with DevonThink?

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799>\
**Category:** Scenarios\
**Created:** [May 19, 2020, 5:19am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799 "2020-05-19T05:19:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ryanjamurphy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/ryanjamurphy/32/5890_2.png) [@ryanjamurphy](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/ryanjamurphy)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/22 "2020-06-11T14:36:59Z")

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Whoops. Someone drew my attention to this thread and I realized I forgot to share the KM macro. Here it is:

[https://axle.design/files/\_Tag-from-presets.kmmacros](https://axle.design/files/_Tag-from-presets.kmmacros)

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**Author:** ![hecastel](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/hecastel/32/7852_2.png) [@hecastel](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/hecastel)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/23 "2020-12-28T20:02:32Z")

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I hear you. I used to collect Web Articles, YouTube videos and Podcasts without any context into a “Media” database. It quickly grew out of control as I was collecting “stuff” faster than I was consuming it.

I realized that I was simply collecting data for the sake of collecting instead of doing something actually useful with it.

Things turned around greatly during the beginning of 2020 when I discovered [Readwise.io](http://Readwise.io) : It’s a service that stores your highlights from read-later apps like Pocket or Instapaper as well as Kindle Books and even podcast apps like Airr.

You can sync your highlights with apps like Evernote, Notion, Roam or even export them as Markdown files. I stick with markdown.

What I do now is that I export my highlights every week and then index them into a folder that syncs both to a DT database and my Obsidian vault. Metadata like links to the original articles, name of the book and the like are maintained.

This means that I can access this data via either DT, DT to go or Obsidian.

I am sure there are scripts to automate the last step to export the Markdown files from Readwise into the Folder I use for DT / Obsidian. I haven’t done any deep research into that yet. Hope that helps you

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**Author:** ![deadface](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@deadface](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/deadface)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/24 "2021-01-14T08:18:15Z")

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I’m researching about this as well (just got to introduced to Readwise today). I was wondering how do you avoid duplicates of highlights exported from Readwise to DTP? It seems that the Readwise export feature only exports the totality of the highlights.

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 8:35am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/25 "2021-01-14T08:35:24Z")

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A belated welcome @hecastel

> I hear you. I used to collect Web Articles, YouTube videos and Podcasts without any context into a “Media” database. It quickly grew out of control as I was collecting “stuff” faster than I was consuming it.
> 
> I realized that I was simply collecting data for the sake of collecting instead of doing something actually useful with it.

These are very astute observations - ones we’d all be wise to stop and consider. Gathering has limited benefits if the data is never accessed and used.

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**Author:** ![hecastel](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/hecastel/32/7852_2.png) [@hecastel](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/hecastel)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/26 "2021-01-15T01:02:35Z")

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Thank You. These forums and community are gold. Really enjoy how people can come together around a great product like DT.

Now, when putting stuff into one of my permanent databases I ask myself 3 things:

- Does this help me?
- Will I need this a year from now?
- Would future me be glad that I saved it?

If I say Yes to any of them, it earns a spot

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**Author:** ![hecastel](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/hecastel/32/7852_2.png) [@hecastel](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/hecastel)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 1:05am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/27 "2021-01-15T01:05:37Z")

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Readwise doesn’t export directly to DTP. It can sync directly with Evernote/ Roam / Notion.

They recently added an “Export as Markdown” function that I use to save my highlights as text files. You can pick to download all of them or only the newer ones.

Picking the newer ones makes sure that there is no duplication.

The way that I get these highlights into DTP is that I index the folder where they reside.

 ![image](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/3X/0/3/034bf87e1a94e74f49410e9e8d67bf74529c1586.png)

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**Author:** ![deadface](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@deadface](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/deadface)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 2:28am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/29 "2021-01-15T02:28:07Z")

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Thank you very much!

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**Author:** ![ProfJerry](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/e480ec/32.png) [@ProfJerry](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/ProfJerry)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 11:20pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/30 "2021-04-22T23:20:36Z")

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I deeply appreciate learning about this workflow and plan to start using it myself. One question: will the AI and classify features of DT work on markdown files? Or do those features only work on PDF files?

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**Author:** ![BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bluefrog/32/135_2.png) [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/31 "2021-04-23T03:06:52Z")

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Yes, the AI on Markdown files, hence so will the See Also and Classify functions.

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**Author:** ![tbernat](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/9d8465/32.png) [@tbernat](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/tbernat)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799/32 "2021-05-22T12:44:39Z")

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Nicole van der Hoeven: Readwise \> Obsidian … and DEVONthink

The answer is here:

[How I Use Obsidian at Work](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com/blog/20210518-how-i-use-obsidian-at-work/)

[Previous page](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/creating-a-commonplace-book-with-devonthink/55799.md?page=1)