Hi
Moved a load of notes to Devonthink Pro Office thinking that I’d be able to view/edit them on my iPod touch and iPad with devonthink to go
Sadly, though I can read them I get a message that says that there is formatting that can’t be handled by DTTG and do I want to save a copy that is editable.
Since the files are plain text I’m not sure what it is that can’t be handled.
What do I do to make these files editable by DTTG without saving copies of all of them?
Cheers
Iain
RTF files are an interesting issue.
To begin with, RTF files are actually made up of the actual text and “control words” that dictate styling and formatting (vaguely similar to HTML). This means that even though an RTF file may appear to be “plain text” (without any styling or formatting), there can be controls words in the RTF file.
Second, there are a lot of control words that can be included in RTF files. This can range from making text bold to adding a list or table to more obscure formatting, style or typography options. There can also be control words that may add information but not visibly affect what you see. Many or most RTF editors don’t understand every possible control word.
The RTF editor we’re using supports a fairly basic subset of everything that can be done in an RTF file. Therefore, what’s probably happening is that Word has added some control words that we detect as being unsupported by the RTF editor.
If the only thing you need is the text from the files (and not any of the formatting or styling), I would recommend converting all of them to plain text. You can do this in DEVONthink Pro Office by selecting all of the files, and choosing Data > Convert > to Plain Text in the menu bar. Then you can delete the original files. That will allow you to edit the files without having to duplicate each one individually (though you still have to duplicate all of them as an intermediate step).
If that doesn’t sound sufficient for you needs, let me know and we can try to find a better solution.
I think I was hoping for something similar. Firstly our meeting agendas are sent around in word files which includes tables. I was hoping to be able to open edit and then save ion dt but it wasn’t treacly happening. Also I thought I could make a folder of articles and title it ‘still to read’ and then when it was finished move it to a 'read" folder. But I can’t see how to move documents in dt on the iPad.
Phil
I’m not sure I understood. Could you elaborate?
Unfortunately, moving documents is not currently supported in DEVONthink To Go. The current plan is to implement that once we’ve shipped the new sync process that we’re working on.
I was hoping to use Devon as a hub for many documents - to store, etc. therefore wanted to have a folder for our staff meetings in it. That way, when the agenda is emailed around, I could put it into Devon, open and make notes on it as necessary, save it, and archive it. That doesn’t work with full word files, only basic rtf as I understand, (the moving of documents you’ve commented on.)
Correct, and we have no plans to add that at this time due to the additional complexity of MS Word documents. However, you should be able to send Word documents to other iOS apps that can edit Word documents and send them back to DEVONthink To Go. This should update the Word document within DEVONthink To Go. I don’t have any suggestions for apps that can edit Word documents, but others in the forum may be able to given some advice.