Documents in read-only mode

DEVONthink
1

Hi,

I notice that many documents I add to a library are read-only and I do not know of a way to write enable them. This is only in the Devon library, in Finder the documents are writable.
Even when I add a MarkDown note, I can edit it at first, but when I move away, this pretty new note is read-only.

How can I edit such a document in DEVONthink 3?

Thanks, Jochen

2

Do you use any smart rules that lock documents? Where is the database located?

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3

Hi,

I have smart rules but I donā€˜t think they should lock files. They are not meant to do soā€¦
The db is somewhere beneath my home folder.

4

Even when I add a MarkDown note, I can edit it at first, but when I move away, this pretty new note is read-only.
How can I edit such a document in DEVONthink 3?

Thatā€™s because Markdown has two mode: Edit and Preview. You canā€™t edit the preview.

You can choose whether to use a default view for Markdown documents in either mode via Preferences > Media > Markdown Display or use View > Document Display > Side-by-Side.

5

Thanks for the tip, thatā€™s working for the markdown file mentioned. Nevertheless, I see the same problem with for example some PDFs.

6

Some PDFs are uneditable if they are locked, encrypted, or have specific fonts (like Asian character sets) that could corrupt the text layer if annotated. The latter is an Apple PDFKit issue.

7

I see. The specific fonts might be my issueā€¦ Thanks

8

Another thing I hadnā€™t found. I prefer to see the formatted markdown, and I see you can switch to editing-in-place with view->document display->source.

I also notice if I create an RTF file with Nisus, DT wonā€™t edit it - and thatā€™s a good thing. Generally, rtf editors will eat Nisus styles. The OS supported RTF editing in the Mac definitely does that. Iā€™m not sure why DT will edit its own RTF files while leaving Nisus files untouched, but thatā€™s good, too.

9

Youā€™re welcome

10

Nisus uses a proprietary format so itā€™s not editable in DEVONthink.

11

Thereā€™s something different about the files, and thatā€™s ok. I would prefer DT not edit Nisus files.

Curio will, as will TextEdit. Either one nukes the Nisus styles. The Nisus documentation says itā€™s RTF, and the OSā€™s file command appears to agree:

% file junk.rtf
junk.rtf: Rich Text Format data, version 1, unknown character set

Junk.rtf was how Nisus saved the file when I named it ā€œjunk.ā€ Yeah, self-esteem issues today. I named my writing ā€œjunk.ā€

DT is extremely useful. Itā€™s so nice, Iā€™d even run Windows if that was the only way to use DT.

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