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DEVONthink
1

I’m trying to consolidate all my note taking into only DT4. The upgrades in DT4 have inspired me to consolidate all my information into a single shoebox!!!

Near the top of my list is to stop using Apple Notes and Agenda for note taking. As I see this, I will start making extensive use of “templates”. For example, one template for Phone Call Notes, one for Zoom meeting notes, another for misc notes to myself. My projects frequently last up to three years and therefore I get a whole bushel basket of notes attached to a project.

Frequently near the close of a project I have to reconstruct the history of a project, it seems to me that I will have to assign a “like field” on every document/phone record etc. to make a Smart Folder. This will require me to enter the exact spelling (including capitalization etc) on each document I make.

Is there a way for me to make something like a “dropdown menu” listing each of the 2 or 3 dozen projects to guarantee that my smart folder doesn’t leave one note out because of my failure to spell the project name exactly correct?

BTW, I have considered DT tags, but I have a couple hundred of them and I don’t want to sift through a couple hundred to find the one I’m looking for while the person on the other end of the phone is spewing out info that I’m not paying attention to because I can’t quickly find the project name?

I’ve been looking at something like “Typinator” text expansion, which to date is the best idea I have come up with.

Thanks in advance.

Larry

2

One possibility could be to define a custom metadata field Project of type Set, see Settings > Data.

1 Like
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And then just create smart groups for each project that all docs where “Project” is “Project 1” (or whatever).

Screenshot 2025-07-02 at 3.50.27 PM
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Thanks for sharing that. It’s nice to hear!
In addition to @cgrunenberg’s comment, there are also other data types in custom metadata.
For example, the Boolean type appears as a checkbox. The Decimal Number can be used in a variety of ways, including as Currency, e.g., for recording accounts receivable/payable, etc. Check out the Appendix > Metadata > Custom Metadata section of the help and manual.