Hi all,
Like most of you, I’ve been playing with the new Beta version of DEVONThink 3.0, and so far, so good. Curiously, what’s your favorite thing about DTv3? What do you love the most about it? What features are going to make you pay for the upgrade from v2.11.3 to v3.x?
KB
The list is big… Summarizing and not in order:
Even a thing that disliked me, that was the new global search, now I like it a lot and what I’ve done is have scripts to load/unload automatically the biggest databases. Then, add:
custom metadata (it feels like a database)
consolidated inboxes (works like I always wanted it too, though I wish I could tear the sidebar off and use it independently)
search makes a lot more sense (to me, and feels less frictiony)
dark mode (fewer eyeball assaults. I’ll now be cataloging my photography in dt3)
the ability to stay in the main window (most of the time)
the inspector panel is a thing of beauty (learn the shortcuts, almost everything you need is there)
finder integration when indexing (I’ll be indexing a lot more now that it does the maintenance)
Dan, as a photographer myself for 30 years, how do you plan on cataloging your photos in DT3? Do you currently use any other photo apps such as Lightroom, Capture One, On One, etc. as a DAM (digital asset manager) for your photography?
I’m waiting for someone to mention the documentation as a favorite thing… 
…waiting… 
I’ve used Lightroom and On One. As of late, I’ve been preparing to cut the Adobe subscription cord.
I’m editing almost exclusively now on iPad Pro with Affinity and ProCreate. Affinity works on Mac, too, as you probably know. I’ll still need it for batch jobs and such.
I intend to create custom metadata in DT3 for shoots and edits. The image below is my sorting and rating workflow for Lightroom, much of which I’ll be able to do with custom metadata in DT3. I’ll still use whatever editing software suits the job, but store the final work in DT3 databases based on the shoot or subject.
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The documentation is so good it goes unnoticed. There. How’s that? 
Wait… what?!?
Actually, I keep pressing it because…
I’ve been using it quite a bit, actually. I’ve also noticed a minor typo, or two, but I haven’t been cataloging that, didn’t want to junk up the forum with minutiae. Would you like that reported? If so, how?
To be honest, I indexed it as you commented in other thread and I use DT3 search to digg into it. That is the way I started making scripts and knew what things DT can do via scripting. But help is one of those things that is very useful but nobody notices the hard work it is to have it updated and useful, and I can say DT one is one of the best help system, better after indexed using DT itself…
What’s/where’s the mention of indexing Help? What does doing this do for you?
In this case, you can PM me. I’m putting together a list of changes, so I can just add them to my list. Screencap as you think would be helpful.
I’m cutting the cord on Adobe all together, having switched from Lightroom to Capture One (and haven’t looked back). I’ve also purchased Affinity Photo for my iPad & Mac, so that I can get rid of Photoshop. Just as an FYI, though you’ve stopped subscribing to Lightroom, it will continue to work as expected with the except of the Develop tab. You could continue to use it as a DAM, if you so desired. I would love to have a option for culling & rating my images on the iPad, that would be reflected in Capture One (or whatever DAM I choose).
This is taped to my iMac, as my CO workflow: 
That is the way I started making scripts and knew what things DT can do via scripting.
Woohoo!!
I’m pretty proud of the Automation chapter. It’s not intended to be exhaustive, but I feel it gave a good overview and insight into what’s possible and how to get started.
Re DT
(1) Unexpected but big and very nice surprise: tightly integrated group< >folder.
(2) All improvements related to tag and metadata, tags are now more useful than ever.
(3) All search related improvement, particularly on tags/metadata/more prefix, filters.
(4) UI is a significant time saver
(5) The full potential of smart rules need to be explored by actual utilisation
Re Help documentation
(1) High quality as usual, almost all questions can be answered by reading through the document.
Suggestions: (1) Add an index section so that we can jump to specific keywords right away (e.g. tags, search, index, backup, smart rule, etc.) (2) Add the “?” button in all sidebars for shortening the learning curve (don’t need to search through the help documentation).
Most wanted addition
The ability to select multiple groups or to exclude some groups in Smart group/rule
What is this? I use indexed databases at the moment and I’m curious as to what’s new ?
I guess rfrog refers to how indexing happens automatically and very quickly once DT detects new files in scanned folders. Also how DT stores files externally when added to an already indexed folder. I also love this.
Some time ago I wrote about using DT for my law library. I did use it for a while but in the end I changed to Scrivener, because S has a more attractive interface so far as I am concerned, also S sync is easer for me to set up whereas I do not understand DT which I find clunky in comparison. Best of all would be sync like Things but I guess that is a non-starter. Anyhow, S can handle pdfs but DT is much better and with S I miss not being able to search pdfs direct. I also use and continue to use DT Office Pro (or Pro Office, can never remember which) for research info, notes of phone calls via sorter (indispensable) and so on.
My initial impressions of DT3 are that I shall use it for my law library but in a subordinate capacity to S. The speed of import pdfs is impressive, i have only experimented with a few so far because I don’t want to import >10,000 pdfs and process the content until DT3 is not beta.
I like the single interface. I do not know whether DT2 has the same capability because i until I installed the ocr addon in DT3 I had never used it in DT2 - I use Acrobat Pro to ocr to my spec, but sometimes pdfs slip through my workflow - the batch ocr is terrific and slick.
Convert pdf to plain or rich text is not something I thought of doing in DT2. I expect I shall find this feature very useful once I have worked out why the conversion process seems to create more than one copy of the file; should it? I would like to be able to change the colour of the file format icon so that I can see at a glance which copy to use.
As to the custom meta that is a selling point for me. Apart from groups where I can have a group automatically enter a tag, I often forget to tag manually or there are too many tags to see at once.
I use the sorter so shall miss that it is no longer stand alone. I daresay that after using DT3 for a few minutes I shall adjust to the change and will have forgotten how it was under DT2. Just remembered that as DT is the first app I open manually everyday not having a standalone sorter is not something I shall miss.
I am using DT3 help and shall post a question about Annotate separately. I would prefer the Help to be DT3 exclusive and not include links to info beyond DT as it can be confusing where best to find the help needed. In due course I shall if I can download Help as a pdf and put in my dropbox folder so I have some bedtime reading.
This is the first time i have used a beta version of any app. I am not knowledgeable enough to know what to look for but await release of DT3 so that I can upgrade and get on with using it instead of DT2.
It served to me to start with scripting. Enough info about the basics and how to go to Apple Script Editor and start with it.
And normally, if I have a question on DT3, I look before in the indexed documentation before search here and then ask here. 90% of the questions went resolved by the documentation itself.
