DT3 - Your Favorite thing?

@Cashew90, I was able to take the Resources directory which contains the HTML files and folders, and upload them to my iPad Pro, and browse the files just as though I was on my Mac. I put the files and folder into the iPad Good Reader app, and it works perfectly.

I’ll gladly share the folder and its contents with you, assume that this isn’t against DEVONthink’s rule. @BLUEFROG?

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@Cashew90 should be able to do the same thing, but I will always caution people to not play around in the internals of applications, databases, etc.

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This is what I’m wanting to do. I use OneDrive and Windows at work and my Mac at home. Keeping it in sync which this feature sounds like is my goal.

All this new functionality is well and good :slight_smile: but… I think a bigger deal should be made of the new look!

I mean, I loved DTPO and all, but one had to admit that its UI was starting to look more than a little last decade. The design overhaul is — on the whole — elegant, coherent, and blends in with the rest of macOS. It’s a joy to use … and one shouldn’t underestimate the importance of that!

The fact that the redesign is deeply intertwined with loads of new functionality is an additional bonus. Loving it, and looking forward to it getting even better during the beta process!

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And now I’m going to have to disagree with myself! I started messing with Smart Rules last night, and their capacity to change how you automate your life could be … transformational! All this without any need to get your hands dirty with scripting … and I say this as someone who’s a programmer by trade!

Example no. 1: I often use the “scan to email” function on our office copier to send myself documents. Now I have:

  • Set up a rule in Apple Mail to send the attachment of any message from the copier to DT3, then delete the message.
  • Set up a Smart Rule in DT3 to OCR any doc coming from the copier (by matching on the URL) and move it to a separate “holding” sub-group of Inbox.

But wait, I can go further…! I often scan the same documents at work, e.g. my salary slip. I can set up a Smart Rule to check every doc moved into the holding group, and if its contents match Entgeltabrechnung (German for payslip!), I can…

  • File it to the correct group
  • Rename it to a useful name that includes the date (extracted from the doc)
  • Set the Custom Metadata “Date” to the date extracted from the doc

I then applied that same Smart Rule manually to the existing contents of payslips group, in order to get them all consistently named and dated. Hours of manual work that I’ve been too lazy to do for years … taken care of in seconds! And all this, I predict, is merely scratching the surface of what Smart Rules can do!

In the past, documents would pile up in my Inbox for months before I worked up the energy to file them properly. No more!

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All this without any need to get your hands dirty with scripting

But also available to scripters! :stuck_out_tongue:
And I’m glad you mentioned this, as it’s something we specifically wrote in the documentation - check the Help > Automation > Smart Rules chapter for a starter course.

And thanks for the nice real-world example, even sans Execute Script :wink: .

The new Sorter really is wonderful. The integration with the features previously on the browser extension, very impressive. Like how it works, the ease of adding a new group and deciding where to put things. Very grateful for the screen grab feature, took a whole workflow away and simplified matters for me on that front.

I’ve a shift to do with the ‘narrow down in the sidebar’ the reduced multipane approach takes, but getting there. I still expect that if I click on a group in the first pane, an array of thumbnails should appear in the main viewer. I trip up on that from time to time, I am retraining to select the first Preview mode so to have an array of large icons when reviewing artwork or photographs.

The integrated Inbox is great, so much more efficient. That saves all the shuffling and redirection I had to do which made organising a chore.

Really enjoying the editing bar for PDFs and Web Archives for annotation.

The efficiencies in overall organisation actually opens up the space for automation for me, so I’m definitely going to check out the Smart Rules.

Wondering how I might use Reminders…

It looks great, by the way, bravo to the Design team.

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All but one thing that it was annoying in DT2 when trying to save a URL it asked you to “allow” pop out window.

Now there is no barriers with the new Sorter

My favorite feature in DT3 so far is that the annotation file (and the Finder comments) that are linked to a document are automatically shown on the right-hand side of the main window, and are editable. This feature alone would prevent me from going back to DT2.

Let me explain why. I’m an academic researcher, and I collect hundreds of research articles for each project, and each of those articles is linked to an rtf-annotation file in which I collect general notes about the article, and project-specific notes that I copy and paste to wherever I need them. So everything I ever wrote and found out about a certain research article is collected in that annotation file (or there is a DT link pointing somewhere else). By the way I also include the bibtex citation command in the annotation file, so I can easily cite it (my bibtex database is managed with BibDesk). I found out a while ago that I don’t need a specialized literature database anymore, as DT provides all the features I need. I also make extensive use of tagging in DT to organize my literature workflow within DT. The main advantage of all of this is that there exists only one copy of each research article that is then used potentially for many projects thanks to the annotation file.

Having said that, I’m looking forward to studying the excellent documentation of DT3 and finding out more about useful features that I might use in the future. This is the fun part. There is always more functionality in DT than I can handle :wink:

best

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I work in very similar manner.

That means I hope 3.0 will add one more button in toolbar or a script that we use to create new annotation note (if none exist) or open the annotation file (if exist) in tab or in a separate document window. Under the current arrangement, I need to open inspector bar, move to the ctrl-3, click the drop-down on annotations and click open for viewing the whole annotation!

Thanks to DT, just need one more button/script to make annotation note function perfect.

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Hi ngan, I just leave the inspector window with annotation open all times and enlarge it to fill 1/3 of my (large) screen. then the annotation is basically open automatically and you don’t have to open it.

I agree – it’s a really nice feature and it shows just how much thought has gone into DT3. It’s impressive.

Unfortunately, I can’t use it at the moment, because it’s (perfectly understandably at this early stage) a little limited.

The reason is that, because I use DTTG regularly, I don’t use RTF notes at all if I can help it as you can’t create and edit them easily on iOS where RTF is decidedly a second-class citizen. Therefore I use markdown everywhere to be as consistent as possible.

Because the new annotation feature is inbuilt at the moment, I can’t get at the Annotation template and script it uses (as I did with the old Annotation template) to change it to use markdown. Presumably it’s there behind the scenes somewhere, but I can’t find it in the application bundle and I wouldn’t want to be changing it in there anyway…

I’m hoping that making the underlying Annotation template visible in the Templates folder will enable us to make simple modifications without needing massive changes to the application itself (and it would give you access to your button…)

Then perhaps a preference to say which template is chosen in the ‘New from Template’ option in the annotation dropdown list?

I appreciate this is wish and there are other priorities at the moment…

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feature suggestion for @cgrunenberg : optionally enable automatic insertion of a back-link to the original (annotated) pdf in each annotation rtf file (so we do not have to add it manually each time)

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Completely agree. I prefer markdown as well. Definitely for DTTG but also other systems I deal with don’t support RTF.

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There is always more functionality in DT than I can handle

DEVONthink is deeeep, like Photoshop is deep. You don’t have to use all the functions - you use it what you need it for - but it’s cool to know there’s always something to learn or try.

I’m looking forward to studying the excellent documentation of DT3

Thanks! As noted in the foreward of the Getting Started chapter:

Note this manual is meant as a handy reference, not as a series of mandates on how you must use it. DEVONthink can be used very simply or in very complex ways and each person brings their own personal approach to using it. To that end, this document can’t be an exhaustive guide to everything you could ever do with it. With the flexibility and capabilities built-in, that would be an impossible task. We hope you find this guide helpful.

We do hope it’s helpful. :slight_smile:

but I can’t find it in the application bundle and I wouldn’t want to be changing it in there anyway

We’re very glad to hear this :stuck_out_tongue: No, seriously. :slight_smile:

It already does this, if you create an Annotation file via the New From Template option, the backlink is in the document.
25%20AM

Sounds like a bit of blackmail could be in order…

“Expose the annotation template or the Application Bundle gets it…” :wink:

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That only works on people with something valuable to ransom. Hahaha! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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wow, that’s great. Can I customize the annotator form, e.g. removing the “Type your note here” or the Annotator field? Or is the “form” standardized?