I had every intention of spending an hour or two first thing this morning (UK) investigating DT4, but somehow the time went by until later on this afternoon.
Just in case, I exported all 8 databases in DT3 to a folder on my desktop, removed DT3 from the dock to avoid confusing it with DT4, before opening DT4.
Frankly I’ve never understood why have Globals, Open Databases, Recent Databases. I vaguely remember explained when DT3 launched if not before, but I find it confusing. I’d prefer Databases, Tags, Smart Groups, Smart Rules, Trash (in that order) - and that’s all. Open Recent on the File menu dropdown is enough for me. Perhaps if you’ve dozens, maybe 100s of databases, then it’s a reminder of the names? Otherwise, it seems like a waste of space which would be ideal for a user customised heading, similar to Favourites (excuse my British). I’d put Recent Tags, which for me would be very useful, particularly since tags can be added to Favourites.
I clicked on a recent database to open it. It opened, but only a few records. What? There are thousands in that database. I closed it, quit DT4, opened DT3 and sure enough, the same database with thousand of records. Unable to work out what went wrong, I decided to start from scratch. On DT3, I created a new database. I then transferred all items from the other databases, plus all items from the global inbox, put the new database in a separate folder on Desktop. I then deleted all those other databases and exported archive. Approximately 100GB in total.
I started DT4 and clicked recent database to open the new database. Great. Cursory skim, all tags, folders, smart folders, ok. (Some time ago, I’d stopped using DT3 to index my law library which I keep in Dropbox because I’d renamed all the pdfs and many smart groups were redundant, but I might use DT4 for it again.)
Look at Settings. Hmm. The custom metadata I’d had in DT3 hasn’t transferred. A couple of scripts kindly provided by some on this forum missing, but I should be able to copy from DT3 script folder. How to increase the font size without using the global settings is overcome by the icon magnifiers. I don’t wear glasses for reading or driving, but staring at the screens most of the time (even with regular breaks) is sometimes tiring. I hardly ever used DT3 for writing, I don’t remember if it had a word and character count, but setting the “page” width is useful. My posts on LinkedIn usually exceed the character limit, so now can compose on DT4 and save editing time. Every month I contribute 1000 words to a magazine, so instead of Mellel I’ll use DT4. The versioning feature will come in handy.
I don’t know enough about Ai to know whether it would extract information from my stuff and put it into the world-wide melting pot for all and sundry. I suppose if it could be restricted and trusted not to abuse that trust, then it would be useful for summarising. While it’s in its infancy, I’m not interested in contributing to its development costs to become mature.
I have imported a pdf from my law library. Although I use Acrobat Pro for pdfs, I find it cumbersome and unintuive. PDF Expert good but not ideal for my needs, PDF Studio better than PDF Expert but not as good as Acrobat Pro. In DT4, the instant table of contents is very useful. I imported one of my reports pdf , half-expecting DT4 to create a ToC from my paragraph headings, unfortunately not.
I shall read DT4 Help notes and Take Control book (thank you as always). DT was one of the first items of software that I bought when changed my office systems from PC to Mac. I don’t make the most of DT, there are countless features that I don’t understand, so perhaps I’d find more of them useful, I’ve no idea. But what I do concentrate on using, DT is very useful and exceptionally reliable and this forum very helpful.
I regard DT as an old friend. And because I’ve reminded myself how much a friend, I am going to start using DT4 regularly as it deserves. And to celebrate, clear all the piles of paper on my desk and enter what I’ve scribbled into DT4. And set up a smart folder to remind me to complete a task, instead of simply adding another talk to the list. After I’d finished reading “getting things done” I concluded II could’ve used the time more productively. Others’ ideas on how to do are only, in my opinion, any good when there isn’t much to do.
PS - Your dedication to Mr Copernicus, contrary to his view, our dog thinks the world revolves around her, my wife the world revolves around herself, and if that were not demanding enough, some neighbours think the world revolves around them, so much so that they complained to the council which informed us dog mustn’t bark in our garden after 9.30pm or before 8am. I know the world revolves around me, as anyone reading this would soon realise. “Go placidly among the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be inside.”
