I’ve just downloaded and I’m really pleased to see that some of the things we’ve asked for have been incorporated – typewriter scrolling!
It’s very impressive to see how many new features there are and it will take me some time to work through them and understand them.
Two initial comments though:
-
I’m never willingly going to use ChatGPT or its cronies, but the AI panel takes for granted that you have one or other of the confounded things and its features take up space in the AI (menus / panels). I’ve no idea how many people will, like me, want to ignore the external AI stuff (I’ve no problems with DT’s AI, of course), but it would be good to have a ‘no thanks’ button similar to the old ‘I don’t have the Server Edition so don’t clutter up the menus with its features’ setting.
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The new Help Viewer is good, but you can’t zoom the text and the default is very small for these old eyes. Is there any way of increasing it? If not, please could you either make the text bigger or make it zoomable?
As aside, I like the way you have phrased the Help in AI Explained, with many careful caveat prompters – if I were inclined to want to use ChatThingy, then I would trust DT’s mediation of it.
Both these initial comments are minor, of course: I’m looking forward to testing the non-ChatThingy stuff in more detail and will of course report anything I find, but in the meantime, thanks and congratulations to the team for the hard work!
- AI is optional. No one has to use it and many won’t. As far as the Chat popover, Chat inspector, Search Assistant, etc., development would have to assess the feasibility of hiding things. I wouldn’t expect it before the gold master, but I don’t speak for them.
- Zoom what text? The Help content is 100% zoomable.
As aside, I like the way you have phrased the Help in AI Explained, with many careful caveat prompters – if I were inclined to want to use ChatThingy, then I would trust DT’s mediation of it.
Thank you. My first goal was managing expectations relative to how AI works inside DEVONthink, just honest and realistic. The following section – AI in Practice – is intended as my uplift.
Thanks Jim.
I appreciate the ‘Bad AI’ (i.e. not the Good DT AI) is optional, but all the references to it are fairly obtrusive. It would be good to have a ‘go away’ button eventually.
To replicate the Help issue:
cmd-? and choose DEVONthink Help to open the new viewer.- Click in the text and try
cmd-+/cmd-shift-= or cmd-shift-./cmd->
All those shortcuts result in a beep and no increase in the size of the text.
The shortcuts work in DT3 Help, but not in DT4. Have the shortcuts changed?
Thanks!
Two-finger tap to zoom in or out.
Pinch to zoom in or out.
Thanks – so the shortcuts no longer work? I’m on the laptop at the moment, but I don’t have a trackpad on the desktop.
Not at this time. This is a brand new Help viewer Criss built. It’s not an Apple framework or their continually devolving Help/Tips app.
And remember, it says “Beta” on the tin 
You can swipe or tap on a Magic Mouse. Scroll wheel may work but I don’t have one handy.
Of course! That’s why I’m reporting it… 
I don’t have a Magic Mouse – they’re guaranteed to make my hand hurt within a minute or two as they’re far too small for anyone with adult sized hands…
Can we add this to the list please – the default text really is too small so a shortcut to zoom will be very welcome.
Thanks!
On further testing – neither of those work for the purpose, unfortunately
The first barely increases the font-size at all, and the second doesn’t flow the text so you have to scroll side to side to read a full line. I don’t particularly want to have to change the screen resolution just for this, so it would be nice if at some point text zoom can be added. (I know the list will already be long…)
Thanks
Post a screencap of what you’re trying to zoom into.
Sure…
(Please note that I don’t think this is a major issue at this stage: I’m going into detail below because you asked for the screenshots…)
MacBook Air 15", default resolution, help panel set to minimum width (because it needs to be visible side by side with the DT features I’m researching…).
Standard Markdown page:
Double tap on image. Note the cut off text on the bottom line:
Double tap on text: note that size is only marginally bigger than normal and still too small for comfortable reading.
Text after pinch zoom to more comfortable size and sliding the text to reduce the left margin:
So, the last one needs both zooming and sliding the page to get the full width. And if we expand the window width? This time the text does reflow, but the margins have gone completely:
To rectify this, you have to restore the page to the default size, then re-zoom. Basically, finding a comfortable compromise between text size and window margins requires too much manual adjustment.
Expected/desired behaviour:
- keyboard shortcuts to zoom and reflow the text to the current margins
- zoom to reflow text to current margins
- double tap to larger text size.
As I said, not a major issue at this stage, but ultimately, I hope it can be resolved.
Thanks again!
If nothing else, you can download it as pdf. The link on the Handbooks and Extras page for DEVONthink’s manual is now for version 4:
https://download.devontechnologies.com/download/devonthink/4.0beta1/DEVONthink%20Manual.pdf
(No link for the latest v3 manual listed, change 4.0beta1 to 3.9.9 in the URL for that)
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That was going to be my workaround, but I didn’t realise V4 had the manual as a PDF already.
Thanks for the heads-up!
Just a quick note to say that Beta 2 solves the fonts size problem very nicely – thanks for that!
I’m sure the other part of my request – a ‘Don’t bother me with this Gen AI nonsense’ button will be along at some point… 
Seriously, there’s clearly a shed load of improvements in the new beta… I’ve not had time to check them all out yet, but there’s a lot of interesting new stuff to explore as well as bug fixes. It looks impressive – thanks!
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A vote from me too, for some way to remove all traces (visible, but any embedded frameworks too if possible) of Generative AI from DT4.
Welcome @RobertBlack
That is very unlikely to happen but my question is: why?
From my point of view, all I want is to reduce the visual clutter: too many AI menus which I shall never use until the companies providing it suddenly discover an ethical spine, or pigs sprout wing, whichever comes sooner.
I don’t expect the features to be removed: just any reference to them in the menus etc, just as we never see Server features if we only have Pro.
It’s not a huge thing, of course, but it would be nice to have.
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I like turning off generative AI anywhere I can. It’s like that “Daisy, daisy” moment in 2001, A Space Odyssey.
On a serious note, future hindsight is going to curse generative AI. It has legitimate uses. Its net effect on society is toxic.
That’s not DT’s fault, and it’s awesome how DT developers and support work to see customers get full value from DEVONthink.
Generative AI is terrible. Far worse than social media.
Consider this - students are rightly prohibited from using AI by education systems in many states relying on AI to grade achievement tests.
Hypocrisy most foul.
At any point I have the chance to have my little “Daisy, daisy” moments, I’m jumping for it.
Of course, that’s just me. I’m out of step with the world in many ways. It’s part of my charm while I feed the pidgeons and rant about how things were back in my day. 
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AI is doing nothing unless it has been set up and interacted with. Electricity doesn’t flow unless a circuit is completed. Water doesn’t flow unless the tap is open. AI doesn’t flow unless it has been enabled and such features being used.
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I know - so if it’s doing nothing, there’s no point in it cluttering the interface, just as we don’t see the server stuff. Not essential or urgent but still it would nice eventually.
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