I’m a long time user of DTP. Why can’t some of the features like Email Archive and the OCR feature for pdf’s already in our database be included in the Pro version? These features should be part of DTP.
These features are far superior to the basic DEVONthink Pro functions. And because we licensed OCR, we would have needed to charge for the update. We tried to avoid this because not everyone necessarily needs these features. Now, you have the choice.
The two enhanced features that you mentioned have required substantial development resources, and in particular DEVONtechnologies must pay a license fee on the OCR engine for every copy of DTPO that is sold.
So if those features were added to DT Pro the price of the product would have to be raised.
As not every user of DT Pro may want or need the enhancements of DTPO, DEVONtechnologies decided to make the products separate.
That provides users more choice, so that they can choose the application that is most cost-effective for their needs.
The product line does provide such choices, from the simple note-taking DEVONnote to the more advanced DEVONthink Personal, to the still more enhanced DEVONthink Professional and DEVONthink Professional Office.
We believe that each of these applications provides great value for the price. If the user’s needs change, DEVONtechnologies has a very reasonable policy for upgrade, so that the investment in the user’s current application is retained if the user upgrades to a different application in the series.
Thank you for replying so quickly.
So what is in store for the next version of DevonThink Pro?
Maybe it’s the naming scheme of the products, because DT Pro seems like it should be an Office product.
I know a lot of people archive their emails in DTPro, so why not include that in the next version?
And regarding OCR, I understand about licensing fees. So why not include only the feature to read pdf’s in the db but not items being scanned in?
It seems like there is a big jump in upgrading to Office in price. Maybe there could be a nominal fee for DTPro’s next version to help with the OCR cost.
Thank you.
And where exactly is the OCR technology coming from? Is it an existing program that was built into DTO? I’m asking this because I already own Readiris, and I would like to know if the OCR part built into DTO is similar to (for instance) Readiris, or fundamentally different.
We have licenced the technology from IRIS. So, it’s the same core technology as used by ReadIRIS.
Timotheus, like you I have ReadIRIS 11. And I have a ScanSnap scanner.
The “value added” in DTPO is that one can load the ScanSnap feeder with up to 50 pages of paper, press the Scan button on the ScanSnap and have everything happen automatically. The paper flows through the scanner and is imaged as PDF, the OCR module automatically converts the PDF image to PDF+Text and the PDF is then saved to the DTPO database.
As soon as one page set is finished scanning one can insert more pages and press the Scan button. And so on.
So I haven’t used ReadIRIS 11 since I started using early betas of DTPO. And I’ve already scanned well over a thousand pages of paper into my database. 