I think I go one step further than you on idiosyncrasies. I take photos of random boards and notes I need to save as well. I send the image to DT and then I convert it to PDF. Then I tag that PDF as “Image”. I have no idea why, it’s just a thing I started doing and then kept up
Inertia is an interesting thing indeed, especially concerning habits.
Just be advised that anything you OCR in Devonthink is highly likely to not recognize paragraphs or columns in sequence when opened by other readers like adobe acrobat. Best to use external OCR solutions until they eventually work with Abbyy to ensure it is fixed.
As a fellow boomer I thought I could add another view…
I love books. I’m not getting rid of them. I am currently engaged in writing a series of short stories set in a specific place and time in Medieval England. It’s long been an interest of mine an I have developed a behemoth of a database in DT containing things I’ve found on the web concerning my period. I have lots of book on the subject. In other words a lot of information. I get an idea for a story, work out the plot and then realize that I really don’t have information on, say, the size of sheep and the weight of wool from each one at that time (at least not in my boks) but DT plucks the data out and I can get on with things until another snippet is needed. Either DT points it to me or I have to go looking to add more to it.
Now, as I’m old school, when I think I have the stuff I need, I print it out (yes!) and keep it in a folder, because when I write I don’t want distractions. So I write, by hand, using pen and ink. That takes the first two drafts. Then I use a typewriter for the third draft and then I use the computer to use Scrivener to write up the final draft. (There may be more than 4 drafts.) And all the time I am going back and forth from the printed stuff from Dt and my library.
So, although I am nowhere as reliant upon DT as so many here appear to be, it is still an incredibly valuable tool for preserving and presenting information to me in a way that physical books can’t. I love 'em both!
I also love my typewriter.
I have to say I moved away from printing stuff out though. I once was asked at the British Library a question about a bibliography program a nearby researcher saw I was using. EndNotes which I used then. She was very young but insisted she was going to have to print out the whole EndNote guide book, about 300 pages, it was a lesson to me in the end. Not to take us too far off topic I have found the DEVONthink 3 has helped me break out of the ‘print it off’ habit: it is part of the point of DEVONthink 3, really give it a try.
I use the icon view a lot to do that, it gives you the ‘feel’ of having a desk top in front of you if you see what I mean? Really try it, set the icon slider big enough that you can see what is written on them, it is a fantastic tool. It is, in my view, underused because of the AI aspects the app has. I use a 13 inch air book but I have been tempted to get a full screen sometimes to plug in just so I could see more or the icon view.
I use Icon view for specific databases. It is indeed very useful to help find certains things on sight
Just out of interest, If I got a bigger screen ( of the display kind)would I be able to see more icons at once, or is DEVONthink 3 “to scale” as it were? It is so long since I have been on a different size screen I no longer remember how it works.
If with a bigger physical size screen you ALSO enlarge the resolution you will see more. Even with a smaller screen you may be able increase resolution (more pixels per inch) and see more. But bigger screens make higher resolutions bigger and easier to read. (trying to not get too technical explaining this).
I run my 27-inch iMac Retina display at 5120 x 2880 and see a lot.
Thanks I got it!
A laptop is very useful, but I highly recommend an external monitor. The extra screen real estate is nice; even more important is the ergonomics! Your back will thank you. (A laptop stand can also help)
Or three…
Unfortunately three is not (natively) supported when using a
powered by Apple Silicon.
When working on an earlier book I wrote directly on the computer, but with this fiction writing, I find I am able to focus more with pen in hand to begin with. Just a choice…
I think there is a lot to be said for that choice, I am never far from DEVONthink 3 now though. Just out of interest, I was already in my 50s when I learnt to touch type, I had been first finger pecking for a few years by then and mostly hand writing, however the speed I attained made hand writing a bit less attractive.
I do still keep hand notes, but as I implied, often they end up being photoed/screenshot into DEVONthink 3. I don’t take that many notes, it is surprising how varied people’s workflows are. Mine isn’t even a workflow really; it is nearly all reading with some kind of end point somewhere along. Often the notes, Icon view or even journal paper is there so I can focus my thinking, or what passes for thinking. It is always interesting to hear how others use DEVONthink 3 and I often get things I hadn’t thought of that way.
You may want to consider taking photographs of the pages that are interesting to you. Apple iPhone has built-in OCR/AI capabilities that will do a really nice job converting those photos to text which you can then annotate and search on.