DTTG Smart Groups Problem

DEVONthink To Go Tips
1

I am trying to get DEVONthink to synchronise the Uni notes I make during class to my iPhone.

Currently I have a structure of folders which looks something like this:


MODULE NAME
    |--- WEEK NO.
            |--- NOTES

Inside the “WEEK NO.” folder are all files and support materials relating to that module (i.e. Lecture Slides, PDFs of Readings etc). Then the “NOTES” folder contains the various notes I have made for that week (in RTF form, written in DT).

In my Sync folder in DT I have created a series of Smart Groups:


<MODULE NAME> NOTES
      |--- *ALL <MODULE NAME> NOTES*
      |--- *LAST MONTH'S NOTES*
      |--- *LAST WEEK'S NOTES*
      |--- *YESTERDAY'S NOTES*

(Asterisk (*) denotes smart group).

Since being in a folder seems to Tag the entry I simply setup the smart groups to search for RTF files that are tagged with and . When I view this in DT (in the Sync Folder) I can see that it works perfectly.

The problem I’m having is that in DTTG the files in Smart Groups (and indeed the Smart Groups themselves) do not appear. Is this not a supported feature of DTTG? If so is there a workaround for my problem?

Thanks in Advance.

2

You understand correctly that Smart Groups are the results of a custom search, thus the challenge that you cannot sync to them (Smart Groups) as they are not ‘real’ groups/folders. As a suggestion, create the empty groups that you need in your sync group and create the smart groups that you need outside of the sync group. Then select the documents in the smart groups and replicate them to the respective groups in the sync group.

3

Thanks for the reply Greg. I’m guessing I would need to do this manually (the replication) each time new notes were created. The idea was to hit sync on my iPhone as soon as I finish class and have the notes ready for the train ride home, is there any way to automate the procedure?

4

No way to automate it that I’m aware of, although I expect it would be possible to script it if one were script-savvy.

For the quick sync before the train ride home, could you have a ‘Current’ note group on the Mac, replicated to the Sync Group? Then when you have the time, organize the notes in the more permanent group structure.

5

That’s a good idea, will bare that in mind. Thanks. Would be good if DT could ‘create’ the smart group folders on DTTG and then modify the contents according to DT every time it was synced.

6

I seem to recall Eric or Mike mentioning that this is something that they will be looking at, but I could be mistaken about that. One particular challenge that I would see with smart group syncing is what happens with documents created in the smart groups in DEVONthink To Go. They would have to sync back to the database somewhere, and if they don’t meet the smart group search criteria, they would not appear in the smart group once synced back to the Mac.

7

Ah yes didn’t think about that, guess I was just looking for something that fit my own needs! :stuck_out_tongue: Thanks again.