# Duplicates

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540>\
**Category:** Tips\
**Created:** [May 20, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540 "2009-05-20T14:18:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![raf](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@raf](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/raf)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/1 "2009-05-20T14:18:57Z")

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i create a duplicate, it is blue

if i modify the copy created, it stops to be blue, so i couldn’t any more recognize it…

it should be nice to have the option, in preferences, to let the file BLUE even if i modify a copy, or just to have the system operating as it is now…

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**Author:** ![Bill\_DeVille](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bill_deville/32/18_2.png) [@Bill\_DeVille](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Bill_DeVille)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/2 "2009-05-20T15:36:28Z")

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DEVONthink looks at the content of documents to determine whether or not they are very similar.

I doubt that the option you suggested will be implemented, because it would make similarity recognition no longer meaningful.

For example, I often use template documents, such as a layout for notes, a set of headers as cues to entry of information in a ‘form’, or a layout for a letter or report. Two empty template documents (same template) should be recognized as duplicates. But when I significantly modify one of them, they should no longer be flagged as duplicates.

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**Author:** ![cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/cgrunenberg/32/7172_2.png) [@cgrunenberg](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/cgrunenberg)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/3 "2009-05-20T15:37:06Z")

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> [@raf](#):
>
> if i modify the copy created, it stops to be blue, so i couldn’t any more recognize it…

That’s of course intentional and won’t change - duplicates have either the same content or they’re no duplicates.

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**Author:** ![raf](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@raf](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/raf)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/4 "2009-05-20T16:07:07Z")

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i explain better my goal…

i create a database of law topics…

some of them are answered by a specific document… but this document has many paragraphs, and answer to that topic only in hte first paraghraph…

so for another topic, which answer is in second paragraph of the documenti, i create a duplicate, but i want only to have that 2nd paragraph, deleting the rest of the document…

if it was possible to let it mark as a duplicate (better, original duplicate), i could always know that the document was born by that original document…

how DT works now it isn’t possible…

yes, i could just highlight the part i need, so it is stlill marked as a duplicate…

maybe, the besto thing could be not to mark as a duplicate (in my example) but to be able to see if the file was “born” as a duplicate of something, even if later modified… maybe in “info panel”… 🙂

thnak for your answers! 🙂

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**Author:** ![raf](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/848f3c/32.png) [@raf](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/raf)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/5 "2009-05-20T16:09:03Z")

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> [@Bill\_DeVille](#):
>
> But when I significantly modify one of them, they should no longer be flagged as duplicates.

actually, even if i take just a letter out, it isn’t not more marked as duplicate…

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**Author:** ![nSonic](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/nsonic/32/4431_2.png) [@nSonic](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/nSonic)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2009, 9:32am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/6 "2009-06-07T09:32:30Z")

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i think what you like to have is an internal chain stored to the document.

So, normally this chain is “null” if a new doc is imported to DT. A new doc has no “parent”  
But if you duplicate a doc, this duplicate has a “parent” - the original file is the parent of this new doc. Now you could edit/change what ever you like. DT should be able to show the whole chain for a doc so that you can jump to it’s parent or it’s parent’s parent etc.

I would like such feature too.

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**Author:** ![system](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/2X/4/4e6ff70c96be2eb307a274d890bba8d71ba671b3.png) [@system](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2022, 11:04am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/duplicates/7540/7 "2022-01-21T11:04:53Z")

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