Hi,
While I’ve seen posts on similar topics in this forum, I haven’t been able to find an answer other than reiterations of the differences between importing and indexing. My problem is:
Import .rtf file (on which I have read/write privileges) into DTPO 1.5.4 on OS X 10.4.11.
Make some additions to said file within DTPO.
The changes are not reflected in the document in Finder.
What am I missing?
Thanks.
That’s by design, and a very good thing, if you think about it.
Changes you make to files that are contained within the database will not change files outside the database. Nor will changes to files outside the database change files that are stored inside the database.
Import-captured files are copied from the Finder into the database, so Import-captured files are stored inside the database. A change to a file that’s stored inside the database has no affect on any corresponding file that’s stored outside the database.
Import-captured files allow one to build a database that’s self-contained; by default, it’s free of entanglements or associations with files external to the database (unless one wishes to construct some associations with external files). I can create a new database on one computer and Import files into it. I can now move it to another computer and Import still more files from the environment on that computer, and so on. I can work with that database on a computer with no concern as to whether there is any correspondence between the files outside and inside the database. I can move such a DT Pro/Office database to a portable hard drive and hook it up to any Mac capable of running my DEVONthink Pro/Office application, and have unfettered use of its content.
Index-captured files are not copied to and stored within the database; they remain outside the database. The database holds information about the external files, including the Paths to them, their size, filetype and so on, and if possible, their searchable text content.
There is one-way synchronization from the external file to the information content the database holds about that Indexed file. If that external file is modified subsequently to its capture, the Synchronize operation allows the database to modify the information content it holds about the external file. But any modifications of that information content that one may be able to make within the database cannot modify the external file – synchronization from the database to the Indexed external file cannot happen. From the database, one can invoke “Open With” to open the external file under another application in order to edit it – but those changes are made externally, not within the database.
The Index-captured content of a database is strongly “entangled” with external files and their organizational structure in the Finder, so that it is not self-contained. If one moves such a database to a different computer that doesn’t hold the Indexed files, the database loses significant information. One can no longer edit, print or view the full contents of the Indexed files.