Email in DT Pro

DEVONthink Tips
1

As usual, I apologize if this is an obvious question or has been discussed… but I can’t seem to find a direct answer anywhere. I am a single user, evaluating Pro.

Can I import email messages (manually or automatically) into pro from Apple mail?

I simply want them as editable notes… I think. Want to include them in project files etc. I can see some manual workarounds - export from mail as rtf or plaintext and import that way… but if I simply “drag them in” they are a view only format (quicklook?).

I see that there is a power feature for this in office… but that really seems like overkill for my needs.

Any help appreciated… i.e. the obvious link I am sure I am missing…

cheers
darren

2

You can change the email display from Quick Look to a text view by clicking on the page icon, just to the right of the padlock, in the navigation bar. In the text view you can copy text, click on links, etc., that do not otherwise function in the Quick Look view.

3

Unless I’m mistaken, that’s only available in DT Pro Office. I think we’ve been here before.

I have DT Pro, and all I get for a .eml item is the padlock icon and the tags icon. And the .eml is not editable (although starting with some recent release of DTPro you can copy text from it).

You can, of course, copy the text of an email from Mail and paste it into a new text/rtf in DTPro. But that way you don’t get any headers.

In DTPro 1.x, there was an AppleScript to copy an email from Mail to DTPro, and the email ended up as editable text. But if you try to use that script in DTPro 2.x, you get all the headers; things like:

Received: 	from tlpns1c7b3.tpp.tsysecom.com (tlpns1c7b3.tpp.tsysecom.com [10.121.16.164]) by localhost.localdomain (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id p1DEOSLA002276; Sun, 13 Feb 2011 09:24:28 -0500

and that’s really ugly …

4

Oh … another thing I’ve discovered (the hard way):

Email imported into DTPro as .eml files can be searched on the header information (sender, etc), but the content is not indexed! I put search keywords into the Spotlight comment field manually in order that these documents be found by DTPro searches.

Kind of a bummer. But I don’t archive much email into DTPro. Not enough to justify the extra expense of Pro Office. YMMV.

5

That would be correct-my mistake.

6

Thanks for the info… so, just to make sure I’m correct… I’d need to buy the Office version, even as a single user, in order to do email archiving the way I can do web pages (and everything else, of course)?

d

7

Correct, but the email options are more comprehensive than just being able to switch to a text view in DEVONthink. There are some nice importing/archiving options, including a plug-in for Mail.app. I primarily upgraded from Pro to Pro Office when 2.0 was released for the same reason-I rarely use the server or OCR functions.

8

Have you tried the Add mailbox(es) to DEVONthink, Add message(s) to DEVONthink, and/or Mail Rule Action Import scripts?

9

Are these DT Pro? There are quite a few scripts in the DT Application Support library folder, but none of these… are they add-ons or…?

Sounds like it might be part of an answer… but I’m not sure where to be looking…? I found some sample scripts in the Support section, but none of these…

cheers
darren

10

If you only want your imported emails to be text or rtf notes in DT then I don’t think you really need Pro Office. DTPO gives you the ability to treat emails as emails but it doesn’t sound like that’s what you’re looking for. There must be a script out there that will make a new note out of a selected email. You will lose attachments doing this way, though.

11

The first two scripts I mentioned are installed under ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Mail if Application Scripts is enabled when Install is run in the Install-Addons window. The third script is under the Extras folder in the downloadable disk image; there’s more explanation in the topic I linked to and in search results.

12

Ok… I think I’m getting somewhere… but I’ve got a few divergent thoughts as I’ve dug deeper and tried to clarify just where I’m at… so, a couple different internal threads…

sjk - I found those scripts in the library… but, and I hesitate because this is turning into a Mail/Mac OS question… I don’t have an active scripts menu in Mail… and I can’t see how to turn it on.

I’m not a newbie by any stretch but have never used applescript much… am very familiar with scripting in other context (ie filemaker programming) so i understand how it can apply… but I can’t find the damned light switch to turn it on!

help… (sheepishly). (am running 10.6.6. on this install)

I’m seeing some differences between 10.5.8 and 10.6.6 installs of same (current) version of DTPro

In Mail… select message in main window - contextual menu.
10.5.8 has a "Save to DevonThink item near the bottom of the menu. This
10.6.6 no such option (though I do have some other “add-on” options from a mail add-on so it’s not just default apple stuff in there… something is able to get into the system)

Services - I left and did a bit of searching on apple forums re services differences between 10.5 and 10.6… and there are some questions out there.

Once again, I’ve noticed a very distinct difference in services available between the two DTPro installations I’m testing… one on my laptop (OS 10.5.8) and one on my desktop (10.6.6).

Basically - on 10.5.8 system I’ve got some services that apply to DevonThink from mail and other locations. In 10.6 system, no such luck. (NOTE - this is specifically re the Services… not whatever that other menu item is that is discussed above).

In 10.5 when selecting message in Mail, my services menu shows a whole bunch of options including
Devonthink Pro with a submenu containing:

  • append plain note
    -append rich note (dimmed)
    -capture web archive (dimmed)
  • Lookup
  • Summarize
  • take plain note
  • take rich note (dimmed)

In safari, same list - all dimmed… so services seem to be system-wide list, but app-specific in availability, not in whether they included or not.

So… what “services” either contextual or not, should I be seeing with a standard install of DTPro (current version) on 10.6? I am specifically interested in those applicable to Mail messages. I may have made my needs appear overcomplicated in some of the earlier discussion… I’m really just trying to “import mail message” into the database. I’m not yet using any DT ai/sorting/summarizing/etc functions… am just at the basics level.

Dear mr moderator… sorry about the profusion of stuff here… I realize I should probably start a new thread(s) on this… just going to put it here for the moment and see where it goes…

cheers
darren

13

Ok… couple solutions or things I’ve figured out…

All this is 10.6.6

  1. Some of the services available in contextual menus ARE related to DevonThink… they just don’t have a label as such… not sure if this is DT functionality or if the OS is using DT as the default for an action that is otherwise available… no settings control that I have found yet… but it works.

So…

  • select text in mail message - either all or just a sample
  • right click for contextual menu
  • bunch of options including “Take rich note” “take plain note” “append rich note” “append plain note”
  • those ones create a note in devonthink global inbox…
  • some others may apply, but haven’t tested yet.
  1. Getting Mail message into DTPor…
    In mail… I have an option when I select a message (not the content, but the message) and print to pdf - there are a bunch of options, some obviously default and others added by installed apps… among them is:
    Save PDF to Devonthink Pro.scpt…
    This creates a PDF + text note in the global inbox. The way I’ve done it the name appears as the name of the folder the message was in along with part of the mailbox or folder path and the message/unread count - not sure if this can be changed or not… but it is getting the entire message in (as a pdf file, not any kind of mail file, which is cool for my needs).

I hope some of this is useful… maybe just documenting my own slow learning process. I’m searching/posting on the apple forums trying to figure out more about the services issues… will report/comment unless a moderator tells me to go talk to myself in a closet.

d

14

Don’t worry, it’s not at all obvious.

Open AppleScript Editor (in the Utilities folder)
Go to Preferences
On the General tab select “Show Script menu in menu bar”

Now there will always be a script menu on the right side of the menu bar. Some scripts will be specific to the application, some will be generic.

15

Thanks… I had actually already turned it on… and then got in a panic because it wasn’t there… anywhere.

It was and it is… but it’s an icon on the right side of the menu bar in amongst a bunch of the others.

DevonThink stuff is all in there… excellent!!

One minor question - and this is an OS thing, not a DT thing… how do I make the scripts menu appear as a text menu over by the “Help” menu? I’m sure it’s been there before… and as an icon-based item among the others, it’s a bit lost.

Not a big deal, but I can’t find a control to do this and it seems like it would be an option.

Thanks again for your help.

d

16

You can’t move it to the left side. It’s not actually a menu item handled by the running application. It’s a system wide service of sorts provided by the OS like the clock, spotlight, and the other items over there on the right.

However, an application can implement its own script menu on the left. In fact DEVONthink does this. That’s probably why you think you’ve seen it before, because you have! I don’t recall any other programs off the top of my head that do though.

17

No problem… was a cosmetic issue mostly anyway… thanks for the help to all.

cheers
darren

18

iTunes. :slight_smile: