I apologize if I’m overlooking something simple…
I was doing research for a friend today. I saved ~30 papers in rtf format using the DT service "take rich note". However upon export they appeared as rtfd, and of course word cannot read rtfd, >:( .
Is there a way to export rtf files as rtf? or were my imported "rtf" files not actually "rtf"?
(I think a similar question came up previously but I’m not certain.)
Thanks
“Take Rich Note” adds both RTF and RTFD contents to the database depending on the selection (e.g. if there are images inside the selection, then it’s going to be RTFD).
But to answer your question - exporting as RTF (or Word) is currently not possible (DT uses automatically the most appropriate format). This will change in v2.0 by adding im/export plugins.
Transferring information from my DEVONthink database to someone who uses Word on a Windows machine can be something of a bummer. >:(
Like milhouse, I usually capture items from the Web as either Rich Text (which is actually a RTFD capture if there are images, etc.) or as HTML. Because Windows (or OS 9) can’t read RTFD files, I’ve had to use several tricks.
[1] Print to PDF. Works pretty well and includes graphics, but exposes a problem in DEVONthink – no pagination, headers or footers.
[2] Copy/paste the items into Word or Tex-Edit Plus, then save as RTF. Page numbering, etc. can be added in the process. All graphics are lost. Perhaps I should have done my original captures as plain text?
[3] Transfer the items into an intermediary program for organization and export. I’ve done this using Circus Ponies NoteBook and AquaMinds NoteTaker. With these applications, you have the choice of sending the material either as a PDF document or as a Web notebook (the Web notebook option maintains all hyperlinks, graphics and even multimedia features). Both applications can be set up to grab selected items from DEVONthink. Either one can quickly generate an HTML version of a notebook. Either one can produce a PDF version of the new notebook, but NoteTaker would get the nod for quite professional looking PDF output. Also, NoteTaker has a built-in WebKit browser, so handles HTML items well (online).
Notice that none of the above workarounds may totally satisfy an audience that uses Word, especially if they want to capture the material into a Word document.
RTF/RTFD in OS X has two major problems. It doesn’t render tables/spreadsheets well, and it lacks a direct translator for communication with MS Word that can handle graphics and tables. I’d like to see Apple get cracking on eliminating those problems. (I know it can be done, because I’ve used ReadIris 9 for OS X to OCR complex PDF files with text, graphics and tables. The RTF output looks great in Word X, lousy in TextEdit.)