Hoping for some experienced hands to advise on their workflows.
I have mastered DTPO as a filing system, and find it terrific, but now I want to take it to the next step. Here is my situation. Let’s say I put 100 30-page PDF documents in a group for a research paper I am writing. I then read through the saved documents. While using the highlighting tool is nice, it doesn’t really accomplish much. When I am done reading the 100 documents, I still have to go back to each one, see what I’ve highlighted and then try to export it somehow. I have a very poor memory and often end up having to reread a lot, which is duplicate effort. There must be some workflow or perhaps external app that I could use (somewhere I have seen Sente mentioned) where I can find a quote or a piece of information in my my stored research and do more than highlight it – take that piece of information and export it to another file with the information, and my notes on it (or at least the source material so I can refer to that. So if its a quote, it will tell me who said it and where). I can then start to put the fragments into some order using an outliner like OmniOutliner.
I’m sure you more knowledgeable folks than I already do this, but I can’t find how by searching the forum. Or perhaps I don’t have the right key word?
Another question: when researchers go tot he library, do they take DTPO with them? DO you enter notes on your computer in the library on DTPO or do you use some ofther piece of software and then import it to DTPO?
The topic of making and managing annotations using DTPO in research and other workflows is probably one of the most frequent in the forum. Search on “annotation” alone turns up over 550 dialogs:
There’s also an extensive collection of user-contributed scripts, many of which can support exactly what you requested, here:
For example, I’ve found the greatest utility in the the annotation template + script provided and discussed in this thread
That template is just one of dozens posted by friendly researcher-scripters here.
It’s not necessary, however, to go so far as to install a custom annotation template, or even to use the Annotation template installed with DTPO. For example, if you have a PDF open in one DTPO window and an RTF open in another, then select the text you want to annotate (and, optionally, highlight it in the PDF) and then click-hold-drag-drop that text into the RTF, where it will be copied, and you can write your notes afterward.
There’s as many note-taking styles as there are researchers, I suppose I suggest browsing the forum more because you’ll find more and better advice than the above - enough to give you an excuse to stay aware from the library if you need a break
BTW, yes, I’d take DTPO on my laptop to the library or wherever I’m doing research and do my note taking right into DTPO.
Many thanks for your prompt reply. That quotation template is amazing.
Is there a collection of these templates and scripts in one place on this website, or do you have to find them only by searching terms? It seems like it would make sense to keep them all in one place. I thought that when they disbanded the Devon Academy this was the goal, but I can’t find anything under Support Assistant except a three pane window that takes you back to the forum.
Unfortunately, no. Such a repository has been suggested before, but not provided.
(I actually registered a domain with best intentions to do such a thing myself, but it’s just too much work to maintain as a volunteer - and why would anyone want two DEVONthink forums, anyway. )
I suggest browsing the forum more because you’ll find more and better advice than the above - enough to give you an excuse to stay aware from the library if you need a break 
)