When I copy and paste text from a Word doc into the Annotation box, the font size is 11. I have the font size set to 14 but that is too small for my aging eyes. I want to have the font size for the annotation file to be 18. I highlight the text, select Fonts > Show Fonts and a font selector box appears on the left side. So far, so good. The fonts are listed in alphabetical order, which is to be expected. I select Georgia as the font and I am able to select 18 as the size. All good so far. After this step, things go wonky. Most of the time, when I select the next annotation file to make changes to the font, the font selection list defaults to the top of the list. I have to scroll down, select Georgia and continue. Sometimes, for an unknown reason, the font list stays at Georgia and Iām able to select Georgia again for the next annotation. But most of the time, the font list goes back to fonts that start with āA.ā This is annoying.
Is there a way to lock the font list to Georgia so that I donāt have to constantly scroll down to select that font?
The other issue I have is that the font window has no minimize option nor does it allow the main window to take precedence. Iād like to be able to select the font window when I need it, rather than it being the window always in focus. Yes, I can slide the window almost off the desktop but why doesnāt it behave like every other window does?
Iām sure there is a way to select options for the window behavior but I donāt know where to look. Thanks for any tips!
As always, thank you for the explanation. That also answers my question about the ability to minimize the window. The propeller-heads at Apple are more interested in creating beautiful graphical appearances instead of making changes that would make their users lives easier. Whatās interesting about the font selector window is that the font doesnāt always default. Sometimes, I can do 10 files without it defaulting. But then it does and I have to select the font Iām using for however many documents Apple feels like letting me do before the font āsticksā again on Georgia. Itās annoying. Oh, wellā¦
I suppose youāre referring to RTF(D?) documents here? In that case, it should be possible to change the font in the selected documents with a script in one go. @BLUEFROG might be able to provide a tiny AppleScript script that does it. Iām not really into Rich Text scripting, and currently limited timewise.
Yes, these are RTF files - that is the default, as far as I know, for any text placed in the annotation box. Itās not that big of a deal as I have completed 5,453 files and only have 1,500 or so to go. Besides, I donāt know how to use Apple Scripts! Thanks for the additional information.
If you set it so, yes. You can also have MD annotation files. Which, by themselves, do not have any font associated, but you can specify a CSS file with rules formatting it in any way you want when they are rendered. That wouldāve been a better approach, imo, since than youād have only a single CSS that would set the font to whatever type and size you want for all your MD annotations.
Alas, itās a bit too late for that, I guess.
Hereās a very brutal script that changes all fonts in the selected files to 18pt Georgia:
(() => {
const app = Application("DEVONthink");
const records = app.selectedRecords();
records.forEach(r => {
const txt = r.richText;
const attributeRuns = txt.attributeRuns;
for (let i = 0; i < attributeRuns.length; i++) {
const run = attributeRuns[i];
run.size = 18;
run.font = 'Georgia';
}
})
})()
You can copy/paste it into Script Editor, set its language selector in the upper left corner to JavaScript, then select copies of the files you want to change (so you can be sure nothing untoward happens) in DT, go back to Script Editor and click the Run button (the little right pointing triangle at the top. I circled the relevant parts in Script Editor in the image below.
Since I do not usually use annotations, I created only one test file and the script did what it was supposed to do with that one. But be aware that it sets everything to 18pt Georgia!
Here is a simple but functional script showing how to modify rich text formatting. This addresses the rich text and the attribute runs of a selected RTF(D) document.
tell application id "DNtp"
if (selected records) is {} then return
repeat with theRecord in (selected records)
if (record type of theRecord is in {RTF, RTFD}) then
tell (rich text of theRecord)
tell attribute runs
set size to 14
set color to {65535, 21477, 0}
set line spacing to 1.6
end tell
end tell
end if
end repeat
end tell
Thank you for taking the time to write this script - I certainly couldnāt do it!
I named it Change Annotation File Font Size.scpt and put it in the User Scripts Folder. I have three annotation files Iād like to try this script on but do not know how to proceed. I obviously donāt want the script to change any file other than the file I select. Iād appreciate your help with this - Iām a total newbie when it comes to Apple Scripts. I read some guides on the web and also watched a few videos but they didnāt tell me how to actually execute the script. I also consulted the manual. Iām leery of double-clicking on the script ā¦
No problem and hopefully the script reads cleanly enough to suss out the logic of whatās going on.
Either select the desired Annotation file or open one in its own document window and run the script. As an example, here is a newly created RTF Annotation file. I clicked the Open button to open it in its own document window then ran the scriptā¦
Thank you. I tweaked the script a bit and it does a fine job! Do you have any suggestions for a āScripts for Dummiesā book? Iād like to modify this script so that it processes all the files inside groups. That way, I only have to click once instead of doing so for each file in the group. If I have to live with the way it works now, thatās fine. It beats the pants off of scrolling down in the font selector window, which is what I have been doing.
I have a couple of old AppleScript books (including an OāReilly one), and I thought recently Iād buy a new one. Bought a large tome ebook, but I suspect itās AI, so I donāt trust it (author and publishing āhouseā are publishing a lot of very large books very quickly, tone seems a bit sloppy), so wouldnāt want to recommend it.
While a lot of what is covered in the old books is still relevant, a lot has changed and been added, as well.
Maybe your post will prompt me to look again
Check out https://www.macscripter.net/, you may find some good scripts there, and ability to ask AppleScript-specific questions (same forum platform as here). DTP4-specific questions often get answered here, as well as @chrillek often providing JavaScript examples in automation questions.
Yep, suspicion confirmed, the one I bought is slop.
There are several published in 2025 which I think are also AI slop, and then youāre back to the 2010ās for the next most recent
This seems the only apparently-human-authored recent one I could find:
But no publisher is mentioned (it might be self-published) and thereās no website mentioned near the copyright notice. Itās only available on Amazon, so Iām guessing itās self-published there.
Thanks for the tip about macscripter.net. I saw that mentioned in my wanderings yesterday but since I know virtually nothing about scripts, I didnāt know if it was a good site or not. Iāll revisit it. Chrillek did indeed provide a JavaScript script that worked exactly as he said it would.
Your script worked exactly as advertised and I greatly appreciate the time you took to write it. What I ended up doing was opening all of the files in a group (sometimes as many as 8) and processing them one after the other.
As far as everything being set to Georgia, that is no problem at all. Gemini transcriptions need editing, both for the mistakes Gemini makes and for the mistakes in the original article. Gemini is erratic in retaining bold fonts and sometimes converts all capital titles to lower case. And it often leaves out sub-sub titles, as well as subtitles and sometimes even titles. So it is by no means perfect but it beats trying to read fuzzy, faded print created by a microfilm operator who didnāt know what he was doing. Lots of work but the end product is extremely helpful in my research. I couldnāt do any of this without DEVONthink. I just renewed my license for 3 years. Hands down, DT is the best program Iāve ever used in my 30 years of computer usage.
stratadata: There is a category on Macscripter named AppleScript for Absolute Starters. I believe that is where I will start. The book you mentioned is pretty pricey and I think Iāll put that off for awhile - at least until I finish absorbing what is posted in the AS for Absolute Starters category. Thanks for both tips!
I ātook one for the teamā and bought the Charles Watts one ā while I think it likely has at least some more human input than the other one I bought, I think itās still partially or substantially written by AI.
Iām not sure how else to account for these two slightly inconsistent tables appearing within two pages of an otherwise very repetitive chapter without being consolidated/made consistent:
PS Oh, and it seems to think Apple is shifting to JXA when I was under the impression that as far as continuing development by Apple goes, theyāre both languishing. Is that your understanding, too, @chrillek?
Not to curb your enthusiasm, but if you want to dive into scripting, you should also think about which language to learn. AppleScript exists only on macOS. JavaScript is everywhere ā all platforms, the web, servers, desktop. And it provides more modern features than AppleScript out of the box. Regular expressions, Array methods, maps, real objects etc
Not to mention that itās clearly defined and developed by a standards body. While AppleScript does not even come with a formal definition.
For DT automation, AS and JXA are equivalent with the difference that JXA comes with the a.m. features missing in AS.
