So I have Devonthink Personal. I like the idea behind it, a powerful organization tool for my documents etc…
But I am having trouble on two points.
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I find myself stuck in the mold of a directory structure. I have folders, inside the folders I have documents. That’s how I have imported some documents, and they are still filed the same way. I find myself thinking “Now what?” I feel rooted in that directory way of thinking, and if I stick with that, what’s the difference, why not just use files and folders the old way. So what’s a good way to break out of that mindset?
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I have a concern. As near as I can tell, when I import a file, I get a duplicate of that file. I know since when I imported some large movie files, my hard drive space dropped by an equivalent amount. This troubles me first of all, due to the impact on free hard drive space. Why should I use twice the space for all my documents. More to the point, since I have 2 of everything now, how do people remember to export the data out to the file system, or synchronize changes back in? If I want to edit something externally for instance, I need to make sure it’s exported, so the file system is up to date, edit in … Pages for example, then synchorize them back in. What am I missing…this seems needlessly cumbersome (ingoring the duplication of hard drive useage). The same concern exists if I want to email someone a file, I would need to remember to export it, before attaching it to an email.
I have been trying to discover some details in online reviews and the help, and they are full of comments about how easy and useful it is once inside Devonthink, but nothing addressing the implications of its relationship to the outside world (file system and intereactions from outside Devon).