I’m looking for a video tutorial or any other resources that can help me better understand how to use the AI feature in DEVONthink.
I’ve read the built-in Help section about AI and have connected my ChatGPT account, but I’m still struggling to use the feature effectively. A few specific issues I’ve encountered:
• Sometimes, when I select a document and open a chat tab in the right pane, I receive a message saying nothing is selected or that I need to upload something first — even though a document is selected. Other times, it works as expected.
• I’m unclear on the difference between the “main” chat window and the one in the inspector pane. When should I use each one?
• Lastly, although I’ve selected the database as the context source in the AI settings, I can’t seem to perform contextual searches within a database, group, or tag. For example, I’d like to ask the AI to help me find a specific recipe in my PDF documents (e.g., in the selected group / tag, db), but I haven’t been able to get that to work.
I’d really appreciate any tips, clarifications, or links to helpful tutorials. Again, I’ve read the help page several times — but I still find the practical use a bit confusing.
I don’t know if I can help but I always include “the document” in the prompt. Sometimes it is a little unclear to me what “the document” refers to. For example, if I follow some links in the document and the linked document is shown in the main window. What is now “the document”? The one I started with or the shown document? I think it is the document I started with. At least that is the info that is shown in the right pane.
Did you read the Getting Started > AI Explained and AI in Practice section in the Help?
Or Tasks > Leveraging AI?
Or Documents > AI and Your Documents?
…
I’ve went through all the links you have sent. Thanks. I’ve now discovered a few new features, e.g., summarize via chat or renaming document names.
However, I still have the issue that the Chat window in the Inspector / right pane does not deliver the results consistently. Sometimes it works with the document selected, but more often (90% of the time) it tells me to provide the contents…
here is an example:
I have selected a text file. and ask to translate it in the chat window. but it does not work.
You are only using the GPT 4.1 Nano model. As noted in the help, there isn’t one model that’s suitable for all cases, so you should be trying different models to see what works for the specific situation. I generally use a mid-tier model, like Claude 3.7 Sonnet, for these kinds of chats.
AI is not a static repository of information, like an encyclopedia. Not only will responses vary between AI engines, e.g., ChatGPT and Claude, but the same prompt to the same model will often elicit different replies.
it replaced the contents of the document, and now I’ve lost the original text
the prompt was “translate this document into German”.
it replaced the contents of the file with the German translation (which is fine, but I’d prefer to keep the original text…). Unfortunately, the versioning is not enabled for this db (this was also new to me, I thought it’s on by default).
While I get where you’re coming from, that’s not what you asked it to do. It’s just something you expected but didn’t make clear. Remember these mathematical acrobatics are interesting and impressive, but it’s still a computer you’re dealing with. You need to think about the specifics of what you’re asking or commanding, not assuming it will know.
In fact, here is a variation of your query. And note it may look similar but it is not the same thing you asked…
You’re very welcome!
In the help, I tried to provide more practical examples (and information on a variety of topics), but it can’t be exhaustive. Part of using AI will be learning how to talk to it.
Repeating the same prompt on the same document brings different outputs. As you say, we are not querying a database. The output is, if I understand correctly, somewhat stochastic.
Hi all, I have exactly the same issue that Anton had - hence adding to this thread. I will have selected the file (it is greyed out) and then when I ask for a summary of it about 90% of the time I receive:
My input: summarise the selected document
Response I cannot access or view the content of the selected document directly. Please upload the document file here or provide the specific text or sections you’d like summarized. Once I have the content, I will create a detailed summary for you.
*‘Please upload the specific document or provide its text, so I can generate a summary for you.’ or *
‘Since I cannot access external links or directly view documents in your database, please upload the document file here or provide its text. Once I have the content, I can review and summarize it for you.’
After repeating this a few times, I then may get a summary - I.e. it seems random and it is driving me somewhat nuts. I have looked at the guidance and I have queried the AI as to what I should do but I get the same behaviour.
I have given access to the database - even though the AI says I haven’t in its responses (see screenshot).
And here is a response saying it doesn’t have access: Currently, I do not have direct access to the content of selected documents within your database. To assist you effectively, please upload the document here or copy and paste the relevant sections. Once I have the actual content, I can review and extract the quotations you need. Would you like to upload the file now?
Is this me or a flaw in the way the AI is behaving in relation to the database. The oddness is that it sometimes then gives me a summary if I am persistent enough - and it doesn’t do this in response to any change on my part! Help!
.
is there a way to restore that…?
