How do annotate content? I add a webpage, say. I want to make a note about the page. I don’t want to create a separate note - it will get separated - I want it to be meta information.
I can see the “spotlight comment” field which might do, but I can’t see how to present that as a pane that I can edit in. Calling up “Information” shows a spotlight comment box - is that it?
Yes, the Comment field in the Info panel is what you want.
Yes, a rich text note about a document is separate from the document. But it can be linked to the document, and if the name of the note includes the name of the referenced document, a Lookup search on the Name text string will pull the reference document and its notes together. If you wish, you can replicate the reference document and its notes together into a new group or a smart group.
I often create a ‘bridge’ rich text note that links to the referenced document (Eric’s ‘Annotation’ smart template has a keyboard shortcut to do that) and also lists and links to all my notes about it. From that I can quickly open the referenced document in its own window, then open all my notes as new tabs in that window (on my laptop), or (on my big-screen desktop Mac) open the referenced document in its own window, then open the ‘notes list’ document in another window with the notes in its tabs, alongside the referenced document.
Bill, is there any way to automate this process? It will be a bit time consuming to make all those links as I read reference material, which I often do very quickly when I scan things that are relevant to my project.
Another suggestion: When taking notes on reading material, I usually create a text file in DT or another program and make it ‘float.’ I do this with stripped down Bean documents (no tool bars, etc.) or with stickies. Or in DT with a DT-based text file. I don’t know if DT will float windows, it didn’t when I first came up with this idea, but you can use Afloat which adds float window selections to the Window menu. We actually discussed this very thing a long while back.
But linking the floated note window to the original source material is still the question. I assumed when I first used ‘Take Note’ that it would be linked to the file I was reading. Not so. I have to say that doesn’t make a lot of sense and seems counter intuitive. But there you go, eh?
Anyway, if you have any other thoughts or suggestions about taking quick notes on reading material, that would be great. I don’t see much use for “Take Notes” as is. I also don’t find the Comments field to be very useful for real note taking, especially when I need to access those notes later.
Thanks,
Alexandria
Okay, I’m assuming “Take Note” is designed to allow you to take notes when outside of DT and it puts them in the global inbox for that reason, to be sorted later. So I was looking at ‘take note’ in a different way, more for annotating. I find it, well, a little strange that there isn’t a way to do this in DT. Not a huge complaint, but it would be nice to be able to do this in some way. DT after all is where I have almost all my resource material, and I read it in DT as well. I definitely would like a nice way to annotate and take notes on this material. I can still jury rig my own, as I have for the many years I’ve been using DT.
I don;t use the Comment field, as it’s limited to plain text.
Try the ‘Annotation’ smart template under the Data > New > with template menu. The Annotation script has a keyboard shortcut, and results in a rich text note that’s automatically linked to the referenced document. It’s automatically filed into a group named ‘Annotations’ but can be moved (and/or renamed) if desired.
You can make multiple annotation notes in a single annotation document, or create multiple new annotation notes. If you are annotating a PDF, you can also add a Page Link that will link to a specific page of the PDF. To do that, set up PDF view to display page thumbnails. Then select the desired page thumbnail and Control.click. Choose the contextual menu option, Copy Page Link and paste it into your rich text note.
Hey, this sounds perfect, Bill!! Thanks so much. I still love DT and after trying different approaches, I always come back to it. So it’s good to know there are solutions to things I need to do with it!
Take care!!
Alexandria
Hey, I know this is off topic, but I used to be a God. Now I’m just a Sr. Member. Did I get demoted in my absence? 
Some said they were undeserving of that honorific, and others thought they were right. 
Hmmm, I rather liked it. 
Bill, that is totally cool! Thank you! 
Hi
The ability to annotate pdf, webpages, text files, etc from within DT is easily one of the functions I cherish most. I was, however, wondering if there isn’t a way to not only link the annotation to the source, but to show I link at the source to the annotation? I generally use the three pane view and it would be great if next to the source I’m viewing I could at least see the links to the annotations I’ve made (the bar directly above the bottom pane shows the link to one annotation but only ever one and when annotating webpages it only shows the url).
Just some way of seeing the annotation while going through their source rather than having to open the annotations folder and look for the relevant ones. It seems odd that this function doesn’t exist, I’ve probably just been missing it 
Cheers
Tom
Edit:
I’ve been looking through some similar programs (Yep and Yojimbo) and not only do they pale in comparison to DevonThink but they too do not have the main function I’m looking for: the ability to collect text files, webpages, pdf, etc in a central app and make notes on as well as about them. DevonThink gets very close with the annotate function, but there is room for improvement (an optional 4th pane showing a list of the annotations and the function to click on one and edit it right in the pane for example).
Yep is great !! I use in the office everday . Uncluttered inteface for with prominent scan button that allows for hassle free scan & tag & comment in a single view, with easy tag search, that places all scanned and dragged files of all sorts-even Safari selection, is fantastic . You can scan in batches and add to the previous batch, merge PDFs, straighten scans before saving your pdf . The zoom factor is better than DT when browsing through selected document . You can look up all files where ever they reside , or choose managed to move them into Filed Document folder . This is the folder that I index with DT ! It manages all office documents ! Oh you can drag mail right in to into the Dock and it will also keep the attachments ! Simpler than DTPRO
Yes, yep is great for certain things and I’m happy it’s working for you. However, that has nothing to do with my question regarding annotating content (something yep cannot do as I stated).
Does no one know of a way to at least show the link to the annotation of a website? That alone would be a large step towards solving the problem.
The reason that you haven’t gotten a good answer to this is because there isn’t a good one. My own solution is to save everything in PDF using the DT bookmarklet, including websites (NB the URL of the site will still be located in the URL field). The PDF then can be annotated by inserting notes and comments directly into the file using DT’s built in functions (located in the toolbar of a separate DT window displaying the PDF).
These PDF annotation functions are in the Pro Office version. I don’t know about the others.
Tom S.
I use DT in German, so my explanation may sound strange:
Open the annotation, click on the link to the linked document, there click on the right side of the mouse, you’ll see a window, take the lowest possibility (something like: copy link onto the page). After this you’ll find the link to the annotation on top of your annotated document:
Clicking on this link will open the annotation.
PS Excuse me, I just found out, that this works only for pdf
Actually, the link from the target document back to the annotation note document is displayed for a number of filetypes, including text (plain or rich), Word, Pages, PDF, JPEG. etc.
The current limitation is that if a URL already exists for a document, such as an HTML or WebArchive, or a rich text note captured via a Bookmarklet or Service, the link back to an Annotation note isn’t displayed.
Perhaps in the future both the Web URL and the Item Link back to an annotation note can be displayed, or even multiple annotation note links when relevant.
Currently, my kludge to work around the issue that not all dovcuments can display the link-back to an annotation note is to open the target document from the annotation link as a new tab in the annotation note view. This makes it easy to make notes in the annotation docuement, or to copy a clipping from the target document to the annotation document, without losing my scrolling place in either document.
I’ve just moved from Evernote to DTPO, for a whole host of reasons. But this is one area where Evernote does it a whole heap better. The entry for any type of file can be annotated quite easily and intuitively, just by clicking in the window and typing.
That’s the way to do it - all else is unnecessary frustration, just looks silly by comparison. Have a look at it - if they can do it, I’m sure DTPO could offer that functionality.
Even if you don’t implement it in quite the same way, you could get similar by having a separate pane that the user can enter comments in.
I know there’s currently the ability to have the Show Info pane, to allow typing in the Spotlight Comments field - but that’s a small field, and you have to have a whole lot of other stuff showing that takes up a lot of screen real estate. Similarly, you could have the Show Properties pane open, to allow typing into the Comments field - but similar problem, and also you can only enter comments for rich text documents.
To put this into a usability context - I often have photos in my database that I want to write some comments on, partly recording ideas about how I might use them in future, partly some context and explanation of the photo, and partly to make sure the photo comes up in relevant searches. All of these things could be achieved by putting a big entry in the Spotlight Comments field, but the point is that’s (a) not easy to do with the current system, and (b) difficult to view what I’ve already written.
So how about it - a 4 pane view perhaps? Like 3 pane, but with a pane for Spotlight Comments below the document’s pane, able to be expanded or contracted as needs be? (or just ‘Comments’, but allow all document types to be commented on?)
Ultimately I have discarded DevonThink in favour of Together. I didn’t need any of the options DT offers and Together does not, the folder hierarchy feels antiquated compared to tags (lets face it, why replicate Finder with another folder based system? Seems ridiculously tautological) and the best is that Together offers a delightfully efficient annotation system.
There is a lot of features that I like about Together and it would be nice to see some of them in DEVONthink, but I’m genuinely curious about the two that you mention specifically. Both DT and Together have folders and tags, but unlike DT, the Together folder structure is entirely a replicated Finder/folder structure. As to annotation in Together, perhaps I have completely overlooked this, but I don’t know of any annotation features in Together beyond entering notes in the comments field?
Somewhat on the topic of tags, annotations, and links, it is easy to link to tags in DT which is not possible in Together. I have created a document where I make a reference to GTD, and in the future I may want to see all the documents tagged ‘GTD’. I highlight the relevant text, right-click, select ‘Link To’, and navigate the menu to the GTD tag.
Now in the future when I am working with the document and want to see a list of the related GTD documents, I click on the link.
And all GTD tagged documents appear in the pane.
If I then select some of the documents (two documents in this example) and choose ‘Open in tabs’,
Then I now have the original document and the two referenced documents open in three tabs.
I’m sure that’s great and very useful for many people, but I simply do not require that kind of functionality.
All I need is an app that collects the documents and files I’m using on a current project and allows me to add simple things like tags for subfolders of the project, labels for status and a comment to remind me what the file/doc is all about (this is the main reason I switched, the comments box for Together is always visible, I can see all comments for all docs/files at a glace and it is quick and easy to edit). I don’t create or annotate info in together, nor would I want to if I could as other programs are fat better for this; one runs the risk of ending up with an overly complicated behemoth jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none, which is the impression I gathered from DT when applied to my purposes.
All I ever wanted was a central organizer, not an app to replace the other, more specified ones.
Edit: as for the folder structure in Together, I don’t use it at all.