How do you organise files in DT

DEVONthink Tips
21

No issues, but at 20GB I’m not even close to any limits
If there’s an issue, I would split my groups/database
I’m interested in hearing from others on database size

From the forum, I see

22

Well, I’m far from this limit, and I doubt I’ll reach it in my lifetime.
And even if this will happen, it will many years in the future, and our machines will be even more powerful :smiley:

1 Like
23

For me this is a very interesting topic, as I am constantly wondering if there’s a better suiting way to use DT. However, I never get to talk/write someone about it… :roll_eyes:

To my understanding, DTs suggestion are based and work for groups – not tags.
This has led me to organize my documents threefold:

  1. I use groups according to document “type”
  2. I use tags to link “projects”
  3. I use databases to separate administrative (e.g. bills, letters, bank statements, proofs,…) from informational (e.g. books, articles,…) documents.

A document may have many groups (replicates) and tags.

A type/group is some

  • “well-established” category, like invoice, contract, job applications
  • “object”-types car A, apartment 1, kid 1, wife 8
  • “action”-types inquiry, info, self-note
  • “counterpart”: bank, insurance, gov. agency, individuals

A tag is some type-comprehensive link:

  • A project like buying a car, applying for a different school
  • Or just a collection like tax filing documents

There are two interconnected questions I am struggling with:

  1. How much structural depth is actually helpful?
  2. How can I best leverage the AI-functions (for groups)?

AFAIK, the (auto-)“Classify” command only moves a doc to a single group. So the best I came up with is using the “See also & Classify”-Inspector for suggesting groups. Unfortunately I have not managed to do the latter keyboard-only, yet.

Regarding structural depth: In general I am reducing groups and tags to process docs quicker. Besides, eventually I use full-text search in 95% of my queries… :laughing:

2 Likes
24

We don’t advocate a particular organizational method. As we’ve discussed many times in the documentation, tutorials, and here, how a database is constructed is predicated on one of two things:

  1. How you personally organize things. For some it’s a deep hierarchy of groups. For others, it’s a shallow group structure, often accompanied with tag use. Some like a big bucket of files and search. How you’d organize in the Finder is usually applicable to DEVONthink as well.

  2. The agreed upon structure of a corporate or group collaboration. When working in a collaborative environment, it’s best to use a well-defined, adhered to, and administered organizational method.