How do you use DT in your daily workflow?

[oystein]

Thanks for the reply. I should maybe apologize for the way I responded to the help I got here initially. As you point out, to guide me, you must know where I am and where I want to be.

Your description of how people come to DT is probably accurate in many cases. I bought it in 2008. And during my studies, I’ve read all kinds of books on how to have an effective workflow. GTD was the hype, now it seems to be Zettelkasten. Productivity has become an industry, a culture.

But I don’t want a complete change of my workflow. I continuously try new stuff out, and some would probably accuse me of being ineffective and unproductive.

I’ve made automation work, and I have scripted stuff, mostly in Google sheets. Problem is, these things are hard to remember, and if my needs change for a while, I need to spend more time than I like, relearning them when a similar need appears.

But I can try to describe my “workflow”, but its more about managing life in the digital domain.

I “produce” a considerable amount of documents, presentations, and assignments which I use and often share with students. That’s not a feat on its own, that’s just what teachers do. And then I talk a lot - (even though my goal is not to;) - and what I say, I guess, is a derivative of what I’ve heard, seen, observed, read, and documented for the last 10-15 years.

This works fine for me but struggles at times finding that tidbit of information I know I read in a 200+ pages pdf a few years ago, and could that connect to the illustration I made on another subject…

And if I were to describe my “workflow” even more, I have days dedicated to reports, taxes, recipes, invoices, email correspondence, and all the stuff I need to do as a freelancer. Then I leave this “creative” approach and attack methodically. Searching up a photo I took to record attendance when I didn’t have time to do it in a better way. Coupling that with some notes and the lesson plan, which in itself usually branch out, to produce a report.

I should get back to work, now:) I’m grateful for the help received and appreciate the community.

[Robejazz]

@mandalo

Every paper that enters or leaves is scanned to a fujitsuscansnap that stores it in a gdrive folder.
A macmini in my house puts it in devonthoink through folder actions

Can you share how you do this??

Thanks

[DTLow]

I also use the Mac OS feature Folder Actions
It watches the folder and triggers for new files, launching an applescript
The script imports the file to Devonthink

Here’s the script installed with Devonthink

-- DEVONthink - Import & Delete.applescript
-- Created by Christian Grunenberg on Fri Mar 26 2010.
-- Copyright (c) 2010-2014. All rights reserved.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
	try
		if (count of added_items) is greater than 0 then
			tell application id "DNtp" to launch
			repeat with theItem in added_items
				try
					set thePath to theItem as text
					if thePath does not end with ".download:" and thePath does not end with ".crdownload:" then
						tell application id "DNtp"
							set theRecord to import thePath to incoming group
							if exists theRecord then tell application "Finder" to delete theItem
						end tell
					end if
				end try
			end repeat
		end if
	end try
end adding folder items to

[mandalo]

right click on the selected folder/ services / action folders / execute script

[Robejazz]

Thanks - but I mean about how you get it from google drive … is that what your “gdrive” folder is ?

[mandalo]

My wife and another employee use the scanner and send it to a Gdrive folder (work documents, for example). On the Mac you install the gdrive application and browse the folders. When you get to “work documents” right click / services / folder action / scripts (there are several from Devonthink), dial the one that interests you and you already have it forever. You can also do it with Hazel

When you open action folders, you must press + in the window and you will see the scripts.

[Olivered]

May be Zotero would be more useful to you. I am facing the same issues than and still trying to figure out the best way to get the best out of DT

[oystein]

Thank you for sharing. Putting it on my list, and will read your thoughts and the thread

[oystein]

Zotero, hmm. Maybe I should check it out. Thanks

[arasmus]

Okay, my turn for whatever value it brings: I have two primary use cases:

1. Archive. Scan or impoprt documents I want to be able to search for later. Bank statements, medical records, et al
2. Living documents. Mostly for work, maintaing documents to reference project artifacts. For every project I have an Index, Cron, Meeting notes, Other notes, and Questions (with answers, ideally)

That’s just how I roll. And I love it a lot.

[DTLow]

use DT in your daily workflow

The organized storage archive for all my notes, documents, scans, web clippings, journals, email …

Task notes for project/task management and the generation of to-do lists

Receipt notes for the generation of budget/expense reports

[nishiazabu]

Workflow is fine. I am a native english speaker. Your question is quite clear.

[hellquist]

Only speaking for how I use DT but:

• I only use it on indexed external folders. This means that the backbone of my stuff is about how to physically set up the folder structure, and then being able to use various tools, of which DT is one major part, to interact with those files and folders.

• I have different DT databases for “Work” and “Personal”. I also have a third separate database for “Inbox” purposes where I can quickly throw things. It syncs really fast on my iOS devices too.

• One of the main features in DT for me is the search engine (or the “find engine” as I like to call it). I can search and get a good list of answer to almost any query, regardless of if it is coming from Markdown files (my main format for taking notes), PDF’s, MS Office documents etc.

• Another “hidden” feature of DT is that you can set up Markdown templates which you can style with CSS and images. If you store your CSS and your images in a DT database you can link to those from within any document in DT (also works on DTTG on iOS) with their internal link URL’s. I use this to take meeting notes, where I have different templates set up for different types of meetings.

• This means I can take my meeting notes in Markdown, in a template, and then “preview” it and it comes out all nice with colours, tables and image headings, company logo etc. This can then be saved as a PDF, which I mail to the others in the meeting. Most colleagues and meeting participants were always impressed by having a fully styled PDF document with meeting notes in their Inbox before they even got back to their desk.

• I notice Zotero mentioned above too. Great tool. However, similar functionality can be achieved in DT via the web clipper tool. If you select an interesting passage/paragraph of a link you’d like to bookmark, that selection becomes part of the saved bookmark in DT, much like in Zotero. Zotero has the benefit of being cross-platform though (if you use Win/Linux as well).

• Speaking of bookmarking, I really like being able to save bookmarks as clutter-free PDF’s in DT as it makes the full content searchable on my local device(s), takes little room still (as it is mainly text only), and is very portable which is great for when you wish to re-read an article on a device where you perhaps isn’t logged in to the source web site.

• I am currently “playing around with” setting up a Zettelkasten system where my main input is coming from Foam, Drafts and nb. As all of them then save to the same folder structure (mentioned above) I can still find relevant pieces of content from within DT, as it indexes those folders still. More importantly, I can easily access that same data from any of the platforms/OS’s I use. As all of those tools also support WikiLinking etc it is more about “which frontend” I will have available to me to view the contents.

But yeah, something like that is how I usually use DT. No idea if that is of any value to you though.

[satikusala]

Great conversation. :slight_smile. I’ve developed a fantastic end-to-end workflow from content discovery through contribution. The steps include discovery, collection, curation, creation, and contribution. I’m using a suite of integrated tools for this.

Apps I use

• DEVONthink, document repository (use browser extension and watch folders)
• Tinderbox, note-taken, and 4Cs knowledge management sense-making tool. I have a set of action code, export code, templating, prototyping, and independent and inter-related tools that help with every stage in the process. Integrates with Tinderbox through Applescript.
• Pandoc, an open-source content transformation utility, integrates with Tinderbox through the command line.
• Drafts, note-taking tool (for note on the go, integrates with Tinderbox through Applescript.
• Zotero, a reference manager. Integrates with Tinderbox with RIS export.
• BetterBibTex, a Zotero plugin to enhance citation key management.
• RIS with Citationkey translator, Zotero translator to pull in all the fields I want into Tinderbox.
• Keyboard Maestro, a macOS automation tool, use it to dynamically pull in citations.
• Citation Style Language (CSL), a text file format that helps my dynamically convert my citation keys in Tinderbox to any in-line style, e.g. APA, Chicago, and reference generation.
• BiBTex file, a file export from Zotero the interfaces with Keyboard Maestro to support the automagical citation integration.
• BBEdit, text editor, has a great Regex playground.
• BBEdit text factory, a BBEdit utility to transform text with Regex, trigger it form Keyboard Maestro automatically.
• MS Office templates, Word and PowerPoint templates that are used by Pandoc when publishing out to Tinderbox.
• Highlights, a PDF highlighter. You can highlight in DEVONThink, but I find Highlights SOOOO much easier to use, aslo can export to Markdown which is easily pulled into Tinderbox.
• TextExpander, a utility for expanding text from keyboard shortcuts. Fantastic for inserting templated export and action code into Tinderbox.
• Snagit. and screen (image, video) capture app. Images can esily be pulled into Tinderbox through Tinderbox’s export code, and attributes.
• Grammarly, spelling checking and grammar app. Not enough integration, would like to see more.

Languages I use

• Markdown, HTML shortcut language, ideal for citation transformation and publishing from Tinderbox through Pandoc to nearly any file format - text, markdown, Word, PowerPoint, HTML, etc.
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), use this for Tinderbox templates and inline formatting as needed.
• AppleScript, to run automation with Tinderbox, Drafts, and DEVONThink.

This all comes together quite automagically (with help from the DEVONThink, Tinderbox, and Zotero communities).

To see the final published article in LinkedIn see the article here. Start to finish the article, with time to the source material, took about five hours. A great thing, is I’ve now added to more assets-- references and notes–to support my future.

I’ve produced a number of my Tinderbox videos, including one my Zotero and Pandoc integrations, see: Mastering Tinderbox: Training Videos (Complete List) - Training Videos - Tinderbox Forum. DEVONThink integration coming soon.

Summary: I have a VERY dialed-in process for professional, academic, and personal knowledge management. It would not be possible without these tools and the community.

[BLUEFROG]

Thanks for sharing your suite of tools and for letting us be part of it!

I’ll have to set aside some time to check out your Tinderbox videos

[Wen]

@hellquist

Another “hidden” feature of DT is that you can set up Markdown templates which you can style with CSS and images. If you store your CSS and your images in a DT database you can link to those from within any document in DT (also works on DTTG on iOS) with their internal link URL’s. I use this to take meeting notes, where I have different templates set up for different types of meetings.

Do you mind elaborating on this point? I am curious about how customize Markdown templates in your workflow.

[oystein]

A lot of helpful responses😊 thanks!

[mzbarsk]

I use DT in conjunction with Omnifocus. DT has folders for each Area of Life structured via the PARA method (Project, Area, Resource, Archive) - from most active to least active.

So say…
Area of Life - Finances

• Project - active projects with clear completion date (e.g refinance X, find a bank, file YYYY taxes, etc)

• Area - active projects with no clear completion date (perpetual) (e.g. budget, investments, house statements, rental statements, etc).

• Resources - all supporting materials and infrequent stuff for Projects and Areas.

• Archive - completed projects and stuff I almost never look but don’t want to throw out just yet.

As things become less active I transition them from P → A → R → A.

As far as content… notes on various topics, reference materials (not including books I use Calibre/Books for that), taxes, receipts, code snippets, manuals, news articles, bookmarks, and so on. For notes I use Kourosh Dini’s note method: markdown notes with heavy reliance on links, indexes, and cross references.

[hellquist]

Sure. Firstly, I realize I probably use the term “template” sloppily/incorrectly. In reality it is an “empty” file that I use as a base for copy/paste. I simply have named a file “_template” which I copy and rename. With “empty” I mean it actually has the structure of the document in there, but not the particulars of for example the next meeting.

After that I have added the style specific files to DT. CSS, web fonts, images etc. They can be stored anywhere you’d like. I’d recommend creating a separate folder for them, out of harms way and to avoid them cluttering up your folder with the actual notes. I am then using the internal DT internal link/URL for each of the files, which I have added already to my myMeetingNote.md file (in that “template” I mentioned).

As you are using the unique links for each of the files you don’t have to worry about folder structures etc.

I’m attaching a screenshot for my central view of DT when I look at one of those files. You can see the file up on top, the actual markdown code and the preview. Remember it is empty (can’t show the ones with actual content).

If I need to change anything in the CSS I change it by adding/editing/deleting code within the internally stored CSS file.

I know this isn’t a template in the automated sense, sorry for that terminology blunder. It is a completely workable workflow for me though, and for one client I created specific “templates” for the various departments I was working with, which also had different meeting structures compared to each other.

[joshgibson]

Is there a benefit to using this vs an app like Hazel? Just curious. This is the first time I’ve heard that Mac OS can do this natively.