just out of curiosity: How does everyone sort their files in a quick and unproblematic manner?
Here’s how I do it in DT3:
Everything is moved to the inbox.
After that, I drag and drop every file to its proper database (is there a faster way to do this?)
Once the files are organized in every database inbox, I’ll open up the specific inbox and then add a tag to every file. Now, there is one thing to keep in mind here, as I checked in the database settings to ignore groups while tagging.
Now, all I need to do for all my tagging is to press Control + Enter. Once I’m done, I’ll delete all the replicates in my inbox and I can wait for the next batch of files to come in…
How are you doing it?
€: And just one more minor bug report. The drop down menu is sometimes cut while tagging.
I just save documents, Safari clippings, imports, etc., directly into the database and group where it belongs. Never tag.
One step.
In my experience, dumping files into inboxes results in a blob of stuff I have to spend a lot of time sorting out later. Saving a document directly to where it belongs adds a few microseconds to the thought process but as a result done-is-done.
I use the popup menu, via right-clicking, on any item in the Inbox to select groups and other databases, I find the ‘recent’ items on there to be very useful.
With the new Sorter I find I don’t even have to do this, I send items directly to the group they should be in or I make a new one.
However, I need to scan a lot of files and as far as my limited knowledge goes, they are always placed in the inbox folder.
This depends on Preferences > Import > Destination but we’re also looking into an OCR bug that may put the output in the Global Inbox despite the setting.
I’m quite a new user of DT (licensing it for the first time when DT3 was released). I’ve used Hazel for years so have adapted my Hazel rules to save to the DT3 global inbox and set up a number of smart rules within DT3 to file certain documents (like invoices and bank statements) atuomatically by year in the appropriate folders. As I’ve got to understand DT better I’ve been able to create more smart rules for automatic filing—although I find Hazel’s flexibility for renaming documents a little better than that of DT3, so tend to use that first.
Obviously those rules can’t cover all documents I add to DT3 but they certainly help.
In addition to the smart rules mentioned by @Stephen_C, the See Also & Classify tool in the inspector can be very useful in suggesting destinations. The longer one works with a database to organize documents, the better See Also & Classify works.
The longer one works with a database to organize documents, the better See Also & Classify works.
et al, please take note of what @korm aptly pointed out here. The AI learns as you works with it, so the longer you use a database and the more uniform you are in your filing over time, the better the suggestions provided by the Classification mechanism.
