Yes. Note taking is my primary use of DT (along with organizing, searching, and using those notes). I’d say 95% of the things in my DT database are notes I have created in DT using its RTF editor.
3 Likes
Main Work: I’m an artist.
Use Case of DT3: I used DT to record all notes and documents related to running my business. I have groups of notes that include: planning docs, project notes, marketing plans, writing projects, client information, notes about my equipment and software, competitor research, pricing planning, etc.
95%+ of the documents I have in DT are notes I create in rich text files right in DT. The ability to see a group of documents, click on any and have it instantly open for editing, then click on another to work on that – it’s crucial to me.
Database Numbers: 3, but I mainly use one.
Database Names/Use: “Business” contains almost everything I do. “Research” is one I use sometimes to collect information for the business I don’t want to get mixed in with active documents when I search. And I have an “Archive” database for filing away old stuff – again, things I don’t want to see when I’m doing a search.
3 Likes
Here’s my version.
Main Work: Information Security Professional
Use Cases of DT:
- Information Security research, writing and similar topics
- Family Household management
- Genealogy, and other hobby research topics
Database Numbers: 9
Database Names/Use
- Personal - my original database, now trying to pull things out into more focused databases.
- Information Security - topical groups for collecting papers, writing, notes, etc.
- Family - general family documents (vitals, real estate, vehicles, medical, financials, taxes)
- School Records - admin (not coursework) docs for each kid: elementary, high school, college. News feeds from the schools
- MSOM - coursework for my Operations Management Masters program
- Genealogy - collected documents from our research
- Feeds - place to hold general purpose feeds I collect (like my pocket inbox)
One of my purposes in creating so many databases is to be able to share them with different people. I don’t do a lot of this yet, but I’m still hopeful it will work.
My most common use is for organizing our family records: birth certificates and other vitals, legal paperwork, taxes, bank statements, medical records, home mortgage and other records, vehicle purchase, sale and maintenance, appliance and equipment manuals. School records are grouped by year, then by school. I actually have more of this stuff than I do documents for my day job. I’m not doing so yet, but my ultimate goal is to be able to share all this with my wife, and possibly older kids so we all have a handy reference.
I make “registry” lists for things like vehicles. For example, my vehicle registry has columns like:
nickname, year, make, model, trip, license, VIN, tire size, oil type, date acquired, date disposed
I tag family records by family member, residence (I keep things for my mom and our prior home, too).
School Records was originally inside the Family database, but I’ve split it out to try different sharing methods.
My Information Security database has a group for “Writing and Speaking,” so I have a place to hold things I’ve written myself, while I use other big groups to hold broad topics that I’m working on. I don’t like this organization, but it’s better than nothing.
Genealogy is grouped by record type, and tagged by person and location. MSOM is grouped by course.
3 Likes
Main Work: Medical doctor, Data scientist and also now a Ph.D student,
Use Case of DTPO: Almost every digital document work in my life
Database Numbers: Only One, I put everything into a single database. I have integrated almost everything in work and life together.
Database Names/Use: myKM
2 Likes
Illuminating to see how other folks use DT3, thanks for sharing.
I’ve had a core set of databases over the last five years (since when I first discovered DevonThink!)
- Life
- “Work”
- Records (important documents)
I used to have a Notes, but it’s use shifted to indexing Obsidian, and then fell out of use.
Somewhat in its place is a new Reading database, which I’m experimenting with as a read-later replacement, and PDFs of books.