@korm and others mentioned in my previous response: it was not my intention to engage you in a cause that is not yours and I apologize if you feel that I did so. Mentioning you was my way of expressing appreciation for all the work you do in this forum, but I understand that it was a clumsy way, so please accept my apologies.
@jprint714, korm and others: I mentioned the 80 posts to convince jprint714 that he has serious problems with DevonThink, not to chide him for asking those questions and I apologize if I gave another impression.
I wholeheartedly agree that this forum is an excellent place to ask for clarifications and I really appreciate all the trouble the regular inhabitants take to answer those question. I have learned a lot.
Perhaps I should explain the following sentence in my previous post: “you can use DevonThink as a file manager if you understand it isn’t, but not if you think it is!”
I use Korm’s DT prompbox script (A better way to save Word files (and other non-web files)?) as an example.
To avoid misunderstandings: I find it a wonderful script and I am very happy to use it. Thanks Korm for posting it!
However, it works only if you understand what you are doing. I understand that when I save a document from within Word to the DT promptbox that that document is saved in the promptbox folder and copied to the database. Hence, I understand that if I save that document a second time it is the document in the promptbox folder that is updated not the copy in the database. So I will not do that. Instead I will close the document after the first save and open it again from within DevonThink. I understand this because I know that DevonThink doesn’t work like a file manager.
However, when you think of DevonThink as a file manager it is very intuitive/natural to think that the promptbox script directly saves the word document in a group in the DevonThink database, and hence that de document in the database is updated when you save it again. Even stronger, if you think of DevonThink as a file manager, it might be difficult to see the difference between my way of understanding what happens and your way of understanding what happens. As a result you get the kind of problems described by jprint174 in this post: [url]How to access DTP & databases when your computer away?].
Similarly, if you understand what you are doing you will know that if you rename a file in an indexed folder, DevonThink will ‘think’ that that file is deleted and will remove all references to that file at the next index update. So you will know that renaming a file in an indexed folder will result in the deletion of all its entries in DevonThink and you will be careful either not to replicate files that are in an indexed group (in which case you are free to rename your files with a file manager) or to do all renaming from within DevonThink.
However, if you think of DevonThink as a file manager you will not be aware that from DevonThink’s point of view renaming a file (say from ‘my dog’ into ‘my pets’) in an indexed folder comes down to deleting the file ‘my dog’ and creating a new one ‘my pets’. You will not be aware that the entry ‘my pets’ in the updated indexed group is a new entry but rather think that it is the renamed ‘my dog’ entry and wonder why all its replicants have disappeared.
These and similar problems make it difficult to use DevonThink as a file manager (it can be done, but it is difficult and it has serious limitations).
I have assisted many friends and colleagues with these kinds of problems and that’s why, in general, I recommend (1) not to think of DevonThink as a file manager, and (2) not to use DevonThink if you only want a better Finder (or a better Spotlight), rather than an information manager.
Your mileage may vary, and I will not press this point any further as it doesn’t seem to help.
Best wishes,
Arno.