I went through a similar thought process in 2018. I was diagnosed with cancer and had to go for a life-changing (surgical) operation. I’m the OCD one in the family, and it was a scary prospect for my wife (who is a stay at home mom) to potentially lose her husband (we are both in our 40’s). My own experience is that DT is NOT easy to use (at first appearance), and there is an initial lift that new users have to overcome.
My solution was to export my files to my cloud share and use an index database ( unsure if I’m saying this correctly ). Now my wife doesn’t have to learn a new tool, and the search features within finder or explorer will help her immensely.
On a separate note, I never got the index feature to work correctly and suggest spending some time to ensure it works for you. I’ve added this to my backlog, and not sure when I’ll get around to figuring out what I’m doing wrong. I hope this helps, happy to discuss offline as well.
Dear mikebore, Thank you for starting this thread. I found it extremely interesting, and applicable. I am 75 and have been using DEVONthink iterations for about 15 years. Always learning something new. All the best, iansgordon
I‘m currently writing a book about that topic.
(Coterminus.com)
Let me know how to reach you and I‘m happy to share.
And: Prepare now but postpone your departure!
Dude, I hope this is a joke that you are talking about a very very sad and helpless thing. As a younger man I’ve know this is a inevitable thing, but refusing to think about it.
Now i am making a joke as a reply.
First, separating all your financial things into various types of documents which can be split in , for example, pdf; bookmarks and so on.
Hi,
I’ve not thought about till this thread. Why don’t we use some sort of flagging or tagging on documents or files being important to know off and the people can search for it. In my case, I am the only Mac user in the family. I do think that they all will manage to go to Devonthink and with a short explanation could manage to open databases and search for documents. Some screenshots with arrows and explanation text will do. But they will only be interested in small parts of the thousands of files in the databases. @Bluefrog: it would be helpful if Davonthechnology would give this some thoughts as it will start to get to an issue. If you could show easy solutions to this, it would be a market separator - I actually do not know of any database provider offering such a functionality - but it is obviously needed
Nope, I just think about an intelligent group collecting folders and files in a structured way enabling others to find the most relevant items. And I think it would be good if devontechnology would do a short documentation, like 1 or 2 pages “for dummies” how to implement this and telling people, please to follow exactly the naming convention, so that devontechnology can guide people asking after death, severe injury etc, to the correct steps.
As I implied in the final line of my OP, I would speculate that sales of DT are lost because of the concern about putting all ones data in a proprietary database, and the possible problems for relatives.
The fact that the data is easily extracted may not be apparent to a prospective purchaser.
With no disrespect intended, much of this discussion seems to be making things much more complicated than they really are.
I am a die-hard paperless person, but nonetheless I have the 10 or so most important documents on paper and in a safe place (safe, safe deposit box, whatever). That solves the absolute biggest problem.
If there is still a lot of stuff in DT (or on the computer, in general), then one of those documents should be a detailed explanation about how to get to the rest of the documents in DT or the Finder or Evernote or whatever.
As noted, with DT, the documents aren’t in a proprietary database, but if their easy access outside of DT is desirable (probably is), then index the files, dont import them.
I prefer to frame the problem as “I have these estate matters, accounts, instructions, digital and physical assets – how should I facilitate their transfer to my heir and designees?” Rather than “how should my heir use DEVONthink when I’m dead?”
My answer is paper. Copies of the instructions, passwords, etc., in at least three places: my executor, my partner, and my attorney. If I literally left a note for them “it’s all in my computer, go figure out this program you’ve never heard of”, in the midst of a crises then I would be totally irresponsible. No one wants to futz around in someone’s computer in a situation like death.
Maybe I used some wrong words on the proprietary database question, but doesn’t DT import the files into a proprietary database? I know the files themselves are not altered, but nor are they readily accessible to an average person who is unfamiliar with DT, which is the main issue. I certainly didn’t mean to imply the product was being incorrectly described.
(I really don’t want to index, I am too likely to cause problems)
Well, right mouse click on any file in DEVONthink, pick “show in Finder”. Frankly, if any of my family can’t do that then they do not deserve a login on the Mac!
That being said, what I have done is described near the top of this thread. Indexed files, paper files, a document describing everything, etc. Frankly, I think by not indexing to files (to give people a choice) you are over-complicating it for reasons I don’t get. Just my two-bits.
I’m almost 83 and began working on this problem a few years ago. I got my first license for DEVONthink Pro 1.x on Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004. I have not used it regularly at all for all these years, though I always have the latest iteration, now DT 3.
That being said, what I do is quite simple, and it makes no difference whether you’re using DT, Evernote, etc. Just tag everything, usually with a few tags. All the survivors have to do is know how to open whichever app you’re using and where the search bar is and how to type something in there. I have emails, loads of images of paintings (I’m a non-professional artist), hundreds of family photos, marriage license, copies of medical documents, army discharge papers, you name it.
Someone mentioned that your survivors probably won’t need very much at all of this, and I agree. But it’s there and with search and effective, thoughtful tags, they’ll be able to find whatever they need.
Finally, however, I, too, think that DT might be a bit overwhelming. I agree that the idea alone of a “database” might freak them out – at least mine. So what I do is keep a copy of everything that I have in DT in Evernote, too. They know how to find EN in my dock, click on it and search. And that’s it.
Sounds, I know, simplistic, but I prefer to think of it as simple.
I created a simple text file called If I Die.txt. Upon reflection, I changed it to When I Die.txt. The file describes exactly where every document is that my family may need and instructions for using programs that are uncommon for non-nerds (e.g., 1Password). So if I were to file needed documents in DEVONthink, I would give very specific instructions as to how to retrieve those documents. When I Die.txt has been emailed to my daughter and wife, copied to Documents on my computers, and copied to the thumb drive in my backpack, etc. The master 1Password password is on an encrypted image in the same places, and the password to unencrypt has been sent to my wife and daughter.
I have served as executor six times, so my goal was to make the chore manageable.
I think this is a pretty good answer, especially because it avoids over-complicating things. Grief is awful, and can often limit someone’s capacity/energy for everything else, right? And so as overwhelming as DT was to me when I first bought the license, it would have to be a million times more overwhelming for someone who is grieving. And so when it comes to the really big important stuff, the online banking information, email account, titles, etc, that stuff should be on paper, and discussed with the relevant people regularly. (whether one uses DT or not, honestly)
But, let’s say someone was super into family genealogy, for example, and had a DT database set up for their research, and let’s say a grandkid wants to take up the hobby ‘in memoriam’.
There’s something really intimate about a person’s computer, and it’s gotta be pretty disconcerting to open up a loved one’s computer after they died. We’ve got like a millennia’s worth of popular exposure to letters outliving the writer or journals outliving the diarist, around two centuries to wrap our heads around a photo outliving the photographer, etc etc etc. How long have we had to consider a mac outliving the user? (…cue planned obsolescence joke…)
But I’d imagine after the initial grief, once the grandchild starts diving into things, the DT forums would actually provide a significant resource and community for the grandchild, who may not be able to ask their grandparent about where X went or how to get to Y or what the hell Z is supposed to mean, but if they ask here, they at least might be pointed in the right direction. And in doing so, they build a really unique connection with the person they’ve ‘lost’.
I know I’m probably going way too deep with this (though FWIW I’m an archivist), but if the data in question is passion-project related (instead of legal docs & passwords & whatnot), struggling through the DT learning curve might actually be a pretty wonderful way to learn how to live with someone’s memory.
