Recently, we had a question about the Today global smart group in DEVONthink and why it’s not in DEVONthink To Go. To keep things simple and functional, we chose to include a smaller set of very commonly used smart groups by default. But that’s no problem at all, because you can easily create your own smart groups.
Smart groups show items that match criteria you specify, e.g., PDF documents added in the past week. They are essentially saved custom searches, so this is the standard way to create them:
- Tap the search field or magnifying glass icon to start a search.
- Type in your search terms, choose the scope of the search, e.g., All or Group, and inspect the results.
- Tap the Action button (…) and choose Save.
- If your scope was All, this will prompt you to save a global smart group. This appears on the databases screen.
- If your scope was any other option, you will save a local smart group. This appears in the current database.
There is an alternative method for creating a local smart group: go into the desired database, tap the Add button (+), and choose Smart Group. Give it a name, add your criteria, and save it. And yes, local smart groups sync with DEVONthink on the Mac.
So, to create a Today global smart group, run a search with the criteria added:today kind:document, save it, and name it Today.
Note: On the databases screen on the iPhone, you can’t choose a scope. You’re not in a specific database, so you will automatically create a global smart group.