I can see this being very useful (eg., managing creation of a new spreadsheet from within DT) – thanks once again!
You’re welcome - that’s what it’a all about 
.
In a nutshell! Exactly.
Bearing in mind, though, that I too am relatively new to DT and may have yet to discover ways to integrate - as @pete31 illustrates.
You’re not. And I agree, I think it would be a very good way (for you) to go.
Thanks, @dayknito. That makes it really clear. DT is, I’d say, the single best tool available for the organisation, categorisation, display, and searching/retrieving of data. It excels at allowing you reliably to group, subgoup, tag, label and put your data into the most granular and transparently meaningful hierarchies you’ll ever need.
I’d have said it was infinitely superior to the OneNote + Dropbox + Boxcryptor setup you have been using.
May I suggest that you keep posting here on this forum for best practice and others’ experience of synching (à la Dropbox); and of how to manage individual notes with customizable formatting - especially in list formats, which means DT’s growing support for Markdown.
I can’t help feeling that Obsidian on these last two needs may be a better fit. But Obsidian is not a conventional document management system with the sophistication of DT.
Which is why I’m veering towards thinking that Obsidian with DEVONthink may be your ideal blend.
No. But DT-indexed Obsidian Vaults might. And Scrivener integrates well with DT.
Have you found any system that avoids this?
I can see how that is the ideal. Not sure that DT on its own can do all of that seamlessly. Others will know.
I agree. The apps which created the docs are definitely the best way to edit them. But most of these work so well ‘from’ DEVONthink that I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed. It’s the transparent synching and encrypting that worries me more now.
Not at all!
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@mksBelper – thanks again for the thoughts.
Actually, my OneNote + Dropbox + Boxcryptor system does (avoid this). I have had everything open all the time on multiple computers (including Windows machines) with no sync problems, for multiple years.
Hmm… my understanding is that DT’s sync to/from Dropbox is designed to handle databases being open on more than one device – and that it is therefore a system that avoids having to shut down databases and/or DT on one device before using another. The sections of the manual that discuss syncing talk about how changes to the database from multiple devices get “merged”, and make no mention of having to shut down on other devices…
But perhaps I’m assuming too much… and of course it may not work as well as it’s supposed to. Testing syncing has been very much the next item on my list!
Always welcome .
I can see why - once you’ve had that working - you mustn’t give it up, Yes.
== DT synching==
The experts (here) will be able to help, I’m sure: I have no experience of it - yet: I shall need to synch between my desktop and portable Macs soon. But I don’t mind not having two copies of DT open at once.
I sense that what you need is more of a groups, teams system where - perhaps - the least ‘obstructive’ element is the (Markdown) editor itself?
It may also well be that Jim and/or Chris will tell you that DT can do that admirably. I hope so .
I also sense that you’re clearer of the relationships between and roles:
- of DT as a potential manager/‘keeper’ of access to the files which launch in their own apps
- hence, by implication, of the way in which DT is so well designed to (appear to) manage those apps and their files
- and so the amazing transparence - and, so, ease of use which DT sponsors
I was confused at first: I came from EagleFiler which could fail at times if you edited a file (e.g. a BBEdit or TextEdit document which was ‘housed’ therein but relied on the app which created (and was intended exclusively to edit/modify) them.
Jim helped me a lot; including explaining how I no longer needed to ‘Update Checksum’ manually if I kept a file in DT and opened it in DT but actually worked on it in another editor. That such transclusion was even possible to the degree it is in DT seemed too good to be true. And that it would work as well as it did was a shock. Now I take advantage of it without thinking.
Remember, too, for files where you want to keep the originals in another location than DT’s own (internal) database, you Index them. This is likely to be the case with Obsidian.
Yes. If you haven’t already come across ‘Taking Control of DEVONthink 3’, you will want to take a look. It’s free and makes a remarkably useful adjunct to the official manual. It was sponsored and is ‘authorized’ by DEVON Technologies. It covers multiple users well.
Thanks. Yes, that book was actually the first thing I looked at whan I made a preliminary investigation of DT a few months ago. The book says (p. 210):
DEVONthink can sync any or all of your databases with any number of other Macs and iOS/iPadOS devices, and it’s safe to make changes with the database open on more than one device— DEVONthink knows how to merge your changes quickly and intelligently.
If I hadn’t seen that back then, DT would have been off my list of candidates and I wouldn’t have been coming back now for further evaluation.
Of course, things can work better in theory than in practice, so this remains TBD!
EDIT:
Also, thanks for highlighting the value of “transclusion” and indexing. These have been nebulous-to-me features that I now think I should look into more seriously.
Good. That ought to re-assure you. It does me :-). I have total faith in that last sentence.
Of course! It’s the same for me - everywhere. Sometimes I just wish all ‘innovation’ (= ‘things to have to keep up with’) would cease - just for a year 
. Know what I mean?
Sure, I hear you! Thanks again.
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