Inter-Document Linking and Link-Groups

DEVONthink Feedback
1

I’m not sure whether this is part of the proposed user-definable mind-mapping in DT Pro 2, so apologies if it is.

DT Pro is great for importing documents and creating Wiki-style links between them. However, what I am really seeking is a way to create links between different documents of all different types without having to alter the contents of the document. Wikis are great for linking bits of text, but what about when you are trying to link related photos?

To link a document to another I would like to simply drag it onto another one and have an invisible link created between them. A dialog box could then open to allow you to add data about the link if required. The option to unlink documents would also be needed in case of drag-drop errors.

When I am viewing a document (or possibly image) I would like to be able to click on a button (perhaps next to the lock/unlock and keywords buttons) to display a list of all the documents linked to this one, regardless of where they are in the group hierarchy.

I’ve got StickyBrain 3 and it does something like this but I am not a huge fan of the UI or its implementation, so am moving away from it.

Something that might be useful is the ability to create a smart folder of all the documents linked to your initial document so that it’s easy to access if you are working on a topic that ties all these documents together. When you’ve finished that topic you should then be able to remove the smart folder to prevent to much clutter in the interface.

An enhancement to this would be to create what I will call: “Link-Groups”. These are arbitrary groups of documents that you choose to link based on specific criteria. A document can only belong in one DT group at a time, but should be able to exist in any number of Link-Groups.

An added bonus would be to have a graphical view of the links between documents (a bit like an object model or entity-relationship diagram). The ability to see the properties of the links (the Link-Group it belongs to) from the graphical view would also be really cool.

As an example I could have several DT groups that all contain images. The groups are called Fireworks, Urban Scenes, Countryside and Dogs. What if I want to link all the images taken in, say, Germany, or by a certain Photographer with link to a biography of the photographer, or link together the photos from a specific agency and a URL link to their website? These would all fall into the realm of Link-Groups. This would add a whole new dimension to your data without having to constantly juggle it between different DT groups.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts.

Stuart

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Stuart:

Various approaches to linking have potential.

But there are other ways of accomplishing what one wishes, sometimes.

In your example, this can already be done by doing a Search and replicating the results to a new group. one could even create a smart group based on the photographer’s name and “Germany” that would automatically include relevant new content added to your database.

“Replicant groups” can function much like your hypothetical “link groups” and have the advantage that you can already see the contents of such groups.

Actually, the replicant approach has the greater logical power, as one can drill down as far as needed with sorts and content searches.

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Hi Bill,

thanks for your response. In all honesty I wasn’t aware of replicants (I’ve only just started using DT Pro) - maybe I should read the manual a bit more thoroughly!

The whole replicant idea seems promising; I’ll have to look into them more deeply.

Stuart