Thanks to everyone for this thread. I (naively?) thought that the ability to take, and sort, and link notes about documents was the main rationale for Devonthink as a research tool. But until I found this thread, I was unable to figure out how to do it. The manual has 238 mentions of “link,” but I could not find a coherent explanation of how to create cross-links among master/related documents. (e.g. a tutorial. See below for a partial answers.)
In any case, I think with these threads I will be able to figure this out, with “only” another hour or two of effort. Since I’m just a trial user of DT, it may make the difference between buying it, and giving up.
Now I suggest, echoing earlier comment, that this information be pulled into a sticky thread, and ultimately into a PDF tutorial. For other newbies, here are the threads I’ve found that are key.
Removed Macro for Keyboard Maestro
QuoteHighlight&Annotate script
posting.php?mode=reply&f=20&t=18885 (this thread)
manually cross-linking & adding rich text notes to items?
Mystified by Annotation - is there a plain-language tutorial A useful tutorial on how to use all this.
Related:
A useful discussion of how to structure documents in a DB and use “see also” to find links. Someone else's use of AI
Finally, the bibliography manager Bookends has some of this capability. Every referenced document can have an unlimited number of “notes” which are tied to that document. The notes can be tagged individually. And when you highlight a passage in a PDF, it automatically creates a note containing the highlighted text. Of course, Bookends is specialized and much less flexible.
(All errors and omissions in this message are mine. I’m just starting to figure this out. If someone who does understand these issues would summarize the essentials, we would all be grateful.)