This question is a bit different than others have asked.
After 13 years and 11,000 notes, I’m migrating from Evernote to a more robust platform.
I have in Evernote:
60 notebooks
Arranged in 4 Stacks: Projects, Area, Resource, Archive
Tons of tags
Questions:
Should I arrange these in 4 Databases (to match my Evernote Stacks) or a Database for each Notebook?
Is it better, in terms of note formatting preservation, to create and select a Database, then File > Import > Notes from Evernote… (which opens a window of Notebook page for selection) -or- export each Notebook from Evernote to a .enex file, and then File > Import > Files and Folders… and select the .enex file?
Thanks @BLUEFROG. I’m digging my way through the documentation, and don’t understand the trade-offs between a single db, or 60. I suspect something like the 4 Evernote “Stacks” might be a good way to start, right?
Similar experience here. Migrated from EN to DNT a year ago. 12 years, 99’500 notes, 40 Notebooks, roughly 100GB. Lots of tags, topics not nicely sorted, always relying on EN’s search capabilities.
I tried various things: Direct import initiated from DNT, Exporting ENEX from EN and “opening” from DNT. What I can say is that the process is a lot smoother since DNT 3.6., now even a database of > 70 GB got imported. Needs patience, though.
I concur Bluefrog’s suggestion to experiment a little with one database or some EN notes in it. Once I felt comfortable I mostly dropped the use of tags in DNT, as searching is so much more comfortable and powerful in DNT. And there is the best customer support on the planet.
The whole process took me about a week (between Xmas and New Year). I still keep EN, but I look at it at most once/month, mostly because of a notebook shared with my wife.
Can you add more detail as to the replacement of tags with searching
For example, I produce budget/expense reports using tags Type-Receipt, Budget-aaaaaaa, Project-bbbbbbb
Database organization may also depend on your sync preferences. You may want to sync some data “On demand” and other data always. That implies that you need a separate database for each categorie.
This is somewhat equivalent to offline notebooks in Evernote
To file emails or documents I used to tag them appropriately in EN and then search for the tag. With DNT, I rely on creating groups to file emails and documents, and then replicate items into several groups in case (in the EN analogy) there would be several tags they need to be associated with. In doing so I use smart groups extensively (especially with “time based” functions, e.g., all groups that have been worked on during the last nn days, etc.). I also use the “see also & classify” inspector to file appropriately, which is astonishingly accurate. When searching you can really narrow down through the many “attributes” like dates, file extensions, etc. Works for me.
If you’re using the PARA method, and you have a ton of data, it might make sense to put the archive on an external hard drive (kind of like cold storage), then if that’s a separate database, it’s its own chunk of data that doesn’t have to take up space anywhere else.
I have created separate databases that are just large projects so I can search terms and help me to write papers. You could create separate databases for different areas even in the PARA system.
In my mind, it can make sense to have all kinds of different sizes depending on the need of the project. It’s like one more layer up from the system.
One of the advantages of Devonthink is that you can create infinite numbers of group layers (unlike Evernote), and a database in a lot of ways is just one more layer, just the other way.
