I would like to try to express my most profound confusion about DevonThink (which I use heavily and love). It has to do with Groups containing both Groups and files.
Somewhere, I believe we have been advised not to do this. That is, our Groups are ideally supposed to contain either subgroups or data files but not both. So the idea is, all data files are supposed to be at the bottom level of the tree.
Meanwhile, I find myself always trying to work in a different way. Let me see if I can explain.
Let’s say I have a People group, containing subgroups (Washington, Adams, Jefferson …). I’ve got dozens of Washington-related files, which naturally go in the Washington group, and so on. But I also want to have a Washington document, my notes on Washington. When I have a thought on Washington, I write it there. Often, of course, I will also want to link to other files, and DT makes it easy to put these links into the document.
But where is this document supposed to be stored? It needs to be at some top level. I want to be able to see the Washington (and Adams and Jefferson etc.) notes documents together, and prominently. You’d think the People group would be a good place.
So let’s say that’s where I put it. Here’s the $64,000 question for the developers. Which View should I use, to see my stuff in a logical format? None of them work, it seems to me.
In the three-pane view, the subgroups show up in the left pane but the documents are invisible there; and in the upper right pane, it’s just the reverse; there’s no pane where you can see both documents and subgroups. In the horizontal and vertical split views, the main pane displays (except when a file is selected) a collection of large icons, which is unwieldly (and ugly).
I know what would be ideal, for my way of working. The Group should also be a document (if that makes any sense). When I select the Washington group in the left pane, the center pane should show the document, with my notes and links, while the contents of the group should be visible in the left pane under the dropdown arrow.
(It’s possible that what I’m looking for is related to what’s being described in a different thread, Outlining in DT Pro the Mori way. I’m not sure. I’d be interested in opinions.)