I have a folder on my Dropbox account with 1000+ plain text notes. On OS X, I use nvALT to access them, on iOS Writer. But not all of them are “active” documents, and since I’ve now started to use Devonthink for my reference archive, I want to move a lot of them into Devonthink.
My plan was to add my nvALT folder to Devonthink as an indexed folder and then drag and drop files from nvALT into Devonthink’s database.
Dragging does add my notes to Devonthink, but only as an indexed file. I thought that was a way to move them into Devonthink, but after reading on this topic on the forums, I understand my assumption was wrong.
So, any workflow suggestions to make this as painless as possible? Using Finder, I can’t easily see enough of the file content, which slows down the process. Also, it leaves the original file on Dropbox, which means I’ve to first import, then delete. I want to move it into Devonthink, removing it from it’s current location.
And, a related question: When dragging a note from Finder to Devonthink, there is a small icon after the filename in DT, looks like a paper sheet with two empty columns. What does that indicate?
If you have indexed files you want to move into the database, select the file, or select multiple files, or select the parent group of the files. Then right-click or control-click the selected items in order to display the contextual menu. In that menu, choose “Move into Database”.
Or, to import a folder directly into DEVONthink, use File > Import > Files and Folders…
If you index a file (or folder) and “Move into Database” then you will no longer have a copy of that file or folder outside the database (i.e., it will be removed from Dropbox).
If you import a file (or folder) it is not moved into the database – it is copied. I recommend doing this with your nvALT data. Then rearrange the data, delete it, or whatever, inside your database. And then finally, when you are happy and secure with what you’ve done, go back to Dropbox and delete the folder if you wish – or leave it alone.
The little icon next a file that looks like two pages side by side means the file is a duplicate. If an icon that looks like a tall page next to a short page appears, it means the file is a replicant. See Help for more information. Whether these icons appear, or whether duplicates are shown with blue titles and replicants are shown with red titles, is controlled in DEVONthink > Preferences > General > Mark duplicates and replicants in color.
Everything I’ve written above is covered in Help or the Manual (which is a PDF copy of Help). It’s a good read; saves a lot of trouble.
