I’ll start by admitting I struggle with change. And never more so than with technology : )
I do historical work. At bottom, my DevonThink workflow was built around this “Note on Source” script from Konrad Lawson. The workflow basically involves (1) creating a source card for each discrete historical source, and then (2) running the “Note on Source” script to create a notecard that’s linked to that source card–allowing the note card to be replicated, duplicated etc., and organized by topic while still linking back to the original source.
I installed Lawson’s script in DevonThink 3, but it doesn’t work. That is, when I run it, nothing happens. Trying to figure out if there was an alternative solution, I of course dove into the forums. The closest I came was this thread and it honestly blew my mind with the technical detail.
Can anyone help me figure out if there’s some embedded solution that will approximate the Lawson script? (The “Annotations” feature seems to serve a different purpose.) Or, even better, help me figure out how to get the Lawson “Note on Source” script to work??
Many thanks, and my apologies for this incredibly nitty gritty and probably totally idiosyncratic question
Thanks very much for this reply – I really appreciate it. And that makes sense, given how it’s behaving!
But what doesn’t make sense is that the script worked perfectly (for years, even!) with DevonThink 2. Obviously I’m not hoping for a debugging per new code requirements, but . . . is it possible there’s some obvious difference with how DT3 processes scripts vs DT2? Because it’s literally the same script I’ve used for years…
Are you sure you want to use this script with DT3 even if it works?
Are you familiar with the Annotations Inspector - and the related Annotations file it creates automatically, which can be replicated, duplicated, etc.?
I think a much better solution exists in DT3 than you are used to using.
The Annotations Inspector is SO TEMPTING!! But (so far as I can tell) it only lets you create one Annotations file per underlying document. My needs are more complicated. Let’s say I’m working with the Declaration of Independence. Maybe I want the following notecards on it:
“Complaints against the King.”
[various quotes emphasizing specific complaints against the King]
“Concept of Human Rights”
[various quotes on conception of human rights, and my own thoughts on how they connect to larger developments in political theory at the time]
“Jefferson’s characteristic style”
[various quotes showing classic Jeffersonian turns of phrase, focused on the rhetoric of the document rather than on the substance]
Those are three very different “notecard” documents, and I’d like to be able to organize each in a very different part of my working DevonThink outline. But I’d like them all to link back to the same underlying source document. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think that the Annotation Inspector lets me create multiple distinct documents suitable for that kind of “short chunk” sorting across multiple folders. Rather it will leave me with one (typically bulky) annotation file for any document.
Am I missing something? Because you are right! The “Annotation Inspector” feature seems SO TEMPTING, but . . . just not quite right.
You are very kind to think about this and suggest a possible fix. Thank you!
I did find this in the script below: tell application id “com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2” . I changed the stuff inside the quotes to “DNtp” and saved it . . . but no luck : (
Ah, you have to change every occurence of "com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2" to "DNtp" (didn’t know the script uses script libraries).
Also the script you’ve posted has curly quotes “ ” instead of straight ones and the annotations aren’t escaped, this – Smart template should be this -- Smart template. Script Debugger didn’t compile it, but it seems Script Editor does. Get a (free) copy of Script Debugger it’s very useful e.g. for such situations.
You are so kind to help me figure this out. I’ve worked in the edits you suggested and … it works!!! I don’t understand why going to DT3 changed the scripts functionality, but mine is not to reason why : )
Really really appreciate your taking the time to help me work this through. Incredibly generous and kind. Thank you.
This was the old bundle id for DEVONthink 2.x (noting the thinkpro2). This is why we have long advocated using the application id DNtp, since that was used in 2.x and is also the same for DEVONthink 3.