There is suggested in the documentation that DT might be used to write books. While I would enjoy this, because I like using DEVON products in general, and especially like the "look and feel" of DEVONthink, I have not adopted this as a primary writing tool.
That is because of a specific missing feature (which perhaps lies outside the vision of the developer): the ability to define and to "see" the format of the printed manuscript.
Writers think in pages, I believe. (At least, so do those of us who grew up with typewriters.) And pages made by writers have a particular form:
• They use typically 2X or 1.5X spacing, equal to about 20pts.
• They have a header (usually the title and/or author’s name).
• They have a page number (usually in the footer).
• They are prepared with a view to neatness and logical organization (for instance, writers may try to avoid splitting up certain sections of a document, or leaving a single line stranded alone on a page).
Now as things stand, if one uses DEVONthink to write a manuscript, is it not necessary to paste the RTF contents into a separate application for formatting purposes? Or am I missing one of the myriad subtle features tucked into this fascinating piece of software?
I wonder about this every time I see a new app touted as a writing tool. Modern software (DT perhaps above all) can do marvelous things which are helpful to writers in many ways. But where we are lacking, it seems, is in this fairly basic functionality which was one of the great achievements of MacWrite 1.0, two decades ago.
Perhaps there could be someday a DEVONwrite?