Paperless Office: View - Sort According to... - "Thumbnails" & "See Also and Classify"

I’ve been working intensively with DEVONthink 1 and 2 for the past nine years. I use the program 8–10 hours a day, often working on hundreds of documents each day. This means that I need to be able to quickly find and have an overview of the documents of countless folders according to the date the documents were created. DT2 enabled me to manage my paperless office extremely efficiently, requiring only a minimum number of clicks to perform tasks. Unfortunately, this fast and efficient workflow is not yet possible in the DT3 Beta 1 and Beta 2 versions. In the beta version, I have to make countless additional clicks and do much more scrolling than with DT2, requiring additional time and effort to manage my paperless office. I would really appreciate it if the following three issues were addressed so that the workflow for a paperless office is more efficient again in DEVONthink 3.

  1. “List” view: “Show Only Documents”: “Sort According to … ”
    Thank you very much for the new column that is available in the “List” view since DT3 Beta 2 that just shows only the documents in the selected folder. It is possible to sort the documents in this column according to the date the document was created, for example. However, at the moment this sorting option must be manually selected every time a different folder is opened/looked at in this column. It should be possible to apply this sorting option not just to the documents in the selected folder, but to this column of the “List” view in general—i.e., to all documents in the entire database that appear there.

  2. “List” view: Missing column ‘only folders’: “Sort According to … ”
    The “List” view is missing a second column that only shows the (sub)folders; it should be possible to see (sub)folders either by double clicking on the parent folder or the triangle next to it. This is not possible in the sidebar list—and it is probably not meaningful there (?). But in a second column showing just the subfolders, it should be possible to type letters/words on the keyboard to quickly jump to the desired (sub)folder. It should be possible to sort this second column according to the name of the (sub)folder for example, and to be able to apply this sorting option not just to the selected folder, but to this second column in general—i.e., to all (sub)folders in the entire database that appear there.

  3. Make “Content”/“Thumbnails” and “See Also and Classify” available at the same time
    Please make it possible to see the thumbnails of a document and use the “See Also and Classify” button at the same time. Because this is not possible, in a paperless office you constantly have to change views and make countless extra clicks in order to look at a document, work with it, and then file it into the relevant folder.

P.S. I’m very enthusiastic about how many new opportunities there are in DT3 to manage the workflow of a paperless office - thank you very much! The underlying/background improvements are great, but they can only be fully used and appreciated when you can work 8–10 hours a day on the surface of DT3 fast and efficiently in a completely paperless office.

Anxious about compromising my data I’m still using DTP2 but I’m following the discussion about DT3 hoping that the new version will improve my daily workflow which seems to be like the one Erich has described:

  1. Looking through all the incoming files - often more than hundred a day - in three-panes-view

  2. tagging them, making annotations in the edit pane - often scrolling through the thumbnails and the right side so I can quickly find the interesting pages -

  3. and moving them with the help of the “See Also and Classify”-window, which is always open (!) - at the right place.

I think this is the workflow of most lawyers using DTP. I’ve learned that the three-panes-view will no more exist in DT3 but there will be a workaround that comes quite close. But as for me it’s necessary to have a list view, an edit pane and the “See-Also-and-Classify”-window open at the same time so I don’t have to click several times for changing the views of a window. I hope you understand that while working through a huge pile of files each additional click just makes me nervous…

So, I’m fully behind the comments of Erich and I’m hoping they will find an open ear. I can hardly imagine working without DTP anymore: it’s just a brilliant application and I’m very grateful to the DevonThink-Team having developed such a fantastic program!