Questions...

DEVONthink Feedback
1

I’ve just picked up the new DEVONthink app and at first glance I’m pretty amazed! I think it’s wonderful the options and the ease of use that has been built into the app, and how well planned and clearly presented it all seems to be. Great how quick it draws documents, and the variety. Really well done. I’m digging in to see how far it can take me… After exploring for a while, far from exhaustive, I do have a couple of questions. Any feedback on the following questions is appreciated.

Viewing Documents through Searches:
When I’ve searched for & found a text string and am viewing a doc by having clicked on it’s icon in the found docs list… if I clear the text in the Find field to start a new search the current doc being viewed is lost. I would prefer if the doc currently being viewed would stay selected and visible in the view field until another doc was selected to replace it.

Corresponding Group List selection of Document:
I would also prefer that when a doc is selected from the Found docs list that the doc being viewed would be selected in the Groups list at left…

Highlighting on text strings from searches:
When text strings are searched for and docs are found and viewed there is no way to clear the highlighting that appears on the doc without clearing the doc… I would prefer if the highlighting could be removed without having to clear the doc…

Saved search lists:
Aside from placing the items into a new Group is there a way to save searches? …a sort of ‘shopping cart’ of searches?..

Navigating searches:
“Next” and “Previous” buttons be added to the lower bar to allow navigation to the next and previous found text strings in docs? Clicking this would bring the related text string in to the viewing area…

Inter-documental Hyperlinks:
That links could be made between text strings in different docs… The best way to describe is by suggesting a workflow:

  1. Select a text string in one doc.
  2. Click a button (next to the “Classify” button?) that would say “Create Link”. Once clicked the button text would change to “Establish Link”.
  3. Navigate to another doc and select a text string
  4. Click the “Establish Link” button.

…this would create a ‘hyperlink’ between these two strings… clicking on a hyperlink in one doc would place the linked text in the second doc into the viewing area.

Watched Directories as Groups:
That Groups in DEVONthink could be set to ‘watch’ a directory on the Hard Drive. Files placed into the ‘watched’ directory would appear in the Group and files removed from the directory would disappear from the Group. Call it a “Smart Group”… :slight_smile:

Doc Location Paths:
Is it possible to display the location path of docs?

Progress indicator when loading large files:
Large files naturally take time to load but DEVONthink does not show a progress indicator when they’re loading. This leaves me hanging… I would prefer to see some sort of progress indicator when large files are loading, perhaps similar to the OS little rotating wheel on the Finder folders…

Thanks very much for your time. I really look forward to any responses.
Kent M

2

Kent:

Welcome to DEVONthink.

Your list of questions is pretty darn good for having just started with DT.

As you continue working with DT, you will discover that you can already do many of the things you were asking about, or that DT has an approximate equivalent. Features such as hyperlinking between text strings, however, won’t be available until version 2, if then (I would like that one, too). For other items, you may find that dropping preconceptions for a while may let you experiment with modes of operation that turn out to work pretty well.

Example: You can replicate Search results into a new group. For that matter, you can attach a smart group script to a group that adds to it new content meeting search requirements each time it is opened.

Example: Find a document’s Path in the Info panel.

Example: Keeping view of a Search result document while doing another search. Solution: You can open as many Search windows as you like.

Example: You want to select a document being viewed in Search in its group. Solution: Press Command-R to Reveal it.

Enjoy,