Hello, I am trying to move some old files out of Evernote and into DEVONthink so that I can cancel my Evernote subscription. I successfully imported all of the files into DEVONthink. There are a number of pdf’s that have not been OCR’d. I would like to OCR those files but when the system creates the searchable pdf and deletes the original, the link to the file no longer works in the .html file created as part of the Evernote import process.
Is there a way for DEVONthink to OCR the pdf file, delete the original pdf after the OCR is complete, and replace the link for the new searchable pdf with the link from the original/old pdf that is now deleted?
What’s the URL of the link? DEVONthink doesn’t process the notes (or their links) exported by Evernote actually, they’re imported without any modifications.
The links look like this “x-devonthink-item://74830BA2-F06C-4864-BA35-68264849FD55”. I agree the DEVONthink import process imports the notes without modification.
What I’m trying to do is convert the pdfs that were in the notes from a “PDF Document” to “PDF+Text.” However, when I use Data>OCR>to searchable, the original pdf is deleted. Even though the new pdf is named exactly the same as the original, the link (like the one above) no longer finds the pdf.
I could edit the x-devonthink link for each pdf in the html “index” file, but it would be better (at least from my perspective) if the x-devonthink link could be automatically updated in the new searchable pdf to be the same as the original, non-searchable pdf.
Hopefully this makes sense and is possible? Thanks!
AFAIK, when you convert a pdf into pdf+text, the OCRed file is a new file. So it has a new DT uuid, thus a different DT-Link. You will need to search for the name of the original document in other notes, and replace the link in those notes accordingly - at least that’s what I have to do whenever I OCR a pdf.
P.S. If ur notes is in markdown, that’s a easier job. Coz you just need to replace one uuid with another (name changes doesn’t affect uuid) - one of the reasons I switch to using markdown for taking notes. I don’t use smart rule much, but I believe it will help to replace one uuid to another rather easily - some experienced members should be able to tell you how.
Create a smart rule using only the action OCR > Apply. Then drag & drop the items onto the smart rule to process them (or use Tools > Perform Rule > …), that way the link will remain intact.
Learning new stuff in DT every day…
So, using the “convert to” in contextual menu will create new OCRed file but using smart rule the way you suggested won’t?
