Scan and auto rename workflow

DEVONthink Tips
1

I am new to DT, so hopefully this is not a stupid question, but have looked at the documentation and searched but not found an answer yet :frowning:

I am contemplating moving from Evernote (EN) to DT. One of the main uses for EN is the ability to file important documents that I need a record of but are not accessed frequently (tax returns, etc). In EN I do the following:

  1. scan with scansnap 550 - save to a folder as searchable PDF
  2. use Hazel to read the file and then rename it based on the contents and todayā€™s date
  3. Then there is a little script I use to move it to the correct notebook in EN
    tell application ā€œEvernoteā€
    create note from file theFile notebook {ā€œnotebook-nameā€}
    end tell
  4. Hazel then moves the original file onto a NAS drive (yes, I end up with 2 copies but the data is important enough to warrant this).

So, I then end up with a searchable PDF, already renamed and filed in the correct place in EN.
What is important here is that the process is fully automated - I just have to put the doc in the scanner and the mac does the rest. I DONā€™T want to have to rename files myself or choose where they should be ā€˜filedā€™.

Can I achieve the same in DT?
Regards,
Dale

2

Yes - but Pro or Pro Office is required. At the simplest level, youā€™d only be replacing the script to send the data to Evernote with an action send it to DEVONthink.

You could use a Folder Action (inluded with Pro/Pro Office) on another folder to move the file(s).
If using Pro Office, you could scan and rename via Hazel and use a Folder Action to import, OCR and delete the original (which can easily be commented our, if desired).

The level of automation for DEVONthink compared to Evernote is huge.