Another thought on this topic:
While happily using DTTG and Scanner Pro a lot, the proposed approach wouldn’t help me. Why? Because I like to read & work with DTTG on my iPad on the one hand and to scan new documents with Scanner Pro on my iPhone on the other hand. As I’m using different devices neither ‘Open in’ nor SP Workflows help me.
Instead I was thinking about a ‘universal Inbox’ on the server where DTTG already stores it’s synced database. Couldn’t fetch DTTG all documents from this ‘universal inbox’ folder and move it to the global Inbox in it’s Database automatically when DTTG is launched or/and on a regular basis?
This ‘universal inbox’ folder has to be reachable via common methods like WebDAV and DTTG shouldn’t get confused when a document is moved / copyed there from another app, whatever app that might be.
Pros on this approach: Use whatever app to create documents on iOS / Windows or Mac. No commitment to a single (fantastic) app. Still an easy and mostly automatic way to add documents to DTTG and deal there with it (sorting, OCR, …).
Sorry if I missed an important point somewhere else in this thread – the conversation is way too long to read and comprehend accurately.
Is that sort of like an Inbox for the Inbox? Somewhere in these threads someone suggested having DTTG (and, I suppose, DEVONthink) access a cloud folder we specify (e.g., Dropbox) in addition to the databases in the sync store(s) we use. So we would put things into that cloud folder and they would wind up in both DEVONthink and DTTG. I think that’s sort of what @Farath is suggesting. I like the concept because if I index a cloud folder in DEVONthink, the way things stand today I have to wait until DEVONthink updates its index and syncs and then I to sync DTTG. IOW, I have to go touch the desktop. Would be nice to have an on-the-fly “inbox for the inbox” that’s (a) available inside DEVONthink and DTTG “instantly”, and (b) I can move documents in and out of that “inbox for the inbox” and also immediately have them available to other iOS apps that access my cloud folders. And of course this is all optional and no one is required to do anything with this feature if it doesn’t work for them.
That’s what I was going for. Currently I’m only able to drop something into DT’s Inbox within the system I’m currently working on: on iOS by “open with”, on macOS by Sorter, Safari Extension,etc…
Outside of those systems (eg. a windows machine) I cannot drop something into my DT’s Inbox, even though I might be able to reach the place where my DT database is stored (at some cloud provider).
On my Mac I’ve created a “watched” folder and assigned an apple script to it: everything I drop there from any app is magically moved into my DT Inbox.
I was therefore thinking of something similar: a “watched” folder at the cloud provider, where DT already is stored. Everything that is dropped there is automatically moved into the correponding DT Inbox. An inbox for the inbox such to say. And that would be something that could work well accross system borders, which would be great, especially if you don’t have a Mac at home.
Interesting thread. I am also a big fan of Scanner Pro, an excellent app (and I’ve used other similar ones). Integration would certainly have it’s benefit, but for now here’s an alternative that achieves pretty good automation:
One of my favourite Mac tools is Hazel. My scanned stuff gets automatically backed up, renamed based on content, tagged, then fed into DT, some of it straight into the appropriate folders.
Combine the two and it’s all pretty hands-off: Scanner Pro can save directly to iCloud. Hazel can pick these up and do her thing. Presto, all my receipts are backed up, tagged, named and dated correctly (it will e.g. pull the travel date from my train tickets and insert it into the filename) and sent to the appropriate DT folder.
As I don’t need the majority of my stuff straight away, I’m happy to wait until my macbook is next online to get my scans into DT. Having all the automation is worth the delay, and for the few occasions when it’s urgent I can do it by hand on the iGadget.
Off topic – this is a great combo, I agree. Many readers would enjoy seeing how you have put these steps together with Hazel and DEVONthink. Someday, maybe, if you’re interested, if you could post an explanation with Hazel recipes in a new thread in the Tips & Tricks section of the forum it would be an excellent read. Or if you’ve incorporated other users’ Hazel tips, if you could post the links. Thanks for considering this.
That’s pretty much the same thing I do (and suggested in an earlier post in this thread) with the exception that I move my things to a couple of indexed folders instead…
