Script & tutorial: Better document review in DEVONthink with Bates deeplinks

DEVONthink Tips
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Hey folks,

I just finished a tutorial for a custom DEVONthink script I wrote that generates Markdown-formatted Bates citations with deeplinks to their source:

Near the top of the post there’s a short ~2 minute screenshare video showing what it does.

Here’s the DEVONthink script →

I also wrote a helper script in Python that finds the Bates range of each PDF in a folder, stashes the original filename in the Finder comment metadata field, then applies a naming convention thats compatible with my AppleScript.

Find the helper Python script here →

The Python helper script is a bit complex so I’ve written documentation for it.

Find the bates helper script documentation here →

Cheers,

〄

3 Likes
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+1 simply for the rigor, beauty, and gusto. Perhaps when I eventually retire, I can test re-naming all my journal articles in BATES format just to give this fun-looking tool a whirl. :grin:

–
JJW

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Were the documents provided to you already Bates-numbered?

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Interesting! When I get a chance, I’m going to give it a whirl on my own docs. Cool contribution.

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Yes, they’re generally Bates-numbered and stamped by the government agency. The PDF structure and filenaming convention varies significantly though. I wrote the script originally for documents that contain the Bates number in the filename, but in the mean time I’ve encountered Bates-numbered records where the filenames are simply document titles, hence the helper script that finds and adds Bates number range to the filename.