# See also and classify - can parts of text be excluded?

**URL:** <https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447>\
**Category:** Scenarios\
**Created:** [June 10, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447 "2014-06-10T20:47:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![joost](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/joost/32/6681_2.png) [@joost](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/joost)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/1 "2014-06-10T20:47:53Z")

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I quite like the “See also and Classify” function as part of my patent portfolio set up. Having set up a group structure of technology domains prior, I can now use “SaaC” to determine where a new patent or innovation proposal probably belongs and how strongly it is associated with the existing text.

I cannot tell you enough how handy this is.

However, patent text tends to come with a bunch of boiler plate I do not wish to be considered by SaaC - it might throw of its targeted classification. If I could highlight the important bits or remove the unimportant bits for SaaC that would be great. Is there a way to do this? Note that I still need the boiler plate text ones I store it in DT, I just don’t want it to be part of SaaC.

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**Author:** ![korm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@korm](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/korm)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/2 "2014-06-10T22:59:18Z")

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If the undesired text is included in the same document as the desired text (for “Saac” purposes), the answer is no – you cannot mark parts of a document to exclude. However, you can exclude who documents. Look at Tools \> Show Info \> Exclude …. A possible solution then is to split PDFs into two (or more) portions – the “boilerplate” and the rest. Use Exclude… on the “boilerplate” document.

If I were doing this, I would also add a label or a distinctive tag to the “excluded” document to indicate its excluded status.

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**Author:** ![joost](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/joost/32/6681_2.png) [@joost](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/joost)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/3 "2014-06-11T23:04:21Z")

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Yes I thought about doing what you suggest i.e. split the document. But I think it is a bit too manual. Besides I think keeping two parts of what is essentially 1 document around - associated with each other, is creating problems I think.

Bummer. I know DT is not a one purpose tool and my request/question is very specific. I had just hoped DT could be even better for my purposes. It is such a great system for patent research…

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**Author:** ![sloughwi](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/sloughwi/32/5290_2.png) [@sloughwi](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/sloughwi)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/4 "2014-09-22T14:34:03Z")

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I find this thread interesting because auto-classification improvements are one of two areas I painfully wish to see improvement in DTP (the other being manual classification improvements). DTP’s classification features are so unique and have so much potential.

Personally, I would like the option to expand the scope of See Also & Classify (document name, e-mail subject, sender, etc… not just body). But no doubt being able to restrict would also be interesting and useful in ways I’ve probably not even considered…

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**Author:** ![Bill\_DeVille](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/bill_deville/32/18_2.png) [@Bill\_DeVille](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Bill_DeVille)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/5 "2014-09-22T15:59:24Z")

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Take a look at See Related Text as a possibility of “restricting” See Also in cases where documents may contain multiple topics. In that case, select just the text of the desired topic, Control-click (right click) on it and choose the contextual menu option See Related Text. This will probably better focus the list of suggestions, compared to See Also.

Tip: When I want to explore one or more suggestions made by DEVONthink, I Control-click on a suggestion to open it as a new tab, rather than replace the display of the document I’m reading.

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**Author:** ![sloughwi](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/user_avatar/discourse.devontechnologies.com/sloughwi/32/5290_2.png) [@sloughwi](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/sloughwi)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/6 "2014-09-22T17:34:08Z")

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> [@](#):
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> select just the text of the desired topic, Control-click (right click) on it and choose the contextual menu option See Related Text.

Had no idea this was available - thank you!

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**Author:** ![Frederiko](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@Frederiko](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/Frederiko)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/7 "2014-09-23T05:15:05Z")

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Indeed that is helpful Bill ! I had missed that completely.

Frederiko

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**Author:** ![system](https://devontech-discourse.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/original/2X/4/4e6ff70c96be2eb307a274d890bba8d71ba671b3.png) [@system](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2022, 11:21am UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/see-also-and-classify-can-parts-of-text-be-excluded/17447/8 "2022-01-21T11:21:49Z")

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