I just created a smart list for items marked as “read” (as per the little round dot in the “Mark” section of the Info pane:
However, the resulting list seems to include documents that are not marked as read:
I don’t know what’s going on here - any advice appreciated! Also, whenever I select an item in this list, it moves to the top of the list.
Do you mark something as “read”, or does the “unread” mark simply vanish? That’s what I assume – something is either marked as “unread”, or it is implicitly read – without any visible mark.
In your screenshot, I definitely don’t see an “unread” mark.
In my second screenshot the “read” circle is unchecked, meaning it’s not marked as read. I don’t think there is any specific mark for “unread”.
Why would an “unread” mark simply vanish?
Nope. That is the “unread” circle. If it’s marked, the document is unread. If it’s not marked, the document is read.
Because you’ve read the document. Or clicked on it to open it.
@chrillek is correct on this. Unread items have the filled in circle. Read items do not. Also, the name of unread items is in bold in the item list.
But common sense dictates that having the circle filled in means read, and having it hollow means unread. The opposite is totally counterintuitive and at odds with pretty much every other convention. How can this be the case with Devonthink?
There’s a world of difference between clicking on a document (to open it, or to move it, or to edit its metadata) and actually reading the document! Surely just clicking on a document doesn’t make DT think that you’ve actually read it?
So if the “flag” mark is unselected, does that similarly mean that the document is marked as flagged!?
From the manual, Windows > Main Window > Item List: Visual Cues :
(See also Appendix > Iconology)
It is the same in Apple Mail, for example. Dot = unread, nothing = read.
From Windows > Main Window > Item List: Visual Cues…
There’s a world of difference between clicking on a document (to open it, or to move it, or to edit its metadata) and actually reading the document! Surely just clicking on a document doesn’t make DT think that you’ve actually read it?
Yes, just “clicking on a document” considers the item as read. A computer has no knowledge of what you’re doing, so previewing is sufficiently treated as being read. This is also not unique to DEVONthink, e.g., Apple Mail treats viewed emails the same way.
Also, if you looked at the Settings > General > General, you’d see Automatically mark items as read that lets you manually mark items in your database. This is also documented.
So if the “flag” mark is unselected, does that similarly mean that the document is marked as flagged!?
No. A flagged item is logically flagged, just as seen in other applications.
You’re incorrectly extending the concept here. The circle is a device. There is no standardized “a circle indicates the read status of an item”. However, it’s also not arbitrary that an unread document has a filled in circle and is also emboldened. Unread items are practically considered important therefore they have greater visual weight with the emboldened name and filled in circle.
It’s working like unread emails and therefore not unusual at all.
Thanks all for this interesting food for thought. The analogy with emails is a good one - where unread items are marked, and simply clicking on one marks it as read. I would maintain that in the context in Devonthink however, it’s a bit different and doing it this way isn’t very intuitive. I know it’s in the documentation though some of us are guilty of not always reading all the documentation 
I think that the take-home for me is that trying to use the “read/unread” mark to make smart lists of documents that I have read or have yet to read, is not the way forward. I’ll stick to using the “labels” for this purpose (which are entirely under the user’s control).
What is intuitive depends on your experience and preconceptions. It’s completely intuitive to me, for example.
I don’t think I’ve actually read the full documentation front to back. But that’s the first place I look when I’m unsure of something. It’s often the quickest way.
If you just disable the Setting BLUEFROG suggests, the read status only changes when you manually change it. Entirely under your control.
That’s a good point. Then I would have to get used to marked meaning unread, and unmarked meaning read. Shame there’s not an option to change that around 
I find the current way works best for me. Think of it like this: If you have a list of 100 documents of which 4 are unread, having them with a dot makes them easy to pick out. If you had 96 documents with a dot and 4 without, they would be harder to spot.
For my old eyes finding the dots for unread is easier. 
And having the name emboldened as well.
The emboldening also applies to the parent group so we’ve made it easier to know when you have something you haven’t even looked at. 
By the way. For people who don’t need the “real” concept of unread, replicated or duplicated (like me), the visual highlighting of the font (bold, red, blue) can be very useful, also combined with a label. You can see at first glance the “meaning” you give a file. Unfortunately, duplicated documents take up twice as much space.
DEVONthink provides many options for giving yourself visual cues. It’s up to the individual to decide what works for them.
