Sorry, new to this. Just downloaded trial copy of DevonNote. Somehow I (or it) sucked 200+ downloaded files into its database and when I read them in the window pane they appear in their source code. How do I convert them to clean text?
John Homer
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Hi, John. DEVONnote already contains some files such as Web cams, but otherwise doesn’t import anything unless you command that.
What is the file type of the files you see as source code? Tip: with a document selected, press Shift-Command-I to open its Info panel and read the Kind (file type).
DN can “read” and render a limited range of file types. See Help > DEVONnote Help and search for “file type”. DN can capture the rich text content of MS Word files and a number of text file types (a list of readable text types by file extension is provided in Help).
Depending on your Preferences choice, you can import “unknown” file types that cannot be indexed or rendered by DN. Although DN can’t “see” them, this can be useful, e.g. in organizing all the files of a project. One can add searchable metadata such as comments and keywords to the Comment field of an unknown file’s Info panel.
Thank you Mr. DeVille, Wow! what a rapid response and on a Sunday too. Following your instructions I opened the info panel and it says, Kind: Text. So its a text file. A random sample of the 208 files I had downloaded over the years shows that they are all text files. I assume what I am seeing is source code because it gives instructions on how to display and there are lots of <>/=,etc within and around the text. (I am giving literal description because I am computer ignorant, so feel free to talk down to me)
Note that I have only had DevonNote a few hours so I have not changed the default settings in the General prefs. I would like to be able to view these files as they originally appeared in my browser.
Ah, I see what you are talking about. You had previously saved to disk the HTML code of Web pages, then imported them into DEVONnote.
DEVONnote will not render them as Web pages. It isn’t designed to capture Web pages (source code), either, but it can capture URLs and will display the page associated with a URL if you are online. Or when a page is displayed, you can select text and images and save them as rich text to DEVONnote – that’s my preferred method, whether in DEVONnote or in DEVONthink, as I avoid capturing ads and other unwanted material.
Depending on how you had saved those original HTML files, DEVONnote may or may not be able to find the URL of each page. Select a document and open the Info panel. If the URL is in the URL field, you will be able to Launch URL and display the page in your default browser, or just click in the URL address space to open the page in your browser.
Unlike DEVONnote, the DEVONthink applications are capable of capturing and rendering the source code of Web pages.
Mr. DeVille,
You are very good: you untangled my misapprehensions and understood the crux of my problem. I realized that those “files” in my download folder were only links to URLs (aliases) where their contents are stored in dbs. Now if I had saved those files as PDFs it would have avoided the above problem but it would have used a lot of memory on my HD. I am much impressed with Devon software but even more so with its support.
Thank you,
John Homer
Oops! another misconception. The Save As command puts a file on my desktop that is not, as I alleged, an alias that links to a web site, but an actual file (I don’t know the name that distinguishes this file from others) that looks just as I read it in my browser but can be read off line. Sorry 'bout that; I’m still learning (I hope).
John Homer