Star ratings

DEVONthink Feedback
1

Hi,

one feature I’m really missing is a simple star rating. It could also be used for the search score.

2

While not exactly a star rating, maybe you can create a Rating field when custom metadata is supported (possibly in a future 2.x version; please don’t pester DTech for release dates :slight_smile:).

3

Yes, I’d also like to see a star rating feature added…

:stuck_out_tongue:

4

At first I thought star ratings sounded a bit gimmicky (I hardly use them in iTunes), but then I realised I that I already try to implement something in the same vein through an ‘Important’ label. For me, star ratings and and importance rating would be pretty useful.

5

Any news on the Star rating front?

Thanks

Bob

6

If you want to create a star rating system you can do that with tag groups. For example, a Rating tag with subgroups representing the number of stars.

As tags will be searchable, you could, for example, query the database for a list of articles about mushrooms, butterflies or whatever, which you’ve given a 5-star rating. A tag is a special property of an item. An item can have many properties, some of them tags, some of them defined in other ways, such as via a query filter based on content, Label, State, etc.

7

I couldn’t find anything in the manual concerning tags.

Are the methodology, features, and implications yet to be determined or is it documented elsewhere?

Thanks

Bob

8

Recently,

9

I used star tags in Evernote, like this one:

★★☆☆☆

They won’t import into Devonthink and I cannot create them in Devonthink manually. They will show up in the tag bar but won’t get stored.

10

Evernote? Really? How? (I don’t see this in v5, on the iOS app, or the web app, or their documentation – I must be missing something)

11

Just create them as normal Tags. On the Mac using the character viewer.

I star my read books this way:

It’s a shame that Devonthink has no alternative. Using text strings like 3/5 doesn’t work the same because it’s harder to read and recognize. I now use colored labels, but the way Devonthink creates thumbnails and then colors them with the label color is ugly as hell. Evernote shines in this aspect.

12

Turn off ‘Colorize icons with label’ in the General preference tab.

13

Thanks! I just found it by accidant, because my second Mac does not colorize the icons, but the title. Much better!

Is there a way to sync the labels between different Devonthink installations? Green books with five stars are shown as red important documents in my other Devonthink. I could change the labels there as well, but I wonder if you could sync it.

14

No, but if you are adventurous you could edit the preference file. Make a backup first in case the file becomes corrupted.

  1. Find the document located at:
    ~/Library/Preferences/com.devon-technologies.thinkpro2.plist

  2. Locate the section that begins with the line:
    key>LabelColor-1

  3. Copy the entire section and paste it in the preference .plist file on the destination Mac, replacing the existing color settings. You could also copy the section that follows, which has the label names. As example, my color section appears below.

key>LabelColor-1</key>
	<dict>
		<key>alpha</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>blue</key>
		<real>0.50662970542907715</real>
		<key>colorSpace</key>
		<string>NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace</string>
		<key>green</key>
		<real>0.74448704719543457</real>
		<key>red</key>
		<real>1</real>
	</dict>
	<key>LabelColor-2</key>
	<dict>
		<key>alpha</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>blue</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>colorSpace</key>
		<string>NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace</string>
		<key>green</key>
		<real>0.8535844087600708</real>
		<key>red</key>
		<real>0.81501340866088867</real>
	</dict>
	<key>LabelColor-3</key>
	<dict>
		<key>alpha</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>blue</key>
		<real>0.88719600439071655</real>
		<key>colorSpace</key>
		<string>NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace</string>
		<key>green</key>
		<real>0.85983830690383911</real>
		<key>red</key>
		<real>0.42329835891723633</real>
	</dict>
	<key>LabelColor-5</key>
	<dict>
		<key>alpha</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>blue</key>
		<real>0.8833010196685791</real>
		<key>colorSpace</key>
		<string>NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace</string>
		<key>green</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>red</key>
		<real>0.81362247467041016</real>
	</dict>
	<key>LabelColor-6</key>
	<dict>
		<key>alpha</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>blue</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>colorSpace</key>
		<string>NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace</string>
		<key>green</key>
		<real>0.98913365602493286</real>
		<key>red</key>
		<real>0.87448453903198242</real>
	</dict>
	<key>LabelColor-7</key>
	<dict>
		<key>alpha</key>
		<real>1</real>
		<key>blue</key>
		<real>0.95416784286499023</real>
		<key>colorSpace</key>
		<string>NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace</string>
		<key>green</key>
		<real>0.53310889005661011</real>
		<key>red</key>
		<real>0.82706862688064575</real>
	</dict>
15

Hello,

I also wouldn’t call this a “feature” in Devonthink. It just feels too broken. In Evernote it just works as expected. So for now I’m going with the label thing and have to sync the different colors. I use different label colors and stars as the label text. This gives me this view:

I use the text tags in case the stars break.

Bye,
Oliver

16

From today’s Devonian Times http://blog.devontechnologies.com/2013/07/rate-your-documents-using-labels/: Adding the ability to “rate” items in DEVONthink, e.g. with stars, is already on our to-do list.

Please consider including ½ star ratings.

In the Netflix rating system, 5 stars equals I love it, 1 star equals I hate it and 3 stars equals I like it.

There are a lot of movies that fall between 2 and 3 stars and between 3 and 4 stars. Same applies to documents

Thanks

Bob

17

I never really thought about 1/2 star ratings, until I came across a script somewhere allowing me to set iTunes up to rate in half-stars - immediately made a massive difference, and is something I use regularly. It would be really useful in DTP as well!