The More I Use Devonthink, the More I Need Evernote

DEVONthink Feedback
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A bit ironic, yes?

DEVONthink has two serious limitations for me. First is the inability to play well with Windows. I have a PC at the office and am tied to it for work. I use Google Chrome as a browser and I often need to save a web page for use later. No extension for Windows browsers. I also need to store documents that I get.

Second is the lack of integration with Airmail 3 on the Mac. Not even a send to DEVONthink option.

Evernote has solutions for all these problems. An extension for Chrome (and all the other major Windows browsers, including a save as Simplified Article-which I really like), a Send to Evernote in the File Explorer contextual menu, and a Send to Evernote in Airmail 3.

My solution is to use these Evernote functions to send to a specified notebook in Evernote (I call it “To DT”). I use http://cloudhq.net to sync this notebook to a folder in Dropbox that DEVONthink is watching (I call it “From Evernote” and put it in the DEVONthink Dropbox folder for convenience). CloudHQ is a freemium service (2 syncs for free-works with many cloud services). I have a one-way sync set up. As soon as the file hits Evernote, it is sent to the Dropbox folder. CloudHQ is online, so it works without me having to worry about anything. As soon it hits Dropbox, it triggers a save to DEVONthink via a folder action. Voilà - move it out of the global inbox at my convenience.

The only thing I have to do at some point is delete the note from the Evernote notebook. No hurry. Just don’t use the DEVONthink script Move and Delete for the watched folder in Dropbox. If you do that, you’ll get a loop and end up with continual messages getting moved into DEVONthink. As soon as you delete the note from Evernote, CloudHQ will delete it from Dropbox. I’m going to ask CloudHQ if they can build in a delay before resending a file. If that can be done, a 2-way sync with the folder action to move and delete should work. That would eliminate having to remove the note from Evernote and make the process completely automatic and transparent.

This method seems work well, at least until and if DEVONthink performs these functions (which seems doubtful from what I’ve read in the forum). If you want to try it and have any questions, leave a reply.

Tony

1 Like
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It’s a Mac app. I don’t recall reading that DEVONthink supports Windows.

Why not use File > Import > Notes from Evernote?

Cannot support something if Airmail’s developers don’t allow it to be supported. Perhaps you might consider writing them? See

Perform what “functions”, please.

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Korm,

You complain, I’ll use the workaround. I’m just trying to give people an alternative. You don’t want to use it, ignore the message. If it bothers enough people, I’ll remove it.

Tony

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Sir, I am not complaining. Just trying to explain there are other ways. DEVONthink will import .enex files exported from any Evernote notebook. Or it can import whole notebooks.

The CloudHQ method sounds fraught. I’d suggest that other folks successfully use IFTTT or Zapier to get things from Evernote to Dropbox (or other cloud) or mail, and then into DEVONthink.

I think the staff at DEVONthink has indicated it could support Airmail if the Airmail developers made it supportable – without AppleScript support (which the Airmail have to build themselves) nothing can be done on that front.

Working across the Windows/Mac blood/brain barrier is not easy if one is forced to do so by circumstances (I also use Windows for work), but there are ways.

Good luck with your explorations!

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korm is correct. We do not develop for Windows, and currently there are no plans to.

Also, the Airmail connection with Evernote is not something that’s merely built into Evernote. The Airmail developers would need to be involved in this.

And yes, you can import the notes from Evernote or export them from Evernote to ENEX files and import those.

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I’m trying to work out if this is an issue with DTPO, or being required to use Windows! 8)

Do you have an iPhone/iPad?
If so, why not use DTTG2 to get them into DTPO?

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It’s an issue with having to use Windows. As I said, my two main necessities are to get web pages into DT and to send files from file explorer to DT. The method I described is working very well.

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That’s a good thing. :smiley: