Yesterday, I accidentally deleted all annotations from a certain document (thankfully it wasn’t an important one). Cmd + z doesn’t do anything, and I couldn’t find a way to undo what I did. Seems like there should be a failsafe; those highlights were the product of hours of work.
Another case in which the undo funnction would be of great highlight is when I highlight something in a given document. The undo function on DT3 To Go makes it a breeze to reconsider an annotation on the iPad; but the process doesn’t seem as smooth on MacOS.
If I’m missing anything, or if there are workarounds, please let me know!
PS: I want to thank the developers for this stellar software. My entire hardware setup is built around it. Thank you!
You could perhaps restore the document from your TimeMachine backup. Backups are in fact a useful failsafe mechanism against involuntary deletions and other mishaps.
An academic paper (PDF file)
This is actually a good opportunity to use the Create Version smart rule 
And how exactly did you remove all annotations? Via the Document > Annotations inspector?
Yes. My iPad used to be my main device until I bought a Macbook Pro yesterday, so I’m not used to reading and annotating on the Mac app (but I want to do that going forward).
But I’m a bit worried now that if I select a given annotation and accidently delete it, it’d be irreversable. An undo function seems like the simplest way to restore the annotation, from a user’s standpoint.
I’m curious: how did you accidentally delete all your annotations?
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I just tried that for the first time (didn’t realize DT supports versioning). I searched through the handbook just now but couldn’t find an explanation for how it works.
I know how to create versions and to delete obsolete versions; but how do I access older versions? Where are they located?
Sorry if this is an elementary question.
I clicked command+a before pressing delete. I don’t remember what I was trying to do; but I thought that the cursor was elsewhere, and that the action was going to occur elsewhere.
By default, they are created in a Versions group in the root of the database. However, you should double-click to edit it and add an event trigger. Either Before Saving or After Saving would be appropriate, but not both.
I don’t see it. Am I supposed to create a smart group in the root of the database?
No, there is requirement to add a smart group or other group first.
Did you edit the smart rule per my instructions, then edit a document and save it?
No because I didn’t quite understand them upon a first reading.
I tried to create a smart group and found that I can select a folder/ group called “Versions.”
What trigger would you recommend I use? I’m not sure what to do there.
Nevermind, I was confused. I see the group in the root of the database now, and I see the different versions in it.
So these are essentially duplicates of the same file, correct? What’s the best way to keep track of them? Based on my use-case, I imagine I’d need to keep track of so many doocuments at the same time, which seems it might bloat the size of the database rather quickly.
You don’t have to keep track of the versions. They are for when you lose track of something else. You can delete no longer needed versions, just as Time Machine deletes older backups to save disk space.
So these are essentially duplicates of the same file, correct?
Look at the chain of actions in the smart rule.
What’s the best way to keep track of them?
Keep track in what way? They’re stored in that location and timestamped, so what more do you need?
Based on my use-case, I imagine I’d need to keep track of so many doocuments at the same time, which seems it might bloat the size of the database rather quickly.
You can change the target of the Search in dropdown to point to a more specific location.
You can also leave tthe event trigger to On demand then drag and drop a document onto the rule as needed.
And that’s what the Remove Obsolete Versions smart rule can accomplish. Just add a Daily or Weekly event trigger and it will periodically clean up the old ones.
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I meant that I didn’t want to create many thousands of duplicate files to bloat the database size over time.
But I think creating an automation Bluefrog has suggested would sort that out. I’ll attempt it later in the day when I get time.
Note you can drag and drop documents to the smart rule to generate a version on-the-fly. There is no requirement for it to run automatically.