The way DT Pro puts notes through services in database

DEVONthink Tips
1

I just would like to clarify if I understand properly the way DT Pro takes rich or plain notes through Services and puts them in the database.

I find this tool very convenient: when I surf on websites, it allows me to grab just that segment of text which I need, and to archive it in my database.

But I have been a little bit surprised by the way DT Pro acts: when I have a sub-folder open, I would expect DT Pro to put the grabbed text precisely in that folder or sub-folder. When nothin is open, I would expect it to put the item at the top of the database.

However, I have seen this is not the case: sometimes it comes at the top, sometimes in the subfolder which is open, sometimes in the top folder in the category. But it does not act in a consistent way. A few times, I had to open six folders until I could find where my piece of grabbed text had gone!

At first sight, I thought it was just an erratic behaviour. After using it for the past 24 hours for grabbing dozens of items for a current project, I came to realize that it is not that erratic: it seems that DT Pro attempts - intelligently - to associate the grabbed items with the subsection they are related to, possibly through keywords? Is this assumption correct? Of course, in such a process, it is difficult to be lucky all the time, but it would be amazing if it does anyway.

Can you please clarify? And also explain to me if it is possible to temporarily force DT Pro to put all incoming items from Services in a specific folder (sometimes, this would be more convenient for sorting them suibsequently)?

I am curious to read more about that, and I thank you in advance!

2

There is actually a preference for this. Under “Import,” there is an option for “New Notes.” This is where things that are clipped to, go.

One option is “in top or current group” which seems in my experience to clip to the “top” group (which is no group – you must deselect all), and if you do work within DT, it will clip to the selected group (typically when I capture a web page from a link inside DT pro).

3

Thank you! You are right, I had overlooked that! There are so many options in DT Pro that sometimes I forget what is available!

And regarding my assumption that - in case the option “in top” is not selected - DT Pro attempts “intelligently” to put a note where it belongs to within a group (or otherwise on top), is it a correct assumption, or just the result of some erratic behaviour?