I’m struggling to find out the logic behind Three-Pane view. I really like how I can quickly move through my database using the left pane. However, when I select a particular folder in the left pane, I keep expecting both individual items AND sub-folders to appear in the top-right pane. This is mainly a problem when I don’t have the folder expanded in the left pane and forget that that there are sub-folders.
I’ve seen in previous posts that sub-folders are not “supposed” to show up in the top-right window. Can somebody explain why? And is there a setting that I can change so that sub-folders do appear in the top-right pane?
DEVONthink provides several alternative views into a database, and the Three Panes is probably the most popular one among users (including me). In this mode I want to concentrate on just the documents contended within a selected group.
Note that we recommend that there should be no documents contained at the top level of a group that also contains subgroups (although I sometimes violate that recommendation myself). The reason is that this confuses the Classify artificial intelligence procedure and makes it somewhat less effective.
If you have selected a group in Three Panes view, you can click on the disclosure triangle of a group that contains subgroups to see them listed. Or you might do the same in the Split view.
Christian, the chief developer, prefers the Columns view.
I find that for some groups, I have “simple” items and “complex” items. For example, with my book collection, I store the table of contents in individual .RTFs. Some books, however, are part of multi-volume sets and therefore I create sub-groups to tidy them up. Is it really suggested that I should be creating a new sub-group to store just one .RTF file?
I see that this does solve my desire to view items and sub-groups simultaneously. I’d have to say though that the main view window feels “cramped”, especially when viewed on a widescreen monitor. Any suggestions to deal with this?
Also, as a general question, is there a DEVONacademy tutorial or other webpage that describes the advantages/disadvantages of each view? Seems like it would be tremendously helpful for me and all the other people that constantly ask
Me, too. I initially resisted it, for reasons like rewards mentioned, but eventually it won me over as the preferred default.
I normally violate that recommendation and it’s hard to imagine what using DT would be like if it was an enforced restriction… certainly more of a penalty than:
Mkay.
All my attempts to get comfortable with Columns view, in DT and Finder, have failed.
I prefer List view for the Global Inbox to avoid marking documents unread when they’re selected.
I like certain groups open in Split view (non-Widescreen, formerly Horizontal) when having wider columns of metadata is useful while browsing through documents.
I think Columns in Finder is awkward because there is no fixed view pane (i.e. the format keeps changing depending on the folder one is in, and all the changes have “swoosh-in”/“swoosh-out” transitions). Columns in DT is improved in that it has a fixed view pane. However, I think that it being stacked under the columns feels cramped on wide-screen monitors. It would be nice if the fixed view pane could be positioned horizontally (a hybrid of Columns and Split)?
Not quite sure on what. I’d originally used Split view (Widescreen, formerly Vertical Split) so having non-group documents listed in the top-right pane of Three-Pane displayed more information about them (with the added benefit of column sorting) than when they’d been lumped together with groups in Vertical Split’s left pane. It just took awhile to adjust to that Split+List hybrid view, and focus switching between left and top-right for navigation/selection, but now it makes Split (Widescreen) seem “last generation” whenever I’ve temporarily switched to it.
Good point. Maybe I’ll find some reason(s) to give Column view more chance again in DT.
Certain things have become familiar/convenient/comfortable over time (“set in my ways”) but I still explore/discover new things and am open to adapt them. Even though I’ve used DT a relatively long time it still provide plenty of room to grow and occasionally provide ahha! moments of inspiration. I’m far from mastering it, doubt I could ever claim to, and hope I never do so it remains fun and interesting (while sometimes frustrating) to use.
