I think the idea of being able to add personalized data is excellent, and I would like to use it, but an important question comes to mind:
Can we have data based on the databases or categories of our documents?
For example, I like to take photos of the products I buy to compare prices, and I would like to create data to know when I bought them, or, of course, at what price.
But this type of data will not be of interest to me for many other documents.
You can define custom metadata fields. But those are cross database and cross document. You’re not obliged to set them for every document, but if you define them, they are there.
There are metadata that exist only for PDF documents, for example. And you can define metadata in the frontmatter of Markdown files. Those are different from custom metadata fields.
Aside: I store my software purchases in 1Password, since there’s a license key coming with many of the programs. And I wouldn’t want that in DT.
I don’t know if my way of thinking is right, but generally, I prefer to take photos of items so I can be quick. I don’t like dealing with this information later.
I want to use character recognition to find information easily. But I also want to have a price ranking so I can find the cheapest option.
Custom metadata (which is only available on the Mac in the Pro or Server editions of DEVONthink), does not automatically populate in DEVONthink To Go, as I’m assuming you’re using your iPhone for these photos.
You’re also describing a behavior for yourself. That’s not wrong to do. There’s just no “price ranking” feature built into our apps.
I wonder what kind of items you are referring to - in my case, and if you’re referring to screenshots of things you find online - it’s as simple as taking a screenshot, and saving the item in DT with the date, price and a short description. I do have an applescript for inserting the date in a screenshot, and I just add a short description and price.
But I’m not dealing with too many items, so I can just visually compare the items listed in DT - or else add the stuff to a spreadsheet and sort.
If, however, you are referring to MANY items FAST, then I suspect you may have some difficulty creating a good workflow.
So some idea of volume and timeliness would be useful here.
If you’re just doing this to track things you want to buy, e.g. comparing products before you commit to a purchase, I just use Freeform for this. I just stick the photo in Freeform and add a post-it of details if I need to.
I mostly do this so my photos app isn’t full of rubbish though
Yes, I understand that, but I’m looking at how I can steer him toward what I’m looking for, because it corresponds to a need that I’m currently unable to resolve.
To give you an idea, I regularly take photos of the products I buy (food, pharmacy items, etc.) in order to compare prices between stores and cities and see which ones are cheapest.
This can be a regular occurrence, and there can be a lot of photos.
How much do you save by that process, and how do these savings relate to the amount of time you spend on doing what you describe here? And how much do you charge for an hour of work?
If I really want to know where an expensive (!) product is cheapest, I ask one of the price comparison sites.
