No particular drawbacks in using an external drive when space is at a premium. Just the usual admonition to add the drive to your backups.
Now my question is this: couldn’t I just copy them by drag and drop onto my large external drive? Then I could just run them from the external drivr
Yes, but I’d suggest you make sure to either move the database(s) or remove the copy on the internal drive.
If I now just copy the databases from the internal to the external disk, could that perhaps be a problem for DT, perhaps not being able to find them?
Only if the drive is connected to another Mac without those files.
Or should I simply start from scratch and use File > New Database and save it on the external disk? Then drag the folders I need from the Finder into DT. That wouldn’t take much time, I suppose.
I’d just quit DEVONthink, move the dtBase2 files to the external drive, then double-click each to open them.
Hello from the future, SebMacV. I’m jumping into this thread before it closes to ask one question: How have you closely integrated Obsidian, as your note-taker of choice, with DEVONthink?
That’s precisely what I’m trying to set up now. I’ve got links working back and forth between Obsidian and DTP, but I keep wondering why I don’t just do everything within DEVONthink.
@Charles56 Lots of folks use Obsidian and DT together, but there’s also a lot of folks that don’t. Do what works for you! I did try to integrate Obsidian and DT because other people were doing it and it seemed like a good idea. But eventually I realised it’s just not how I work, and I reverted to keeping all my notes in DT where they belong. (I like my notes with their source material, not separated in a different location, so Obsidian doesn’t work for me.)
Hello there. I’ve written about this a bit more here, but if you already have birectional linking set up between the apps you’ve discovered most of the secret sauce.
As to
why I don’t just do everything within DEVONthink
I just find Obsidian a more pleasant writing experience (WYSIWYG editor suits me better), and quicker to work with linking notes. I love how Obsidian treats [[future links]] as ghosts that can be linked to from elsewhere in the app even if the file in question doesn’t yet exist. In fact Scrivener used to be my long form writing app, and I am currently between that and Obsidian where I tend to draft more and more.
In Obsidian a few plugins also allow me to manage writing projects (outlining, canvas, Kanban, and so on), and it’s unparallelled for that. Obsidian is the more powerful markdown editor by far, and I really like it’s capacity to save custom Workspaces for each project (DT offer this too).
DT is a resource management app for me that allows writing activities, and I do do some writing in it from time to time, but it isn’t optimised as a writing tool. Obsidian for me is a writing environment that also offers resource storage (but it isn’t optimised for that so I don’t use it for e.g. PDF storage at all - because DT is infinitely better at it). So I use the best tool for each job suiting my particular preferences and circumstances.
I could easily take @MsLogica 's path, and occasionally think I should move everything across to DT. But I’ve crafted myself a very nice thinking space in Obsidian now, and would lose functionality that I enjoy and that helps me focus. Maybe I could recreate that in DT – but I am happy where I am between both apps.
If you like simplicity, stick everything in DT. If you like tinkering; crafting your bespoke writing/note-taking environment, keep trying Obsidian.
DEVONthink has had this capability with WikiLinks for a very long time, long before Obsidian, with and without square bracket syntax. Just mentioning it.
That’s an excellent post, SebMacV, and it speaks to my situation very nicely. Thank you.
For now, I think I’m right between you and MsLogica, though in the short term I believe I’ll likely focus on developing my research within DTP. I’ve had a small taste of what Obsidian can do, and I see that I could easily squander research time exploring Obsidian.
In addition to the attractive editor, some of the ways Obsidian facilitates writing could be helpful, especially as it seems to permit the writer to set ideas aside for future investigation. But even way back when I did all my work with colored pens and a typewriter on paper and index cards, I kept a stack of residue cards for that purpose, so I think I can replicate that easily enough in DTP.
Then, on a rainy day, probably sooner rather than later, I’ll pick up Obsidian again and see what the sorcerers of that team and community have come up with.
Thank you, MsLogica. I’m leaning strongly toward the approach you’ve taken, at least in the near term.
After all, I’d only just fallen in love with DEVONthink when I bumped into Obsidian, at a party, I believe. I don’t really remember. We spent such an intense few days together that it’s all a blur. But DEVONthink stood by during my brief fling, patiently taking care of all my PDFs, bookmarks, OCRed manuscripts, records, and notes – and even my utility bills – while I was off whooping it up with Obby, that chimeric purple charmer.
DTP has accepted me back with no reproach, and I’m back at work now.
Thanks for this reminder and demo, Bluefrog. I hadn’t used this feature in DTP, though I did enjoy it when Obsidian and I were together. So I’m very glad DTP does this, too.
I’ve used DEVONthink for around fifteen years (I think) and for me it has always been a repository or storage place for research material, rather than a working environment. I’ve switched around a lot over the years, but nowadays I use Obsidian as my “workplace” partly because I personally find it less clunky and more fluid than DEVONthink, though I don’t doubt that others would experience it differently. However, there are two other factors that induce me to work mainly in Obsidian. One is the visual affordances, such as Canvas, Kanban boards and so forth. The other is the integration that is possible between Obsidian, Readwise, and Zotero. Anybody who wants to know what is possible with these tools can learn a lot from Bryan Jenks (videos such as this and many more on his channel) and from Nicole van der Hoeven (here interviewing Jorge Arango).
In the end, I think that learning by doing is the only way to find out what really works for us. We each have our own needs, and I’ve never yet stumbled on a method or process that I haven’t had to adapt to my personal requirements. What is perfect for one person may be useless for another.
@mbbntu: So, are you saying that DEVONthink is a Volvo 240? If so, what would Obsidian be?
(I searched “most customizable vehicle worldwide” and came up with the VW Beetle, but I’m not sure that matches Obsidian. So, the analogy might not work. No surprise, since DT and Obsidian aren’t really in the same category, there’s just a bit of overlap.)
No, I’m saying that DEVONthink is a university library with lots of books on the shelves, but uncomfortable chairs. Obsidian is a quiet room at home with many different chairs and sofas you can sit on, plenty of space to scatter around the material you are trying to understand, all sorts of coloured pens, paper, folders and post-it notes you have stuck to your monitor, a whiteboard where you can make diagrams, and a kitchen where you can make yourself drinks and snacks when you need to.
