Value in keeping a separate DT Pro Office 2 license?

Hey all. I’m a grad student considering my options.

A few years ago, I purchased DEVONThink Pro Office 2 during a summer sale but never did put in the time to get it set up and running as my central store of info/files I intended it to be. Now I’m in grad school with a renewed desire to finally get everything in order (and ditch walled-garden cloud tools like Evernote), especially with plenty of research-related documents and activities in my future.

What I’m trying to decide is, are there any compelling reasons to keep the DTPO2 license around and purchase a completely separate DT3 license instead of upgrading it to DT3? Based on my review of features and forum discussions, reasons I can think of to go this separate-license route include:

  • It would give me the ability to access my database on a couple other infrequently used computers if needed without having to buy more seats.
  • Alternatively (or in addition), it would allow me to set up a server for access from other machines (including PCs, Linux, school computers, etc.) without having to shell out a substantial amount for DT3 Server.
  • It would let me retain the ability to use DTPO2’s 3-panel workflow that many seem to miss in DT3 and consider more productive.

These all depend on DTPO2 (1) playing/syncing nicely with DT3, and (2) the DTPO2 server still working properly and providing a useful web interface for a database primarily managed in DT3.

Thoughts?

Welcome @2fifty6

The 2.x line has been out of development for some time now so any issues you may encounter won’t be fixed.
Also, it would require you to run a machine on an older OS as it will fall out of compatibility as operating systems are released.

Yeah, DT3 would be my “daily driver” interface. Keeping the 2.x license around would definitely be an on-the-side thing, and its server web interface is probably the part I’d mostly use.

(Is there anyone out there who still uses the v2 web interface? I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on how useful it is in an era of DT3 and DTTG3.)

Running on an older OS will definitely not be an issue, since all of my machines are still on Mojave, and none of them can go beyond Catalina.

Time to spoil yourself with a new M1 Mac :wink:

The Air feels much more rigid, though still thin, and is an absolute Monster performance and battery-wise. :heart: :slight_smile:

Please note that the OCR engine of version 2.x is not compatible to Catalina. In addition, editing items using v2.x might wipe out data introduced by version 3, e.g. ratings or custom metadata.

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I did see that mentioned in a post or article somewhere. I have enough other 32-bit apps that I’ll probably keep a Mojave machine running for the foreseeable future.

Does this mean that simply opening and viewing the database in v2.x would leave those elements intact?

This is fine. But every change (e.g. moving/replicating/tagging, renaming or editing) might wipe out the metadata introduced by version 3.

Decision update: I opted to go the upgrade route and purchase a third seat. Since a DT3 license/seat can apparently be used with DT2 as well, that gives me the flexibility to experiment as originally desired while still working primarily with v3.

Thanks, all, for your input.

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Good decision and you’re welcome! :slight_smile: