I mostly use DEVONthink, Firefox, Apple Mail and Adobe Lightroom Classic.
For capturing images
Adobe Lightroom Classic - a lot of LR images with keywords, exported into DT as png, with the keywords converted to tags (DEVONthink rocks)
Apple Camera: Tons of screenshots, but also photos - I alternate between getting them out of the iphone via iMazing vs. via Adobe Lightroom.
One issue with Lightroom, which Adobe never got around to care about, is that there is no way to export these screenshots with their original created date. So I created a LR export template to export these images prepending the created date to their filenames. I then use the amazing A Better Finder Attributes to change the created date back by reading the incipit of the filename.
I use a lot Image Search (Google, etc) in Firefox or DT’s webkit, and capturing that is easy of course.
SmartShooter 5 - is an amazing app that I use via a Kaiser stand and a Canon 6D to capture images of flat documents as well - but most importantly, my philatelic work that has to have resolution and color fidelity.
Preview is great for small image edits once in DEVONthink, and so are Acorn and the amazing GraphicConverter
Spreadsheets
Numbers is my preferred app. I used Excel a lot in the past and loved it, but now I like Numbers better. It plays nicely with DT.
Text and Note Processing
I create large numbers of text, rtf and md files. The md files I have been using as a sort of control files, with links to other documents inside DT.
There are several nice apps, but I want to single out IA Writer, as well as Bean - this one does one amazing little thing which is the ability to work in rtf files and do some smart markdown tricks - very useful when formatting very old text, rtf files.
I use Apple Notes very extensively, mostly as a temporary store. Exporting to DT was always a bit meh, so I just copy and paste.
BBEdit Ahh, this is a great, venerable app. Use it with regular expressions, and to do a gazillion things.
PDF Tools
Many great apps here. I often ingest stuff using my rock-solid Fujitsu IX500 scanner, via it’s own ScanSnap or else the great father & son team’s VueScan - which I also use to scan stuff with my Epson V700
After scanning, or with PDFs acquired elsewhere, my basic reader is PDF Expert, but I often use Highlights - when I want to create annotations that contain images - a unique capability of this very useful app.
PDF Squeezer is invaluable to reduce some large MB files, does a better job than other apps. I created an Applescript for it, that lives in DT’s toolbar.
ColorSync Utility ! - this was a big surprise. I had many older pdf scans with important documents, and many are very faded or very low-contrast. Someone somewhere mentioned using this Apple little utility to improve these PDFs, and it works amazingly.
Capturing from the web
I used Safari, then Chrome, then Edge, then Arc, then Safari, then Arc, then Chrome, then I just got too exhausted, and decided to use Firefox and stop worrying. It does play ok with DT - not as great as Safari. But I did abandon Safari a couple years ago because,at least for me, it was causing huge memory issues. Who knows… And I like Mozilla. A lot.
More elaborate constructs
I used Tinderbox quite a lot, and iThoughts, but now wen I want to do a mind mapping, it is MindNode - - but I still am not entirely sure what is the best way for them to work together, except of course via links.
Workflow tools
Find Any File - after I disable Spotlight, which was making my system very slow (sorry to see you go Houdah Spot…) this is a workhorse. Simple, fast, effective.
Keyboard Maestro - I haven’t yet explored all its potential. But it already does a couple of things I really find useful.
ScriptDebugger. Sorry to see you go, I understand why. I love you.
Yoink - a lovely little app - but lately I have been just popping things into the Sorter.
PopClip - Nicks’ utterly smart little app. I used it for a lot of things.
X Menu - DEVON’s own terrific little app. Same with WordServices - Bravo!!!
Bartender 5 is a must.
TextSniper. Such a smart and useful little app, for when I want to “OCR” some little text snippet on the fly to use for file naming, or in an email, etc.
CustomShortcuts - a must, as I use a lot of shortcuts for DT and other apps.
I am sure forgetting stuff. But most importantly, my effectiveness and pleasure in using DEVONthink are a result of it being an amazing application, with a great team who is always there for you. Oh, did I mention the HELP is better than ever???
And did I mention this forum has great people?
.
and ballroom dancing 
).
