Workflow using DTTG / Obsidian / DEVONThink

DEVONthink To Go
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I’m curious about other users’ workflows using DT, particularly those users of Obsidian and DTTG on iPad.

I’ve been a DEVONThink user and fan since 2004 so I have a fair amount of notes and links on DEVONThink.

For the last 3 years or so my main computer has been an IPad Pro, and since the rise of Obsidian in 2020, I’ve been working on perfecting a workflow to publish on my websites long-forgotten and deeply-buried drafts, for keeping track of projects and tasks, and for producing deliverables to my consulting clients. It all have started to make sense again.

Normally I quickly write notes and ideas on the Drafts app, which I in turn send to DTTG or to the Obsidian App on my iPad (which is already sync’d to DT and DTTG). I’m yet to implement a full-fledge Zettelcasten system, but probably will do so in the near future.

I also use Obsidian for what I call “Project Sheets”, which are simple project notes, with links, main tasks and references of client projects (web dev and marketing consulting mostly).

I’m using a simplified version of Nick Milo’s MOCs (Maps of Content) to quickly find info on my vault.

DEVONThink is my Archive, Reference and both a Source and Repository for most of my drafts and ideas.

Also, I use Omnifocus both on my iPad and Mac, and it is linked to the main references and Project Sheets in DT and Obsidian. That’s an idea adopted via Carl Pullein and Kourosh Dini.

On a side note, I would probably use more DTTG for editing some of those markdown notes generated via Obsidian, but I find the DTTG editor not as reliable and a bit clumsy. The Obsidian editor is a real joy to use. I don’t like to use fthe Notes app, which although is pretty and usable, is mostly unlinkable. And, I hate cloud, proprietary-format apps such as Evernote, Notion and OneNote.

Perhaps my worklflow is a bit more complex than ideal, but I like it and enjoy using it.

What is YOUR workflow on iPad using Obsidian (or another app) and DTTG / DT?

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Just curious about the requirements for Obsidian, Omnifocus and Drafts
Currently I’m managing with just Devonthink and DTTG

I also use Apple Pages for extended word processing features,
and Apple Numbers for spreadsheets
Notability on an iPad with and Apple Pencil is great for note taking

I see a lot of overlap between Devonthink and Obsidian, Omnifocus

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Basically you can create markdown notes on Drafts and paste them or send them to Obsidian. Drafts is very fast, and so Obsidian. The DT / Obsidian overlap makes a lot of sense if you separate the purpose of the apps. In my case, Obsidian is to create original content, and my project sheets, and DT is my reference and draft repository.

I also use Pages for deliverables and for proposals, and when I have long markdown documents on Obsidian or DT, I use a Pandoc script to convert markdown to docx so I can open the documents on Pages.

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I use only DT3 for everything that you described (linked notes, outlines, drafts, research, etc.). When the text is ready, I move it to Word for final editing. I have a minimalist approach.

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Thanks for your post. I’ve tried connecting Obsidian mobile to DTTG on my iPad, but don’t think I’ve got it right. Would appreciate your further explanation in detail, or reference to some instructions.

I don’t have a Mac, so am trying to bridge the gap with my Windows 10 PC. It’s no problem with Obsidian, but saving markdown files from DTTG to Obsidian on iPad seems a little clunky.

Have Drafts too, but seldom use it, as it’s easier to just create a file in Obsidian, unless I’m on the go, and choose to do it on my Apple watch.

Things might get easier when Obsidian has a share sheet.

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Hi Patrick, I followed Obsidian sync instructions in my iPad and Mac. I think that you would need to sync on a Mac first, as DT3 on the Mac indexes the Obsidian vault which in turn is synced to DTTG.

As for a iPad-only environment, I’m not sure that DTTG can index external iCloud folders or Dropbox folders.

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Thank you for the question! Exactly the same topic has preoccupied me for some time. As a knowledge worker, I have to be able to file my texts neatly but also be able to work with them effectively. In order to find the optimal workflow for me, I have already tried many different apps and approaches.

At the moment I work in such a way that I store everything I have in terms of sources and my own texts in DT and DTTG. Above all to use DT’s excellent search function. I also use the “See also” functionality a lot, which shows me texts that are related. So DT is my bucket for everything!

I’ve already experimented with obsidian, but at the moment I don’t use the app anymore. At one point, it bothers me that it is not native, you just notice that it is an electron app. In addition, DT has been able to show me the wikilinks with backlinks for some time and I also have the opportunity to work with names and aliases, which gives me a comparable function to Obsidian (unlinked mentions).

I use Bear to take my notes, for example when I’m reading a book, listening to a podcast, or jotting down other things. I like the beauty and simplicity of Bear, and I find it very helpful that I can work with images in the texts. I don’t really like to use the editors from DT and DTTG. Bear has a great export functionality, all texts that I enter here will be passed on to DT as long as they are “finished”. Nothing is saved in Bear. Until recently I used drafts for this, but the lack of the possibility to work with images bothered me and I just don’t enjoy writing drafts that much.

So I try to keep my workflow as simple as possible. DT as an archive and at the same time to find links between documents. Bear to capture texts and then pass them on to DT.

I use Omnifocus for project management and task planning, preferably with links from DT directly to the documents I need to complete tasks.

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Ah, thanks. Guess I’m stuck w/o a Mac.

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@BurningChrome so you don’t have anything saved in Bear? It’s a cool app, and worth a try. I also tried 1Writer, but didn’t like it.
It’s interesting it can save to .docx format, unlike others. But that got me thinking and looks like Obsidian has a Pandoc plugin (to export to many different formats). Checking right now if it works on iPad and… no, it only works on Mac. Definitely will consider the Bear, if only for exporting and perhaps for keeping some small markdown repository outside of Obsidian.

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Exactly. I only use Bear to take notes. As soon as these are ready, which can of course take different lengths of time, they are exported and stored in DT. If I read a book or a paper, for example, I can use the wikilink function in Bear to create notes that are as short as possible. These are then retained when exporting to DT.

I used to work a lot with drafts, but I’m not the programmer type liking to fiddle with all the actions. It’s important to me to have a nice app that I enjoy working in. Bear does that for me.

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Sounds cool, will surely consider it. And the app is a lot prettier than Drafts. What about the images you add in Bear? With the few export tests I’ve made, they are kept in Bear, unrecognizable by the other apps.

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When exporting from Bear (on the Mac) I have the option to export attachments. These then end up in a separate folder and I can drag them into DT.

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DEVONThink is my Archive, Reference and both a Source and Repository for most of my drafts and ideas.

Do you store long-term in Obsidian? Or do documents get archived to DT and deleted from Obsidian once complete?

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Hi @Mitch_Wagner. So far I’ve been storing the Markdown files permanently in Obsidian.
That’s because either I originally create the files on Obsidian or convert from notes in rtf, text or Markdown in DEVONThink, (which I delete from DT, since I have indexed my vaults in DT anyway).
At some point in the future I expect to seamlessly export from DT and Obsidian to RTF, Word, Google Docs and Pages. At this moment is kind of cumbersome.

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