How to Organize Your Item List View

When organizing your item list in DEVONthink, the long list of options for sorting to choose from can be daunting. There are likely many options you’ve never used or perhaps didn’t know even existed. But you can customize and slim down this list to make it more manageable.

In DEVONthink 4, choose View > Customize Metadata. In version 3, choose Customize Metadata at the bottom of the Sort or List Columns submenus. This palette shows all the possible metadata that can be used as columns in the View > View: as List option and for sorting. In the Pro and Server editions, this also includes any custom metadata you created. Enable any options you want to use and disable the others. For a quick setup, you can click Clear all and enable only the ones you need.

Now when you use the View > List Columns menu, Control-click the column headers, or use the View > Sort commands for the item list, you will only see the specific options you want to see.

If you disable a column that’s currently visible, re-enabling it in the metadata palette won’t make it immediately reappear. You need to add the column again via the column headers or List Columns menu. Also, note that these are global settings. You’re changing what metadata is available for existing and future windows, not setting options per-window.