A few months ago I got into contact with Dr. Frank Thissen, lecturer at the Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien, HdM) in Germany. Frank is a DEVONthink power user and we exchanged a lot of ideas on how our apps fit into the university ecosystem. This May I also had the opportunity to give a presentation at the HdM. (more)

You may know that I like to work from places other than my office, e.g. from our local coffee shop. This summer we finally completed the renovation of our old garden house: a new roof, new door and windows, carpet, painted walls, electricity and (via D-LAN) Internet. Completed by a baroque-style secretary it now makes a nice little retreat from the everyday office and family madness. (more)

If you have a Google account and access to Google Drive, create a form there. (I’ll leave the how-to on that to your own research. It’s not difficult.) “Share” the form so that you get the link to the form, and create a bookmark in DEVONthink for that form. When forms are created in Google Drive, you have the option to create a spreadsheet there to collect the responses. Do so, then navigate to that spreadsheet and grab the link for it. Create a second bookmark in DEVONthink for the spreadsheet. (more)

Even though Google Chrome probably shares more information with its maker than you like, it also does a lot to protect you from the (other) bad guys — and sometimes also the good ones. If our Clip to DEVONthink browser extension doesn’t seem to work in your copy of Chrome and just reloads the browser contents when you click its icon in the toolbar, here’s a possible cure: … (more)

One of the most common ways we organize our data is with folders and subfolders (groups and subgroups in DEVONthink). Maybe you are someone that tracks your receipts on a monthly basis. Perhaps you are a teacher that organizes student data in a series of subfolders. Or you may be a real estate agent that creates a folder for each new property you’re working with and you like to have subfolder for pictures, documents, etc. If you ever find yourself reconstructing group hierarchies in DEVONthink, here’s a handy way to create a template that will do most of the work for you. (more)

Just a quick note that we have updated the scripts Rename using RegEx and Export Metadata as CSV, which are available as manual downloads through the built-in Support Assistant. To install these scripts choose Scripts > More Scripts, search the script in the list, and click Install. If you have the script already installed, remove it first, then re-install it to get the new version.

Since the very first telephone companies and there is an ongoing struggle between advocates (and adversaries) of open vs. closed systems. Today is the time of the closed systems.

The Apple II was wide open and while the first Mac hardware was the exact opposite you could still do whatever your wanted in software. Even if there were no official hooks for this and that, as long as you knew how to access something there was no one holding you back. (more)

You may already know that you can create smart groups in the sidebar of DEVONthink Pro (Office) that collect documents from all open databases. If not: click the action menu button at the bottom of the sidebar and choose New Smart Group. (more)

Rich text (RTF) is great for text with different fonts, sizes, or colors. The Style panel allows you to save often-used styles and apply them again with a few clicks but it’s not really an example of the Mac’s famous user-friendliness. Power user Alfred Schlatter sent us a tip for adding convenient keyboard shortcuts to styles to make your life with rich text easier: … (more)

Adding the ability to ‘rate’ items in DEVONthink, e.g. with stars, is already on our to-do list. Forum user Truhe couldn’t wait and simply used labels for his ratings. To create your own ratings use e.g. the Unicode characters ☆ and ★ to name the labels from ★★★★★ to ☆☆☆☆ and set the colors to support the rating. To enter the stars use the menu command Edit > Special Characters, switch to Bullets/Stars and double-click the symbol you’d like to insert. (more)