Devonian Times Masthead

The DEVONtechnologies Blog

Articles in the category Tips

February 28, 2017

Add Hotkeys to Open With Items

Last week, we talked about editing options in DEVONthink: What happens when you double-click a file (and why) as well as the hotkey to open a file in the system default application. But there are also times when you want to open a document in an application other than the system default. (more)

February 21, 2017

Editing Options in DEVONthink

In DEVONthink, if a type of file can be edited in DEVONthink, it will open in a DEVONthink document window when the file is double-clicked. This makes it easy to isolate a document for editing while allowing you to keep your place in the other window. It also allows you to keep working directly in DEVONthink without having to jump back and forth between applications. (more)

January 24, 2017

Adjust Your PDFs

Recently, we had a customer expressing a desire to have black-and-white PDFs. Our head developer, Christian, suggested running a Quartz filter on them. When you export out of Apple’s Preview, you have the option of applying a Quartz filter to adjust the output. (more)

January 17, 2017

Batch Print E-Mail Messages to PDF

DEVONthink Pro Office stores email messages in their original formats. If you want to keep your messages in an easier to handle file format one option is to ‘print’ them to PDF and keep the PDF instead. Converting hundreds or even thousands of messages manually is a painful process, however. But, as long as Apple hasn’t killed Mac automation, there’s a solution for this: … (more)

January 10, 2017

A Fresh New Global Inbox

The Global Inbox is a built-in database, provided so you can start working (or playing!) in DEVONthink the moment you launch it. For DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office, it is ideally used as a temporary storage location — a place for transient or unfiled data. It’s a great place to capture miscellanous data when you’re rabbit-trailing around the web too. (more)

January 3, 2017

Use Text Expansion

If you find yourself typing the same things over and over again, there is a way to give your fingers a break. Text expansion is a method of assigning abbreviations for things like often used phrases. For example, you may create an abbreviation like em1, which could fill in your email when typed. Or you may have boilerplate text for a business, like thank yous. You could use the abbreviation tfyo that could expand to “Thanks for your order!” … (more)

December 27, 2016

A Simple Move

We had a support ticket with a person who had a simple request: “I have a selection in a Smart Group. How do I move it to a database?” I responded but as I did, I realized (yet again) how much flexibility we have built into DEVONthink. Here are a few ways to accomplish this: … (more)

December 20, 2016

Search to Organize

When you organize your databases and often find yourself navigating through deep group hierarchies to file a new document, this tip from our forum power user korm is for you. (more)

December 13, 2016

Free Your Menubar with Bartender

While we rely on our big powerhouse applications like DEVONthink, there are many smaller utilities we use for specialized purposes. However, this has lead to our menubars becoming increasingly crowded. Especially on a smaller screen, like a MacBook Air’s, this leads to the utilities’ icons being hidden from view. Enter Bartender. (more)