The Services menu is one of the most underestimated features of Mac OS X. It provides useful commands that work from within almost any application on the Mac without hacking them (unlike, say, contextual menu items which run inside another application’s memory space and so can crash it). Both DEVONthink and DEVONagent provide useful commands which allow, e.g., to quickly clip selected text to your database, summarize text, or run a web search. In addition we provide useful Services menu plugins as freeware.

If you are using Instapaper to keep articles for offline reading you may like the ‘Add to Instapaper’ script for DEVONthink Pro, written by one of our power users. Click here to read about it in our user forum. Thank you, bartekb81.

With DEVONthink Pro 2.0 we introduced the Sorter, an small independent application that allows you to add data to your databases even when DEVONthink is not open. But it’s not a simple drop box — there is much more you can do with it (and even more in one of the next releases). (more)

DEVONthink offers the possibility to save any file from any application directly to the global inbox. No more saving to the desktop and importing later.

First make sure that this function is enabled. Choose DEVONthink > Install Add-Ons, check Global Inbox in Save Dialogs and click Install. This inserts a shortcut to the global inbox into the Finder’s sidebar. To save a document to DEVONthink now, look for the ‘Inbox’ item in the sidebar of the save dialog and select it as the location of choice. This even works when DEVONthink is not open, the document will be imported when you open the application the next time. (more)

DEVONthink Pro Office comes with built-in support for both Image-Capture-compliant scanners as well as ones that use a TWAIN driver to communicate with your Mac. Some scanners however refuse to work with both approaches and work best with their own scan software. Don’t worry, you can make even make most of these scanners work with DEVONthink. (more)

DEVONthink is based from the ground up on artificial intelligence (AI). And like with natural intelligence the results it delivers is based on a variety of parameters. With DEVONhink 2.0 public beta 4 we have added more control over how the AI behaves. To improve the predictability of the AI results, open DEVONthink’s Preferences, General tab, and adjust the Mood slider from “Moody” to “Stable” (see the picture). Choose the setting that best fits your needs. (more)

DEVONthink Pro not only organizes all your knowledge, it also lets you get more of it. Add RSS, RDF, or Atom feeds to your databases (e.g. by drag-and-drop of a feed: URL or by creating a new feed via Data > New > Feed) where they appear like groups with an orange RSS icon. (more)

DEVONthink Pro features its own document type for tabular data named ‘sheet’. Sheets resemble spreadsheets and can hold textual data organized in rows and columns. Create a new sheet with Data > New > Sheet, name it, and add some columns with Data > Sheet > New Column or Edit Columns. (more)

When you add your documents and clippings to DEVONthink, you’re never locked in. DEVONthink provides you with a variety of export options based on standard file formats, not obscure XML constructs or even proprietary file formats. Whatever you store in DEVONthink, you’ll get it out in exactly that format again. (more)

With DEVONthink Pro 2.x’s ability to keep more than one database open at the same time you might consider splitting your older huge all-in-one database. The most effective way to do this is:

Alternatively you can drag the items to the other database’s name in the sidebar. In this case the items will end up in that database’s local inbox and you can move them from there to the database’s top level. (more)