If you want to import a batch of scanned PDFs without converting them to searchable PDFs right away, e.g. because you want to run the time-consuming OCR process later, you can easily do so. Import the files, e.g. to a group “To OCR”. Later, make sure to check Preferences > OCR > Original Document > Move to Trash, select all the documents, and convert them in one batch using Data > Convert > To Searchable PDF. This replaces the selected scanned PDFs with searchable copies and deletes the original file in one batch.

If you are searching with DEVONagent Pro you may get results in multiple languages because especially technical terms are often the same in English, German, even French. To avoid confusing both yourself and DEVONagent Pro’s AI with [insert whatever language you don’t understand here] gibberish, use the built-in language filter. Maximize the search window so that the toolbar is visible, then switch to the Settings tab. Select your language of choice from the Language pop-up menu to restrict searched to that language and uncheck Ignore Diacritics if you want to search for words with umlauted or accented characters. This setting is temporary, you can also add this to any search set.

If you like using roman numerals for naming items, you may not be satisfied with Mac OS X’s ability to sort tem correctly. Our power user ‘kalisphoenix’ has posted a nice workaround in our online forum that uses Unicode characters, each one representing one roman numeral. You can easily copy the numerals from the posting and paste it wherever you need them.

DEVONthink Pro Office power user b.3 has discovered a nice way of searching his database directly from Launchbar. He uses the embedded web server and directly searches the database by passing a pre-constructed URL. See his posting in our user forum. Thank you for this power tip, b.3.

If you’re easily disctracted with the many windows that clutter a typical infoworker’s screen, have a look at Isolator. It’s a simple donationware menu extra that dims all windows except those of the frontmost application. You can adjust the dim level, change the hot key, and even tell it to hide all background applications.

If you are, like me, working almost ten hours a day with your Mac, you’re repeating the same hand movements over and over again. If you’re susceptible to RSI (repetitive strain injury; more accessible info here) try the litte utility AntiRSI.

Last week I came across an interesting backup and archival solution: JungleDisk. It uses Amazon’s S3 storage and makes it available as a local WebDAV disk. You can use it to make regular or incremental backups, or use it for longer-time archival, e.g., of your documents. And if you’re worried about your privacy: JungleDisk encrypts not only the transmission but also the files before uploading. The main difference compared to other online storage services is, however, that Amazon S3 charges not for a fixed storage size but per GB of used space and per GB transferred. Rates are as low as 15 US cents per GB and month. The ‘disk’ is never limited to a certain selected size. Check it out. (mehr)

Hello everyone, we’re officially back from our winter holidays. I hope that all of you had a wonderful time!

I used the quiet time to organize and archive all the stuff that collected … itself … in the last twelve months. Chat logs, scanned letters, web clippings, and, of course, email, email, email. In an Internet-based business like ours all this stuff quickly takes over all available space — and so attention. Fortunately I am working for just the right company :-) So here’s what I did: … (mehr)

DEVONthink Pro databases are technically packages, folders that appear like a single file. When you simply copy them to another volume as a backup, the Finder always copies the whole thing. And so even do some backup applications, even though only parts of the database have changed. Try ChronoSync. It has the option to treat packages like files which allows it to peer inside the packages and only update the files that have actually changed. Command line fans will want to have a look at rsync (part of Mac OS X,) which intelligently copies only those parts of one or more folders that need to get updated.

Sometimes, file permissions go bad and leave ‘locked’ or ‘used’ files behind. If this happens to your DEVONthink Pro database, the application will continue to claim that the database is in use. If you are savvy with file permissions, use either the Finder’s Info panel or the Terminal to correct them. Make sure to adjust the permissions of all files in the package. A trick that also seems to work in some cases is to duplicate the database in the Finder and open the copy instead.