DEVONthink - Information Management for Everyone

DEVONthink is essential software for the Mac. Not many applications fall into this category, but DEVONthink is number one among them. In reviewing DEVONthink I can only discuss my experience of it, and even though I’ve been running it for three years, there’s still so much more I could know about it and know about other ways of using it.

What is DEVONthink?
Devon Technologies, the developers of DEVONthink, say of it:

Use it as your document repository, your filing cabinet, your email archive, or your project organizer; DEVONthink can do it all. You can even collect and organize data from the web for your own use, enrich it with sound and movie files from your hard drive, and then export the finished product as a website or to an Apple Pages document to print, should you so desire. Or copy the content to your iPod!

DEVONthink is an information management system that people around the world are continually finding new and unique ways to use.

The DEVONthink website has some starter databases for DEVONthink Professional to use it:

- as the hub for your “paperless office”
- as an email archive
- as a to-do manager (roughly based on David Allen’s “Getting Things Done®” concept)
- to collect and organize your research data from the web and other sources
- for simple project management
- as a simple notepad (with high-end features, of course)
- as a simple image and multimedia archive
- for organizing your notes and stored knowledge in a cross-referenced network of documents, which you can then publish to a website

How do I use DEVONthink?
The primary ways I use DEVONthink are:

Writing
All the writing I do for Apple Matters is done within DEVONthink, as well as a lot of other writing I do. I’ve created a folder structure and create new documents within the appropriate folders. It might sound a lot like Finder but it’s easier to navigate and clicking on many file types shows a full preview in the right-pane. Some file types can even be edited in DEVONthink as well. A word of advice though, if you do edit documents in DEVONthink, save often as documents don’t auto-save (except if you leave the document you’re in).

Clipping
When I find information on the internet of interest, I print it to DEVONthink, where it’s saved it in PDF format.

Archiving
As per clipping, any information I want to save - for example emails, online invoices, receipts etc - I print to DEVONthink.

Features
DEVONthink has a wide range of features and the following is just a drop in the ocean.

Document classification
For document management, DEVONthink’s classification is it’s most important feature. It not only enables you to classify similar documents together - eg invoices, web pages on Python, family newsletters and so on - it also will learn how you classify documents and after some training be able to automatically classify new documents. Documents can also be cross-referenced, wiki style.

Apple Script and Automator
DEVONthink provides full support for Apple script and Automator actions and includes samples.

Full screen
Full screen is one of my favorite features (and one I only discovered recently). It clears the screen totally and shows only the document you’re working on plus the ruler if you have it visible. In preferences you can control the background and text colors and the percentage of the screen used. It’s fantastic for when OS X’s visual clutter gets too much.

Indexing and concordance
DEVONthink uses its own indexing system, which also provides a concordance of all the words in your database.

Browser
DEVONthink has its own mini web browser built in, so URLs can be viewed within DEVONthink.

File types
DEVONthink can store any kind of document, from text to PDFs to Office documents, MP3s to movies, bookmarks and more, and can preview many of them.

Multiple databases
With DEVONthink you can create as many databases as you like although only one can be open at a time.

Sheets
Sheets are a special file type that are a very simple database within your DEVONthink database. Useful for keeping lists, and data can be entered in either a form or tabular view.

Extra document management
The soon to be released Office version of DEVONthink Pro, adds even more document management features, including direct scanning and automatic archiving of email.

DEVONthink Academy
Recognizing the extensiveness of DEVONthink, Devon Technologies has setup a website, DEVONacademy which has a range of training resources, such as online and video tutorials.

Versions
DEVONthink comes in three versions: Personal, Pro and Pro Office, plus there is a cut down version to store and organize your notes, called DEVONnote. For a comparison of their features, visit the feature comparison web page.

Overall
Many people talk about the great volume of software for the Mac but I disagree - compared to the Windows world there’s not a lot. But does it matter that there’s not a vast selection? Because the quality certainly makes up for the quantity. And top of the tree is DEVONthink.

However, imagine if I showed you a snowball and used it to describe the Himalayas. DEVONthink is a little like that. It is so vast and flexible, I can’t do it justice. Try it out for yourself, because you will find some way it will be beneficial to what you do. 9/10