Dini, Kourosh - Taking Smart Notes With DEVONthink (2020)

Taking Smart Notes with DEVONthink
© 2020 Kourosh Dini
All rights reserved. This document may be printed for personal use by the owner of the
digital file. Otherwise, no part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior
written permission of Kourosh Dini.
ISBN - ePub: 978-0-9863152-3-7
ISBN - PDF: 978-0-9863152-2-0
ISBN - mobi: 978-0-9863152-4-4
The Dini Group, Ltd.
Chicago, IL 60603
Cover design and format direction by Matt Strieby of New Leaf Design.
Editing by Alyse Aiello of Stormwood Editing Services.
DEVONthink™ is a registered trademark and is used under license by DEVONtechnologies.

For more information on DEVONtechnologies’s products the user may visit their website at
https://www.devontechnologies.com/. For DEVONthink, please visit https://
www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink.
Apple, Mac, Mac OS, iPad, Multi-Touch and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc. Other
company and product names including OmniFocus, Keyboard Maestro, TextExpander, iA
Writer, Folding Text, nvAlt, Ulysses, Scrivener, Paste, Alfred, and any others written of may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
I’ve received no compensation from the companies and products that I mention with the
exception of my own books, course, The Omni Group who has paid me for talks I’ve given, and
an affiliate link for David Sparks’ Keyboard Maestro Field Guide. However, please know that
I’ve been a fan long before any of those arrangements. My books and course include Creating
Flow with OmniFocus, Workflow Mastery, and Being Productive.
Versions of DEVONthink used are Desktop 3.0.3 (including test versions) and iPhone
DEVONthink To Go 2.7.6.
It is not the purpose of this book to cover the full range of information that is otherwise
available on this topic, but instead to complement, amplify, and supplement other texts. You
are urged to read all available material and tailor the information to your individual needs.
———————————————————— 2 ————————————————————
taking smart notes with devonthink KOUROSH DINI, MD
Every effort has been made to make this book as accurate as possible. However, there may
be mistakes, and with all the rapid changes online, some details may be inaccurate by the time
you read this. Therefore, this text should be used only as a general guide and not as the
ultimate source of information on the topic.
The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or
entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or
indirectly, by the information contained in this book or the files that accompany it.
Just to clarify, included in the purchase are programs known as macros for Keyboard
Maestro and scripts for AppleScript. They have been thoroughly tested and appear to be safe.
If, however, they cause you or your computer some form of harm, ranging anywhere from mild
discomfort to wild exploding turkeys leaping from the hard drive, the author and publisher
once again assumes no liability.
———————————————————— 3 ————————————————————
And some certain significance lurks in all things,
else all things are little worth,
and the round world itself but an empty cipher,
except to sell by the cart load,
as they do hills about Boston,
to fill up some morass in the Milky Way.
- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick1 1851
1 Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Bantam Books, 1967, p396
———————————————————— 4 ————————————————————
Acknowledgements
Super awesome mega-thanks to my family, friends, and audience. I have no idea how I’ve
deserved to be so lucky.
Thank you Mila, Viviana, Teresa, Badri, Morteza, Brent, and Gene for always being there.
Thank you to those who helped me test run an early version gave super excellent feedback,
as well as those in the forums who help to kick this book up a notch: darrylmy, Korm, and
Bernardo_V, arasmus, Doug, BLUEFROG, and pete31.
Thank you Rachel for helping me stand in front of an audience.
Thank you Robin for helping me keep my head on straight.
Thank you Doug (another Doug) for helping me think through meaning.
Thank you Alyse for continually helping gather my thoughts.
There are many others that have supported me throughout the years, and I simply cannot
name them all, at least three of whom I will kick myself for forgetting to add here before it’s
published.
———————————————————— 5 ————————————————————
to Barrie
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................5
Table of Contents
Introduction
On DEVONthink .........................................................................................................15
On Taking Notes.........................................................................................................17
On The Personal Nature of Notes ..............................................................................20
Slip-Box Basics
On the Slip-Box ..........................................................................................................22
Tools & Resources.......................................................................................................25
Summary of the Slip-Box Process ...............................................................................27
Preparations
Overview ....................................................................................................................31
Installing DEVONthink ................................................................................................32
An Approach ..............................................................................................................35
Creating and Preparing a Database ...........................................................................36
Setting Up the Same Views ........................................................................................39
Removing Smart Groups ............................................................................................43
A Note on Key Commands ........................................................................................46
Setting up Keyboard Maestro (Optional) ...................................................................47
First Notes & File Types

Beginning With a Single Note ....................................................................................51
Fleeting Note Best Practices ......................................................................................57
Practice: A Parallel Process .........................................................................................59
Choice of Files ............................................................................................................60
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Rich Text .....................................................................................................................63
Markdown Text ...........................................................................................................66
Other Thoughts on the RTF-Markdown Debate ........................................................70
Editing Files with DEVONthink or Other Programs ....................................................72
Converting Files .........................................................................................................80
Creating a Key Command for Markdown Notes ........................................................82
Linking
Beyond the First Note ................................................................................................94
Beginning With Links ..................................................................................................98
Using Item Links .........................................................................................................99
A Keyboard Maestro Macro for Item Links (Optional) ...............................................103
Using WikiLinks ..........................................................................................................104
Using Aliases .............................................................................................................109
Cautions with WikiLinks .............................................................................................112
Linking to URLs ..........................................................................................................113
Creating a Keyboard Maestro Palette (Optional) ......................................................115
(Optional) Triggering a Palette with BetterTouchTool ...............................................121
An Exercise ................................................................................................................127
Practice: Linking ........................................................................................................128
Appearances & The Generic Inspector

The Generic Inspector in Detail .................................................................................130
Appearances..............................................................................................................132
Styling CSS ................................................................................................................133
Creating Series of Notes

Linking in a Series ......................................................................................................139
Creating a Sequence in Text......................................................................................141
Using The Inspector's Custom Data Preferences ......................................................145
Other Custom Options ..............................................................................................157
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Practice: Create a Series ............................................................................................164
Types of Notes and Favoriting

Types of Notes...........................................................................................................166
Using a Table of Contents .........................................................................................167
Marking a Favorite File ..............................................................................................169
Using Tags to Create an Index

Using Tags as Entry Points .........................................................................................171
Creating Tags.............................................................................................................172
Using the Tag Library .................................................................................................178
Bringing Tags Into the Main View ..............................................................................180
Cautions with Tags.....................................................................................................181
Practice: Create an Index ..........................................................................................182
Gathering Notes
Overview ...................................................................................................................185
Using Smart Groups ..................................................................................................186
Creating A Smart Group - Today ...............................................................................189
Using Flags ................................................................................................................194
Sorting and Grouping Flags ......................................................................................197
Creating A Smart Group - Index Cards .....................................................................200
Other Useful Tags ......................................................................................................202
Cleaning Up With Standard Groups ..........................................................................203
Column Options ........................................................................................................205
Creating a Reference System

On References ...........................................................................................................212
Directly Adding a File ................................................................................................213
Useful Reference Practices ........................................................................................214
Creating Footnotes with Markdown ..........................................................................220
Creating Replicants ...................................................................................................221
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Clip to DEVONthink From Browser ...........................................................................223
Adding URLs Directly.................................................................................................226
Converting Sites to PDFs...........................................................................................228
Adding Website Content ..........................................................................................229
Additional Systems ....................................................................................................231
Using the PDF tools ...................................................................................................237
Reading Lists .............................................................................................................243
Practice: Create a System of References ...................................................................246
Finding Return Links - AppleScripts and Smart Rules

Power in Scripts and Rules ........................................................................................248
Simple Method ..........................................................................................................249
Using an AppleScript .................................................................................................250
Using Keyboard Maestro to Find Incoming Links (Optional) .....................................254
Adding Incoming Links to a Note .............................................................................261
Adding Incoming Links to All Notes Metadata .........................................................269
Including Incoming Links In Full Screen ....................................................................281
Adding Files, The Inbox, and Processing

Getting Information Into DEVONthink ......................................................................284
Processing a Note .....................................................................................................285
Considering an Inbox ................................................................................................288
Using an Inbox ...........................................................................................................291
Getting Information into the Inbox ...........................................................................294
The Sorter and New Notes ........................................................................................295
Quick Link to a New Note .........................................................................................303
A Note and Its Links ..................................................................................................306
The Sorter Additional Functions ................................................................................307
DEVONthink to Go ....................................................................................................312
Scanning into DEVONthink .......................................................................................313
Importing and Indexing .............................................................................................317
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Best Practices for the Inbox .......................................................................................322
Practice: The Inbox ....................................................................................................327
Using See Also, Classify, & Exclusions

See Also.....................................................................................................................329
Search ........................................................................................................................335
Classify.......................................................................................................................338
Exclusions ..................................................................................................................339
Working with Views, Workspaces, & Databases

Different Views ..........................................................................................................342
Building a Workspace ................................................................................................349
Closing and Opening Databases ..............................................................................350
Marking Favorite Databases ......................................................................................354
Setting Up the Inbox .................................................................................................356
Saving and Editing Workspaces ................................................................................361
Setting up Additional Windows ................................................................................364
Project Specific Workspace - Example 1 ...................................................................367
Project Specific Workspace - Example 2 ...................................................................368
Practice: Set up Workspaces .....................................................................................370
Developing the System

Following Up .............................................................................................................372
DEVONthink Reminders ............................................................................................373
Links and an External Task System ............................................................................376
Using a Tag and Apple Reminders ............................................................................379
Establishing a Reading System ..................................................................................382
Using a Task Manager for Establishing an Inbox Habit .............................................384
Connecting to a Task System ....................................................................................386
Using Templates and Placeholders

Using Templates and Placeholders ............................................................................391
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Creating New Templates from Existing Ones............................................................399
Creating New Templates from Scratch ......................................................................403
Developing a Project
Developing Papers ....................................................................................................407
Concordance View ....................................................................................................408
Gathering Notes with Search ....................................................................................416
Gathering Notes with Tagging ..................................................................................420
Creating Duplicates and Replicants ..........................................................................422
Transferring Notes to a New Database .....................................................................432
Split and Merge .........................................................................................................438
Transferring Notes Outside of DEVONthink..............................................................440
Organizing Tags .........................................................................................................443
An Example Workflow ...............................................................................................445
Multiple Paths ............................................................................................................451
Practice: A Project .....................................................................................................452
Syncing and DEVONthink to Go

Setting up Sync .........................................................................................................454
DEVONthink To Go - Installation ...............................................................................462
DEVONthink to Go - General Preferences and Sync .................................................464
DEVONthink to Go - Database Preferences ..............................................................474
Setting up Dictation ..................................................................................................481
Final Thoughts
Transition to Indexed Set of Cards ............................................................................486
Integrating External Apps .........................................................................................492
Thank you! .................................................................................................................497
Why Care? .................................................................................................................498
Books and Courses to Consider ................................................................................500
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“Consider a future device ... in which an individual stores all his books, records, and
communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding
speed and flexibility.
It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”2
- Vannevar Bush, 1945
2Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlan*c, July 1945 (1945). h?ps://www.theatlanEc.com/magazine/
archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/
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Introduction
On DEVONthink
There are any number of reasons you might be here. Maybe you need to organize your
digital stuff. Maybe you have lots of ideas and want a way to bring them together. Maybe you
bought DEVONthink and now want to figure out how to use it.
However you’ve arrived, welcome to Taking Smart Notes with DEVONthink. This guide has
two goals. To help you:
1. Learn many of the ins and outs of DEVONthink.
2. Develop a powerful set of personal notes.
What separates this text from a manual is precisely this dual path we’ll take to explore the
program. In order to fully learn something well, it needs to be used. Rather than just point out
function after function, we’ll look at how those functions work in an evolving example scenario.
Meanwhile, you’ll also create and build your own powerful set of notes along the way.
Let’s start with the first goal. What is DEVONthink?
DEVONthink is a program that helps you manage your data. Unfortunately, that sentence
doesn’t say much. You might ask, isn’t a computer about data management already? Well, yes.
And, some of you may already know that some of DEVONthink’s functions overlap with many
of the Mac’s native apps like Finder and Preview. So what, then, would be the point of
DEVONthink?
Beyond having several unique abilities, DEVONthink shines in the sum of its parts.
Hopefully, as you make your way through this text, you’ll hit that threshold where it all comes
together. Instead of wondering where you put that one idea, you’ll know exactly how to find it.
Instead of wondering where to put yet another idea, you’ll have a smooth way to connect it to
where it matters. And, instead of wondering how you’ll ever put that next presentation
together, you’ll have a way to quickly create a solid outline and even a good amount of content
within moments.
While I’ve been using DEVONthink for years now, it’s only been recently that I had my own
“aha” moment, where suddenly I could see its greater potential. DEVONthink’s parallels to
other programs can make it unclear, at least on first approach, to find where its advantages are.
But you do not need years of study to make it useful. You just need to know where to look. And
that’s what these pages are about.
———————————————————— 15 ————————————————————
DEVONthink is definitely a program that gives back what you put in. The more you engage
it, the more you might find yourself amazed by the ideas you’ve gathered and the inspiration in
finding new ones. The longer you work within it, the richer the connections can become.
While creating a set of notes may sound like all kinds of boring, it can actually be exciting
and even empowering. In fact, this book’s second aim is probably better described as helping
you to find an ease with your knowledge. At the very least, that means having a way to readily
store and present meaningful ideas quickly, whether for yourself or for any audience you desire.
Meanwhile, though I discuss using DEVONthink for notes and references, there are many
other possible uses. It’s simply impossible to write a comprehensive text to describe everything
you can do with it, much like it would be to show all the ways you could use a computer.
Therefore, though we will examine many of DEVONthink’s parts in detail, we will not do so
exhaustively. Some aspects will only be scenery, pointed out as potential trails for the reader to
follow and explore.
You may have little interest in managing your own notes or ideas. In fact, I imagine that
many who read this will not want to use DEVONthink in the ways I describe. That’s fine.
Still, I encourage you to go through the examples presented here as exercises, developing
your own database of notes along the way. Further, I would encourage you to visit your notes
daily, at least while you’re learning. You don’t have to do anything with them when you visit.
Just open the database, maybe read something, and add or edit an idea if it calls to you. As
with any learning habit, its power begins and grows by doing a little bit every day.
Meanwhile, engaging with your notes daily will also help you to familiarize yourself with
DEVONthink at a much deeper level, such that you can better adapt it to your own unique
wants and needs. You’ll learn how to sow and seed data, information, and ideas in the ways
that best suit you.
Please note, there are other excellent DEVONthink resources to consider such as
DEVONthink’s own manual, Joe Kissell’s Take Control of DEVONthink 3, and the DEVONthink
discourse forums.
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On Taking Notes
So what about the second goal? Why take notes?
If you’re anything like me, the idea of taking notes may fill you with both boredom and
dread. At least it used to for me. I had a difficult time with note-taking ever since my middle
school years until only recently. And I still have much to learn.
During school, I remember several occasions where I’d struggle to stay awake, writing
down phrases flying in from some foggy source at the front of the classroom. I would just hope
I’d understand them later. Sometimes, I did. But I’d also have to turn to textbooks to figure
things out. And if the textbooks were poorly written, I was then up the proverbial creek of
defecation.
For those classes I did enjoy, I’d at least understand what was being said before I wrote the
ideas down. Unfortunately, I now have no idea what happened to those notebooks. And even if
I found them, I’m not sure I’d be able to make heads or tails of what I’d written.
In some ways, that struggle has been a good thing. Instead of depending on the written
word, I learned to search for some simple central understanding of every thing I came across,
rendering them into ideas that hopefully rang true. I could then play with these basic building
blocks and weave them into my own way of thinking. It’s a great method for gaining a good
understanding and developing a foundation of intuition.
But there are drawbacks. Much like everyone else, I forget things. And sometimes I
wouldn’t fully understand what I’d written. Or I wouldn’t know where to find what I’d written.
Worse, I wouldn’t even remember there was something that could be useful for what I might
doing now. And then, even if I did remember, I’d have a hard time knowing what ideas came
from where.
Furthermore, when I get particularly good at something, I often lose the words to describe
the skills I’ve learned or where I’d learned them. Holding on to the map would be useful for
sharing knowledge with others.
Lastly, I’d have interesting ideas connecting principles between different fields, like music
and psychoanalysis. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have a way to do anything with those
connections other than write them down and then forget where I’d put the notes!
———————————————————— 17 ————————————————————
Several years ago, a friend of mine put together an app called Crusoe. Using Evernote, an
iPad, and his app, he would take notes on whatever he was reading at the time. And he reads a
lot. He’d then link his notes together. Links would be “bidirectional”. In other words, if he
connected Note A to Notes B and C, he could always return to Note A from Notes B or C. In
time, he built his notes into a wonderful network of ideas. He didn’t have to remember the
connections he made. He made them, and they were then at his disposal.
It seemed interesting, but I didn’t fully get it yet. And, as I didn’t really use either an iPad or
Evernote, it just didn’t fit me. And while I was awed, I also thought, “My goodness, I don’t read
that much”, “How much work did that take?”, and “Would it even be worth it?” So I didn’t
pursue it.
A year or two later, I came across How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens3 which
described a similar system to Crusoe. The idea was to create a large interconnected set of
notes. The original implementation came from Niklas Luhmann, a sociologist of the twentieth
century.4 In creating this unique note-taking system, he was able to not only gather his
thoughts, but to use them to write 70 books and nearly 400 scholarly articles, connecting ideas
from vastly different domains and fields of thought.5 Clearly, he found a way to both work with
and organize his thoughts.
He called it a Zettelkasten or “slip-box” or “note-box”. Throughout this text, I’ll mainly use
the phrase slip-box. His slip-box held a large set of physical note cards, numbering somewhere
into the tens of thousands. He wouldn’t organize them by a traditional folder and headings
system, though. Instead, he would link notes together using a combination of ordering and a
unique alphanumeric system.
But importantly, he also had a certain way of approaching his cards. He would design each
card to stand as a solid single idea, ready to both harmonize and fight for its existence in the
context of his other notes. His notes came to reflect an ecology of his own thought.
With How to Take Smart Notes, Ahrens adapts Luhmann’s system for the digital age. He
describes, quite lucidly, the analog note-taking system used by Luhmann but also translates it
for a digital system. I’ve since adopted and adapted Ahrens’ ideas for use with DEVONthink
and have been quite happy with my note-taking. Certainly, I encourage the reader to check out
his book.
3 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017.

4FascinaEngly, the idea of the system may have come even earlier with Vannevar Bush. - Bush, Vannevar. “As We
May Think.” The Atlan*c, no. July 1945 (1945). h?ps://www.theatlanEc.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-
may-think/303881/
5 h?ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann and h?ps://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/
———————————————————— 18 ————————————————————
Now, having started working with a slip-box, I find myself wondering, “Where has this thing
been all my life?” After a year of use, I haven’t felt any desire to set it aside. I’ve found it a
reliable companion while reading. Strangely enough, I even enjoy note-taking now, as it’s much
more about exploration and discovery than it is laborious archiving, never to be seen again.
I'm even able to approach ideas that I don't find all that enjoyable or disagree with
because, now, I have a place to process and think through my feelings about them. When ideas
contradict, I have ways to actively think about those conflicts. I don't have to memorize where
particular pieces of information come from because I now have a way to handle that.
Meanwhile, I pursue ideas that are interesting. Once I’m bored with something, I drop it
and go in a new direction, always building and creating along the way. As I do, I have a
growing repository that I can use for reflection, to write posts, books, and more.
While there is certainly work involved, I find it’s just fun to get lost in ideas. There is a sense
that I’m cultivating something, even if it’s just for me. I get to daydream while also being
productive. I wonder what it would have been like had I started a slip-box years ago. But as
they say, the best time to invest was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.
Certainly, I’m excited by the idea. Whether you enjoy the process, too, is of course your
own journey. Regardless, I believe it makes for an excellent subject with which to learn
DEVONthink—and if you start off on a new direction of learning, too, so much the better.
———————————————————— 19 ————————————————————
On The Personal Nature of Notes
I find that I write about what I use. Of course, that’s hardly surprising.
Previously, I wrote about a task manager. That book has done and continues to do well, and
I am immensely grateful to my readers who have found it useful. Meanwhile, most everyone
who has written to me about it mentions that they have found new and different ways to use it
than what I’ve written. And I am thrilled. I believe (or hope) it means that I was able to give
enough nourishment for their ideas to grow into their own.
With a task manager, we learn how we can set aside those things claiming our attention so
we can focus on a best next step forward. While we all lead different lives, there is much we
share in common. We still have to make sure the home runs well, manage our education and
work, and engage in relationships with others.
DEVONthink is different than a task manager in that there is much less managing any sense
of an “obligation” to it. In fact, dealing with your files, and more to the point your thoughts,
can even be about playful discovery. As personal a matter as task management can be,
DEVONthink is even more personal. While our tasks are about what we want to do, our notes
are about what we are thinking. As a result, your personal use and ideas will likely take on an
even broader array of uses.
Throughout this text, I’ll be using both an example database and my own. While I could
demonstrate exclusively with a dummy database, it just wouldn’t have the same living sense.
I guess this is all to say, have fun!
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Slip-Box Basics
On the Slip-Box
Before we get into DEVONthink itself, let’s first get a general understanding of what a slip-
box is. That way, you’ll have a goal around which to learn DEVONthink’s functions.6
So, what is a slip-box?
A slip-box is more than a tool. It is also a process. Much like wearing running shoes does
not make you a runner and buying a task manager does not make you productive, owning the
tools of a slip-box does not organize your ideas. But before we get to understanding how to
use a slip-box, let’s consider what it can do.
Put simply, a slip-box helps us to organize our ideas.
But what does that even mean? There are many ways to organize. And, depending on your
history with organizing, the word can conjure fears of hopelessness, procrastination, and more.
Usually, if we take notes, whether writing in the margins of a book, underlining,

highlighting, or adding thoughts to a piece of paper or a journal, those thoughts just sit there.
Then, if we want them for some project, we have to remember that they exist in the first place.
Further, when we originally wrote them, we wouldn’t know when and where they’d be useful for
any future projects. Therefore, we very likely wouldn’t set them up so we could get to them
easily. So, not only do we have to remember that we had notes, we have to remember where
they exist and figure out how to get to them.
The idea of the slip-box is to have ideas come to us when we want them to. We want
relevant ideas to come to us, even though we don’t know in advance that they will be relevant.
That seems like a bizarrely impossible task, but it’s not.
The mechanics of the process are actually quite simple: write a single idea per note card
and link it to related cards. While there is more, that is the central idea. Some readers may
recognize a parallel to a “wiki”, and in many ways, it is quite parallel. A wiki holds notes that
link to other notes. However, there are also several major differences.
The first difference is the use of what is termed an “Index”. The Index is a relatively small
subset of cards that are, more or less, central. They can also act as keywords and concepts as
well as useful entry points into the system.
6 Throughout my internet and forum study of the Ze6elkasten, there appears to be some mystery and even some
arguments about its use. Suffice it to say, these pages are my best interpretaEon.
———————————————————— 22 ————————————————————
The second is the use of a reference system. Whenever you read something or have an
idea, you immediately document the source. That way, when you link to it from your notes, you
will immediately have a way to get back to your source, be that for a refresher or for use in a
bibliography.
The third is the invitation to think deeply. With a slip-box, we have the opportunity to
actively engage in a discussion with our notes. At our own pace, with a light touch or
aggressive pursuit, we distill ideas, gathered or inspired, into our own words. We wonder, find
the essence of ideas, and connect them together, giving them context. And sometimes, as we
do so, we find new questions and ideas to pursue or set aside until we’re ready.
Through play and creation, we find what ideas mean to us, engaging in an excellent form of
learning. By clarifying our thoughts, we make them more accessible to ourselves and others.
We discover ideas and inconsistencies that were not apparent at first.
A fourth major difference is the sense that our notes evolve over time. As we visit our notes,
seeing them in new contexts every time, thinking with our new selves at every visit, we subject
the slip-box to evolutionary forces. We remove ideas that don’t make sense and strengthen
those that do. The slip-box increasingly reflects how we think, but enjoyably challenges us
along the way.
A fifth major difference is the focus on developing meaning. It is a subtle but important
distinction. To illustrate, I’ll give an example with writing a task.
When we would like to work on something, but something else is nagging at us, we can
write the “something else” as a task. That way, we set aside a competing interest so we can
free up some of our precious attention for what we would like to do right now.
Meanwhile, with a slip-box, we document connections. By doing so, we free up some of

our precious working memory—that worktable of the mind we use for the now. By separating
the work of creating connections from content, we can focus on the idea in front of us and its
context in our own time.
Meaning, after all, is inherently about connectedness. The more connected an idea is
throughout ourselves, others, conscious, and unconscious, the more meaningful it is. In this
way, we actually work with meaning. We take ideas found in our surroundings and then
integrate them into a context that is personally meaningful. By taking care with the notes we
write, clearly considering what is relevant where, we discover and develop meaningful ideas for
ourselves and perhaps others.
When we see previous ideas we’ve had and compare them to our current ones, we often
find inspiration for new ideas and questions. We build an iterative process to develop thought.7
7 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017. p20
———————————————————— 23 ————————————————————
Finally, a sixth major difference is how we can now use our notes for developing our
thoughts for presentations, such as papers, lectures, and the like. Too often, when in a position
of having to develop a topic, we look to do so from scratch. If we are given a deadline and a
minimum page count, the blank canvas can appear quite daunting. Instead, by having a solid
set of interconnected notes, we have something to work from. We can build on ideas we’ve
already had and have a guided path to organize them, filling in blanks where needed.
Throughout this text, we’ll look in detail at how we can use DEVONthink from developing
our thoughts from their first inkling through adding them into an editor so that we can turn
them into creations for an audience should we desire to.
———————————————————— 24 ————————————————————
Tools & Resources
There are four tools that compose a slip-box:8
1. Something to capture ideas known as an Inbox
2. Something to hold our notes, which can either be a digital application or analog
box
3. Something to hold our references, which can either be a digital application or a set
of notes
4. Something to help us write a finished product, such as a text editor or writing

application
In this text, we’ll be using:
• DEVONthink Pro for the Inbox, notes manager, and reference manager
• Any of a number of writing applications including DEVONthink itself. Other

programs I’ll mention include Scrivener, Ulysses, iA Writer, Folding Text, and Typora,
among others.
Other tools and possibilities certainly exist. For example, Sönke Ahrens, author of How to
Take Smart Notes, recommends 3 free programs to build a system. Tinderbox, Roam Research,
nvAlt and nvUltra all have ways of connecting notes within themselves.
Neither set of tools is better than another. Personal preference is key.
Certainly, it can take some time and consideration to make a decision as to which to use. As
much as various programs offer some assurance of “we do not lock you in” and even provide
ways to export information easily, I find that there are still difficulties in transitions. While
building a set of notes, we are also investing in the system used. And even after I’ve written
this, new programs with note connecting abilities will appear.
Of course, you are here reading this text so, chances are, you have a bias towards
DEVONthink. Still, I ask you to kindly indulge my reasoning for choosing it.
———————————————————— 25 ————————————————————
It took several months to fully test several applications, transferring and recreating as
needed, before I decided on DEVONthink. It’s been around for years, and their support has
always been there for me. The program has a neat automatic wiki-like system that makes
connecting notes a breeze. It can take care of references and even has a way to suggest
references and other notes that might be relevant to what I’m currently writing. It quickly boots
up, has an app for the phone, is local to my devices, syncs across computers, encrypts a
database if I want, and more.
So in the end, it won, and here we are.
Beyond note taking, there are other apps that I use quite regularly. I’ll mention several of
them throughout this text. None of them are necessary in using DEVONthink or in creating a
slip-box, though they can make things go smoother. These include:
• Keyboard Maestro - an application that uses keystrokes as a trigger, though for

more than the creation of text
• OmniFocus - a task manager that I’ve written about extensively9
• TextExpander - an application that also takes a few keystrokes and builds them into
larger swaths of text
• BetterTouchTool - an application that takes a number of commands types and turns

them a range of actions
If you work with any equivalent competitors, please feel free to adapt the ideas to those
applications.
If you’re not interested in any of these, feel free to skip past those sections. Of the group,
Keyboard Maestro features most prominently. I’ve included the phrase “Optional Keyboard
Maestro Integration” at the top of its sections.
Lastly, as I’ve been writing about productivity and task management for over a decade now,
I’ve come to have several other books and a video course. Where there is an overlap of ideas, I
will describe the essentials in this book so you have no need to go elsewhere. However, I will
also point to the other resources when relevant should you wish to delve deeper.
9 Dini, Kourosh. Crea*ng Flow with OmniFocus. Third EdiEon, 2019.
———————————————————— 26 ————————————————————
Summary of the Slip-Box Process
Learning is often best done when accompanied by doing. I encourage you to occasionally
put down this text and play around with your system.
We’ve already discussed what makes a slip-box. However, it is important to emphasize its
nature as including time. Our ideas continually change. Any tool that would help us develop
our thoughts should be able to change as well. Otherwise, it won’t be very useful.
In this way, as I mentioned earlier, a slip-box may better be described as a process, a

motion of work through time. In fact, there are at least two processes that can be going on at
any one time. We can even have several ideas and projects going through these processes at
the same time.
This may sound terribly confusing and even worrisome as you fear the need to keep many
things in mind for it to work. You don’t. Once you understand the structure of the slip-box, the
system almost seems to ask for the maintenance it needs where it needs it. Certainly, it needs
attention, but the methods are simple, and you can garden at your own pace.
The processes described below are an adaptation from Ahrens’ How to Take Smart Notes.10
While the graphics may not entirely make sense just yet, you may find it useful in these early
stages of our journey for ease of reference. We’ll examine the steps in more detail as we go
along. For now, here is a quick summary.
10 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017. p23-25
———————————————————— 27 ————————————————————
Developing Ideas
The first main processes is to develop ideas:
At first, when we have an idea, we can write it down, whether that’s on a scrap of paper,
some application, or anything we can grab nearby. Meanwhile, we also jot down where the
idea started—its source. We can add those ideas to an Inbox.
Later, we can edit and sculpt them into singular concepts, where individual notes carry
something meaningful within themselves. We connect those notes to references and other
notes that we’ve created in the past. And we may well be inspired to write down new ideas as
we go.
As each note is completed, we can add it to the general pool, our database of notes.
Similarly, we add any references to our reference files.
———————————————————— 28 ————————————————————
Delivering Ideas
The second main process is about preparing and delivering those ideas to an audience:
After choosing an idea to develop, be that by interest or assignment, we can readily access
ideas related to it. We then gather those ideas to arrange and choose the most relevant among
them.
Once ready with our selection of notes, we can copy them into a writing program,
DEVONthink itself being one possibility. Finally, we can then edit the work, developing ideas
even further until it is ready for presentation.
Each of these sections can be carried along and enhanced using DEVONthink. We will
examine the use of DEVONthink, generally, in this order. In this way, we will follow paths of
ideas from conception to delivery while studying the program.
I do want to emphasize that the above processes are only an overview and are not
sacrosanct. We can approach our notes by any number of methods and means. For example,
when we get started, we’ll actually enter a note straight into the database rather than use the
Inbox.
———————————————————— 29 ————————————————————
Preparations
Overview
In this chapter, we will:
• Install DEVONthink
• Consider an optional adjunctive program, Keyboard Maestro
• Consider how to approach this guide
• Prepare a database
• Align our views
———————————————————— 31 ————————————————————
Installing DEVONthink
To begin, of course, we need to install DEVONthink if you have not already done so.
DEVONTechnologies offers a free trial of DEVONthink. To download the application,
• Go to their download site
• Select Download:
• Choose Save file:
———————————————————— 32 ————————————————————
• Find the newly downloaded file
If you are having trouble finding your downloaded file, you may need to access your
browser’s preferences (Command-,) and see where you have your preferred download location:
• Double-click the downloaded zip file
• If another file appears, double-click that one as well:
———————————————————— 33 ————————————————————
• Run through the installation procedure:
• Hopefully, agree to the terms
• Drag and drop the application into your Applications folder:
———————————————————— 34 ————————————————————
An Approach
As with many systems, there is an overall complexity. Trying to understand it, or even know
where to start, can feel overwhelming. DEVONthink can hold a tremendous amount of
information: texts, emails, images, videos, and documents of numerous sorts. I cannot
remember DEVONthink ever being unable to handle a file I have thrown at it.
You may be tempted to add everything but the kitchen sink into the database, but I would
suggest holding off. The more precise you are with its utility, the more useful DEVONthink
tends to be. DEVONthink is particularly helpful when guiding you to find relationships between
your materials. However, that help rests on your own attempts to find those relationships. The
more you add at once, the more likely you will find yourself buried under a mess.
Quite likely, you’ve been in such a place before, and you may even be there now.
Otherwise, you wouldn’t have searched for an organizer such as DEVONthink or come to this
text.
Do know that DEVONthink can be started and maintained without much effort. Any
complexity that grows can be at your pace, unfolding by the utility you demand. In fact, I
encourage taking the learning process at a steady pace.
For these reasons, we will go through DEVONthink gradually. We’ll steadily build, adding
one idea on top of the next. Where there might be something relevant elsewhere in the text,
I’ll offer a link to get there.
———————————————————— 35 ————————————————————
Creating and Preparing a Database
The major unit of DEVONthink is a Database. A database is essentially a container. It holds

related materials and separates them from other files. DEVONthink can create multiple such
containers, along with the means to open and close them as needed.
There are many potential examples of the types of databases you might find helpful. In fact,
there are more possibilities than I can likely list. But several examples may be having an
individual database each for:
• Emails
• Book reviews
• Home inventory
• Receipts for home
• Receipts for business
• Travel information
• Travel log
• General thoughts and ideas
• Journal
• Blog posts
• Research and reference files
• Recipe organizer
• And more…
Alternatively, you could group several of these together into a single database.
For now, however, we’ll focus on creating one database for our set of notes. If you already
have been using DEVONthink and have several databases, let’s create a fresh one now.
———————————————————— 36 ————————————————————
To create a database, in DEVONthink:
• Select either ”Menu > File > New Database” or “Menu > File > New Encrypted
Database”
If you choose to have an encrypted database, you will see:
Note that in this case, you will need to both:
• Create a password11
• Decide how large the database will be at a maximum size
I can easily imagine a scenario where you create a database that runs out of room.
Consider, if you create an encrypted database and run out of room from your predicted use of
space, you can always create a new encrypted database, estimate a larger size, and copy the
original documents there. We’ll examine how to duplicate documents later in this text.
Whether you have decided on an encrypted database or not:
• Select a location in the Finder for storage
Choosing a location is an important matter. Avoid putting it in a syncing folder, e.g.

Dropbox or iCloud. Doing so tends to create problems if not outright corrupt the file. While
you may wish to have the database sync to another computer, adding it to a synced folder is
not the way to do so. Syncing will be covered towards the end of this text. See Syncing and
DEVONthink to Go.
11 Please note, if you forget the password, it cannot be recovered.
———————————————————— 37 ————————————————————
I tend to place my databases all together in a single folder called DEVONthink Databases
under the User folder:
After choosing a location:
• Name your database
I’ve titled this one “Slip-Box demo”. In these images, my personal one is just called “Slip-
Box”.12
12As we progress through the text, you may noEce other names for my demo database such as “Slip-Box Chapter
2”. These are all arEfacts of how I’m wriEng this text so I can jump back and forth in the wriEng. You will even see
several cameos of my personal slip-box.
Also, just as I was wrapping up this book, I changed the name to “Notebox”. To minimize any confusion, I’ve
remained with the phrase “slip-box” throughout this text.
———————————————————— 38 ————————————————————
Setting Up the Same Views
When first setting up a database, something like the following should appear:
There may be differences between your set up and that shown above. Let’s make some
adjustments so that we’re working from a similar view.
———————————————————— 39 ————————————————————
There are three main areas we can adjust: Sidebar, View, and Preview. To see the settings
for them all at once:
• Select Menu > View:
The above settings are those that I will tend to use, more often than not, throughout this
text. This is more due to the nature of the material than it is my only use. For example, a
database consisting of URLs may be viewed with very different settings. We will examine these
views in greater detail later in this text.
———————————————————— 40 ————————————————————
To make adjustments so that we’re working from a similar view, begin by opening the
Sidebar to Navigate:
• Select Menu > View > Navigate. (Option-Command-1):
The Sidebar is “toggled” open and closed. If you type Option-Command-1 while it is
opened, it will close. If you type Option-Command-1 while it is closed, it will open. For now,
leave the Sidebar open.
In the View section, choose as List:
• Select Menu > View > as List (Command-2)
For the Preview section, choose Standard:
• Select Menu > View > Standard (Command-6)
———————————————————— 41 ————————————————————
In addition to the Sidebar, View and Preview sections, DEVONthink provides an Inspector
with its own suite of tools.
Similar to the Sidebar, the Inspector is toggled open or closed. For now, let’s keep it closed.
To toggle the Inspector closed:
• Select Menu > Tools > Inspectors > Hide (Option-Command-i)
———————————————————— 42 ————————————————————
Removing Smart Groups
Once you create a database, DEVONthink automatically creates several default Smart
Groups:
To learn a program or really anything well, it is useful to begin with its most basic
components and build from there. Here, however, we are already presented with several Smart
Groups which are complex. We’ll look at Smart Groups in greater detail later in this text.
For now, consider deleting them, or at least moving them into a folder, in order to lay a
clear foundation for your database. If you prefer to examine them before doing either:
• Control-click a Smart Group
• Select Edit…:
———————————————————— 43 ————————————————————
You will see:
You can see that “All of the following” is selected with “Kind” “is” “Image”. This will look
at all of your images within the database.
Feel free to examine the other Smart Groups if you would like. When done, consider
whether you wish to delete them or move them to a folder. I will show both methods below,
but I will delete them for the example database of the text.
If you are considering deleting them, know that you can always recreate Smart Groups. You
can do so either manually, as we’ll examine later, or by creating a new database and dragging
and dropping the automatically generated Smart Groups into your working database.
Intro to Creating a Group
To move the Smart Groups into a folder:
• Command-Select all of the Smart Groups:
• Type Option-Command-g:
• Title the group, e.g. “Start up Groups”
———————————————————— 44 ————————————————————
• To see them again, toggle the disclosure triangle:
Deleting and Emptying Trash
To delete the Smart Groups:
• Command-Select the Smart Groups
• Type Delete
Similar to the Finder, when you trash an item, it is moved to the trash bin for review before
being completely removed from your computer. You can find the trash bin in the “Globals”
section in the sidebar. If your sidebar is closed, you can open and close it with (Option-
Command-1):
To empty the trash, either:
• Select Menu > DEVONthink 3 > Empty Trash…
• Type Shift-Command-Delete
———————————————————— 45 ————————————————————
A Note on Key Commands
Before going any further, we’ll take a brief detour to discuss key commands. In general,
there are two or three available means of getting a program to do something for you:
1. By menu option
2. By contextual menu (Command-click a widget and selecting an option that appears)
3. By key command
At first glance, the difference between using key commands over the other options may
seem trivial. There might only be a second or two of difference. However, that moving of hands
to trackpad or mouse, scrolling through menus, finding the correct option, selecting it, and
returning your hands to the keyboard is actually a rather long path. Done repeatedly, with
different functions, this long path adds up and affects the overall flow of work.
When you become adept at selecting key commands, workflow can speed up
tremendously. You may even reach those thresholds where you can do work you wouldn’t have
considered possible before, and even enjoyably so.
Programs on the Mac often show associated key commands alongside their menu
commands:
Whenever you see a menu item you are using with a key command offered, in DEVONthink
or otherwise, consider pausing to practice a moment.
Sometimes, however, there is no key command associated with an action. In these cases,
we can often create one for ourselves. MacOS has its own methods of adding a key command.
We’ll examine creating one in detail in the course of the text.
———————————————————— 46 ————————————————————
Setting up Keyboard Maestro (Optional)
Over the years, I’ve grown accustomed to a program that helps create custom key
commands, known as Keyboard Maestro. I also will touch on its use throughout this text, but
please know that Keyboard Maestro is not necessary to use DEVONthink. Feel free to skip
these sections, including this one, if it’s not of interest. I will not go into the same depth and
detail of its use as I will with DEVONthink, but will instead describe where it may enhance a
particular use.
In short, Keyboard Maestro interprets your keystrokes (or other triggers) and converts them
into any number of actions beyond simple menu options. As an example, it can take a key
combination such as Shift-Command-1 and move a current window to the left side of the
screen. In another more complex example, typing Option-w can trigger a sequence of events,
opening and arranging multiple windows while running a script to search for incoming links to a
particular note.
If that all sounds like complete gobbledygook to you, know that we’ll get into things one
step at a time.
Now, it is entirely possible that some more elegant solutions for the Keyboard Maestro
macros I describe exist using AppleScript. AppleScript is a long-standing programming
language that exists on the Mac. However, AppleScript is admittedly one of my weak spots.
While we will cover some of its integration during this text, I will do so mainly by resting on the
generous work of forum posters. If you come up with your own solutions, please feel free to let
me know.
———————————————————— 47 ————————————————————
Preparations
If you do decide to use Keyboard Maestro, consider setting up a folder to hold the macros
associated with DEVONthink. To do so and assuming you have Keyboard Maestro installed:
• Open Keyboard Maestro
• Select the “+” in the bottom left:
• Give the group a title such as “Application: DEVONthink 3”
• Select “Available in all applications” and change it to “Available in these

applications”:
———————————————————— 48 ————————————————————
• Select the green “+” that appears:
• Select “DEVONthink 3”:
You now have a group and container for any macros you create specifically for
DEVONthink.
Note, other excellent resources to consider are the Keyboard Maestro forums, the
Keyboard Maestro wiki, and David Sparks’ Keyboard Maestro Field Guide (Please note, this is
an affiliate link).
———————————————————— 49 ————————————————————
First Notes & File Types
Beginning With a Single Note
“Enough! Let’s begin already!” or so I imagine you saying. Ok, but one more thing, and
then I promise we’ll start with your first note…
As you build your note taking system, you’ll likely find better ways to use it. If you’re
anything like me, you’ll occasionally curse and ask, “Why didn’t I just do it that way before?!
Now I have to go back and rework a bunch of stuff!”
I’m hoping that this book will help you minimize such occurrences, as aggravating as they
may be. But please realize that these moments are part of any creative process, learning being
one of them. In fact, almost like clockwork, I stumble into one or several of these occasions just
as I believe I’m wrapping up a project.
It can therefore be very tempting to wait until having some mythically perfect approach at
the ready before starting. After all, wouldn’t doing something over be a waste of time?
Waiting for perfection is one of the many paths of procrastination. Doing something over is
often not a waste of time. Much is learned at every attempt, and the beauty of any creative
work rests on the many attempts that came before it. So, I’ll instead suggest that you simply
recognize that you’ll likely need to re-work here and there as you continue. Such are the pains
of progress.
So where to start?
The slip-box system is about working with your ideas. It is about developing your thoughts
around what you read, discover, or think of out of the blue. As you visit and revisit your notes,
you can begin conversing with your thoughts, adding and adjusting. Arguments and
agreements build into thoughtful presentations where you may even feel surprisingly able and
confident in what you put forth.
While you could copy the notes and examples demonstrated here, doing so would defeat
the purpose of the system. Instead, consider beginning with a book or article you are
interested in reading, or are in the middle of. So long as you have some interest, it should
work. If you decide to use this book as your primer, that’s fine, but I encourage you to also
choose something else as well to work with either concurrently or afterwards.
Interests exist because there is something uniquely meaningful about something to you.
Meaning is developed, fueled by emotion and shaped with thought over time. As you read and
write, you’ll have reactions, be those of agreement, disagreement, clarification, shock,
boredom, worry, or any number of other feelings. Consider what the feeling is, what you’re
reacting to, what your thoughts are, and begin writing.
———————————————————— 51 ————————————————————
A First Note
For our first example, I’ll be using the book Dynamic Story Creation in Plain English by
Maxwell Drake.
To give some background, I had somewhere developed an interest in the question “What
makes a story?” While at the San Diego Comic-Con a few years back, I saw several panels
offered about story writing. One lecturer, Drake, gave an engaging talk about how vastly
different stories were held together by very similar structures. I bought his book, gave it a read,
and put it on the shelf in my ever-growing library.
Now, as I pick it up again, I come across an interesting thought about character

development and I want to add it to my slip-box. Earlier, I mentioned that a note begins as a
“fleeting note”. That could be a dash of an idea onto a slip of paper, a quick note to the Inbox,
an underline in a passage, among other possibilities.
In general, the Inbox is an excellent place to funnel new ideas. However, since we’ll look at
the Inbox and its use at a later time, we’ll instead dive head first into the database by entering
a note directly inside of it.
When first adding a note, we’re already presented with several options. To see our options,
either:
• Select Menu > Data > New
Or
• Select the “New” icon in the Toolbar:
———————————————————— 52 ————————————————————
You will see:
The multiple options may seem overwhelming at first. However, we’ll go through them
shortly. And, after you have a decision as to what type of file you’d like for your notes, you
won’t need to make the decision again. You can even have a quick way to pull out a note
where you want it and just start typing.
For now, we’ll use the Markdown Text option.
To create a note:
• Select Menu > Data > New > Markdown Text:
———————————————————— 53 ————————————————————
A new note appears:
When first creating your note, DEVONthink may present different editing views. Make sure
the Markdown editing “Source” window is open. To do so, either:
• Select the center “source” icon below the files:
———————————————————— 54 ————————————————————
Or,
• Type Control-Command-x
When first creating a note, the title is selected and ready to be renamed. Personally, I prefer
to write a title after I’ve written my thoughts. Coming up with a title, coalescing the ideas into a
concise for words, seems to require more thought than simply starting to write. I find that just
beginning to write is better suited to the initial stages of organizing thought than is coming up
with a useful label. Certainly, your process may be different.
Begin writing your note. To do so:
• Select the editing section at the bottom
• Type an idea that comes to mind
Again, it does not have to be perfect:
Now that I’ve written my thoughts, I’d like to consider a title for the note. To return to
editing the title:
• Select the title of the note
———————————————————— 55 ————————————————————
If the title does not automatically change to allow editing, either:
• Select the title again, or
• Type Return
Either will toggle editing of the title:
• Write a title
• Type Return:
———————————————————— 56 ————————————————————
Fleeting Note Best Practices
When writing a note, attempt to:
• Write each idea as a single note
• When available, write the source of your idea (the author’s last name and the year of
publication often work well)
• Avoid quoting without commentary
Consider these as guidelines and useful measures, more so than as strict requirements. For
example, we could debate what constitutes “a single idea”, but it may be better to leave the
concept purposely vague. After all, what measures a single idea can change.
It could begin as a single sentence capturing a glimpse of an idea. Or it could be a

paragraph summarizing a book. That summary could later link to several notes, each being a
chapter summary. Those summaries in turn could branch into smaller bite-sized concepts. If you
have more than a single idea to write, feel free to write multiple notes.
Notice, too, that in our example I did not write a direct quote:
———————————————————— 57 ————————————————————
Instead of quoting something directly, I find it useful to attempt to summarize and
elaborate. Allowing the thought go through one’s self, feelings and thoughts, before coming
out one’s hands into the computer, allows it to both grow and become personally meaningful.
This is not to say never quote, but if you do, consider writing about what makes it meaningful
or useful to you in addition.
One of writing’s powers is in how it aids the organization of thought. By expanding and
expounding on something in your own words, the ideas begin to integrate as a part of you.
You’ll be much more able to speak about them from your own perspective and experiences.
Even if you disagree with an idea, you’ll be better able to communicate with those who
espouse it so you can then engage them in your own point of view.
Also, note that I’ve added the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page so I
can store the reference. We’ll come back to managing references later. Otherwise I title the
note “Character” and leave it at that.
———————————————————— 58 ————————————————————
Practice: A Parallel Process
Throughout this book, I will encourage you to build your own slip-box. We’ve already gone
through setting up a database and an example of a first note. Before moving on, I encourage
to you write your first note.
It’s possible and even probable that you’ll add more to the note at some future time. But
for now, if you feel that you’ve captured something of your thought, that’s fine. You’ll have
started.
Certainly, feel free to build your own slip-box as you go along at your own pace. But just in
case, as you continue through this text, I may give a nudge here or there.
———————————————————— 59 ————————————————————
Choice of Files
Like many beginnings, the initial steps can seem quite detailed and boring. You might
argue, quite appropriately, that you’ll figure it out as you go. After all, much is learned in
action. Hopefully, however, as we move through the next few sections, you’ll gain a
foundational understanding of the file types that might be most personally useful to give you a
solid foundation for the databases you build.
Before moving on to creating more notes, let’s consider the types of files we have available
to us. It’s not vital to decide on one or the other from the outset. In fact, you can have different
note types, all living together quite nicely in your database. But having consistency does help
later when it comes to some ease of use, scripting, and for general aesthetics.
An important difference between file types is how they link to other notes. This difference is
particularly important for our purposes of building a slip-box. We haven’t examined links yet
but will do so in detail later in this text. But since links may be important in making a decision
about types of files you’d like to use, we can at least look at them superficially for now.
In brief, there are two types of links:
• Item Links - are manually created links that point directly to a note, group, URL, or
external resource.
• WikiLinks - are automatically created links based on the title of a note. For example,
if a note is titled “Character”, anywhere the word “Character” appears, it will be
converted into a link to that note. WikiLinks, at least currently, are not well supported in
DEVONthink to Go, DEVONthink’s iOS counterpart.
———————————————————— 60 ————————————————————
With this is mind, let’s look at our file options:
• Select “New” from the toolbar to, once again, see the list of available writing
options:
The second section shows our file options. Briefly:
• Plain Text - refers to the simplest text editor. There is no styling, editing, or item
linking available.
• Rich Text - works like most word processors. In fact, it functions just like the TextEdit
application on your Mac. You can add images, links, and style.
• Formatted Note - functions somewhere between plain and rich text in that the
writing is simple, but it is more easily read by another user on most any web browser. It
does not support WikiLinks.
• Markdown Text - is a plain text editor that allows for linking, styling, and more
through a particular syntax or way of writing.
• HTML Page - is similar to Formatted Note. Text and links can be coded using html.
It does not support WikiLinks.
• Sheet - creates a spreadsheet with several entry possibilities including text,

numbers, dates, and links to other files and URLs.
———————————————————— 61 ————————————————————
Each has its own advantages. For our purposes, we want the ability to easily:
• Write our thoughts without anything getting in the way
• Link one file to the next using both Item and WikiLinks
As a result, there are two main contenders:
• Markdown
• Rich Text (RTF)
Neither is necessarily better than the other. Just to give you the punchline up front, I’ve
struggled back and forth between them and have currently settled with Markdown. As a result,
I’ll be mostly using Markdown files for notes throughout this text. Should you decide to use
RTF files, you can adapt many, but not all, of the ideas to them. Meanwhile, RTF files have their
own advantages.
We’ll look at the main differences in the next sections to help you decide.
———————————————————— 62 ————————————————————
Rich Text
One of the difficulties inherent to building a system is that we don’t know what settings
might be better suited to us until we are well into building it. At that point, we’ve already
invested ourselves and it can be frustrating to shift the system down the line.
Thankfully, as this is a text book, we can peer into the future. To better demonstrate
differences between files, I will use a different file than the “Character” one that I’ve already
started. The following will use, as an example, a file that has some minimal formatting and
several links to other notes.
Rich Text or RTF is a file format that gives a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)
editor. It allows us to style the work. When you bold something, you see it in bold. When you
italicize something, it is in italics. You can even add images directly to the file.
We’ll now use an example of a notecard from my own database. Feel free to create a Rich
Text file to follow along. To do so, either:
• Select Menu > Data > New > Rich Text File
• Type the key command (Control-Command-n)
• Select “New” from the toolbar, and select Rich Text File
———————————————————— 63 ————————————————————
The RTF file has a nice simple window:
DEVONthink offers several editing possibilities for RTF files. To toggle the editing options,
either:
• Select the icon on the far right:
Or,
• Type the key command (Shift-Command-e)
———————————————————— 64 ————————————————————
You will then see a list of common editing options:
One particular advantage of RTFs over Markdown files is the highlight option:
When you highlight several notes, DEVONthink gives you an option to jump from one
highlight to the next. To do so,
• Close the editing options by selecting the icon on the far right
• Select the previous or next highlight button:
Other useful key commands to consider are:
• Shift-Command-f to access the Formatting Bar
• Shift-Command-r to access the ruler
———————————————————— 65 ————————————————————
Markdown Text
Our other major choice of text file is Markdown.
Markdown is a system of plain text writing that combines the versatility of plain text with an
ability to quickly create links, lists, and the like. Its lack of formatting separates the work of
writing from that of styling. Originally created by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, and later
adapted into MultiMarkdown by Fletcher Penney, Markdown now has a huge fan base in the
Mac and productivity communities. That fan base has since created a world of scripts and
applications.
Markdown does have some syntax to learn. However, that syntax is quite simple and readily
learned with minimal practice. In fact, I’ll teach a few important ideas now:
• For the most part, type as you normally would
• Use “-” Or “*” at the beginning of a line to create an unordered list
• Use sequential numbers (1., 2., 3., …) at the beginning of consecutive lines to
create an ordered list
• Create links with the format, “[name](url://xxxxx)”
• Create headings by starting a line with “#”, “##”, “###”,… each additional hashtag
creating a subheading further into a hierarchy
There’s certainly more. For example, here’s a site and here’s another site that show lists of
basic syntax. But the above is certainly enough to get started. And, as you go through this text,
you’ll see the syntax in use. Once you start using it, it can become second nature rather quickly.
Markdown requires an editor that can read its syntax. DEVONthink just so happens to have
one. However, you may already have a different Markdown editor of your choice. If so,
DEVONthink provides a ready path to open and edit those files, while still saving them in
DEVONthink itself. Examples of such editors are Folding Text, Typora, iA Writer, Ulysses, and
Bear, among many others. We’ll look at how soon.
To examine Markdown files, I’ll use the same example as above. As before, feel free to
create your own file to follow along. To do so, either:
• Select Menu > Data > New > Markdown File
• Select “New” from the toolbar, and select Markdown File
———————————————————— 66 ————————————————————
When you first open a Markdown file, you may see any one of three presentations. These
are indicated by three icons, one of which will be highlighted:
• Preview (Control-Command-p)
• Source (Control-Command-x)
• Side-by-Side (Control-Command-y)
The first option, Preview, shows an automatically styled, but uneditable, version of your
note. To access Preview, either:
• Select Menu View > Document Display > Preview
• Type the key command Control-Command-p
• Select the icon:
You will see something along the lines of:
It should appear quite similar to the RTF version.
The second icon is the Source view of the note. To access the Source view, either:
———————————————————— 67 ————————————————————
• Select Menu View > Document Display > Source
• Type the key command Control-Command-x
You’ll see the Source view of the note, which is where you can write and edit the note:
Notice the syntax. The initial “#” sign signifies a large heading for the text that comes
afterward. The last word of the fifth paragraph, “A Hero’s Need”, has a long Item link. However,
comparing the link to the former image, you can see there is no apparent difference in the text
between the Item link and the others.
Finally, the third icon presents both the Source and Preview, Side-by-Side. To see the Side-
by-Side view, either:
• Select Menu View > Document Display > Side-by-Side
———————————————————— 68 ————————————————————
• Type the key command Control-Command-y
You will then see both editing and preview modes, where you can edit on the left and see
the results on the right:
If, while editing, you do not immediately see results in the second window, save your edits:
• Type Command-s
Your edits should then appear in the Preview window.
———————————————————— 69 ————————————————————
Other Thoughts on the RTF-Markdown Debate
Most users tend to prefer the RTF version of files and for good reason. The What-You-See-
Is-What-You-Get nature of the RTF is very useful. If you type something in bold, you see it in
bold. If you add a link, you see a link. Images are simple to add and styling is direct.
Rich Text Files had been my preferred file type for a considerable period of time. However, I
did change to Markdown for several reasons.
As I would come up with different ideas for formatting, its use in customized styling would
often get in my way. For example, I could adjust the ruler settings in a note, only to realize that
if I wanted any consistency between notes, I’d need to make the same adjustment to all of
them. Markdown allows for a general styling scheme that can apply to all notes in the
database.
Another issue is that in RTF versions of notes, Item links and WikiLinks appear identical. For
example, notice the phrase “A Hero’s Need” that we looked at earlier, though this time in the
RTF example:
———————————————————— 70 ————————————————————
It looks like a simple linked word. In the next Markdown example, the same word has the
phrase “A Hero’s Need” bracketed followed by a parenthetical link which includes a long string
of seemingly random letters and numbers:
That alphanumeric string is the Item link pointing to a particular file. Even if I change the
name of that linked file, this link will still hold. In contrast, any of the other links, known as
WikiLinks, will break if I were to change the titles of their respective notes. Markdown lets me
see which links are Item and which are Wiki. Perhaps more importantly, other programs and
scripts can see these Item links, too, which can afford advantages later.
Lastly, at least as of this writing, DEVONthink To Go can be problematic in that some of its
editing actions for RTF files seem delayed, making for clunky writing.
While DEVONthink offers a method of converting RTF into Markdown and vice versa, these
Item links break in the process. This is important to consider when deciding which file type you
intend to have as the predominant one for your notes.
Whether one decides to use Markdown or RTF is likely the cause of several lesser known
Internet wars.13 Of course, everyone is wrong except for me, but we’ll leave that aside for the
time being.
As of this wriEng, that link has a user who has offered a neat repository of Keyboard Maestro snippets that work
13
well with DEVONthink.
———————————————————— 71 ————————————————————
Editing Files with DEVONthink or Other Programs
What can we possibly say about opening a file? Isn’t this just about the most commonly
done action on a computer?
In DEVONthink, there are several methods to working on a file, depending on how you
want to use it. There are, in essence, three ways to get at a file’s contents:
1. We can work with a file in the preview window, just as we saw with our Rich Text and
Markdown files earlier.
2. We can open a file in DEVONthink’s own editor in a separate window.
3. We can open a file in an application external to DEVONthink.
1. Working in a Preview Window
To work within the preview window, we can use either the Standard Preview (Command-6)
as we set in the Setting Up the Same Views section or the Widescreen Preview (Command-7).
These previews give us direct access to single files. The same works with many other file types
such as PDFs.
2. Using DEVONthink’s Editor
To open a file using DEVONthink’s own editor:
• Select the file:
Either:
• Double-click the file
• Select Menu > Data > Open
———————————————————— 72 ————————————————————
• Type the key command (Command-o)
• Control-click the file and select “Open” from the contextual menu:
We can further minimize the noise inherent to multiple windows by using DEVONthink’s full
screen editor. To use the editor:
• Select a document
• Select Menu > View > Full Screen > Document (Command-F7):
———————————————————— 73 ————————————————————
Here you’ll see that I’ve essentially reversed the background and foreground colors to make
for a more relaxed writing atmosphere:
We’ll take a look at managing styles and appearances soon.
3. Using External Editors
One of the advantages of DEVONthink is its tendency to be open to other programs. While
DEVONthink often has numerous editing tools at your disposal adapted to each file type, you
may well have your own editors of choice. For instance, many text editors are dedicated to
making the writing experience smooth and enjoyable. They have different key commands that
speed up the workflow among other niceties.
———————————————————— 74 ————————————————————
To open a file using an external editor, either:
• Control-click the file and select “Open with”, then select the preferred application
from the contextual menu:
• Shift-Command-o to open the default external editor
DEVONthink gives quick access to a default external editor. Notice in the image above,
that it is listed at the top, in this case as iA Writer. The default editor in DEVONthink reflects the
default editor chosen for the Mac in general. To change the default editor:
• Control-Select the item
———————————————————— 75 ————————————————————
• Select Show in Finder:
You should see something along the lines of:
• With the file selected, type (Command-i)
———————————————————— 76 ————————————————————
The Finder file preferences should appear:
Towards the bottom,
• Expand the “Open with” section if it’s not already open:
———————————————————— 77 ————————————————————
• Select the preferred option for the file. Here I’ll select the application “Typora”:
At this point, only this one file has the different application as its preferred editor. To
change the preferred editor for all similar files.
• Select ”Change All…”:
———————————————————— 78 ————————————————————
• Select “Continue”:
As an aside, one potential disadvantage to using an external editor is that you will not see
WikiLinks (to be covered) as you write them. You will still have to see them either through the
Preview or Side-by-Side views in DEVONthink, and only after you save the file. Often this is a
minor inconvenience. Depending on your preferences, you may even prefer to use an external
editor to avoid seeing WikiLinks appear while writing, particularly if you find them distracting.
———————————————————— 79 ————————————————————
Converting Files
You may already find yourself in a situation where you’ve used one file type for several files
and want to use another. Perhaps, much like myself, you had tried one format of files and then
decided to use another.
DEVONthink offers a method for converting files. While this is useful, it is not failsafe. There
are a couple of disadvantages at least:
1. Modification and added dates change. If you value either of these records, know
that they will change to reflect the moment of conversion.
2. Links may not always transfer. For example, if you have Item links in RTF files, they
will not transfer when converted to Markdown.
To transfer files from one type to another:
• Select the file(s) to convert:
———————————————————— 80 ————————————————————
Either:
• Select Menu > Data > Convert > {Desired format}
• Or Control-click and select Convert > to {Desired format}, for example:
DEVONthink will create new versions:
Once you make the transfer, consider deleting the originals.
———————————————————— 81 ————————————————————
Creating a Key Command for Markdown Notes
Key Command for a New Markdown File
Interestingly, there is no default key command to create a Markdown file as there is for an
RTF. Let’s create one now. There are two methods we’ll examine:
1. Using the native MacOS
2. Using Keyboard Maestro
In general, it is best to use either one or the other method for most of your key commands.
That way, you’ll be able to find any of the commands you’ve customized more easily. If conflicts
arise, it is simpler to have one place to look.
Having said that, there may still be times where one method is essential as the other cannot
do the work. For my own preferences, I use Keyboard Maestro as much as possible, except for
the occasional commands that can only be done using the MacOS system. As a result, I will be
biased towards this workflow. If you would like to create key commands mainly with MacOS,
please feel free to adapt what works for that method as we continue.
———————————————————— 82 ————————————————————
Customizing key commands with MacOS
• Open System Preferences with Menu > Apple icon > System Preferences…
• Select Keyboard:
• Select Shortcuts:
———————————————————— 83 ————————————————————
• In the left column, select “App Shortcuts“:
• At the bottom, select the Plus sign:
———————————————————— 84 ————————————————————
You should see a dialogue box to enter requested parameters:
• In “Application:”, select DEVONthink
• In “Menu Title:” type the exact title including capitalization of the menu
command. In this case, we are using “Markdown Text”.
• In “Keyboard Shortcut:” type a preferred menu command, for example Option-

m:
———————————————————— 85 ————————————————————
Customizing Key Commands Keyboard Maestro
If you would like to configure Keyboard Maestro to manage the key command, start by
deleting any key command you may have made in the last section so that they do not step on
each other’s toes. Then:
• Select the folder dedicated to DEVONthink created earlier:
We will now create a macro. A macro is a group of actions that Keyboard Maestro will take
when you ask it to do so.
———————————————————— 86 ————————————————————
• Select the “+” sign at the bottom of the Macros column:
• Keyboard Maestro will create an Untitled macro:
The title field is selected and ready for input.
———————————————————— 87 ————————————————————
• Type a title such as:
• Select “+ New Trigger”:
• Select the top option “Hot Key Trigger:”
———————————————————— 88 ————————————————————
• Enter a key command such as (Option-m):
• Select “+ New Action”:
———————————————————— 89 ————————————————————
• Select the Actions search box:
• Type “menu”
• Double-click “Select or Show a Menu Item”:
• In the new action, select “Menu”:
———————————————————— 90 ————————————————————
• Find and select the option for DEVONthink 3 > Data > New > Markdown Text in
the menu tree:
You should now have a completed macro ready for use:
From here on out, if I suggest or create a new key command, I will use an example of either
MacOS or Keyboard Maestro rather than both.
———————————————————— 91 ————————————————————
Linking
“The human mind … operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps
instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in accordance
with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. It has other
characteristics, of course; trails that are not frequently followed are prone to fade, items
are not fully permanent, memory is transitory. Yet the speed of action, the intricacy of
trails, the detail of mental pictures, is awe-inspiring beyond all else in nature.”14
- Vannevar Bush, 1945
14Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlan*c, no. July 1945 (1945). h?ps://www.theatlanEc.com/magazine/
archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/
———————————————————— 93 ————————————————————
Beyond the First Note
Building your slip-box is simple. We add notes, one at a time. It’s quite possible that you’ve
already added a few during or since our last exercise.
However, as soon as a second note enters the picture, we need to consider how to organize
it. As more notes appear, the need for organization increasingly presses on the system. And
that is, unsurprisingly, also the point where most systems begin to crack. So, before you go
about adding dozens or even hundreds of notes, let’s consider how a slip-box can be
organized. Otherwise, you may find yourself buried under a mess of ideas.
The standard methods for organizing notes usually rely on categorizing them into folders
or tagging them. While we can still use these methods, relying on them entirely or even as the
primary method often creates trouble.
For example, what happens when something belongs to two areas of interest? Well, we
could create two of the same file. But then we have a new problem. Making a change in one
wouldn’t be reflected in the other.
We could create a “replicant” (which we’ll cover in detail later). Briefly, when DEVONthink
replicates a file, it gives you an additional portal of entry to the same file so you can get to it
from multiple places. Great! But would we still be able to get to that file when we need it? If we
start adding more notes to one category or another, the sheer number of notes can make it
nearly impossible to find anything useful, thereby defeating the purpose of taking notes to
begin with.
And, we may not know the file could be helpful to us later. How could we be reminded of it
when it would be useful?
These issues and more plague the traditional filing systems and are the reason why a slip-
box can be a powerful tool for organizing your thoughts.
There are fundamental guidelines that govern organization be that in physical, digital, or
even mental realms.15 In brief, organization rests on 3 primary pillars:
1. Relevance
2. Accessibility
3. Avoidability
For a detailed exploraEon of organizing in all realms, digital, physical, and mental, consider my book, Workflow
15
Mastery.
———————————————————— 94 ————————————————————
1. Relevance
We need to know when something is relevant. In other words, we need to know that
something is useful when it would be useful. For example, if I have a paper to write about the
concept of story characters, and I do not remember that I have already written several thoughts
in a note called “Character”, the ideas on that note are not organized.
A useful question to ask to help develop this pillar is:
How will I become aware of this when it would be useful?
2. Accessibility
Continuing our example, if I do remember that I’ve written a note “Character”, but I cannot
get to it very easily, again it is poorly organized. Whether I don’t remember the title, I don’t
remember where I put it, the file format is unreadable, or I cannot physically get to it, it is
inaccessible.
A useful question to ask for optimizing accessibility is:
How will I be able to easily, even instantly, get to this when it would be useful?
3. Avoidability
Again continuing our example, if I have to wade through many other unrelated items to find
my note “Character”, then not only is it poorly organized, but all those other notes are poorly
organized, too.
A useful question to ask when optimizing for avoidability is:
How will I be able to easily avoid and preferably not even be aware of this when it is not
useful?
———————————————————— 95 ————————————————————
Balancing these three is the science and art of organizing.
Often, the trickiest part is to find a synthesis between the first and third pillars. How can we
know that something is useful when it would be? And at the same time, how can we keep it
completely out of our way otherwise? How can we remind ourselves of that thing when we
don’t currently know it would be useful?
The power of the slip-box comes into play from its method of linking. As we take a note, we
engage in a conversation with its neighboring notes. While writing, ideas come to mind—ideas
we’ve had, ideas we’ve written about, and new ideas we haven’t considered yet.
These are called associations. The mind works by association. We have a thought, and
rather than have a succession of single thoughts, we more likely have a whole group of them at
once, weaving and melding into each other alongside the triggers and anchors of perception.
Some thoughts may seem related. Others may not. And even those that do not may have
some unconscious connection we have yet to realize. Wouldn’t it be nice to capture not only
the thoughts, but also how they’re related, too? After all, the associations we have in mind can
shift and fade in time. Such is the life of a memory.
The slip-box is about not only capturing content, but connections as well. Doing so allows
us to call to mind a much wider breadth of what might be related to what we are focused on
now, than if we were to only think about it now.
As an example, while reading the same book as I mentioned in my first example, the
author, Drake, quotes Vonnegut about making bad things happen to a character. It seems
interesting, and so I write a new note, titled “Emotion's Role in Story“:
A key to engaging a reader is by making an emotional impact. As the character is the

vessel for the reader, making bad (big?) things happen to them is one way of creating
an emotional impact. Drake 2016, p44, quoting Vonnegut.
Alternatively said, “Heroes should succeed, but not until you first kick the living crap out
of them.” Drake 2016 p87
I also remember a comment made by JM Straczinsky of Babylon 5 writing fame. So I add it

to the note as well:
Straczinsky, at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, said that it is the introduction of
emotion that creates story. (e.g. “The king died. The queen died.” vs “The king died.
The queen died of grief.” The first is an event. The latter is a story.)
———————————————————— 96 ————————————————————
The first part has something to do with character. I remember writing a note about
character. I, therefore, think these two notes could be connected. To connect these notes, we’ll
now begin to use links.
After I connect them, I’ll be able to call one note from the other, and I won’t have to
remember the connection later. They’ll just be waiting there, ready for when I need them.
———————————————————— 97 ————————————————————
Beginning With Links
As noted earlier, there are two main types of links when using notes:
• Item Links
• WikiLinks
We will consider when Item links might be more useful than WikiLinks and vice versa.
———————————————————— 98 ————————————————————
Using Item Links
When we link directly, we choose a word to connect one note to the next, then insert the
link. For example, in the note begun in the previous sections, “Emotion’s Role in Story”, the
word “character” is directly in the wording of this note and would be a good point for a
connection.
To make an Item link:
• Select the word “character”
• Control click the highlighted word
• Select “Insert”
• Select “Item link…”:
———————————————————— 99 ————————————————————
A pop-up appears:
In my demo database here, you’ll see there are only two notes: “Character” and “Emotion’s
Role in Story”. I then:
• Select “Character”
I now have a link to take me to the other document:
———————————————————— 100 ————————————————————

To go to the first note:
• Select the blue link16
To see a more palatable version of the link and text, consider viewing the Markdown note
using either:
• Preview Mode (Control-Command-p):
Or…
16 In the case that you changed the color of the link in preferences, your links may appear differently.
———————————————————— 101 ————————————————————

• Side-by-Side mode (Control-Command-y):
Every document in DEVONthink has a unique identifier. That string of letters, numbers, and
dashes refers to that single file. There are numerous times, several of which we’ll examine, in
which you may wish to have that identifier handy.
To get a file’s Item Link:
• Select Menu > Edit > Copy Item Link (Control-Option-Command-c):
———————————————————— 102 ————————————————————

A Keyboard Maestro Macro for Item Links (Optional)
Repeatedly going through the Item link process can become tedious. For this reason,
consider creating a Keyboard Maestro macro to speed up the process. A macro to this end is
included in your purchase files. Alternatively, consider building it yourself using the model
outlined below:
With this macro, creating an Item link can be as simple as:
• Highlight the work to link
• Type Control-Option-Command-l
• Type Return
The process is not foolproof, however. It simply takes the phrase that you’ve selected,
copies it, opens the DEVONthink “Item Link…” option, then pastes the selected phrase. You
may need to reword or adjust your search phrase as needed.
———————————————————— 103 ————————————————————

Using WikiLinks
We can also simplify much of linking through DEVONthink’s automatic linking function,
called “WikiLinks”. When the WikiLinks function is active, anytime you write a note that
includes the title of an existing note, DEVONthink automatically creates a link for you.
For example, when I write “As the character is a vessel…”, the word “character” becomes a
link. In other words, we can create links simply by typing as we naturally do. Connecting notes
becomes a smooth process.
To show an example, first, I’ll remove the link created in the previous example (and add a
few thoughts):
———————————————————— 104 ————————————————————

To turn on the WikiLink functionality:
• Open Preferences (Command-,)
• Go to the WikiLinks tab
• Check WikiLinks to “Automatic” with the following settings:
As soon as you turn it on, the word “character” should highlight as a link:
(If the link does not automatically appear, navigate away from the note and return to it.)
———————————————————— 105 ————————————————————

WikiLinks have three main ways they can work. If you have closed your preferences window,
reopen it and set the tab to WikiLinks just as we did above. Our options are:
• MashedWords - The MashedWords setting creates links when phrases are written
without spaces. For example, with the note titled “Emotion’s Role in Story”, DEVONthink
would create a link only if we were to write the phrase, “emotion’sroleinstory”.
• Square Brackets [[…]] - Here, we create links using square brackets, for example:
[[Emotion’s Role in Story]]. This can be particularly helpful when sharing a set of files with
other applications through Indexing, as some other applications use this syntax instead.
• Names and Aliases - With “Names and Aliases” checked, DEVONthink creates a link
when the naked words themselves match the title of a note. This is the example I gave
above. We’ll cover aliases later.
Let’s consider the “Names and Aliases” option for a moment, which happens to be my
preference.
A potential benefit to using WikiLinks is the inherent discovery of relevant notes as you
type. When a slip-box gains enough notes, perhaps in the hundreds or thousands, it can be
quite easy to forget about a topic. Typing a word to discover you’ve already written about it is
pretty neat. For example, if it had been a long time since I worked with ideas of character, and I
was writing a note with the word “character” in it, I would then be reminded of it. I could then
go to that link, consider connections, have new ideas, and maybe add new notes.
As a side note, DEVONthink will take the longest phrase that matches directly to make this
link. For example, let’s say I had a note titled “Emotion” and another note titled “Emotion’s
Role in Story”. In a new note, as I typed “Emotion” a link would appear. As I continued to type
and complete the phrase “Emotion’s Role in Story”, the link would extend to the entire phrase
“Emotion’s Role in Story”.
The next preferences section presents choices of:
• All items - WikiLinks will work with both documents, groups, and tags.
• Only documents - WikiLinks will work with documents only.
• Only groups - WikiLinks will work with groups only.
———————————————————— 106 ————————————————————

As another side note, when using WikiLinks, you may have groups that you don’t want
linked to. Examples might be a group called “Notes”. We will look at creating exclusions in
more detail later in this text.
Case insensitive linking - With this option selected, either “Emotion’s Role in Story“ or
“emotion’s role in story” would create a link to the same note.
My personal preferences (shown above) include:
• Names and Aliases
• Only documents
• Case insensitive linking
———————————————————— 107 ————————————————————

A potential drawback to these settings is that we might run into words you do not want
linked in a note. For example, I may not want the word ”character” to appear as a link. In this
case, I could add parenthesis to the word:
If this feels tedious, consider using the Square Brackets option instead. The difference is
one of having to ”opt in” or “opt out” of a link when it appears.
———————————————————— 108 ————————————————————

Using Aliases
Linking through the WikiLinks system can certainly be helpful. But there are at least a
couple of areas they could leave us wanting.
First, we may want several words or turns of phrases to link to the same note. For our note
“Character”, we might also like the words “characters” and “characterization” to link to it.
Having to craft our sentences with some form of verbal gymnastics just so that we link to the
right note is awkward at best.
Second, we might cause trouble if we later decide to rename a note. Once a note is part of
the slip-box ecosystem, it can acquire any number of links. Meanwhile, it is not obvious from
the note itself whether or from where it has been linked. Without taking care in renaming a
note, you risk breaking the incoming links that connect through the WikiLinks system.
We can solve these problems with Aliases. Aliases are a set of one or more additional
names for a single file. In this way, they nicely augment our WikiLinks.
To access the Alias option, we will need to visit the Generic Inspector:
• Select a note
• Select Menu > Inspectors > Generic (Control-1):
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You’ll see a bunch of useful metadata:
We’ll go over the inspector in detail soon. For now:
Name: refers to the title of the note.
Aliases: allow us to provide alternative titles. We can add several useful aliases by
separating them with semicolons:
———————————————————— 110 ————————————————————

Here I’ve entered two phrases: “Characters” and “characterization”. Now, anytime I type
either of these, DEVONthink will create a WikiLink to the same note.
Here is another example where even more disparate words converge on a single idea:17
In the example of wanting to rename a note, we can move the old name to the Aliases
section and then create a new title:
This way, notes with the older title will still link to the correct note.
There is yet one limitation to this approach of renaming. For example, you may wish to
rename a note so that another note could use the old name instead. The above approach will
not work.
Instead, we will need to more directly examine the incoming links from other notes. While
there is no built-in method for doing so, we can use an AppleScript to look for incoming links.
We will do so in an upcoming section, Finding Incoming Links.
17 I have since separated ”Storyteller” from ”Author” so they can be their own cards.
———————————————————— 111 ————————————————————

Cautions with WikiLinks
There are a few issues with WikiLinks to consider.
WikiLinks currently do not currently work with DEVONthink to Go. This can be a major
limitation if you plan on using the iOS version of DEVONthink as a primary tool.
Another limitation is that, as you accrue many notes, you may find that there are too many
words highlighted as links. They can become distracting.
Finally, as we’ll examine later, dragging files to other systems do not preserve the WikiLinks
and require conversion first.
If while writing, you find a particular link that you wish to remain robust, consider converting
it to an Item link. To do so, select the WikiLink and go through the same process of creating an
Item link that we examined earlier. The link will then be, more or less, permanent. Even if you
change the name of the note to which you’ve linked, the link will still take you to that note. It
will also appear in DEVONthink to Go.
There is no hard and fast rule as to when to use a WikiLink or an Item link. You could make
all of the links Item in nature, but this could be a poor use of time. Some links may simply be
nice to be reminded of. Meanwhile, others you’ll definitely want to keep connected.
———————————————————— 112 ————————————————————

Linking to URLs
You may, of course, wish to link to other items, URLs, and resources outside of
DEVONthink.
For instance, perhaps there is a website you wish to refer to. Using Markdown syntax, we
can link to a Youtube URL using the following:
Refer to [Faith’s Drake interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JHXzX0WD_U).
Optional Keyboard Maestro Integration
There are several methods of simplifying writing the URL syntax. One is through Keyboard
Maestro. The macro is included as a file in your purchase, and its process is outlined here for
interested users:
———————————————————— 113 ————————————————————

To use the macro:
• Select the URL to point to, perhaps in your browser. (In many browsers, you can type
Command-l to select the URL in the browser’s address bar.):
• Type Command-C to copy the address
• Select the words to link from:
• Type Option-l:
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Creating a Keyboard Maestro Palette (Optional)
We’ve now created three macros using Keyboard Maestro: a macro to create Markdown
notes, a macro for Item links and a macro to link to create URLs in Markdown. As we continue
through the text, we’ll be creating and adding more. Each will have its own hot key associated
with it.
The multiple new hot keys may be difficult to memorize. For this reason, it can be very
helpful to have a palette of options. Essentially, Keyboard Maestro can take all of the macros
created for a folder and display them in an easily accessible menu.
For example, we can see the macros in the DEVONthink folder. Here’s my current palette:
We’ll be looking at many of these as we continue throughout the text. To activate one, I
would simply select it.
With a palette, we don’t even have to create key commands. Particularly if you are not
interested in learning key commands, or when there are macros that are only rarely used, this
can be a great option.
Of course, key commands still have their own advantage. Macros are immediately accessed
when using a key command, eliminating the interim step of searching for it in a menu.
And certainly, you can use both.
To create a palette, we’ll first start off with a new folder. Doing so will let you have a
dedicated space to create new palette triggers for any other application you have, too.
———————————————————— 115 ————————————————————

• Select the “+” in the bottom left:
• Give the group a title such as “Palettes”:
———————————————————— 116 ————————————————————

• Select the “+” below the center column:
• Title the new macro something like “DEVONthink actions”:
• Select the green “+” next to “New Trigger”
———————————————————— 117 ————————————————————

• Select “Hot Key Trigger”:
• Add a key command such as Control-Option-Command-d (for DEVONthink!):
• Select the green “+” next to “New Action”:
———————————————————— 118 ————————————————————

• In the resulting list of actions that appear, type into the search the word “palette”:
• Of the options that appear, select “Show Palette of Macros”:
• Select the green plus in the new action
———————————————————— 119 ————————————————————

• Navigate to and select Application: DEVONthink > Macro Group “Application:
DEVONthink”:
If you already have a populated group, for example, if you’ve installed the set of macros
included with your purchase, it may instead appear as:
You should now have a quick way to access any of your macros using one key command.
———————————————————— 120 ————————————————————

(Optional) Triggering a Palette with BetterTouchTool
We can take our Keyboard Maestro shortcut palette one step further using
BetterTouchTool. BetterTouchTool is an application that takes trackpad gestures and assigns
them to various actions.
We’ll create a quick trackpad gesture to showcase and select any of the macros we’ll create.
For example, a quick four-finger swipe to the right shows the same palette we saw in the last
section:
Now this is taking things to another level of awesomeness, but there is some degree of set
up to get there. Credit goes to appleianer on the Keyboard Maestro forums.
Assuming you have set up a palette in Keyboard Maestro as we did in the last section,
• Be sure DEVONthink is open and running
———————————————————— 121 ————————————————————

• Select the palette triggering macro:
• Select Menu > Edit > Copy as > Copy UUID:
• Open BetterTouchTool
• If you do not see Trackpad at the top, select the option (mine says Touch Bar):
———————————————————— 122 ————————————————————

• Change it to Trackpad:
• Select the plus sign in the bottom left:
———————————————————— 123 ————————————————————

• From the resulting menu, select DEVONthink:
• Select the plus sign in the Groups & Top Level Triggers column:
———————————————————— 124 ————————————————————

• In the right column, select a trigger. Here I am choosing a four-finger swipe to the
right:
As noted in red, be sure to disable any potential conflicts in your System Preferences >
Trackpad.
• Select the plus sign in the center Actions Assigned to Selected Trigger:
———————————————————— 125 ————————————————————

• Under “Controlling Other Applications”, select “Run Apple Script (async in
background):
• In the resulting scripting pane, type in:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
do script “XXXXXXXXXXXXXX”
end tell
Where XXXXXXXXXXXXXX is the UUID you copied earlier from Keyboard Maestro. Mine
looks like:
———————————————————— 126 ————————————————————

• Close BetterTouchTool
At this point, you should be good to go. One thing that is so neat about this system is that
you could create the exact same gesture to open any program to present its own suite of
custom commands.
An Exercise
As an exercise, consider setting up the Markdown macros included in your purchase to

trigger by a four-finger swipe to the left.
———————————————————— 127 ————————————————————

Practice: Linking
Consider pausing here to practice making a few links here and there. Try Item and WikiLinks
both. You’ll likely come to find that, while there may have been a complexity to setting them
up, there is a simplicity to how they work, once understood.
If you don’t have enough notes to meaningfully start linking them together, I encourage
you to gather some now before moving on. Perhaps write at least a dozen? They can be very
short—perhaps a single sentence in length. You may already have many more than a dozen
notes, and that’s fine, too.
Again, there is no need for perfection, and, in fact, there is no right or wrong. We are more
focused on process here. Every session is about beginning and adjusting.
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Appearances & The Generic
Inspector
The Generic Inspector in Detail
We recently visited the Inspector when working with aliases. Let’s now take a moment to
examine the Inspector in greater detail.
Each note carries a host of related information, some automatically added and some you
can manually add.
• Select a note or group (to be covered) of interest
• Open the Generic Inspector (Control-1):
Name: refers to the title of the file.
Aliases: present the aliases, or other titles, of a file. See Using Aliases.
URL: The URL field allows you to create a link, be that to a website or anywhere in the mac
ecosystem that allows for links. Therefore, you could link to a reference in Zotero (to be
covered), to a file or folder in Scrivener (to be covered), to a project or task in OmniFocus (to
be covered), and more.
———————————————————— 130 ————————————————————

Path: Here we can see where the file rests in the the Mac’s system. To access options to
launch or see the file:
• Select the word “Path”:
We can see the options to launch the file, to show it in the Finder, or to copy it.
Script: Script allows us to connect a script file to the note. I don’t tend to use this, but there
may be some neat things one can do here that I’m completely missing.
Added, Created, and Modified: These show timestamps related to when the item was
entered, originally made or modified. Of note, the latter two can change.
Size: The size of the file for the notes are generally going to be tiny. If you decide, however,
to start including images or so in your notes, this may change.
Kind: Kind refers to the type of document. See Choice of Files, covered earlier, for a list of
types of notes.
Location: As opposed to Path listed above where we see the file in its native Mac area,
Location shows where the item sits in the DEVONthink library.
Instances: When you duplicate a file, you create an exact copy. That copy may be
modified, at which point it is no longer a copy. When you replicate a file, you create something
like a window into the same file. That means, if you adjust one, you automatically adjust the
other. Here, in the Inspector, you can see where any replicants or duplicates exist within the
database.
Mark: We can examine and adjust several markers of a file including a flagged/unflagged
status, read/unread status, locked/unlocked status, rating, and label.
Tags: Allows you to see and adjust tags on a note. (To be covered.)
Exclusions
We’ll explore exclusions later in this text. For now, know that you can exclude individual
files from several DEVONthink functions.
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Appearances
Before we move on to adding more than a few notes, consider taking some time to make
the text appear as you want it to. I find that a welcoming font type and size make writing more
enjoyable.
To make adjustments:
• Open Preferences… (Command-,)
• Select the Editing tab:
• Select the preferences of fonts, size, and color scheme as desired:
My own preferences are shown above as Cochin 18 for general work, while at full screen, I
use Cochin 24 and mostly reverse the colors, i.e. have a black background with a light gray
font.
———————————————————— 132 ————————————————————

Styling CSS
For those of you who are using Markdown files and want to go the extra mile, consider
styling the CSS. Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS for short, refer to a method of styling your text.
You can apply any number of styling rules to your plain text and have it appear the way you
prefer.
For this example, I will use a file with very simple styling. The CSS for this particular note is:
Styling CSS for a Single Note
Designing actual CSS is way beyond the scope of this book. However, do know that you
can add a stylesheet to any of your notes by typing “css: [file path to stylesheet]” or “css:
[DEVONthink link to stylesheet]”.
As an example using a file path outside of DEVONthink, here I’ve added the phrase to the
top of my note:
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To get the file path to a file in Finder:
• Select the file
• Type Command-i
• Next to “Where”, select and copy the file path:
Then:
• Type “css: ” and paste (Command-v) the path into your note
• Be sure to type the file name after pasting the path into your note
Alternatively, you could add a CSS file in your DEVONthink database. One benefit of using
this method of bringing the file “in house” is that the styling also works for individual notes in
DEVONthink to Go and across computers when synced (to be covered).
———————————————————— 134 ————————————————————

To set it up:
• Drag and drop a .css file into the database:
• Select the CSS file
• Copy the Item Link (Control-Option-Command-c)
• Add the link to the header using “css: [link]”:
———————————————————— 135 ————————————————————

Styling CSS for All Markdown Notes
Alternatively, if you would like to have a single file style all of your notes:
• Go to Menu > DEVONthink > Preferences… (Command-,)
• Go to the Media tab
• Under the Markdown display stylesheet, select your desired file:
Once again, you could use the link for files directly in the database as well:
———————————————————— 136 ————————————————————

Of course, feel free to find or create nicer, fancier styling:
I find it really neat when all of my notes look like this.
———————————————————— 137 ————————————————————

Creating Series of Notes
Linking in a Series
We’ve now examined one way of connecting notes, namely through links. If you prefer, this
could be your only way of connecting ideas. However, by adapting our linking to follow a
specific useful pattern, we can take advantage of another layer of organization.
The originator of the slip-box, Luhmann, had two ways of connecting notes. The first is
similar to the method we’ve already examined. The second, and perhaps more prominent,
would be by placing one note behind another. For example, if he had a note called “Story”
and another called “Character” that he felt continued a thought from Story, he might file
Character behind Story.
Not only would he physically file them one behind the other, he would also give them an
address. For example, Story would be assigned the number 1. Character could then be
assigned the number 2. The reason he gave addresses is that there could be a number of ideas
he’d want to file directly behind a card.
For example, if later, he had an idea about “Conflict” that could also follow Story, he might
then file it behind Character but label Conflict “1a”. If, instead, he wanted to file Conflict
behind Character, he would instead label Conflict “3” indicating that it came next in the series.
He would go on creating an alternating sequence of letters and numbers, as often as

needed, and create a many branching tree of information. He essentially gave every note an
address as he went along.
———————————————————— 139 ————————————————————

Why bother creating series of cards when we could just link them as we’ve been doing?
While we could do away with this system, as we could just create simple links, I wonder if
this would be a mistake. I’ve found some utility in having one note follow another. I actually
began with not making these connections in series, but later decided that they seemed helpful
as they would signify some path of thought.
The process may feel eerily similar to the methods of filing such as folders, but it differs for
at least three reasons:
First, here, the “folders” themselves are notes.
Second, we still can link to other notes just as we have been. In our same example, if
Luhmann had filed “Character” behind “Conflict”, he may have still created a link to refer to
“Story”.
Third, in some ways, we can create bi-directional links. In other words, we’ll have a way of
going either way between notes.
There are at least two methods of creating a sequence of notes:
1. By manually adding links to the headers or footers of notes
2. By creating links with the Inspector
Let’s take a look at how these examples may work.
———————————————————— 140 ————————————————————

Creating a Sequence in Text
We can create a sequence of notes by writing links into headers and footers of a note. Of
the two methods we’ll now explore of creating a sequence of notes, this is my preferred.
To present an example, I now fast forward the creation of our example slip-box to include
several dozen notes. Here, I have a note titled “4 Human Archetypes of the 3 Act Story”:
As you can see, this note connects to multiple others. It functions as something of a table of
contents. Each of these notes are only linked to. They are not in any form of series. I would like
to begin with the first link “Orphan of Act 1” and make it “in series” with this one.
First, however, I will need to copy the name of the current note into my clipboard.
While in the note, select the note’s file title:
• Select Menu > Data > Reveal (Command-r):
———————————————————— 141 ————————————————————

To select the name for the clipboard:
• Hit Return to enter title editing mode:
• Copy (Command-c)
• Hit Return again to exit title editing mode
We’ll now to go the note where we can connect. Create a new tab:
• While holding Command, select the link to Orphan of Act 1:
———————————————————— 142 ————————————————————

Doing so yields:
• Select the new tab
• Find somewhere to add a link, perhaps under the title
• Type “Previous note:” and Paste (Command-v)
• Type Command-s to save the note:
The note now clearly says which note precedes it. Notice the numerous links to other notes
throughout the text. Having the “4 Human Archetypes of a 3 Act Story” listed up top helps to
distinguish it as a part of a deliberate thread of thought. I would similarly connect the three
remaining notes, “Wanderer of Act 2a”, “Warrior of Act 2b”, and “Martyr of Act 3” .
———————————————————— 143 ————————————————————

As another example, some notes will not have such a clear structure for connecting to a
next note. In such cases, consider creating a “Next note” or “See also” phrase:
For example, I have a series of notes describing 15 beats in a story. Below is the note for
Beat 7. Here you see that I’ve listed the previous note at the top and next note at the bottom:
The card is number 7 out of 15 in a series. In addition, I’ve created a “Heading” note that
functions as a return to “15 Beats of a Story” as a form of Table of Contents:
In this case, you can see that even this card has a previous note referred to called “Story
Structure”. Effectively, I’ve created a chain of cards.
———————————————————— 144 ————————————————————

Using The Inspector's Custom Data Preferences
There is another way we can create before and after notes. To do so, we’ll learn how to
create and use custom metadata. While I do not use this system myself for this purpose, the
ability to customize metadata can be quite powerful in other ways, and this example serves as
a good introduction to the feature.
The Custom Inspector (Control-2) can associate a large set of other data with any file in
DEVONthink. Before we begin, note that any customizations you make to your Custom
Inspector apply to all of your databases.
To begin, let us open the Custom metadata pane in one of the following ways:
• Select the Custom option:
• Choose Menu > Tools > Inspectors > Custom:
• Type the key command (Control-2)
———————————————————— 145 ————————————————————

If you have not visited this feature before, it will be blank:
To add items, open Preferences. To do so, either:
• Select the “Open Preferences” button
• Select Menu > DEVONthink > Preferences… (Command-,)
While it may seem simplest to select “Open Preferences” at the bottom and forget the
menu or key command methods of opening preferences, it is important to know that once you
begin adding custom metadata, the option to get there from this pane disappears. Therefore,
consider learning how to get there through the menu and key command routes.
———————————————————— 146 ————————————————————

Once you are in the preferences:
• Select the Data tab:
Along the left hand column, you’ll see the Custom Metadata options available to you.
Beyond the ones offered, we can create even more. To do so:
• Select the “+” icon at the bottom left:
———————————————————— 147 ————————————————————

• Enter a title, such as “Previous note”:
• Type Return to complete editing the title
On the right, you’ll see new options:
———————————————————— 148 ————————————————————

• Select the “Single-line Text” option in the Type: line
• Choose the “Item Link” option:
While we’re here, let’s create several “Next note” options:
• In the left column, control-click the “Previous Note” option
• Select “Duplicate”
• Title the new metadata option something like “Next note 1”
———————————————————— 149 ————————————————————

The Item Link setting should be in place:
Consider making additional Next Note options as you see fit, though perhaps two or three
will do for now.
Let’s make one more custom data set just for commentary:
• Select the “+” icon at the bottom left
• Give it a title such as “Notes”
• Select the type “Multi-line text”:
———————————————————— 150 ————————————————————

• Consider moving the Preferences window aside so you can see both the custom
inspector column and your preferences at the same time:
You can now see how these options have populated the Custom Inspector:
And of course, add any additional parameters that you feel would be of benefit.
———————————————————— 151 ————————————————————

Using the Custom Inspector to link notes
To add a previous note,
• Select the rectangle selection box next to “Previous Note”
• Choose from the available notes listed from your database:
Here, I’ll set the Story option in place:
———————————————————— 152 ————————————————————

To reveal the note,
• Select “Previous note”:
• Select “Reveal”:
The note will then appear in the main window.
———————————————————— 153 ————————————————————

Considerations
There are at least two issues worthy of consideration. First, when you have a large
database, selecting a note becomes less clear. Using my own working database as an example,
I currently have about 600 items and plan to continue adding more. When I attempt to select a
note, I see something like:
———————————————————— 154 ————————————————————

One option to manage this, is to begin typing the first few letters of the note you want.
Here, typing “conf” highlights my note on confirmation bias:
Another consideration is that the flow of notes is not as apparent as it is when it is in the
note itself. For example, here you can see a card titled “Beat 03 - Set Up” which occurs in a
sequence of 15 different story beats:
———————————————————— 155 ————————————————————

Whereas the method of creating a sequence by custom metadata looks like:
Some may find this latter method beneficial in that the links stay out of the way, allowing for
a cleaner note. And, of course, no one says you can’t use both.
———————————————————— 156 ————————————————————

Other Custom Options
While we’re here, let’s look at other custom options for metadata that may be of interest.
While they may not bear directly on our slip-box, they are good to be familiar with. We will only
cursorily look at them here. To examine them, just as before:
• Select Menu > DEVONthink > Preferences… (Command-,)
• Select the “Data” tab:
• Select the “+” icon at the bottom left:
• Enter a title:
• Type Return to complete editing the title
———————————————————— 157 ————————————————————

On the right, you’ll see new options:
• Select the “Single-line Text” option in the Type: line:
———————————————————— 158 ————————————————————

Boolean: Offers a check mark. This might be useful for marking something as used in a
project, for example:
Integer Number: Offers a set of integer numbers and accommodates a number, percent,
or currency:
Decimal Number: Offers a set of decimal numbers and, again, accommodates a number,
percent, or currency.
———————————————————— 159 ————————————————————

Single-Line Text: Offers a blank field for a single-line of text. However, you can also add a
series of standard responses. To do so, select the plus sign:
The result is a line where you can type a line or select the down arrow to choose a pre-
made response:
———————————————————— 160 ————————————————————

Identifier: Offers a single line of text without the options of pre-made responses:
Multi-line Text: Offers a box for several lines of text. Consider using this for a set of side
notes as noted above:
Rich Text: offers a multi-line area for typing rich text.
———————————————————— 161 ————————————————————

URL: offers a place to store a link to related material.
You can launch the URL by selecting the disclosure option and selecting launch:
Item Link: offers a method to link to other notes within the database. See the previous
section.
Date: offers an area to store a specific date that could relate to your note. Do note,
however, that DEVONthink automatically keeps track of the date a note was created, modified,
and last opened in the Generic Inspector. See The Inspector in Detail.
———————————————————— 162 ————————————————————

Set: offers a set of your own custom options. It is quite similar to the Single-Line Text
option mentioned above:
The difference is that Set does not allow the option of typing in your own answer. You can
only select one of the customized options you’ve already created.
Countries: offers a long list of countries to choose from.
Language: offers a long list of potential languages to choose from.
———————————————————— 163 ————————————————————

Practice: Create a Series
Consider pausing here to start linking two, three, or more notes into a series. Get a sense of
how they can interrelate. If you don’t have enough notes here to meaningfully do so, I once
again encourage you to pause to gather them now. Perhaps two or three dozen notes would
be useful at this point.
If what you’re reading or engaging isn’t inspiring much more than a few ideas, consider
another source. Unless you have a dedicated topic to pursue, it can be fun to wander and
follow your interests.
———————————————————— 164 ————————————————————

Types of Notes and
Favoriting
Types of Notes
In this section, I’m not referring to file types such as RTF and Markdown as we examined
early in this text. Here, we are looking at the content of notes and how we might write them.
There are any number of types of notes you could add to your database. These include:
• One or a few sentences summarizing an idea:
• A note linking to multiple others (covered earlier):
• Book or article summary (to be covered shortly)
• Log or journal (to be covered shortly)
Certainly, other possibilities exist limited only by imagination.
———————————————————— 166 ————————————————————

Using a Table of Contents
As you develop ideas around a specific body of work, you may opt to write a lengthy note,
rather than break it into individual parts. As an example, while reading How to Read a Book,18 I
created a set of notes for myself outlining the book and major questions to ask myself when
deciding how deeply to dive into a new book.
Rather than have a long meandering text, I added a Table of Contents to the beginning.
Doing so helps me to navigate a the sections of my own note.
To create a Table of Contents:
• Write “{{TOC}}” at the desired location:
18How to Read a Book is a book I can highly recommend as a wonderful resource for structuring thoughts while
consuming books. It’s seemingly nonsensical, almost joke of a Etle, belies its excellence.
If you do read it, be sure to check out the reading list at the end. If I can fully read and understand a fracEon of
those books before I die, I believe I will have enriched myself tenfold.
Adler, and Van Doren. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. Touchstone, 1972, p340-53.
———————————————————— 167 ————————————————————

With longer notes, be sure to use Markdown syntax to create the components of your table
of contents. The Table of Contents will automatically update when you use the following syntax
for headings:
• # Heading 1
• ## Heading 2
• ### Heading 3
• Etc.
Using a Table of Contents for a Journal
Another useful example may be a journal. For example, you could create a meditation
journal. To do so:
• Type “{{TOC}}” towards the top of a note
Then, for every entry,
• Add “## [date]”
For example,
Of course, either of the examples above, the book summary or journal, begin to strain the
idea of a single idea per note card. But they can still work and are worth considering for how
they might fit in your setup.
———————————————————— 168 ————————————————————

Marking a Favorite File
If any file, such as a journal for example, becomes central to your work or day, consider
adding it to your list of favorites. To do so:
• Control-click the desired file
• Select Add To > Favorites:
It will now be listed in your favorites. To access them:
• Open the Navigation sidebar (Option-Command-1)
• Select “Show” next to the Favorites sub-section:
Groups and even databases can also be marked as favorites.
———————————————————— 169 ————————————————————

Using Tags to Create an
Index
Using Tags as Entry Points
Creating links between one note card and another is all well and good, but after building a
sizable number of notes, things may start to feel unanchored. When using a traditional filing
system, we use folders to create major headings. For example, we can create a folder called
“Story” into which we add a bunch of notes that fall under the heading. For reasons we’ve
already examined, the traditional system can be problematic, but at least we had some
grounding.
We can address this concern with an

“Index”. For a slip-box, an Index is a
relatively small subset of cards that act as
“entry points” for the rest of the notes.
Index notes act as centralized ideas, major
anchors, or key ideas in the sea of notes.
There are several differences between

an Index and a traditional folder. One
difference is that an Index card links to
other cards. As an example, you could use
“Story” as your Index card, using it to link
to any number of branches. Those cards
further branch into other cards and
onward.
Another difference is that the Index

file, as opposed to a folder, is a note card
itself where we can add and adjust
thoughts.
Lastly, this Index aspect of the slip-box better allows for a “bottom up” type of thought
process. To illustrate, as you add new note cards, it is useful to trace the new note’s link path
back to one or more Index cards. As you do, you may realize that a new or different card would
work well as an Index card. In this way, you may discover a different note as being more central
in importance than originally considered. Had you been using a folder, restructuring would be a
pain. However, as we’ll now explore, marking or unmarking a note card as the head of a
hierarchy can be as simple as adding or removing a tag.
The following graphic shows how an individual note can act as an Index card. There will
likely be several such cards that top the hierarchies of ideas.
To give you an idea, of the currently 600 + cards in my slip-box, I have 10 marked as Index
cards.
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Creating Tags
To create an Index card, we simply choose a desired note and tag it “Index”. There are
several methods we can use to create and add tags:
• Use the tag bar
• Use the Inspector
• Drag an item onto the tag
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Using the Tag Bar
To open the tag bar, either:
• Type the key command (Control-Option-Command-t)
• Select the icon in the top right:
Either way will open the tag bar at the bottom of the window:
In the image above, we can see the tag bar quite unobtrusively resting on the bottom.
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Creating a Tag
Once the tag bar is open, to create and add a tag:
• Select the tag bar
• Type a tag name within the box
• Type Return:
There is caution to consider here. On its own, creating a tag is not enough. In fact, it is
quite important to think of how a tag will be seen at the time it is created. That goes for tags in
DEVONthink or in most any system. Without directly reflecting on how a tag will be used, we
can easily fall into a mess of tags that mean little. We’ll find more utility with the Index tag soon
when we create a Smart Group to keep an eye on it. We’ll also revisit several cautions to
consider with tags.
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Tags in the Inspector
The Inspector also lets us add, remove, and see tags:
• Open the Inspector to the Generic Inspector, if it is not already open (Control-1):
Note the “+” in a light blue box next to the word “Tags”.
• Select the “+”
• Type a tag name, such as “Index” and type Return:
Similar to the tag bar, we can create a new tag here as well.
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By Script
DEVONthink offers several default scripts in its library. One also allows us to add tags to a
file.
To do so,
• Select Menu > Script Menu > Tags > Add tags to selection:
You will be prompted with:
Where you can then add tags as desired.
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Consider creating a keyboard shortcut for adding tags. Note, however, that as this is in the
script menu, this is one of those rare cases where you cannot use Keyboard Maestro and must
use the macOS method. To review the process, see Creating a Key Command for Markdown
notes. Here is an example of the key command:
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Using the Tag Library
In whichever manner we create a tag, it will now be available in the Tag Library. To access
the Tag library:
• Open the Navigate sidebar if it is not open already (Option-Command-1)
• Open the “Globals” section. If it is closed, hover the cursor over the Globals section
and select “Show”:
The newly created tag should now be visible:
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Once you have a tag created, you also have the option of adding tags through drag and
drop:
Viewing Tagged Items
To view all the items in a tag, select the tag in the Tag library. To do so:
• Open the Navigate pane if it’s not already open (Option-Command-1)
• Open the disclosure triangle to your database if necessary
• Select the Index tag:
Later, as we’ve developed more tags for our system, we’ll look at how they can be further
organized.
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Bringing Tags Into the Main View
By default your tags are grouped together in the Navigation sidebar as described in the
previous section. However, you may prefer to see your tags alongside your groups and Smart
Groups in the main window instead. If so, let’s make an adjustment in our preferences:
• Open Menu > DEVONthink > Preferences… (Command-,)
• Go to the General tab
• In the Sidebar section, uncheck “Unify tags”:
Your tags will now appear as its own group:
I will re-tick the checkbox so that tags do not appear in the main window as is my own
preference.
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Cautions with Tags
While tags are powerful, they can also be fragile. Just because we tag something does not
mean we’ll find it later.
When tagging something, it is important to consider, “Will I see this when and where I want
to see it?” and “How will it be presented at that time?” In other words, will you know to look at
a tag when it would be useful to? Will what you want to see be overrun by other items?
Tagging without thought is like throwing something away but thinking that we’ve kept it.
We just hope it will show up at the right time, even if we don’t really know what that right time
is.
Tags are useful as way stations in workflows. Workflows, in turn, are really just habits, i.e.
repeated paths of action. In the case of the “Index” tag, we know that we can use it as a return
to a heading of thought. But, if there comes a day where there are too many notes tagged
Index to be useful, we may wish to reconsider our structures and connections.
Since tags are, in essence, way stations in our own paths of habit, we cannot readily use
someone else’s tags, other than as examples. Of course, these include the examples I suggest.
While they could be a start, they will most likely need to evolve to suit your own habits.
In summary, when creating or adding a tag to a file, consider:
• How will the tag or file be seen?
• What habit or workflow does it rely on?
• If that habit or workflow doesn’t exist yet, how will it be created?19
19For a mapped out process of creaEng habits using a task manager, consider Crea*ng Flow with OmniFocus. I have
also found James Clear’s Atomic Habits to be a good resource.
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Practice: Create an Index
If you have not done so already, consider looking through your notes for potential
candidates for creating Index cards. Ideas that seem to be central and branch off to others are
likely good targets. Perhaps aim for at least one or two Index cards? There is no correct
number or ratio of Index cards to total cards.
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Gathering Notes
One must be an inventor to read well.20
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
20Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The American Scholar.” Digi*al Emerson - A Collec*ve Archive. Accessed February 28,
2020. h?p://digitalemerson.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/text/the-american-scholar.
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Overview
Notes on their own are fine and dandy. But somewhere along the way, we might want to
see several of them gathered together. For example, we might want to look at everything
we’ve worked on today. Or perhaps there are several select notes we’d like to pay attention to.
Maybe the Index cards are of particular focus. Or we might just want to make things look tidier.
In this section, we’ll examine two

additional methods of organizing notes:
• Groups
• Smart Groups
Groups help us to manually gather files

together, while Smart Groups help us to
gather files automatically using assigned
rules. We’ll examine Smart Groups first.
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Using Smart Groups
While working, it is quite likely that we’ll modify older cards as well as create new ones.
Often, we may review something in one note and find inspiration to add something to a
recently modified card. Now, we have to try to remember where we just were, which can be
difficult as we had moved our focus elsewhere. As a result, it can be all too easy to get lost in
our note cards, not knowing which ones we’ve recently changed.
We can easily create a method to view recently modified cards. There are a few ways we
can do this. The first we’ll examine is by using Smart Groups.
Smart Groups
DEVONthink offers several default Smart Groups to view your recent work. To see them:
• Open the Navigation sidebar (Option-Command-1)
• If the Smart Group area is not open, hover the cursor over the Smart Group area
until the “Show” button appears and select it:
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You should now see a selection of Smart Groups:
Let’s examine the inner workings of some of these.
• Control-click the “Today” Smart Group
• Select “Edit…”:
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The Today Smart Group settings should appear:
Examining the anatomy:
Name: presents the name of the Smart Group.
Search in: allows you to choose a scope for the search. This might be helpful if you have
several databases open and only wish to search one of them.
Comparison: “Ignore Diacritics” means that characters such as accents on letters will be
ignored in search. “Fuzzy” allows for misspellings and the like to still target your searched
phrases. “Highlight Occurrences” will highlight the words searched for.
Below these options we have what is called the “Predicate” section. This is where we can
select the various criteria we want to use in our search. DEVONthink allows you to get quite
complex and precise in your Smart Groups if you wish.
For our purposes, the Today Smart Group is simple. The top line “All of the following are
true” groups the remaining criteria. Here, we ask that any document that is modified today to
appear in our Smart Group. Modification would include creation.
If you don’t have any notes appearing in your Today Smart Group, consider creating a new
note or modifying an old one to see how it would appear here now.
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Creating A Smart Group - Today
The default Today Smart Group that we examined in the previous section defaults to
searching all databases. This can be problematic if you have several databases open and only
want to focus on the work of the slip-box. We can, instead, create a Smart Group that focuses
only on the slip-box and make it directly accessible within the database.
Further, we can customize it so that Groups and Tags are not included so that we are only
looking at our notes.
To create the Smart Group, let’s first be sure we are in our slip-box database:
• Open the Navigation pane (Option-Command-1)
• Select the slip-box database
To create a Smart Group, either:
• Select the “+” icon in the toolbar:
• Select “Smart Group…”:
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or
• Select Menu > Data > New > Smart Group…:
You should see:
• In the name area, type in a title such as “Today”
If you worry that you may confuse it with the Global Today Smart Group we examined
earlier, consider another title such as “Slip-Box Today” or “Created/Modified Today”. I will
leave it as “Today”:
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• If the “Search in:” area does not already specify your slip-box database, adjust it so
that it does
• Leave the Comparison areas checked or unchecked as desired
• Select the second “All” and change it to ”Kind”:
• Change “is” to “is not”
• Change “Any Document” to Tag
• Select the second “+”:
• Create another row of “Kind” “is not” “Group”
• By holding Option, each “+” will turn into “…”. Hold the Option button and select
the second “…”:
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This allows for a new nested group of criteria. You have the option to select either “Any” or
“All”:
• Leave the option as “Any”
• In the grouped options, create a set of new criteria using the principles above,
selecting “+” as needed to create the following:
• Select “OK” to complete editing
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At this point, you have a Smart Group that appears within the database itself. You can see it
both in the Navigation pane and amidst your notes:
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Using Flags
Flags can be very helpful. For instance, we may like to select several notes to have handy
for the moment. Flagging them can be a great way to examine them quickly and keep them
within arm’s reach. Similar to tags, however, flags tend to be delicate. We need to actively
consider how we will use them.
There are many variations of problems one can get into with flags. To illustrate, we can
readily recognize the troubles of physical sticky notes. Used sparingly, sticky notes can function
as great reminders. But without caution, they can quickly multiply and lose all utility. Similarly, a
few choice underlines in a book can be very helpful. Too many and they become useless. The
same may be said of flags.
To optimize their utility, I make a suggestions the following two use cases:
1. Use flags only for those items that you would like to have handy for the current
session of work.21 As soon as you are done working with your notes for the time being,
remove their flags.
2. Use flags when you would like to follow up a note at the very next session. For
example, while working on a note using DEVONthink To Go, the iOS client that syncs
to your database (to be covered), you decide to follow up its work while at the laptop.
Flagging the note would allow you to see it when you are next there. You could then
work on the note and remove the flag at that session.
21 A Session of work is a Eme of relaEvely conEnuous mindset, during which Eme and a?enEon is focused on the
work.
Dini, Kourosh. Workflow Mastery - Building from the Basics, 2013. p133
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Let’s look at where flags can appear.
• Control-click the area above your library of notes that says “Name”. (Alternatively
select Menu > View > Columns)
• Make sure that the option to see a Flag column is selected:
Let’s see it in action and mark a note with a flag.
• Select a note
Then, either:
• Select Menu > Data > Mark > As Flagged. (Option-Command-k)
• Click the area next to the note in the Flag column
You should now be able to see a flag appear next to the note:
To remove the flag, simply repeat the same process as above.
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The flagged status of a note will also appear in the Generic inspector (Control-1):
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Sorting and Grouping Flags
One way of seeing the flagged tasks together is to sort them. Either:
• Select the flag icon at the top of the column:
You may need to select the flag twice to sort it as shown above. The first click presents the
flagged items at the bottom of your list. The second click reverses the order and presents your
flagged items at the top of the list.
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Or
• Select Menu > View > Sort > by Flag:
A disadvantage in doing so, however, is that this changes the order of the cards as they are
presented in your library.
We can use Smart Groups to help us. Let’s now create a Smart Group targeting flags.
• Create a Smart Group, for example by selecting Menu > Data > New > Smart
Group…
• Adjust for the following settings:
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Let’s also return the state of the notes to being unsorted.
• Select Menu > View > Sort > Unsorted
You should now see a grouping of your flagged tasks:
You may notice how there are two instances of each of the flagged notes, once in your
general list of notes and again in the Flagged Smart Group. These are not copies. These are
representations of the same note. Much like replicants, if you make a change to one of them,
the same change will be occur in the other instance.
You can open and close the results of the Smart Group by selecting the disclosure triangle
to the left of the Smart Group’s name and icon:
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Creating A Smart Group - Index Cards
Earlier, we visited the importance and methods of creating an Index. These are a set of
cards that serve as entry points or as main headings. They are different than the general
method of creating a main folder into which you might add new items. Here, we create new
Index items as we realize what major headings might be in a more bottom-up approach.
The process can be helpful in organizing your ideas mentally. However, it can also be useful
to have a simple list of all of your Index cards in one easy-to-reach place.
We already have a way of accessing them through the tag library. But let’s see if we can
improve things for ourselves.
One principle of organization is to make things readily accessible. We already have a Smart
Group for notes modified today as well as a Smart Group for flagged items. Why not create a
Smart Group for our Index, too? That way each of our methods of accessing cards can all be
nicely laid next to each other.
We can create a Smart Group just as we have done before:
• Open the Navigation pane (Option-Command-1) if it’s not already open
• Select the slip-box database
• Create a Smart Group (e.g. by selecting Menu > Data > New > Smart Group…)
• Create the following settings:
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We now have the Index Smart Group, readily accessible:
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Other Useful Tags
Consider other tags and corresponding Smart Groups that may be useful to you.
These are a couple of tags that I considered, but have since found to be of limited
usefulness. But you may find them more useful or at least inspirational for other directions.
• Questions - originally intended for note cards that I’d written as questions. The idea
was that I would follow them up later. I really haven’t. Instead, I either use a simpler
follow up method, or I allow things to be incomplete, completed in my own time and
following my own interests. See Following up.
• Definitions - originally meant for cards that acted as definitions. I thought it would
be useful to have them marked off and ready to be viewed. I haven’t found use for
doing so yet.
You may see either of these in screenshots throughout this text. Largely it’s because I
haven’t had the heart to trash them quite yet. In the meantime, they haven’t been in my way, so
why not let the experiment linger?
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Cleaning Up With Standard Groups
As we’ve added Smart Groups, the library appears to be growing messy. Let’s clean things
up with a group. A group is essentially a folder. While I have seemingly bad-mouthed folders
earlier, they do have their use.
• Select all of your notes in the slip-box
To help with multiple selection, either:
• Select the top note
• Then, while holding Shift, select the bottom note
Or,
• Hold the Command key to individually add or remove selections:
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Group the items:
• Select Menu > Data > Group Items (Option-Command-G)
• Give the group a title. I’m using “SB Notes” standing for “Slip-Box Notes”:
As we continue through our text, we’ll look at ways of searching and setting ideas aside.
Combined with these several of these gathering techniques, you could easily set aside
constellations of notes based on your interests.
For example, you could go searching for several ideas, flag them at will, then view them
gathered together by using the flag Smart Group. Maybe you’d then like to save that search,
by replicating them into a group and then removing the flags so that your flags are available for
a next search.
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Column Options
While we’re cleaning things up, let’s consider our columns. Columns are another means by
which DEVONthink can present and give you access to useful data. However, do know that too
many columns can make things inaccessible.
Adding and removing columns is simple. Let’s start by removing the flag column. To add or
remove columns:
• Select the bar that says name
• Add or remove columns as desired:
The end result is tidier:
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Another method of adding and removing columns is through the menu:
• Menu > View > Columns:
Clearly, there are many column options available. Notice, too, that the custom data options
that we created earlier are available as column options, too:
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Further, we can:
• Select “Customize Metadata…”
To bring up even more possibilities:
I would encourage you to only have visible those that you feel are directly relevant to you.
Below are a few examples of utility.
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Example of Column Use - 1
Earlier, I had mentioned that one way of examining recently modified notes is through a
Smart Group. Another method is by using the Date Modified column.
To sort your notes by when they were last modified:
• Select the word “Modified” that titles the column:
Notice the arrow to the right of the word “Modified” pointing down indicating that the
dates are descending. If you prefer to see them in ascending order:
• Select the word “Modified” again
Alternatively,
• Select the Sorting Criteria function listed above your files:
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• Towards the bottom of the list, select Ascending:
Another example is to have the custom columns created earlier. For example, the following
shows both the Next Note and Previous Note as columns:
A useful feature here is that you can also use the column to add or change a note from the
column here rather than having to go to the Inspector.
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Another example shows which notes have been viewed or opened most, also known as
“hits”. The following has:
• Added the column for Hits, and
• Sorted, descending by Hits:
In our next section, we’ll examine the use of aliases when creating a reference system.
Recall that an alias is an alternate name we can use for a note. As a sneak peak, we can add a
column to view the aliases of our notes all at once:
We can also change or add an alias directly within the column.
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Creating a Reference
System
On References
One of the advantages in using DEVONthink as a slip-box is that you can store and work
with your references in the same system as your notes. There are any number of file types that
can act as references: PDFs, notes, URLs, video files, emails, and more. Any of these can be
stored, linked to, and therefore easily referenced from your notes. We’ll look at several
methods of entering data into DEVONthink now and again later with the Inbox and Processing.
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Directly Adding a File
Adding items to your database can be as simple as a drag and drop. As an example, here’s
an article I found on the Internet that I converted to a PDF and saved to the desktop. To add it
as a reference:
• Drag and drop the PDF into your database:
DEVONthink will create a copy in the database, leaving the original where it was. Consider
deleting the original so as not to have a redundant copy.
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Useful Reference Practices
When adding a reference, there are a few useful practices to consider:
1. Write a short summarizing note on the reference itself
2. Make it easy to reference
3. Add a link to a source
4. Consider its location
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Adding a Summary
When adding references, try to be selective in what you add. DEVONthink’s AI system
benefits from your being deliberate. While it may seem pointless to have an AI to help you
organize when you need to be organized in the first place, it can actually be quite powerful.
My rule of thumb has been that anytime I add a reference, I write at least one note that
references it. This allows me to be clear to myself about the reasons I feel that the reference
would be a good addition to my slip-box. Of course, as with all my rules, I occasionally break
this one, too. But when I do, I acknowledge how adding a batch of several files, for example,
will impact the search and AI.
In addition, consider adding a summary using the custom metadata “notes” section we
added earlier. To do so:
• Select the PDF in the database
• Open the Custom Inspector (Control-2)
• Type a summary in the note field:
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Making It Easy to Reference
The title of the reference I’ve used as an example is “Occam's Razor Has Distorted the
History of Science - The Atlantic” That’s hardly easy to type, let alone type perfectly so that the
WikiLink system would pick it up. Thankfully, DEVONthink offers the Alias option that we
examined earlier. To access it:
• Go to the Generic Inspector (Control-1):
The alias setting allows us to use other phrases as WikiLinks for the same article. A rule of
thumb I’ve adopted from Ahrens’ How to Take Smart Notes is to use the last name and the
year of publication:
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Now, all I have to do to reference the article is to type “Ball 2016”:
I find the name and year structure helps me to memorize the historical patterns and names
better, giving me another level of appreciation for the knowledge cluster.
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Linking Externally
You may wish to retain some record of where you got the information in the first place or
perhaps you’d like to link the note to an external program. (For the latter, see Connecting to a
Task Manager.)
If it’s a website URL, simply paste it into the URL section of the Generic inspector:
You can then easily access the site by either:
• Key command (Shift-Command-o)
• Select the “URL” and then “Launch”:
The Shift-Command-o key command is another one I use quite regularly.
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Using Groups
As opposed to the lack of groups that I’ve advocated for slip notes, I’ve found that I like to
use them when arranging my references, all sitting in a primary “References” group which then
further separates them:
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Creating Footnotes with Markdown
Markdown notes offer another advantage. Creating footnotes for references is very simple.
To create one type “[^some_name]” where you want the footnote inserted. Follow it up at the
bottom of your note with “[^some_name]: some_reference”.
For example, continuing the example from the last page, on the left you can see the [^1]
and [^2] in the body of the text as well as the references listed at the bottom. The preview
generated on the right shows how the references are now presented as footnotes:
Clicking on the footnote numbers embedded in the text will take you to the reference at
the bottom. Clicking on the return arrow will bring you back to the text where you left off. For
particularly long note entries, this can be very beneficial.
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Creating Replicants
Whether you use a flat or deeply branched hierarchy for your reference files, chances are
that you’ll wind up with nested groups somewhere in your databases. Maybe you’ll have a
complex recipe database where you want to file chicken soup under chicken, soup, and
mother’s recipes.
For example, I’d like my book Workflow Mastery to be under both Studies of Mind and
Productivity. We can take advantage of DEVONthink’s ability to “replicate” a file. In brief, when
making copies, DEVONthink can either replicate or duplicate a file. We’ve already briefly
touched on the concepts and will look at each in more detail later when we are gathering files
together for presentation. For now, know that:
• Duplicating a file creates a copy, each of which can be independently changed.

When one is changed, the other does not. They are different files.
• Replicating a file creates a window into the same file. When one is changed, the
other is changed in exactly the same way. They are still, effectively, the same file, though
in two or more different places.
Here, we will use the replicate function. That way, we can save disk space since there is
really only one file. Also, if we make changes by way of underlines, notes, and the like in one
area, those changes will be there however we get to the file later on.
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To create a replicant:
• Begin dragging the file from the Studies of Mind folder
• Hold Option and Command while dragging
• Let go in the Productivity folder:
This motion of holding Option-Command-drag for replicate is very useful. Its correlate,
Command-drag for duplicate, is also very useful. Consider taking a few moments to practice
these actions until they become second nature.
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Clip to DEVONthink From Browser
Quite often, an idea will come to us while browsing the Internet. Bookmarking the site
using the browser is often problematic. The browser’s bookmark system is simply out of the
paths of most workflows. DEVONthink offers the option to store a URL as a file. Doing so, we
can keep the URL more in line with our resources and workflows.
One method is to use an add-on for browsers such as Firefox and Google Chrome. To
install them,
• Navigate to https://www.devontechnologies.com/support/download/extras
or
• Select Menu > DEVONthink 3 > Install Add-Ons…
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In the case of the latter, you’ll see a window such as:
• Select “Install”
DEVONthink will open the URL noted above. When you arrive,
• Select install for either browser if they are one of your choice:
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Otherwise,
• Drag any one or several of the bookmarklet options to your browser’s toolbar such as
you might for Safari:
Using these add-ons and bookmarklets, you can send a link to DEVONthink where you can
then arrange the link to sit where you’d like in the database.
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Adding URLs Directly
Alternatively, you can add a link as a file directly at the location you desire. For example:
• Go to a website you’d like to keep
• Select the URL in the address bar (often Command-l):
• Copy the address (Command-c)
• Go to a location in DEVONthink where you’d like to add the URL:
• Select Menu > Data > New > With Clipboard (Command-n):
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Note that the key command is Command-n and not Command-v, the usual command for
pasting. We get:
The URL is added as a file. The preview window then acts as a browser and shows the
contents of the site.
To open the site in your preferred internet browser:
• Select the file
• Type Shift-Command-o
———————————————————— 227 ————————————————————

Converting Sites to PDFs
Though we can add URLs, consider that for some converting them into PDFs may still be
useful. As we’ll soon explore, we can highlight and add notes to PDFs whereas webpages do
not afford us the same conveniences.
To convert a webpage to a PDF while it is in DEVONthink:
• Control-Click the URL
• Select Convert > to PDF:
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Adding Website Content
Alternatively, if you want to take only a portion of a page, but keep its native stylings and
settings,
• Select the desired contents:
• Copy (Command-c)
• Navigate to your desired location in the database:
———————————————————— 229 ————————————————————

• Type Command-n:
DEVONthink will create an RTF file complete with a suggested title and the stylings intact.
———————————————————— 230 ————————————————————

Additional Systems
A reference system that Ahrens mentions is Zotero. It is useful in that it can nicely lay out a
bibliography when ready to publish. We can integrate a connection with Zotero. Here, I’m
using a method created by the Zoteroist.22
There is a file to download, which I’ve included in the download files. Assuming you have
installed Zotero:
• Go to Zotero
• Select the Advanced tab
• Select the Files and Folders section
• Select “Show Data Directory”:
22 What a great name.
———————————————————— 231 ————————————————————

• Drag and drop the downloaded file into the Translators folder:
• Restart Zotero
• Go to Preferences (Command-,)
• Go to the Export Tab
———————————————————— 232 ————————————————————

• Set the Default format to Zotero Select Item:
At this point, if you’d like to connect to an item in Zotero, you can easily create a link to do
so.
• Select an item
• Type Shift-Command-c to capture the link
• In DEVONthink, open the note you wish to connect
If you are using Markdown notes, recall the syntax for linking:
• Type something like, “[Zotero Link](zotero://select/items/0_RIDRMNPQ)”
———————————————————— 233 ————————————————————

If you are using RTF files, you can instead:
• Type “Zotero Link”
• Select the words “Zotero Link”
• Control-click the selection
• Select “Add link…”:
• Paste the link in the field that appears and select OK:
———————————————————— 234 ————————————————————

Using the Inspector
Alternatively, you can select any of several areas in the Inspector.
• Open the Generic Inspector (Control-1)
• Paste (Command-v) the link in the URL field:
The advantage of this approach is that you can select Shift-Command-o to open the link at
any time.
———————————————————— 235 ————————————————————

Alternatively, create and add a field specific to Zotero in the Custom Inspector. Review how
to add fields to the Custom Inspector here.
• Open the Custom Inspector (Control-2)
• Paste (Command-v) the link in the URL field:
Unfortunately, the Shift-Command-o command does not work for this custom option.
However, you can still open the link:
• Select “Zotero link” or whatever you have named the field
• Select “Launch”:
———————————————————— 236 ————————————————————

Using the PDF tools
DEVONthink hosts a suite of PDF editing tools at the top of any PDF viewing window. Here
is an example using a PDF called “Dramatica”:
Editing
To toggle the editing tools:
• Select the Editing Bar icon:
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Many of the familiar editing tools are available such as Text, Select, Move, Formatting,
Highlighting, Link creation, and more. We can access additional utilities using the Inspector. For
example, to access the Table of Contents:
• Select Menu > Tools > Inspectors > Table of Contents (Control-4):
To see the individual pages, either:
• Select Menu > Tools > Inspectors > Thumbnails (Control-5)
To see your list of highlights and annotations:
• Select Menu > Tools > Inspectors > Annotations (Control-6)
———————————————————— 238 ————————————————————

To add a note to a highlight:
• Select the highlight
• Type a note in the bottom area:
The Concordance Tools
We can really get into some interesting ideas with the Concordance tools.
• List - (Control-8)
The Concordance list presents a set of words from the text, ordered by “weight”.
DEVONthink also presents how often the word appears, and its length. The Concordance List
works not only for our reference PDFs, but for any single or even group of notes.
———————————————————— 239 ————————————————————

With our PDF, we can select a word and have DEVONthink show a cluster depicting that
word’s relationship to other words:
You can then tab through the document looking for a selected word by using the editing
bar:
———————————————————— 240 ————————————————————

If a word in the cluster presented does not seem useful, Control-Click the term and select
“Exclude Word”.
• Cloud - (Control-9) We’ll examine the Cloud Concordance tool more deeply for our
individual notes later.
Search Function
Lastly, DEVONthink’s search function with PDFs is unique.
To access it:
• Open the Inspector, if it is not opened (Option-Command-i)
• Select the Search icon:
———————————————————— 241 ————————————————————

Or more simply:
• Type Command-f
When entering a search, DEVONthink will create a list of not only where the term was
located, but also includes several words around it to give a sense of its context:
Together, these PDF tools offer a nice suite of items from which to research and create.
———————————————————— 242 ————————————————————

Reading Lists
Earlier, I suggested that as you add a reference to your database, it is useful to add a
related note to your slip-box at the same time. Of course, it is much easier to file something to
read than to actually read it. Even if we add a note, we may still want to delve more deeply into
the material over time.
To help us, we can create reading lists. DEVONthink offers a reading list as one of its
Sidebar options. To open the Reading List:
• Select Menu > View > Reading List (Option-Command-2):
The Reading list appears on the left:
Currently, it is empty.
———————————————————— 243 ————————————————————

To add a file to the reading list:
• Navigate to the desired file
• Control-click the file to access the contextual menu
• Select Add To > Reading List:
The file should now appear in the Reading List (Option-Command-2):
———————————————————— 244 ————————————————————

You can now access the file, regardless of where you are in the database. If you wish to see
it in its database location:
• Select a file in the reading list:
• Select Menu > Data > Reveal (Command-r)
Note, however, that once the file is accessed, it is removed from the Unread pile and
moved to the the All section:
Unfortunately, as many readings of depth take more than a single session of work, you may
want to look for an alternate system. For example, a task system that includes the ability to link
to a file, repeat, and remind can be very helpful.
To see several examples in action, we will later examine Following Up, DEVONthink
Reminders, and Links and an External Task Manager.
———————————————————— 245 ————————————————————

Practice: Create a System of References
At this point, consider beginning a set of references, if you haven’t done so already.
Hopefully, in addition, you have a set of at least several dozen note cards. If not, consider
building up your set before moving on. Look through your cards and see what can be
connected to your reference system.
———————————————————— 246 ————————————————————

Finding Return Links -
AppleScripts and Smart
Rules
Power in Scripts and Rules
AppleScript and Smart Rules can make DEVONthink can go above and beyond when it
comes to manipulating and presenting data. There are numerous possibilities, only a few of
which we can even brush on here. However, to give a good example we’ll dive deeply into
creating a neat system of return links using a bit of forum resourcefulness.
Some of the following will require significant setup, but their payoffs in efficiency can be
considerable. This next section is probably the most advanced of the book. In fact, I’ve had to
heavily rely on the community to create it. If you find yourself overwhelmed here, feel free to
skip to Adding Files, The Inbox, and Processing and return later.
———————————————————— 248 ————————————————————

Simple Method
When reading a note, you may be interested to know where you’ve referenced it. What
other notes link to it? Sometimes that can inspire new ideas to develop. Another time it can be
useful to see what is linking is when you wish to rename a note and you don’t want to lose the
WikiLinks already in place.
Note, I will refer to these return links also as “back links” or “incoming links” and will use
the terms interchangeably.
There is no built-in method for setting up return links. One way is to manually:
• Select the note
• Type Return to select the title for renaming
• Copy (Command-C)
• Create a new window so you don’t lose your place in this window
• Enter the search field
• Paste (Command-v)
However, this process has at least two drawbacks. First, it misses out on Item links. Second,
it is tedious. While we could create a Keyboard Maestro macro to go through these steps, we’ll
examine a more efficient methods in our coming sections.
———————————————————— 249 ————————————————————

Using an AppleScript
As mentioned, limitations to the method presented above include not finding Item links
and its general clunkiness. To improve matters, we can use an AppleScript. A kind coder in the
DEVONthink forums wrote and posted scripts that solve the issue. Please note that the
examples that follow are specifically for Markdown notes and will not work for others such as
Rich Text files.
There are two scripts. One works to search for WikiLinks; the other searches for Item links.
Both are included in the files that accompany this text.
First, we’ll install them as files. This will allow us to select them in the menu.
Second, for those who are using Keyboard Maestro, we’ll cover creating macros to make
key commands to access either. Alternatively, you can use the macro files also included with
your purchase.
To install the AppleScripts as files:
• Go to the the scripts “Find Incoming Item Links for MD” and “Find Incoming
WikiLinks for MD” from the purchase folder
• Go to Menu > Scripts > Open Scripts Folder:
• Consider creating a new folder for these new scripts. (Shift-Command-n)
• Drag and drop the scripts into the new folder
———————————————————— 250 ————————————————————

Here, I’ve titled the new folder “!Custom”. The initial “!” brings it to the top:
DEVONthink will update its own menu:
———————————————————— 251 ————————————————————

To run the command, you will need to open a second window first. Therefore, to search for
Wikilinks, either:
• Open a new window (Option-Command-n)
• Optionally, align the windows to be side-by-side
• Return to the first window (Command-‘):
• Select Menu > Script > !Custom > Find Incoming WikiLinks for MD
In the right window, you’ll see a nice list of linking notes:
———————————————————— 252 ————————————————————

Do note, however, that there is a limitation here. The AppleScript does not take into
account any Alias links. Recall that we can use Aliases with the WikiLink system. A simple
workaround is to type any alias into the Content search field.
Similarly, to Search for Item Links:
• Align the windows to be side-by-side
• Return to the first window (Command-‘)
• Select Menu > Script > !Custom > Find Incoming Item Links for MD
———————————————————— 253 ————————————————————

Using Keyboard Maestro to Find Incoming Links (Optional)
To simplify the above process, we can use Keyboard Maestro to open a second window,
place them side-by-side and run the scripts automatically based on a key command.
Your purchase includes the Keyboard Maestro snippets outlined below. But it is worth
learning how to set it up, particularly as it is more involved than the others we’ve seen so far.
• Go to your folder for DEVONthink macros
• Create a new macro
• Title the Macro something along the lines of “Find Incoming WikiLinks”:
• Select the green “+” New Trigger:
• Select “Hot Key Trigger”
———————————————————— 254 ————————————————————

• Choose a hotkey. I’ve chosen “Option-w”:
• Select the green “+” New Action item:
• Select the Move a Window action (consider typing “move” in the search field to
narrow your search):
———————————————————— 255 ————————————————————

• Select “Move to” and choose Move and Resize > Left Column:
• Add “Select or Show a Menu Item” (consider typing “menu” in the search field to
• Select the “Menu” button:
———————————————————— 256 ————————————————————

• Select DEVONthink 3 > File > New Window > Slip-Box:
So far we have:
———————————————————— 257 ————————————————————

We now need to further arrange windows by sending the new one to the right side of the
screen and then bringing the original window to the foreground. To do so:
• Add a “Move to Window” action, just as we did above, but this time to the Right
Column
• Add a “Type a Keystroke” action (consider typing “type” in the search field to
• Add an “Execute an AppleScript” action (consider typing “Script” in the search

field to narrow your search):
———————————————————— 258 ————————————————————

• Select “Execute text script” and change it to “Execute script file”:
• Drag and drop the file into the file field:
Compressed, this results in:
In Use
To Search for Incoming WikiLinks:
• Select a note
• Type (Option-w)
———————————————————— 259 ————————————————————

In the second window, you’ll get a nice list of articles that link by WikiLink to the current
note:
Create a Find Incoming Item Links Macro
Repeat the same as the above for a “Find Incoming Item Links” function. I’ve set that key
command to (Option-d). To do so, consider duplicating the macro you’ve already created
above and then replace the script instead of creating a new macro from scratch.
To search for Item Links:
• Type (Option-d)
———————————————————— 260 ————————————————————

Adding Incoming Links to a Note
You may also wish to add a list of incoming links to the body of a note. We can once again
turn to an AppleScript to do so designed by another generous forum goer.
Just to show it in use before we set it up:
• Select a note:
• Set your cursor towards the bottom of the note
• Trigger the script (outlined below)
———————————————————— 261 ————————————————————

You will be prompted with three questions:
• Should the back links be Markdown or RTF in nature?
• Should the search include aliases?
• Are you using Auto Wiki Links? Effectively, should the back links be Item or or Wiki
in nature?
After answering you‘ll get something along the lines of:
———————————————————— 262 ————————————————————

To make this feature active will require installing two scripts. For the first script:
• Go to the files in your purchase and find “RegexAndStuffLib.scptd”
• Open the Finder application
• While holding down the Option key, go to Menu > Go > Library:23
• Navigate to ~/Library/Script Libraries
• Drag and drop the file into the Script Libraries folder:24
23 Note that, without pressing the OpEon key, the Library opEon will not appear.
24If you’ve read through my book Crea*ng Flow with OmniFocus, you may also have an omnifocus.scpt file sikng
there as well.
———————————————————— 263 ————————————————————

For the second script:
• Go to the files in your purchase and find “Add Back Links to Note”
• Go to DEVONthink
• Go to the Menu > Scripts icon > Open Scripts Folder:
• Drag and drop the “Add Markdown Backlinks” file to the folder of your choice:
———————————————————— 264 ————————————————————

While we’re here, let’s learn how we can add the same script to our toolbar, too. To do so,
• While the “Add Back Links to Note” is selected, type Command-c
• Navigate up (Command-up):
You will arrive at com.devon-technologies.think3.
• Open or expand the “com.devon-technologies.think3” folder:
For reference, we were just in the “Menu” folder.
• Open the “Toolbar” folder. (Do not expand the folder. Actually double-click the
folder to get inside the folder.)
———————————————————— 265 ————————————————————

• Type Command-v to add the file:
• Quit and re-open DEVONthink.
The reason we are restarting DEVONthink is to give the application a moment to add the
new script as an option for the toolbar customization.
• Control-click the Toolbar and select Customize toolbar:
• Drag and drop the newly added icon:
———————————————————— 266 ————————————————————

And just to be incredibly thorough, I’ve added two versions of the script to your Keyboard
Maestro macros so you can access it using a key command:
The second version does not include questions. I found that I grew tired of answering the
same three questions in the same manner for each individual note. In my case, I would answer
“MD”, ”Links and aliases”, and “Auto Wiki Links”. If you find yourself in a similar situation,
consider the following macro instead:
———————————————————— 267 ————————————————————

Whichever you choose, consider not installing or at least disabling the one that you prefer
not using:
• Control-click the one to disable
• Select “Disable Macro”:
In Use
With the hot key listed above, you now have a quick way to add links to the body of a note.
Simply:
• Select a note
• Type Option-Command-b
———————————————————— 268 ————————————————————

Adding Incoming Links to All Notes Metadata
We can even go one step further. Bernardo_V, author of our last script, also created a
system that can use another neat feature of DEVONthink known as Smart Rules. Smart Rules
are processes you set up to tell DEVONthink to automatically perform actions with your files.
With this particular smart rule in place, anytime we open or preview a file, DEVONthink will
automatically search for all links and aliases to that note and add them to a custom field in the
side bar. That way, we don’t even have to enter a command. As we naturally look through our
notes, DEVONthink will quickly get the return link information and have it ready for us.
Let’s first get the AppleScript that we’ll need in place.
• Find the file “Create Back Links - Smart Rule” in your purchase.
In DEVONthink:
• Go to Menu > Script Icon > Open Scripts Folder:
• Expand the Smart Rules folder
• Drag and drop the “Create Back Links - Smart Rule” file into the folder:
———————————————————— 269 ————————————————————

Now that we have the script ready for us, we can now create a Smart Rule for it:
• Open the Navigation Sidebar if it is not already open (Option-Command-1)
• Select the plus sign on the bottom left corner
• Choose “New Smart Rule…”:
You will be prompted with:
———————————————————— 270 ————————————————————

Name and Location
• Choose a name such as “Create Back Links”
• Select “Databases”:
• Assign your database:
As a side note, be sure not to select the Inbox > Slip-Box.
The result should be:
———————————————————— 271 ————————————————————

Predicate
Next, similar to Smart Groups, we have a Predicate section. Here we can select various
criteria to filter those files that we want DEVONthink to apply some process to.
• Choose “Kind” “is” “Any Document”:
Below the Predicate section, we can tell DEVONthink what we want DEVONthink to do and
when. In terms of the When,
• Select “On Demand”:
———————————————————— 272 ————————————————————

You will see a whole host of potential events that you could ask DEVONthink to use as
triggers for the Smart Rule. For our situation:
• Select “On Open”:
Action
Lastly, we can choose what we want DEVONthink to do.
• Select the “Cancel” option:
———————————————————— 273 ————————————————————

Once again, we have a whole host of options, ranging from simple notifications, to sending
mail, to making adjustments, to data and tags, and more:
Each possibility can offer a host of possible data management options. Certainly, I
encourage you to explore them.
———————————————————— 274 ————————————————————

For our scenario:
• Select Execute script:
You should see two other options appear, “External” and an automatically assigned script:
• For a moment, select the “External” option and select “Embedded”:
• Select “Edit Script…”:
You will see that you can enter AppleScript code directly into DEVONthink. For our
purposes, however, we will link to a file.
———————————————————— 275 ————————————————————

• Select the ”Embedded” option and return it to “External” so that it appears as:
• Select the “Assign Document Date & Amount” or whatever script name appears
there:
Notice that these options reflect the same files we had in the Finder Smart Rule group
above. For reference, here they are again:
———————————————————— 276 ————————————————————

• Select “Create Back Links - Smart Rule”:
• Select “OK” to complete the dialog:
At this point, any time you open or preview a file, DEVONthink will automatically search for
what other documents might be linking back and create a list, complete with links, in the
Custom Inspector (Control-2).
———————————————————— 277 ————————————————————

There are a couple of very neat features of this system. One is that even our reference files,
such as PDFs, URLs and the like have return links listed. For example, here I have the URL of a
Wikipedia page about the MECE principle as a reference. Selecting it in my database shows
the notes from which I’ve referenced it:
———————————————————— 278 ————————————————————

Secondly, having the return links on display as I write can be an excellent source of material
for developing my note. For example, if I have a number of notes that refer to a “narrator”, I
might decide that a note dedicated to ”Narrator” might be useful.
However, such a broad topic may feel overwhelming. What to say? As soon as I create a
Narrator note in the slip-box Inbox, the Return Links section populates:
Each of these inbound links prompts an idea about what I can say about the Narrator of a
story, which I can then shape into a solid note:
———————————————————— 279 ————————————————————

Drawback
It is important to know that this particular system is not foolproof. It carries a side effect of
throwing off the clipboard. In other words, if you copy something from one note, then navigate
to another note, you won’t be able to reliably paste that information to the new note. Instead,
you’ll be pasting the list of return links. The reason is that this Smart Rule uses the clipboard to
do its work.
There are a few potential workarounds.
One potential workaround is to change “Perform the following actions” to “On Demand”:
If you make this change, you’ll have to manually invoke the Smart Rule, either through
contextual menu or through a key command (Menu > Tools > Apply Rules > [rule name])
whenever you want it to run. It won’t be as snappy, but you’ll at least have your clipboard.
Another option is to have it update before or after saving. I’ve had mixed results with this
one.
Other work arounds such as having the action performed at startup, shutdown, or some
timed frequency may be useful as well. However, be aware that DEVONthink can take a
considerable amount of time to process all of your notes and will be less responsive during that
time. For this reason, I would avoid using a trigger that would process all of your notes
regularly.
Lastly, if you have a clipboard manager such as found in Alfred, the application launcher, or
a dedicated clipboard manager like Paste, you can step back in the clipboard history to find
the clip you want.
Personally, I currently have the trigger set to “On Open” as described above while using
the clipboard manager in Alfred, but I continue to experiment with other options.
———————————————————— 280 ————————————————————

Including Incoming Links In Full Screen
Early on, we looked at several ways we could open and edit a file. These included:
1. Using the preview window
2. Opening a file using DEVONthink’s own editor as a separate window or in full

screen
3. Opening a file using an application external to DEVONthink
We can consider one more option. We can look at DEVONthink’s own editor, but expand it
to fit the full screen without it being in full screen mode. For example, here I have a note taking
up my full screen, set to Side-by-Side view, and with the Custom Inspector open:
There are at least two benefits to this view. First I minimize any background visual clutter by
taking up the entire screen real estate. Second, I can have the Inspector open, as opposed to
full screen mode which does not allow doing so.
———————————————————— 281 ————————————————————

We can create a Keyboard Maestro macro to open any of our notes to a preferred setup
such as that displayed above. For example, the following uses (Option-Command-o) to open a
document, expand it to occupy the full screen, and set up Side-by-Side editing:
———————————————————— 282 ————————————————————

Adding Files, The Inbox, and
Processing
Getting Information Into DEVONthink
In these next sections, we’ll be looking in-depth at the various ways to get files into
DEVONthink. We will now cover several methods to add files to the Inbox or to DEVONthink in
general:
• Directly into an Inbox
• Using the Sorter
• Using DEVONthink to Go
• Scanning into DEVONthink
• Importing and Indexing
———————————————————— 284 ————————————————————

Processing a Note
At this point, we have several fundamental components of a system in place. We have:
• A set of notes
• A place for references
• A way to connect notes and references to each other
• An Index that helps to organize our notes
Let’s review how a basic cycle of work could go based on what we’ve done so far. When an
idea comes to mind, we can:
• Create one or several notes, one for each idea (Control-m):
• Give the note a title:
———————————————————— 285 ————————————————————

• Write a few thoughts adding references using a last name and year as needed. If
quoting, try to add your own thoughts. Take care in writing the note so that it would be
nearly ready to copy and paste into an article or book you’d write. Consider how this
thought aligns with other notes in your system. Consider the reasons that you want to
add the note to your slip-box in the first place:
• Consider adding the title at the top of the note card’s body itself:
• Link the card to others, creating, writing, and editing as other ideas come to mind
• Either link the card sequentially to a previous note, tracing the links back to an
Index card, or tag the card as an Index card
———————————————————— 286 ————————————————————

We end up with something like:
———————————————————— 287 ————————————————————

Considering an Inbox
Now that we’ve considered the latter portions of working with notes in DEVONthink, we
can now look at “fleeting” notes and the Inbox.
Before we even start adding our thoughts, we need to have an idea. Ideas often come to
mind when we are not ready to do much with them. Instead, they tend to appear when
resonating with something else that we are doing or thinking about. Or they strike when we
cannot really take the time to meaningfully work on them.
It may appear to be common sense to jot the idea down with the intention of coming back
to it. However, even if it is common sense, we still require tools and practice. While the tools
are common place, practice is not. Practice is about building the systems to help us
deliberately follow up on our notes.25
Ahrens uses the term “fleeting” notes. Fleeting notes are those that one quickly jots down.
That could be on a scrap of paper or in a document file. It could also be an underline of a
passage or a mark on the side of a book’s page.
Fleeting notes are a set of markers, symbols, or simple written phrases that we haven’t
quite formed into fully portrayed ideas. We make fleeting notes with the hope that we can
return and develop them. That way, we can set them aside for now and return our focus to
where we were.
25We will consider some aspects of pracEce here, but for a more thorough consideraEon of the work of pracEce,
consider my video course Being ProducEve.
———————————————————— 288 ————————————————————

For example, when reading, we come across an interesting passage. Instead of putting the
book down to consider how to write a well-thought-through note, we instead underline it,
perhaps folding the corner26 of a page. Satisfied with the hope that we’ll return later, we
continue reading.
Unfortunately, a scattered list of notes and underlines does little to help us. More often,
they seemingly multiply as we write louder and louder versions of them, highlighting with new
colors, underlining multiple times, adding stars, and the like. The hope is that we’ll see the
“important” ones over the others, though it is unclear how any of the other ones have
somehow maybe become less important.
To corral our ideas, we will use DEVONthink’s Inbox.
In general, an Inbox is an important and powerful tool. It holds our ideas for when we are
ready to think about them. The Inbox offers a singular place to gather thought so that we can
work through them one at a time, taking the time it takes. With practice and upkeep, an Inbox
is a strong ally in work.
But, if an Inbox is so powerful, why not present it earlier in this book?
I have deliberately held off from discussing the Inbox until now because there is an
important catch. The Inbox requires regular upkeep. That means regularly taking ideas and
moving them to where they belong. If you do not know where an idea belongs, the Inbox fills,
the process chokes, and the database becomes digitally constipated.
Now, however, we have a functional system in place. If I may continue with the
gastrointestinal analogy, we now can gain a better sense as to what constitutes a bite-size of
information and how to digest it before taking on more.27 A clean Inbox is both a measure and
strength of a well-functioning system.
26 My apologies to those who cannot tolerate marking your book. I make many marks.
27 That’s enough for the GI tract. This sketch has become far too silly.
———————————————————— 289 ————————————————————

Before getting into the details of using the DEVONthink’s Inbox, let’s consider processing.
At least as we’ve developed it so far, processing with an Inbox is just what’s described above
with some additions at the beginning and end:
• Write ideas as fleeting notes
• Transfer fleeting notes to the Inbox
• Break up fleeting notes into single notes of single ideas
Then for each note:
• Write and edit thoughts, adding links and references as needed
• Either trace the note back to an Index note or tag it as an Index note itself
• Move the note to your main database
So, let’s now consider how we can add notes, references, and more to DEVONthink
through an Inbox.
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Using an Inbox
Go to the Inbox:
• Open the Navigator (Option-Command-1)
• Open the Globals section
• Expand the section labeled “Inboxes”:
We have a single database open: Slip-Box. Even so, notice that there are multiple Inboxes.
Above, we see a parent “Inboxes” within which reside a “Global Inbox” and a “Slip-Box”
inbox.
When the parent Inboxes is selected, as it is in the above image, items in either the Global
Inboxes or the Slip-Box will be available in the preview list of documents. Selecting either
Global Inbox or your slip-box will specifically look at only those notes.
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• Select the Slip-Box database:
Likely, you will not see your Inbox amongst your items:
If you prefer to see your Inbox alongside your groups and Smart Groups:
• Open preferences (Command-,)
• Go to the General tab
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• In the Sidebar section, uncheck “Unify Inboxes”:
The Inbox will now appear as its own group:
I will leave the checkbox ticked as is my own preference.
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Getting Information into the Inbox
New Note
The simplest and most obvious method of getting something into the Inbox is to create a
new note or document while in it.
• Select the Slip-Box (Inbox):
• Create a new note (e.g. with Option-m using the Key Command we created for
Markdown Notes)
Drag and Drop
Another simple method is to drag and drop a note or a document directly into the Inbox.
The above image shows a drag and drop either into the list of files or into the Icon of the
Slip-Box Inbox.
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The Sorter and New Notes
The Sorter
DEVONthink offers a “Sorter” as another means of adding files and ideas into your Inbox,
or even directly into other parts of your system. One of its several advantages is that the Sorter
does not require DEVONthink to be running.
Let’s first set it up. To do so:
• Select the Sorter tab:
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• In the first section, “Appearance:” change None to “Show as Menu Extra”:
• Under “Menu Extra Title:“ select either “Text” or “Icon”:
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By selecting Text, you’ll see DEVONthink’s name in the Menu Bar:
By selecting Icon, you’ll see an icon with a much smaller footprint in the Menu Bar:
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Alternatively, you could:
• Change the appearance to “Show as Dock Tab”:
DEVONthink will then present you with options for the position of the tab around your
screen.
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The Sorter will function identically in either position. I will continue using the “Show as
Menu Extra” and as an icon.
• Select the Menu bar Icon:
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There are several options available:
Navigation
The Navigation option presents our databases and any groups. By selecting a database or
group, DEVONthink will open a window at that location.
Take Note
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The Take Note section is quite useful as we can add thoughts to DEVONthink, even when
it’s not running. As noted in the image above, we can add a name, body of text, URL, flag,
read/unread status, locked status, rating, and tag at this stage. In general, however, if I’m
creating a note here, I’m not doing so with any eye towards a refined organization. So, I’ll likely
type in a few thoughts into the body, leave it without title or anything else, and only make sure
that Format is set to Markdown and the Location is set to “Slip-Box”. In other words, I create a
fleeting note. In the future, both Format and Location are the same as whatever the Sorter has
last been set to so there is nothing else to do other than write the note.
After only typing a few thoughts into the Body section, I:
• Type Command-s to save it to DEVONthink
DEVONthink then automatically generates a title based on what was typed in the body.
This quick note writing through the Sorter is so useful that I encourage you to create a
shortcut for its access. There is no need to use macOS or Keyboard Maestro here as
DEVONthink provides a method of doing so. To access it:
• Go to the Sorter tab
• Click the “Click to record shortcut” section next to Take Note Hotkey
• Enter a desired key, e.g. Control-m:
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Of course, depending upon your own use, consider creating key commands for the other
functions listed here as well. Once the settings are in place, to take a note:
• Type Control-m
• Type a few thoughts
• Type Command-s or select “Add”
The note will then be waiting patiently in the Slip-Box Inbox.
If you have trouble getting it to work immediately, consider closing and re-opening
DEVONthink and then trying again.
Sometimes while adding a thought to the Sorter, you may realize the need to get additional
information before sending it to the Inbox. To do so, instead of typing Command-s:
• Select away or type Esc
• Get the additional information
• Type Control-m to return to the Sorter where your fleeting note awaits
• Continue adding thoughts
• When ready, type Command-s or select “Add” to add it to the Inbox
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Quick Link to a New Note
Often while writing or editing a note, new ideas come to mind. This is, after all, how the
mind tends to work. We have associations to the thing we are currently focused on.
Unfortunately, it can be all too easy to just follow our associations without actually completing
the work in front of us. Meanwhile, the alternative, it seems, would be to drop our neat new
thoughts in interests of completing the current note. Either path is problematic.
We can use the Inbox to strike a compromise. While writing a note, be that in the Inbox or
elsewhere in DEVONthink, we can:
• Call the sorter (Control-m)
• Jot down a few thoughts
• Type Command-s
The new note will again be waiting in the Inbox for when we are done working on the
current one.
We can do one better with some help from Keyboard Maestro. For example, you might be
writing a note and come across a word that you believe could be its own note. Here I’d like to
take the words ”B story characters” and convert it into its own note card:
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I tend to have my notes follow a general structure of:
# Title
Previous Note:
_________________________
{Body}
I would like to start the next note with a similar structure. We can use Keyboard Maestro to
automate all of these components. Before I present the macro for it, here would be its use:
• Select “B story characters”:
• Type the command (Control-Option-l)
The sorter appears with a note, complete with reference to the note that inspired the idea
and ready for me to add a few thoughts:
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Once done jotting down my initial ideas:
• Type Command-s to save it to the Inbox
Here is the macro:
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A Note and Its Links
Quickly being able to create and link to notes can be very handy when crafting your ideas.
Using the Sorter, the Inbox, the Quick Link to a New Note technique, and simply typing
WikiLinks, we can efficiently craft a central idea with useful links to branches of thought.
As I mentioned earlier in On the Slip-Box, it is useful to aim for any note to exist as a
singular idea. But of course, ideas don’t exist without context. Ideas don’t just live in a vacuum.
So you may wonder, what do you write in this note, and what do you reserve for another? At
what point does one idea end and another begin?28
To this end, I have adopted the following guidelines when writing and linking:
• Attempt to distill the current focus into a single idea
• When another idea begins to bud from the current focus, create and link to a second
note
• For each link, explain what the connection is about
This third bullet point is the meat of the matter. Consider, do the words or sentences
surrounding a link convey the message of why there is a link?
For example, while writing a card titled Narrator, instead of writing “See Story”, it is more
useful to consider how “Story” is related to “Narrator”. And so, I come up with “A Narrator is
the conduit through which a Story is told.” Story then automatically turns into a link.
While I cannot say I do this at all times, it is still a useful ideal to consider.
28Seeing as how the Universe is One and the rest is a very persistent illusion, it can be very difficult to draw
divisions when they do not exist. And yet, as the silly humans we are, we do.
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The Sorter Additional Functions
The Sorter provides several additional tools for adding other types of files. We will not go
into depth here, but instead only peruse an overview:
Voice Note
Voice note creates an audio recording and adds it to the location you specify.
Video Note
Video note creates a video recording and adds it to the location you specify.29
29 It might be useful to shave first.
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Screen Capture
Screen Capture captures either a window, a selection of the screen, or the full screen. In
order to enable this feature, you may need to allow DEVONthink to access other aspects of
your computer. Likely, when you first attempt to use screen capture, DEVONthink and MacOS
will prompt you how to do so. If not:
• Open System Preferences (Select Menu > Apple Icon > System Preferences…)
• Select “Security & Privacy”:
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• Go to the Privacy Tab:
• Select the lock in the bottom left, enter your password, and select unlock:
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• Using the “+” sign, add DEVONthink to both Accessibility and Full Disk Access:
Web Clip
The web clip gives you a method of adding URLs to DEVONthink. With Mac OS Catalina, I
have been unable to get the first option to work. Instead, I will either:
• Copy the URL from the browser, and select the second option
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or
• Drag and drop the URL into the structure directly to the DEVONthink which opens
the Navigation section:
Drag and Drop
As noted in the Web Clip section, we can drag and drop URLs into DEVONthink. We can
also, however, drag and drop a large number of files into the Sorter. PDFs, text files, images,
video files, and the like can all be dragged and dropped onto the Sorter.
To drag and drop a file into a specific database or group in DEVONthink:
• Drag the file to the Sorter icon
• Without letting go, continue dragging the file onto the database or Inbox
• Pause over the parent Database, Inbox, or group. As you do, the parent group will
open to reveal any sub-groups such as the Slip-Box Inbox:
Note, when you drag and drop a file into DEVONthink, either directly or through the Sorter,
a copy is made. In other words, the original continues to sit where you had found it and a new
copy is now sitting inside DEVONthink. Consider deleting the original. Unless you have a clear
reason to have them, multiple copies of the same file often create headaches.
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DEVONthink to Go
Of course, many ideas can come to us while away from the computer. Most of us have our
phones nearby. The application DEVONthink to Go gives us many of the same functions and
access to our files as the laptop counterpart. Setting up DEVONthink to Go takes more
discussion than a single section about the Inbox and Processing affords. To set up DEVONthink
to Go as a helpful adjunctive Inbox, check out its setup towards the end of this book.
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Scanning into DEVONthink
An additional method of getting information into DEVONthink is to use a scanner. If you

are looking to add a scanner to help you manage a paperless world, I would encourage
investing in a good, multipage, duplex scanner. If you have to scan one sheet at a time, it will
likely be terribly frustrating.
Personally, I’ve used an old Fujitsu ScanSnap for several years. While the Catalina MacOS
has rendered its software obsolete, I’ve replaced the software with ExactScan which has kept it
up and running. If you don’t have a scanner that specifically integrates with DEVONthink, you
still have options so long as it can be recognized by the MacOS native application, Image
Capture.
You can set up a folder to continually monitor a specific folder. When DEVONthink sees
that there is a document in it, the application will apply OCR and then import it into the Inbox.
To set up the folder:
• Go to Finder
• Create a folder (Shift-Command-n)
• Title it something like “Scan to DEVONthink”
• Control-click the new Scan to DEVONthink folder
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• Select Services > Folder Actions Setup…:
• Select Run Service:
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• Select the desired script. In this case, I would like DEVONthink to Import and OCR
the file, and then delete the original:
If you prefer to leave it undeleted, select Import, though you’d then need to select OCR
and delete the original file manually later.
You should see something like:
At this point, any time a file is added to the “Scan to DEVONthink” folder, it will be
imported and OCR’d with the original deleted.
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If you are using scanning software, you can set up the output folder to the “Scan to
DEVONthink” folder to further streamline the process. Here is an example of the settings I have
with ExactScan:
Consider adding the folder to your dock for ease of access.
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Importing and Indexing
For larger swaths of data, DEVONthink can either Import or Index items.
Importing Data
To view options for importing data:
• Select Menu > File > Import:
The first option, Files and Folders…, allows us to select any number of files on our
computers and import them directly into DEVONthink. They will appear in the currently
selected group.
Note, we can have DEVONthink convert hashtags into tags. Hashtags are indicated with a #
sign and no space before a word. For example, #idea is a hashtag for the word idea. To take
advantage of the conversion and allow DEVONthink to create new tags as necessary:
• Go to Preferences… (Command-,)
• Go to the Import tab
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• Select “Convert Hashtags to Tags”:
Other tag options are also available, but the above seems most relevant to the slip-box.
Indexing Data
You may have a situation where you would like to keep your files outside of DEVONthink
but still take advantage of all DEVONthink has to offer, for example with its See Also and
Classify functions (to be covered). This way, for example, you could use a simple folder and
text-based files set up for your slip-box that could be easily accessible to any number of
programs including DEVONthink.
To set this up:
• Select Menu > File > Index Files and Folders… (Option-Command-x)
• Select the Folder that you want indexed
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For our example, I’m selecting an older set of files I had used when first experimenting with
setting up a slip-box:
DEVONthink then creates a group with files within DEVONthink:
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Notice, I emphasize that you index the folder and not the individual files. The reason is that
as you make additions to your slip-box, whether while using DEVONthink or while using
another program, selecting a folder will allow DEVONthink to monitor the changes made
within it. DEVONthink can sync and update, indexing and removing files as necessary to keep
the database in tune. In addition, as you create files in the Indexed group, DEVONthink will
actually create the file in that Indexed folder outside of DEVONthink. That way, additions you
make in DEVONthink will be available to your other applications as well.
Were you to select only the files for indexing, DEVONthink would then only monitor those
specific files.
All indexed files will work with DEVONthink’s Concordance abilities, WikiLinking, search
functions, and more. In addition, Indexed files and native files can play along quite nicely.
Two useful Icons
In the image above, notice the icons on the far right. The smiling face indicates that this is
an indexed file:
The square with a vertical line through the center indicates that DEVONthink believes this
file to be a duplicate:
Since my example includes the import of all of my older files, I suspect all of these notes
are earlier versions, if not copies, of some sort. DEVONthink only recognizes one of them as a
duplicate as it is the only one that has not been changed. Ironically, the duplicate file above is
“The Activities of Writing”.
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Using the Trash with Indexed Files
Since I do not need this Indexed group of files, I will now delete the group. There is no
immediate issue when I send them to the DEVONthink trash bin. However, when I go to empty
the trash:
the following appears:
DEVONthink prompts you to consider how you want to handle the files. As the files had
been indexed, they sit outside of DEVONthink. Selecting “Files” will delete the files in the
Finder as well as in DEVONthink. Similarly, selecting “Files & Folders” will delete the files and
folders in the Finder as well as in DEVONthink. The default selection is “Only in database”.
Selecting this option will leave the files and folders in the Finder alone, but remove them from
DEVONthink.
In the course of our example, as I want to keep this folder for further demonstration
purposes, I will select “Only in database.”
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Best Practices for the Inbox
The following are several ideas to consider that you may find helpful when working at the
Inbox.
Take Your Time
Hopefully, as you begin to build your system, you’ll start to find the work rewarding. Often,
after I’ve come away from a session of reading and adding notes, thinking through my ideas
and how they connect, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Even if I don’t have some polished
piece ready for publication, I feel as though I’ve consolidated my thoughts, understood a few
ideas better, and moved them closer to publication should I choose to go in that direction.
Sometimes, I’ll come across an idea in a book, an article, or just off the top of my head and
dutifully enter it into the Inbox. However, when I get to processing it, I don’t know quite what
to do with it. It doesn’t seem to readily connect with other ideas.
For just such occasions, Ahrens30 gives a useful tip. Paraphrasing:
Consider why you thought it would be useful to add to your notes.
A slip-box is about considering the meaning behind your thoughts. It can be a time for
reflection. Allowing yourself the time it takes to consider an idea will help to develop a richer
system.
You Get What You Put In
In this way, you get what you put in. The more you clearly structure your ideas, linking as is
relevant, avoiding linking to irrelevant ideas, the more useful your database will become.
However, I hedge. There is the side of procrastination to consider, too. We could spend
hours crafting individual ideas into some mythical perfection. There is no end to how much we
can put into writing our ideas. Be wary of striving for perfection.31

31 Telling
the difference between improving work and procrasEnaEon goes beyond the scope of this text. I do,
however, discuss the idea in depth in both Workflow Mastery and Being Produc*ve.
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A Difference of Inboxes
I’ve written extensively about the use of Inboxes in task management. It is important to
recognize the difference between the Inbox in DEVONthink and those of a task manager.
When we are using a task manager, we try to get through an Inbox quickly. A gross over-
simplification of Task-Inbox processing is to take anything that takes 2 minutes or less and do it;
anything longer is filed in various manners for later action.
With DEVONthink, unless we are under some pressure to publish, we can take our time.
Instead of resting on a “2 minute” rule, we can decide to move things to the rest of our notes
when we have a general feeling that they have been well developed. Certainly this is a
subjective measurement. It is something you can only decide for yourself. If an Inbox with
dozens of notes poses no problems to you, fine. If you prefer only a small handful to
accumulate at any one time, that’s fine, too. In general, it’s better not to allow so much time to
elapse that you forget what you meant when you wrote a fleeting note.
Ideas at the Inbox
While processing your notes in the Inbox, you will be connecting one idea to others.
Sometimes you may wonder if you’d already written about something. Sometimes, you’ll know
and simply type the name of that note to connect. Sometimes, you may see that other ideas in
the Inbox are related.
But, oftentimes, you’ll have ideas that are not in the slip-box yet. You’re already in the Inbox
working on a note, so how do you handle having two ideas at once, both managing the current
note and adding another note?
Consider using the Sorter to add additional notes, even as you’re processing a note in the
Inbox. The key command created earlier, in my case Control-m, allows you to quickly jot an
idea down, type Command-s, and then continue with the current work of processing the note.
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Consider the settings you have listed:
Note I have the blue “Unread” button selected, which is default, the format is set to my file
type of choice, Markdown, and the location is set to the Inbox for the slip-box.
Because any new note is entered as Unread, it will appear as bold in the Inbox:
Once selected, DEVONthink will convert it from Unread to Read.
Consider Using Focus Mode and External Editors
While writing, it can be easy to drift off into other notes. You may inadvertently stumble
upon realizing you have a note by writing its WikiLink title. Or there may be a level of noise
from other apps and windows drifting in the background. Distractions are ample in today’s
technological world. For such conditions, consider if you might:
• Use an external editor (See the previous Opening Files Internally and Externally)
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Or:
• Use the full screen focus mode
To open the full screen focus mode:
• Select Menu > View > Full Screen > Document (Command-F7):
Here you can see the full screen type settings that I had set earlier. (See Appearances.)
Add to Slip-Box Inbox Directly When Possible
In general, if you know that something will be headed towards your slip-box, I would
encourage you to put it in the Slip-Box Inbox rather than the Global Inbox. The reason is that
as you process your note, DEVONthink will handle your WikiLinks differently. Notes in the Slip-
Box Inbox will connect to other notes within that database. This way, you can better see how a
note will behave in the main database before sending it there.
In fact, if you start editing your note while in the Inbox and notice that the WikiLinks aren’t
working, check to see if it’s in the right Inbox.
Consider Back Links
When adding and discovering links to other notes, consider whether those other notes
would benefit from linking back to your new note. See Finding Return Links.
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Consider a Path of Inboxes
As you have ideas and get those ideas to the Inbox, you’ll likely notice a series of stops on
the way there. For example, while reading a book you underline a few passages. Then, you add
those thoughts to the Inbox. Later, you process the Inbox.
You may also have scraps of paper from something else, another system that holds tasks,
and who knows what else. In the productivity method of Getting Things Done, we can call
these areas “in-trays” or “buckets”. The best practice suggested is, “You should have as many
in-trays as you need and as few as you can get by with.”32
I encourage you to visit your slip-box and any related Inboxes daily to process them. At
least do so until you have a solid understanding of what the habit can do for you, perhaps until
you are done reading this book and for several weeks afterward.
If you are using a task management system, consider creating a repeating task that links to
the Slip-Box Inbox. Here is an example using OmniFocus:
When working from a book, perhaps underlining or highlighting, consider making a mark or
changing the highlight color to indicate that the note has been transferred to your slip-box.
32 Allen, David. GeNng Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Produc*vity. Second. Penguin Books, 2015. p34
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Practice: The Inbox
From here on out, try to use the Inbox when first entering a note. Doing so gives you a
place to think about its content and context before entering it into your system. In this way, you
can more deliberately cultivate the slip-box.
Our next section will be about how DEVONthink can consider how your notes might relate.
Be sure to have enough notes to make it meaningful. If you’ve been following along with these
“Practice” sections, you already have a few dozen notes and should be just fine.
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Using See Also, Classify, &
Exclusions
See Also
It can be difficult to remember whether another note you’ve written might relate to your
current note. Particularly as you develop your system of notes, there may be items written years
ago that you’ve completely forgotten about.
One of the unique and powerful tools DEVONthink is its “See Also & Classify” system.
Whether you wish to develop a note at the Inbox or see how it connects to others while
working, the See Also & Classify (Control-s) Inspector can be very useful.
The See Also & Classify process is an AI of sorts that “thinks” through all of the items in
your open databases, considers whether they may relate to what you are working on, and then
presents them in order of most related to least. It can also help you understand what topics
and ideas are more prominent and connected to others. And, when you are organizing items
into groups, the AI can suggest where new items might belong.
I find the See Also & Classify section very useful, particularly when using the Inbox.
Therefore, I use the key command Control-s to access it quite often. Though the AI can be
used anywhere in the database, we’ll now use it at the Inbox to help us think through
connections and send the notes to where they best belong.
To demonstrate, we’ll use a note from my real world database. Also, instead of simply
listing their benefits, we’ll now examine these functions in the flow of thinking through a note:
• See Also
• Search
• Classify
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Case Example
My family and I went shopping for clothes. I went fully armed with a book. My weapon of
choice was Modell’s Imagination and the Meaningful Brain.
While reading, I had underlined a few passages. When I finished the chapter, I added a few
thoughts to DEVONthink to Go, the companion iOS app for DEVONthink (to be covered). I
knew it would sync to my laptop. The idea was to get a few thoughts down so I could process
them later. The shopping day presumably ended.33
Later, at my laptop, I see:
33AlternaEvely, the shopping day may have been so profoundly impacEng on my psyche, that it never ended, and I
have instead entered a Harmonesque alternate universe.
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I add a title and clarify my thoughts:
I see that I’ve made three potential references in the note: one each from Modell, Freud,
and the author of Hagakure whose name I currently cannot recall. I don’t have either Modell’s
book or Hagakure in my references, so I:
• Search for and select my References group in one of the windows
• Arrange the windows to sit side by side (References on the left, Inbox on the right):
• Find any needed books on my bookshelf
• Add references complete with a brief summary and an alias using the syntax of
author last name and initial year of publication (See Creating a Reference System)
———————————————————— 331 ————————————————————

Here is the reference note for Imagination and the Meaningful Brain:
And here is the reference note for Hagakure:
Returning to the note entry, let’s see how the See Also & Clarify method could help.
———————————————————— 332 ————————————————————

To Open the See Also & Classify Inspector:
• Select the See Also & Classify option from the Inspector (or type Control-s):
Above, you can see two areas:
• Groups - which shows where DEVONthink suggests the note may belong. This is
the Classify section. We’ll return to it soon.
• Documents - which shows where DEVONthink believes there might be related

notes in your database. This is the See Also section.
Starting with the lower Documents/See Also section, notice how the documents are
arranged. To the left of the documents is a bar showing DEVONthink’s calculations as to how
relevant it believes they may be. The more the bar is filled, the more likely it is relevant.
DEVONthink conveniently lists the note we are currently working with at the top.
———————————————————— 333 ————————————————————

As we select through the other documents, our note will remain in place at the top. Select
them to browse. Note, however, if you start editing one of the See Also documents, that note
will become the focus and the See Also section will accordingly repopulate with new notes
relevant to it. You will, therefore, lose focus on the note you had just been working on.
To avoid changing focus, but still allowing yourself to edit, instead open the file in an
external editor:
• Double-click a document you wish to edit
Alternatively, if you do begin to edit and lose focus on your desired note, you can also
move back through your selections. To do so, either:
• Type Command-[
• Select the back button:
As you work, periodically type Command-s to save. As you do, you may notice that
DEVONthink will update to show different documents in the See Also section, reflecting how it
considers the new information in context of the old.
Returning to our example, the next two documents listed in the Sorter are the references I
just created:
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Search
Of course, DEVONthink won’t do all of our thinking. We just might have our own ideas of
what is relevant.
Continuing our example, I vaguely remember another note titled, “Invisible layer”, that
might be related to my current note. I’m not sure what about it might be useful, but it comes to
mind. Since it’s not in the Sorter, I’ll need to search for it instead.
To search:
• Create a new window (Option-Command-n)
• Type the search key command (Option-Command-f)
Creating a new window lets me search for another document without losing my place. This
series of key commands—Option-Command-n, then Option-Command-f—is quite helpful.
Consider practicing the sequence.
I then:
• Type “Invisible layer” into the search field:
• Select the “Invisible Layer” document
• Type (Command-r) to Reveal the item in the database
Similar to the See Also & Classify system, DEVONthink presents what it calculates to be
most associated with the search term.
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I look at the “Invisible Layer” note and realize it’s not quite connected, contrary to what I
had originally thought. However, further down the list of search results, I see and preview a
“Mind body” note which does appear to have some relationship.
“The Inner World as Externally Seen” note that I’ve been working on could go well behind
“Mind Body”. DEVONthink did not apparently think they were related, but I do, so I’ll connect
them with the phrase “Previous note: Mind Body” at the top:
I’ve also created a line between the header and the main body of the note. You can do so
with 3 consecutive underscores: “____”.
I trace the “Mind Body” note back to ”Psychoanalysis”, which is an Index card.
So, giving the card a once over, I note that there are two issues I could follow up. I want to
look for the original source of a comment attributed to Freud and another where I want to find
the page number for Tsunetomo. We’ll look at following up an incomplete note later.
For the time being, however, I think it looks pretty good.
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As an aside, after searching for a term, you may wish to see the file in its original habitat.
Using Command-r, as we did above, has DEVONthink bring you to the file’s location in the
system. For example:
• Search for “mind body” (Option-Command-f)
• Select the document “Mind body”:
• Type Command-r:
I also use the Command-r key command quite regularly.
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Classify
To add the completed note to the main group of note cards, I could create a new window,
search for the SB Notes group, and drag and drop the new card into the “SB Notes” group.
However, I can also do so more simply by using the See Also & Classify inspector:
• Double-click the correct group. In my case, that is “SB Notes”:
DEVONthink sends the note to the end of the main body of notes. It is now a well
integrated part of the slip-box.
As a further convenience, when DEVONthink’s top suggested group is also your choice for
sorting, you can move the selected note using the key command Control-C instead of double-
clicking.
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Exclusions
Any particular file or group can be excluded from Classification, See Also, Search, and/or
Wiki Linking. At this point of developing our database, it may seem odd to want something
excluded.
However, later in this text, we’ll create links to completed writings. They are useful to have
on hand as references, but you may not wish for them to appear in your regular use of your
slip-box. For our example here, then, we’ll jump into the future to use those files. Of course,
you may find your own reasons for excluding a note or group from showing up in one or
several of these tools. If you wish to exclude these documents from searches and the like:
• Select the files or groups to be excluded:
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• Select the desired boxes for exclusion:
———————————————————— 340 ————————————————————

Working with Views,
Workspaces, & Databases
Different Views
DEVONthink offers multiple ways to look at our documents. We can see them in the
context of their group hierarchies, see their content, see them as icons, and in various
combinations. Now that we have several files in our database, we are in a good position to
appreciate what these views actually have to offer.
• Open Navigation (Option-Command-1)
• Select your Database:
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Recall from the early section Setting Up the Same Views our View and Preview modes
available from Menu > View:
Let’s now look at other potential views and previews.
• Select Menu > View > as Icons (Command-1):
Your groups, Smart Groups, and files will appear as icons.
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We’ve already looked at Menu > View > as List (Command-2) quite a lot as it has been the
view we’ve used throughout this text:
• Select Menu > View > as Columns (Command-3):
The ‘as Columns’ view offers a nice path to view a hierarchy of groups and files. This can be
particularly helpful with something like our Reference group, at least as I’ve developed them
here.
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For our next view:
• Select a group within your References group
• Select Menu > View > Cover Flow (Command-4):
Chances are it won’t look very useful. The Cover Flow view tends to look nicer when
combined with a Preview.
The Preview options are:
• None
• Standard
• Widescreen
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We’ve been examining our View options with the None option selected above.
• Continue with Menu > View > Cover Flow (Command-4)
• Select Menu > View > Standard (Command-6):
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The coverflow view should make more sense now. In the above image, we can see previews
of a URL as well as the next documents:
• Select a file in one of your references groups
• Select Menu > View > as Columns (Command-3)
• Select Menu > View > Widescreen (Command-7):
On the left, we can use the Columns view to move through the hierarchy of groups and
files. Meanwhile, on the right, we can see the file itself.
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Experiment with various settings of View and Preview. Consider also toggling the:
• Toolbar (Option-Command-t)
• Sidebar (Option-Command-1)
• Inspector (Option-Command-i)
For example, the following has the Toolbar, Sidebar, and Inspector closed with the View set
to as List (Command-2) and Preview set to Widescreen (Command-7):
Consider taking a moment to get familiar with the Command-1 through Command-8
presentations of your information. By getting familiar with these key commands, you can
quickly have your files shown in the manners you prefer.
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Building a Workspace
There are many aspects to DEVONthink that can be adjusted. Columns, sorting options,
window presentations, and more can all be set up to your preference for whatever project
you’re working on. But, as soon as you wander off by opening new windows, making
adjustments for just this one time, and the like, all that setup can fall away.
Workspaces let us save a set of databases, windows, and several view and preview
preferences. That way, we can have them appear as we want them to with a simple key
command—no repeat fiddling necessary. We set things up to work well, save the Workspace,
and recall it when needed.
As an example, when working with the Inbox, we need to open the Slip-Box Inbox. Having
the slip-box notes can also be handy. Maybe we can set up another window to see our recently
changed notes. Maybe each one of those windows could benefit from a different set of
columns. And now that there are three windows, arranging them to sit next to each other could
be nice, too.
While any one of these are helpful, that’s a lot of setup. With a Workspace, we can set
things up once and save it. In fact, it is more likely that the setup above, which just so happens
to be my own, will develop over time. I started with the Inbox and said to myself, I’d like to see
the rest of my notes. So I created a second window and saved it as a Workspace. Later as I
added more and made additional adjustments, I would update the Workspace.
Now, if I want to process the Inbox, I type Shift-Option-Command-1 and everything comes
up exactly the way I want it to. When I think there’s some way to make it better, I update it for
next time.
We’ll now create this same Workspace. Of course, it is only one of many you could create
for yourself, and this should prove only as an example.
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Closing and Opening Databases
To prepare our Workspace, let’s first make sure that only the slip-box database is open. We
already visited creating a database in our Preparations section early in this book. Now we’ll
consider how to close and open a database.
To close a database:
• Open the Navigator (Option-Command-1)
• Open the “Open Databases” panel:
• Select Menu > File > Close Database > [Name of Database]
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Or
• Control-Click a database you wish to close
• In the context menu, select “Close Database”:
Or
• Type Shift-Control-Command-w
If you see any database other than your slip-box open, let’s close them. The reason is that if
we search the Inbox, our See Also & Classify section might be mixed with other databases that
have nothing to do with our slip-box.
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Instead of doing so one at a time, we can close all of them at once:
• Select Menu > File > Close Database > Close All (Shift-Control-Option-Command-
w):
This key command, Shift-Control-Option-Command-w, can be rather unwieldy. Consider

creating an alternative key command using either the Mac’s Keyboard Shortcuts (System
Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts) or Keyboard Maestro.
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At this point, we’d like to open a single database, our slip-box. To do so:
• Open the “Recent Database” section in the Navigation pane
• Double-click the Slip-Box database:
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Marking Favorite Databases
Since we are visiting the Slip-Box database quite regularly, it might be useful to mark it as a
favorite. That way, DEVONthink will make it easily accessible by keeping it in the Favorites
section of the Navigator. To set up a favorite database:
• Open the database you would like to favorite if it is not open already
• Control-click the database to access the contextual menu
• Select “Add To Favorites”:
• The Database will now appear in the Favorites section of Navigation
To remove an item from the Favorites section:
• Control-click the database
• Select “Remove from Favorites”
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As a reminder, we’ve considered how we can favorite a note so it can sit inside your
Navigation section (Option-Command-1). In fact, any document can be a favorite. For example,
we could also favorite a PDF. To do so:
• Control-click the document
• Select Add To > Favorites:
We can arrange the documents and databases in whatever order we wish in the Favorites
section:
Ok, returning to our Inbox Workspace…
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Setting Up the Inbox
Being able to quickly process the Inbox is important to the life of any working system.
Without doing so, what we place in the Inbox decays. We lose sight of what we’d written or
why we may have considered it important. With enough time passing, we might not be able to
make any sense of it at all.
I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll do so again now. A common suggestion for task
management systems is to process the Inbox at least once a day. I find the same
encouragement, at least in regards to regularity, works well for working through fleeting notes.
Consider beginning with a daily visit and adjusting from there to see what works best for you.
To help, we can make the Inbox easy to use. That means it should be both easy to get to
and easy to keep out of the way when we don’t need it.
• Open Navigation (Option-Command-1) if it’s not already open
• Open the Inboxes
• Select the Slip-Box Inbox:
The Slip-Box title will appear as a dull gray if there is nothing is currently in the Inbox.
• Close the Navigation pane (Option-Command-1)
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Something like the following should appear:
Currently, the Inspectors and Sidebar are closed. The View settings are as follows:
———————————————————— 357 ————————————————————

Let’s add a few test notes to see what it might look like:
Notice the column and sorting preferences. To access the columns, either:
• Control-click the Name bar
or
• Select the sorting option:
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You should see a set of options from which to choose columns:
———————————————————— 359 ————————————————————

Here, I’ve chosen ”Date Created“ and “Ascending”. These particular parameters list the
entries in the order of when they were created with the oldest at the top. This way, too, I can
modify different items without them jumping around the Inbox as I made changes. Other
columns would distract me, so I’ve removed them.
Of course, feel free to select your own preferred options
Let’s add one more attribute. As we’ve seen earlier, the See Also & Classify Sidebar can be
useful when working at the Inbox:
• Open the See Also & Classify Sidebar (Control-s):
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Saving and Editing Workspaces
At this point, we have a window into our Inbox. Rather than have to choose the columns
and sorting options every time we visit, let’s save this as a Workspace.
To create the workspace:
• Select Menu > Go > Add…:
• Enter a name into the Workspace naming prompt:
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At this point, if you make setting changes, open other windows, or close the database, you
can always return to this saved Workspace view. To do so, either:
• Select Menu > Go > Slip-Box Inbox Processing
• Type the automatically assigned key command (Shift-Option-Command-1):
Note that DEVONthink automatically assigns a key command to our new workspace. In the
course of creating multiple workspaces, DEVONthink will incrementally assign new key
commands. As an example, here I’ve created several, as observed from the Go menu:
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If you would like to readjust the order so the key commands better align, you can always
rearrange your workspace order. To do so:
• Select Menu > Go > Edit…:
From here we have several options:
• Drag and drop to rearrange the order
• Double-click a Workspace to rename it
• Select a Workspace and click the minus sign in the bottom left to delete it
As a reminder, before calling up a Workspace:
• Consider closing all open databases (See Closing and Opening Databases)
When a Workspace is selected, DEVONthink will remember which databases need to be

opened, but not necessarily those that should be closed. Having open databases you don’t
need can make your searches more complicated than need be. It’s more useful to close the
databases you don’t need, and then call up the desired workspace.
———————————————————— 363 ————————————————————

Setting up Additional Windows
In the course of work, we inevitably discover better ways to do things. While processing the
Inbox, I’ve found two additional windows to be useful:
1. The entire database of existing notes. The entire database is useful to browse
while working at the Inbox.
2. The Today Smart Group. The Today group we made earlier is useful especially as
you work through your Inbox, you may wish to make changes to already existing notes.
When you do, they will then appear in the Today Smart Group.
Let’s add these to our Slip-Box Inbox Processing Workspace. To create a list for existing
notes:
• Navigate to your set of notes
• Set the parameters as desired
My own settings are:
• View options to As List (Command-2) and None (Command-5)
• Sidebar and Inspector are closed
• No columns
• Unsorted:
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Leaving the sorting to Unsorted allows us to manually arrange the order of notes.
To create a window for the Today Group:
• Navigate to your Today Smart Group
• Set the parameters as desired
My own settings are:
• View options to As List (Command-2) and None (Command-5)
• Sidebar and Inspector are closed
• No columns
• Sorting is set to Date Modified and Descending:
Using this set of parameters presents the most recently modified notes at the top of the list.
———————————————————— 365 ————————————————————

Arranging and Updating
There are now three windows:
• The Inbox
• The database of notes
• The Today Smart Group
Arrange them as you see fit. Here is my own setup:
Once you’re happy with the arrangement for your processing workspace:
• Select Menu > Go > Update [Workspace]:
Once again, if you adjust windows, open or close several, make adjustments, and the like,
you can always return to the Workspace you’ve designed by typing the associated key
command.
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Project Specific Workspace - Example 1
There are any number of uses one can consider for Workspaces. As another example, we
could look at setting up a Workspace for a specific project. In this case, let’s create one for a
study project. I’d like to have a specific PDF and the Inbox at the ready.
• Close the Today and Notes windows, leaving only the Inbox
• Open the desired PDF reading material
• Open the Sidebar to Table of Contents (Control-4) or maybe Annotations

(Control-6)
• Arrange the windows as desired:
Note, I’ve added the Generic Inspector to the Sidebar for the Inbox on the right. On the
left, I have the PDF itself open.
Once happy with arrangements:
• Select Menu > Go > Add…
• Title the Workspace at the prompt
Certainly, make your own adjustments.
At this point, any time you are ready to study, you have an easy way to read and take notes
directly into the Slip-Box Inbox.
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Project Specific Workspace - Example 2
Another project specific workspace might be a series of notes all set up as individual tabs.
For example, while reading The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey34, I began with a few
simple notes. However, as I wrote a note, I would discover ideas to follow up. I not only wanted
to create new notes, but also adapt old ones. Using Command-Select, I could create a series
of tabs.
Having a series of tabs open like this can be a neat method of taking notes. Using
Command-{ and Command-} we can quickly jump from one tab to another.
After a while, however, I had quite a large number that I wanted to at least look at, if not
work on:
34 Gallwey, Timothy. The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance. Random
House Trade Paperbacks, 2008.
———————————————————— 368 ————————————————————

Looking closer, you can see the series of tabs all across the top:
By saving the workspace, I ensured that I wouldn’t lose that setup. In fact, as I would
regularly want to save the space, I created a Keyboard Maestro shortcut specifically for this
purpose:
———————————————————— 369 ————————————————————

Practice: Set up Workspaces
If you haven’t already done so, consider setting up several workspaces. Hopefully, you’ve
already built the two examples—the Inbox processing setup and a study setup. Maybe create
one more, just trying to be creative. Maybe one for journaling? Maybe for a different study
project?
If nothing comes of it, no matter. You can always delete it.
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Developing the System
Following Up
There are times where you may not be able to complete a note. Or maybe there is a PDF
you want to read over several sessions. Or maybe you’d like a way to have reminders to check
on different parts of your system.
We can build a system of guides to help follow things up. There are a few means of doing
so. In this section we’ll examine:
• DEVONthink Reminders
• Using Links and an External Task Manager
• Using a Tag and Apple Reminders
• Using a Task Manager to Establish Reading and Inbox Habits
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DEVONthink Reminders
At times, you might feel that a note could use more references, ideas, or links. Currently,
however, you don’t have time or you prefer to have your focus elsewhere. We can create a
simple reminder to return to a file by using DEVONthink’s own reminder system:
• Select a file to return to
• Open the Inspector to Annotations & Reminders (Control-3):
———————————————————— 373 ————————————————————

• Select the word “Never” and change it to “Once”:
• Choose a time to be alerted
• Select a type of alert:
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Depending on the type of alert you choose, when the time comes, you’ll see something
along the lines of:
However, while this can be useful, there is a problem with this type of reminder. When it
goes off, we are almost always in the middle of something else. As a result, after clicking “OK”,
you are then faced with a choice:
1. Finish what you were doing, but then risk forgetting to go back to the note as the
reminder is now gone
2. Or you can drop what you were doing and risk not going back to that
For these reasons, we’ll now explore other options.
———————————————————— 375 ————————————————————

Links and an External Task System
Another option is to create a task in an external task manager. A task system offers a
different level of flexibility. We can add a task inline with everything else we have to do for the
day. We can add defer dates, due dates, and the like. Ultimately, we can more precisely have a
task appear when and where we’d like.
To add a follow up to a DEVONthink file using an external task manager:
• Select the file to follow up
• Copy the item link (Menu > Edit > Copy Item Link) or (Control-option-Command-c):
• Create a task in the external program
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For our examples, I will mainly use OmniFocus, though the ideas can be adapted to other
task systems.
• Open the OmniFocus Quick-Entry (Control-Option-Space)
• Open the OmniFocus task note field (Command-‘)
• Paste the link (Command-v):
• Assign a title, project, tag and any relevant dates to the task:
I’d now have a task appear as part of my list of things to do at the laptop starting tomorrow,
complete with a link to return to the work:
———————————————————— 377 ————————————————————

I use this process often enough that I’ve created a Keyboard Maestro macro to quickly
create a new task with a link to an item in DEVONthink:
You can build it as I have above or use the file included in your purchase, adapting to your
needs as you see fit.
———————————————————— 378 ————————————————————

Using a Tag and Apple Reminders
Another method of follow up is to create a tag that you regularly review. For example, you
could create a @Follow Up tag.
• Select the note for follow up:
• Create a @Follow Up tag (Menu > Script > Tags > Add Tags to Selection)
———————————————————— 379 ————————————————————

• Type “Follow Up” and (Return):
Of course, you’ll need to actually look at the @Follow up tag in the library with some
regularity for it to be effective.
Consider creating a reminder to do so. For this example, we’ll look at the native Mac
Reminders app:
• Open Reminders
• Select a list that is useful for you
• Add a task
• Select the “i” to add how you’d like to be reminded:
• When creating any reminder, consider how it would be useful (or not) at the time
and place you’d be reminded:
———————————————————— 380 ————————————————————

Alternatively, using a task manager with a repeating function, you could create a reminder
to visit this tag regularly. This way, you could have any number of notes you are working on.
Simply tag them. When the task to work on your @follow up tasks arrive, you could select the
link to go straight to those notes and continue working:
• Control-click the tag in the Navigator
• Select “Copy Item Link”:
• Create a repeating task in OmniFocus with the link in the note field:
———————————————————— 381 ————————————————————

Establishing a Reading System
Earlier, we had examined creating and using DEVONthink’s Reading Lists. One of the issues
noted was that, since DEVONthink moves the file from Unread to All after a single visit, it tends
to be best used for short items, readily consumed in a single session.
For those items that we foresee as taking longer, we can use the above method and add a
repeat.
Using the DEVONthink system:
• Select the desired file:
• Set the reminder to Daily and the alarm to Add to Reading List:
So long as you have a daily habit of visiting the reading list, you will see the file appear until
you remove the reminder.
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If you prefer to use an external task manager, using OmniFocus as an example:
• Select the desired file:
• Type the newly created Keyboard Maestro key command (Control-Option-

Command-k):
• Give the task a title and save it to the OmniFocus Inbox (Command-k)
• At the OmniFocus Inbox:
• Assign a project, tag, repeat frequency, and any reminders desired:35
35For a thorough examinaEon of using OmniFocus to orchestrate habits, learning, and more, consider my book
Crea*ng Flow with OmniFocus 3. Otherwise, consider adapEng the above workflows to your task manager of
choice. For an in-depth discussion of building a solid task management system that you can adapt to any program
or even just pen and paper, consider my course Being Produc*ve - Simple Steps to Calm Focus.
———————————————————— 383 ————————————————————

Using a Task Manager for Establishing an Inbox Habit
Another place for useful integration with a task manager is with the Inbox. Consider adding
a task to your system to regularly review your Inbox for processing. As an example with
OmniFocus:
• Go to the Navigator (Option-Command-1)
• Expand the Inbox section
• Control-click the Slip-Box Inbox
• Select “Copy Item Link”:
———————————————————— 384 ————————————————————

• Go to OmniFocus
• Create a new task
• Open the note field (Command-‘)
• Paste the link (Command-v)
• Build the remainder of the task as tailored to your own system:
Here, I have it repeating daily, using a defer date (so it is not due), and it appears in my
Quick list which I visit daily. In this way, the reminder is completely within my paths of habit, and
I can completely forget about it until then.
———————————————————— 385 ————————————————————

Connecting to a Task System
In addition, you may want to have a quick method to return to a project or task in your
system from DEVONthink. To do so, we can use the Inspector:
• Go to OmniFocus (or any task manager that offers a way to link to a project or task)
• Select the Project
• Control-click the project to access the contextual menu
• Select Copy as Link:
• Return to DEVONthink
• Select the document or text to connect:
———————————————————— 386 ————————————————————

• Paste the address copied from OmniFocus into the URL field:
At this point, whenever you want to return to the project from DEVONthink:
• Select the document
• Type Shift-Command-o
The project in your task manager will automatically open.
———————————————————— 387 ————————————————————

As a Link File
Another possibility is to create a file that is just a link. Recall that we added a URL as a file
itself when creating our references section. Now, we can do similarly to connect to a task
manager, or really anything that allows you to access its contents using links.
For example, as above, we start by grabbing a link from a task manager:
• Select Copy as Link:
• Return to DEVONthink
• Select a group to add a link to:
———————————————————— 388 ————————————————————

• Select Data > New > From Clipboard (Command-n):
Let’s make it look nicer though:
• Type Return to begin editing the title:
• Give it a name and type return again:
Notice the dot on the left and the bold-type face. These indicate that the URL is unread,
just as any other newly entered file. I’d prefer it to be marked as read.
• Uncheck Menu > Mark > As Unread (Command-k):
The file can be opened by a double-click or with Command-o. Doing so will return us to the
OmniFocus Project.
———————————————————— 389 ————————————————————

Using Templates and
Placeholders
Using Templates and Placeholders
After a period of note-taking, referencing, and the like, you will likely develop certain
preferences for how you want your notes organized. You may have noticed that my own notes
have a pattern with a title, then a previous note indicator, and a line separating these from the
body of text. Having to create a particular configuration each time can become a hassle,
particularly if there are multiple components.
To help, we can use templates. Before we explore creating our own, let’s consider the wide
array of templates that DEVONthink already provides for us. To browse them:
• Go to Menu > Data > New from Template:
Default and additional templates are all listed and grouped into folders. Let’s examine a few
of them now. First, let’s create an empty space to work with.
———————————————————— 391 ————————————————————

If your Inbox is currently clear:
• Go to your Slip-Box Inbox. Consider using your Workspace developed earlier using
the assigned key command. In my case, it would be Shift-Option-Command-1:
Otherwise, if your Inbox is not clear:
• Create a new empty group (Shift-Command-n) and title it, for example “Testing
Templates”:
• Double-click the new folder to enter it
———————————————————— 392 ————————————————————

• Select Menu > Data > New from Template > Education > Cornel Notes—
Markdown:
DEVONthink will create a new Markdown note with a default title, selected and ready to be
renamed as needed:
The note begins in Preview mode (Control-Command-p).
———————————————————— 393 ————————————————————

To begin editing:
• Enter the source code view (Control-Command-x):
You can see all the Markdown code and edit it to whatever may work for you.
Feel free to delete this newly created file.
———————————————————— 394 ————————————————————

Example with Groups
Templates can be more than just text. For example, DEVONthink can provide a series of
pre-made groups. As an example,
• Select Menu > Data > New from Template > Registers > Months
Expanding the new folder, the following should appear:
Feel free to delete this newly created folder.
———————————————————— 395 ————————————————————

Example with Smart Groups
DEVONthink can OCR documents as they are entered. However, you may also want to
know if there are any in your database that have yet to be converted. To look for them:
• Select Menu > Data > New from Template > Smart Groups > PDFs (not searchable)
DEVONthink will create a Smart Group holding all your unconverted PDFs.
To convert it into a PDF, you can then:
• Control-click a file to convert
• From the context menu, select OCR > to searchable PDF:
———————————————————— 396 ————————————————————

Example with Search
A very interesting template is one that does a search and returns with the results. Let’s give
it a try:
• Select Menu > Data > New from Template > Education > Search PubMed
• Type in a query. I’m entering “ADHD”:
After a few moments, DEVONthink returns 100 results:
Each entry even includes a link back to view the original page in PubMed.
I would be cautious about using this, however, as I can imagine easily overwhelming the
system with such a search. The results of the See Also & Classify section could completely be
changed. Of course, you could use exclusions if desired.
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Additional Scripts and Templates
If you’d like to install additional scripts and templates:
• Select Menu > Data > New from Template > More Templates…
DEVONthink will offer a list of Scripts, Smart Rules, and Templates to install:
———————————————————— 398 ————————————————————

Creating New Templates from Existing Ones
To create our own templates, we can either use one of the existing ones or make one from
scratch. Let’s begin with using an existing one first.
• Open the Templates folder (Menu > Data > New from Template > Open Templates
Folder):
A Finder window with the related folders and files opens:
• Expand the Education folder
• Select the file titled “1 Cornell Notes—Markdown.dtTemplate”:
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• Duplicate the file (Command-d):
• Control-click the new file, “1 Cornell Notes—Markdown.dtTemplate copy”
• From the context menu, select “Show Package Contents”:
• Expand the folder related to your language
• Select the file:
• Open the file with your favorite text editor. Here, I’ll use iA Writer
Notice that there are template placeholders, variables with % signs bookending them:
———————————————————— 400 ————————————————————

They even show up in the title of the file itself with %sortableDate% as seen in the previous
image.
Each of these will be automatically created in the course of using the template. There are
quite a number of template placeholders you can use. The following is a copy and paste from
the DEVONthink manual:
• %time%: The current time
• %date%: The current date
• %shortDate%: The current date in short format
• %longDate%: The current date in long format
• %monthname%: The month name of the current date
• %weekday%: The week day name of the current date
• %day%: The day number of the current date
• %month%: The month number of the current date
• %year%: The year number of the current date
• %author%: The author entered in Preferences > Editing > Author
• %username%: The user's name
• %fullUsername%: The user's full name
• %organization%: The user's organization from Contacts
• %emailAddress%: The user's email addresses from Contacts
• %host%: The host name
• %databaseName%: The database name
• %databasePath%: The database's path
• %groupName%: The name of the parent group
• %topGroupName%: The name of the top group
• %clipboard%: The clipboard contents as plain text
• %styledClipboard%: The clipboard contents as rich text
• %clipboardLink%: The clipboard contents as a clickable rich text link if the clipboard
contains a valid URL
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Once you have customized the note to your liking:
• Save the file
• Be sure to rename the duplicated file:
It should now be available in the menu:
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Creating New Templates from Scratch
Alternatively, we can always create a template from DEVONthink itself. To do so,
• Create the note file with the desired parameters, for example:
• Select the note
• Select Menu > File > Export > as Template…
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• Choose a location within the Templates folder:
• It should now be available in the menu:
One a limitation of the export method is that we cannot add Template Placeholders in the
title. For this reason, it is usually best to create one using the external method outlined above.
———————————————————— 404 ————————————————————

Developing a Project
“The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave
it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it
went out from him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out from him
immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact;
now, it is quick thought. It can stand, and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now
inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does
it soar, so long does it sing.”36
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1837
36Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The American Scholar.” Digi*al Emerson - A Collec*ve Archive. Accessed February 28,
2020. h?p://digitalemerson.wsulibs.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/text/the-american-scholar.
———————————————————— 406 ————————————————————

Developing Papers
At some point, you’ll likely want to present your thoughts. Maybe you have been assigned
something. Maybe you notice a few neat ideas coming together. Maybe you just start
developing an interest in a particular direction. Whatever it is, you want to gather your ideas
and deliver them by way of post, paper, book, or otherwise.
To do so, you’ll need to:
• Choose a topic
• Select several notes
• Gather them together
• And edit them into a final draft
We’ll now go through this process.
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Concordance View
Let’s begin with the first idea of choosing a topic.
The simplest method of choosing a topic is to see where your own thoughts are. If you
have an interest, why not pursue it? After all, the process of developing a slip-box is very much
about following your thoughts as they go, finding where you have missing ideas, and diving in
where you fancy.
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Alternatively, DEVONthink offers a means of looking through your ideas by way of its
“Concordance” view. The Concordance view has several view options. We’ll start with the
Cloud view. Before we start, though, let’s make sure that you will have something to look at:
• Select your folder of notes:
Or, make sure you are in your folder of notes without selecting a specific note. To do so,
• Double-click the folder. In the case above, double-click the SB Notes folder:
If you have any specific files selected, you can de-select them. To do so:
• Type Shift-Command-a
Any of the above approaches gives DEVONthink a range of files to do its calculations.
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Now, to access the Cloud Concordance view:
• Open Menu > Tools > Inspectors > Cloud (Control-9):
In the Inspector, you’ll see something along the lines of:
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DEVONthink calculates words with greater prominence and presents them by size of type.
The larger words represent those that have had a higher presence in the DEVONthink
database.
Consider if any of these words can act as a jumping off point for a writing project. Likely,
they’ll have a solid number of connections. In this way, you may have already found something
that you’ve written quite a bit about, complete with references ready to go.
Let’s do one better.
• Select any word and a graph of related words will appear below:
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At this point, you can:
• Double-click any of the words in this bottom Related Words section, and
DEVONthink will present the related notes:
Any of these can once again stimulate thought into interesting writing directions.
To return to the Concordance view, clear the search field:
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In the case that you want to remove any suggestions:
• Control-click on any word
• Select Exclude Word:
If you happen to change your mind, you can return an excluded word:
• Control-Click in the cloud of words
• Select Show Excluded Words:
———————————————————— 413 ————————————————————

You will then see the missing word:
To return it to the fold:
• Control-click the stricken word
• Select “Include Word”:
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Finally, consider sorting the words by their count. To do so:
• Control-Click in the cloud of words
• Select Sort > by Count:
This allows you to see a series of terms that could be worthy of focus:
Combined with using the Excluding function noted above, you can have a clean list of
interesting terms to peruse.
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Gathering Notes with Search
After we’ve chosen a topic, the next stage is to actually gather notes that might be related.
That way, our hard work of building our notes can pay off. We can use the notes to create a
table of contents, an organically formed, time-tested skeleton around which to build your ideas
into a completed piece.
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Let’s return to our search. Continuing the example, I’ve decided to search for SelfObject.
Search with:
• Type Option-Command-f
• Type the desired term, in this case, “selfobject”:
One way to gather related ideas is to create a list of the notes with links to each. Creating
such a list might seem onerous, but thankfully, DEVONthink has a feature to create one quickly:
• Select an area in the window with the notes:
———————————————————— 417 ————————————————————

• Select all (Command-a):
• Control-click any of the selections
• Select Table of Contents:
———————————————————— 418 ————————————————————

It will likely appear as though nothing has happened. However, we did create a new note.
By using our “Today” Smart Group, we can easily find it.
• Open or expand the Today Smart Group
• Select the new Table of Contents note:
• Rename the note card as you see fit:
———————————————————— 419 ————————————————————

Gathering Notes with Tagging
Another useful method of gathering items for a project is to tag them. I will continue with
our window of searched and selected items. However, do know that these methods would work
just as well during the time we were searching for a central idea using concordance or really
most any time.
• Choose to add a tag to all related items. Here I’m using the shortcut we created
earlier (Control-Option-t).
• Enter the name for a tag:
• Type Return or select OK
Consider reviewing the different methods available for creating and adding tags.
———————————————————— 420 ————————————————————

Let’s then take a look at our tags.
• Open the Navigation panel (Option-Command-1)
• Expand the Globals section
• Expand the Slip-Box tags:
All the notes marked with the tag are gathered together, but they are also still a part of the
general set of notes.
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Creating Duplicates and Replicants
Another method of gathering notes is by either creating duplicates or replicants. We

examined replicants briefly in Creating Replicants while working with our references. Here we
will look at them again with an eye towards managing our notes.
Duplicates
A duplicate is fairly self-explanatory. When you duplicate a file, you create an exact copy.
This new file is separate and can be changed independently. In other words, if you change one
of the copies, they will now be two separate files.
Duplicates are helpful when writing a paper because we’ll likely want to make changes to
our writings in order to put them together as a seamless paper. We may not want those
changes to also appear in our general set of notes.
For instance, here I have two windows opened:
On the left is a search of the database for the term “selfobject”. On the right is the Slip-Box
database. I then:
• Select the right window
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• Create a new group (Shift-Command-n) and title it:
• In the left window, group select (holding the Command key) the files I’m interested
in:
———————————————————— 423 ————————————————————

• While holding (Option), select and drag any one of the files to the new group:
Importantly, note the green “+” icon which indicates that the files are being duplicated:
Once the files are copied, any file that has a duplicate now has an icon indicating its
duplicate status:
———————————————————— 424 ————————————————————

The icon appears in line with the duplicated file:
Should we make modifications to either one of the files, the icon will disappear (because
they are no longer duplicates!).
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Replicants
A replicant is similar to a duplicate in that we have a new item. It is different, however, in

how that item behaves. When you change a replicant, you also change the original. Think of
replicants as different windows looking at the same file. You can put any number of windows to
that same file throughout your database. Particularly for large files, a replicant is nice in that it
saves space while letting us access the same file from multiple places.
Replicants can also be useful when evaluating the files we’ve picked out for our topic.
However, we also need to be careful that we do not modify them specifically for the paper we
are currently working on. Otherwise, we’ll modify them in the general database as well.
Going through an example similar to that above, I’ll start with the same two windows as
above. I:
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• Select the right window
• Create a new group (Shift-Command-n) and title it:
In the left window, I:
• Group select (holding the Command key) the files I’m interested in:
———————————————————— 427 ————————————————————

• While holding (Option-Command), select and drag any one of the files to the new
group:
Importantly, note the black curved arrow icon (as opposed to the green plus seen earlier)
which indicates that the files are being replicated:
Any file that has a replicant now has an icon indicating its replicant status:
———————————————————— 428 ————————————————————

In our case above, the files are replicants of duplicates, and so the icons are combined:
The icons appear inline with the files:
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Finding Duplicates and Replicants
It can be easy to lose sight of where duplicates or replicants may be. Thankfully,
DEVONthink offers an easy way to find them.
• Select a file with either a duplicate, replicants or both
• Open the Inspector to the Generic info panel (Control-1):
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Towards the middle of the inspector, note the Instances section:
• Select the “1 replicants, 1 duplicates” section:
The top section lists where we can find the replicants. The bottom shows the duplicates.
Selecting any of these folders or files will take you to them.
Beyond this stage of gathering notes, replicants and duplicates are useful when creating a
set of references as we did earlier, among many other possibilities.
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Transferring Notes to a New Database
When beginning to edit several notes into a comprehensive whole, we have two general
options:
1. Edit and write in DEVONthink
2. Edit and write in another application
You may wish to remain in DEVONthink to keep the entire process in one place, in which
case you could choose the former. Or you may have a preference for another app for this
phase of work, in which case you would choose the latter. Let’s look at both options.
———————————————————— 432 ————————————————————

To continue work in DEVONthink, let’s create another database.
• Create a New Database (Menu > File > New Database…):
• In the Save dialogue, consider creating a new Finder folder dedicated to research
project databases (Shift-Command-n):
• Consider deleting the default “All Images”, ”All PDF Documents”, and
“Duplicates” groups as we did when we first built our Slip-Box database
• Go to the Navigation section, if it’s not already open (Option-Command-1)
———————————————————— 433 ————————————————————

• Expand the Globals, Tags, and Open Databases sections:
• Select the Selfobject Research tag in the Slip-Box database
• Select all the notes (Command-a)
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Before we create a copy of our notes in the new database, let’s convert the files to RTF. By
doing so, we will preserve the WikiLinks that the files have. Note if you are primarily using Item
Links, you will not need to convert your files as those will be preserved. We’ll take a look at an
example soon.
• Convert all to RTF files (Control-click > Convert > to Rich Text):
• Drag the newly created notes to the new database, in this case Selfobject Research:
———————————————————— 435 ————————————————————

To minimize confusion:
• Close the Slip-Box database (Control-click the database and select Close Database):
Let’s take a look at one of the notes:
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In our new database, which consists of only 9 notes in this example, I see that there is a link
to a note on empathy. However, a note card on empathy is not in this database. Still, if I click
on the link, the Slip-Box database opens and presents the note in question:
To see it in its native database:
• Select the Empathy file
• Type Command-r
In this way, as you are writing and editing, if you decide that a related note could be
researched or added, you have a quick way to access it.
Note that above, we converted several files to RTF in order to be sure that links to other
files were transferred. If you are moving only one file elsewhere for work, you can copy and
paste the text instead. DEVONthink will automatically convert the WikiLinks to RTF links and
you can paste the text in another file that would receive RTF.
———————————————————— 437 ————————————————————

Split and Merge
Once you’ve transferred notes to where you’d like them, you can begin to edit and arrange
them into a final product. Much of this part of the work is the magical, mystical part of writing
of which libraries have been written. While I cannot delve into much of the process of writing,
we can go over a couple of technical ideas for use with DEVONthink now.
———————————————————— 438 ————————————————————

Two important editing functions to consider are Split and Merge. To split a document:
• Select the new Selfobject Research database
• Select a note
• Place the cursor where a split would be useful
• Select Menu > Tools > Split Document
To merge documents:
• Select 2 or more documents
• Select Menu > Tools > Merge X Documents, where “X” represents the number of
selected documents
Either of these functions are quite helpful when editing. Be sure, however, that you are
working with duplicates and not replicants when doing so, at least when creating a paper.
If using the Split or Merge functions often, consider creating key commands for them. The
Split command is more straightforward than the Merge command. The “Merge” menu item
changes depending on the number of documents selected. Also, there is an option to delete
the original files after merging.
Macros for both are included with your purchase. There are two Merge macros: one merges
the files and retains the originals while the other merges the files and deletes the originals.
———————————————————— 439 ————————————————————

Transferring Notes Outside of DEVONthink
———————————————————— 440 ————————————————————

It is quite simple to add notes to an external setting. For example, if you use Scrivener (my
long form editor of choice), you can drag and drop the files just as we did earlier:
Note that the same links work just as they did earlier:
In other words, if you select a link in the text, your computer will open DEVONthink to the
correct database and file so you can further examine or transfer your notes.
———————————————————— 441 ————————————————————

Dragging Files
Last, but not least, you can simply drag the files on the Desktop or any folder on your Mac:
As noted earlier, there are advantages to either leaving your notes as Markdown or
converting them to RTF prior to exporting them. Markdown is very useful as a generic text
ready for any form of styling. The RTF files retain their connections to the DEVONthink
database.
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Organizing Tags
After a period of time, you’ll likely have several papers being developed or completely
developed. Consider organizing your tags to help manage them. DEVONthink allows you to
nest tags. We’ve examined the tag library earlier. Let’s look at how we can move tags around
now:
• Open the Navigation pane (Option-Command-1)
• Expand the Globals Section
• Expand the Tags Section
Here’s an example of my own, though not currently organized:
We’ve already learned a few ways to create tags. Here, we’ll add another method:
• Select the “plus” sign in the lower left of the Navigator
• Select New Tag:
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By nesting tags, we can quickly re-assign large groups of notes to different tags. For
example,
• Create 2 tags: “Papers - Completed“ and “Papers - Developing”
• Drag tags for completed and developing projects to their respective tags:
In this way, while working on a paper, you can create a tag in the “Papers - Developing”
tag. When you are done with the work, you can simply drag and drop the tag to the “Papers -
Completed” tag.
Here you can see, for example, that there are 9 notes being used in developing a paper
called “On Questions”. When I’m done working on that paper, I can drag the “On Questions”
tag from its parent tag “Papers - Developing” to “Papers - Completed”.
———————————————————— 444 ————————————————————

An Example Workflow
The above steps do not need to be followed with any real rigor. The following is another
example taking a slightly different path, summarizing the process.
My weekly time to write a productivity blog post came up. I had the idea that “caring”
might be useful to write up. What does it mean to “care” when working, how is it important,
and even how do we?
• I look at my card:
From here:
• I hold down Command and, one by one, select all the linked words creating a series
of tabs:
• I open the Show Tags option (Menu > View > Show Tags)
———————————————————— 445 ————————————————————

For each file,
• I create and then add a tag:
• I also use the See Also & Classify (Control-s) to see what else might be related:
• Again, I tag whatever I’d like to gather
———————————————————— 446 ————————————————————

Looking at my tagged notes,
• I see the new “The Importance of Caring” and remove tags from those I decide I do
not want to include:
Since I want to work on them outside of DEVONthink:
• I convert them into Rich text (Context Menu > Convert > to Rich text):
• I then drag and drop the new files into a new Scrivener document:
• I delete the RTF files in DEVONthink
———————————————————— 447 ————————————————————

To create a trail to return:
• In Scrivener, I copy a link to the Scrivener Draft folder:
• I select DEVONthink and return to the tag “The Importance of Caring”
———————————————————— 448 ————————————————————

While in the tag,
• I type Command-N to create a URL file that would link to the Scrivener document:
Since I am adding the file while in the tag, DEVONthink automatically assigns that tag.
The title is a bit unsightly, so:
• I retitle the link (the link will still work):
———————————————————— 449 ————————————————————

• I then drag the tag itself into a “Papers - Developing” tag:
All related files now inherit the “Papers - Developing” tag. For example, the Caring note
has the following tags:
This may seem like a lot of steps, but in reality, the post is nearly complete. I have 4 major
well-thought-through ideas that I only need to string together and edit before I post it to my
blog. In addition, I have a well-organized system for accessing the parts involved.
For the curious, I’ve added the Caring post as an epilogue of sorts.
———————————————————— 450 ————————————————————

Multiple Paths
One of the interesting things one can do with a slip-box is have several things going on at
once. You could have several ideas to develop in the Inbox, several branches of interest you’d
like to follow, and several writing projects in the works. All this can be fine.
However, while this gardening approach to work can be wonderful, it can also be abused in
procrastination. For example, you could only stay in one section, never finishing a writing work.
Or you could focus entirely on the Inbox without delving into a few ideas. Worse yet, you could
wind up writing a book about how to use the program you’d like to be using.
The distinction between organizing and procrastination is such a difficult one, that much of
my writings are spent essentially teasing them apart.37 In brief, however, if there is a particular
goal you have such as developing an idea into a paper, consider creating a repeating task that
is just narrow enough to encompass the goal and broad enough to allow for whim. For
example:
- Continue drafting paper about Character
You could then link the task to a tag that your are adding to relevant files.
Separately, you could have another repeating task that involves adding notes from a book
you are reading. For example:
- Continue studying Drake 2017
Having individual tasks effectively channels your attention in the directions desired rather
than allowing it to completely roam without bound.
37 See Workflow Mastery or Being Produc*ve.
———————————————————— 451 ————————————————————

Practice: A Project
While I’ve previously suggested waiting to complete the practice before moving on, I won’t
do so here.
For this exercise, come up with a topic to gather some notes and create a paper for
yourself. It could relate to work, an Internet audience, or just something you find interesting. Of
course, doing so takes time. Whether you’re someone who dives into a project and doesn’t let
go until it’s done or you’re someone like myself who visits regularly, gently pushing it along, this
could be a lengthy exercise.
So, of course, you could say this is a nice idea and simply move on. But, before moving on,
at least:
• Choose a topic
• Set up a daily repeating task that says “Consider working on [topic]”
If after a few days, you want to change the topic or even scrap the exercise entirely, go for
it. The attempt, however, will at least give you a sense of the creative process involved.
———————————————————— 452 ————————————————————

Syncing and DEVONthink to
Go
Setting up Sync
You may have an idea while away from your computer, but chances are that your phone is
nearby. Perhaps you have a computer at home and another at work. More and more, we access
our data from multiple devices. DEVONthink offers several syncing options to keep your
databases in sync across devices.
Of the several options available, we’ll now look at Bonjour and Dropbox. I have used both.
Currently, I am mainly using Bonjour. While it is less convenient, I have found it to be more
reliable. Instead of having my data go somewhere else and return to my phone or second
computer, it is direct.
We will prepare for syncing in this section and complete it once we have installed
DEVONthink to Go.
Bonjour Option
The Mac has an already installed utility known as Bonjour. Bonjour largely functions outside
of your knowledge such as when your Mac seems to magically know the existence and name of
your nearby printer.
In DEVONthink, Bonjour can offer a rapid and reliable system of syncing. However, it only
works when you’re on your network and your devices are both on. So if you leave the house,
the systems will not be in sync until you return.
To set up Bonjour:
• Select “Bonjour Options…”:
• Choose to “Enable incoming connections”
———————————————————— 454 ————————————————————

• Choose to “Open databases automatically” if you’d like DEVONthink to open
databases when a sync is requested
• Leave Port alone
• Enter a better password than I did:
One trouble I have with Bonjour is that sometimes it seems too aggressive in syncing, and I
end up with conflicting duplicates that I need to delete. When this happens, I disable and later
re-enable Bonjour syncing only as needed.
———————————————————— 455 ————————————————————

Dropbox Option
Dropbox requires significantly more setup but is hands-off once prepared:
• Select Sync tab:
• Select the “+” sign on the bottom left:
———————————————————— 456 ————————————————————

• Choose one of the options:
I will choose Dropbox for the following example:
Here you can enter a name for your sync location as well as a password. Once set, you’re
given the option of marking any databases you want to sync by selecting the checkbox next to
the name:
———————————————————— 457 ————————————————————

If you go to a computer that is not yet synced, you will see in the remote section, databases
that
• Are not currently open
• Are not on your machine:
———————————————————— 458 ————————————————————

Once selected and opened, it should appear locally:
At this point, any changes and additions you make to one database will sync to others.
However, since we are using Dropbox for our example, it is important that we do some other
housekeeping to prevent it from using up local hard drive space.
• Open Dropbox
• Open Preferences… (Command-,)
———————————————————— 459 ————————————————————

• Select the Sync tab:
In the Selective Sync section:
• Select Choose folders:
———————————————————— 460 ————————————————————

• Navigate to your “DEVONthink Packet…” folder and remove the checkmark:
At this point, your DEVONthink sync files should no longer be stored on your local device.
If you have troubles with syncing using Dropbox, consider dropping the number of
connections to 5 or less:38
We’ll continue the setup for sync to DEVONthink to Go for both Dropbox and Bonjour
once we’ve installed and set it up.
38 I’ve variously seen other numbers such as 8 or 6 in forum discussions.
———————————————————— 461 ————————————————————

DEVONthink To Go - Installation
DEVONthink To Go (DTTG) is the mobile counterpart to DEVONthink. It can hold the same
databases, Inbox, notes, and tags as found in DEVONthink.
However, it is missing a few features simply because the desktop is still more powerful than
mobile systems in many ways. For instance, DTTG is missing the WikiLink system.
Unfortunately, this means that the connectivity that is so readily found on the desktop is not
available. It is also missing the See Also and Classify system, so the neat AI support is not
there. One other drawback is that it does not handle RTF files as smoothly as on the desktop
client.
Still, DTTG can be very useful as an Inbox and as a source for quickly retrieving information.
To set it up:
• Go to the App Store
• Search for and purchase/download DEVONthink to Go:
• Once downloaded, open the app:
———————————————————— 462 ————————————————————

Likely, you’ll be presented with questions of notifications:
And
Feel free to allow or not based on your interests. Personally, I allow the use with Siri and
deny the notifications.
———————————————————— 463 ————————————————————

DEVONthink to Go - General Preferences and Sync
Once you’ve closed out the initial notes, you should see an empty home screen:
To get to the release notes or manual in the future,
• Select the question mark on the bottom panel
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For now:
• Return to the home screen
• Select the mixer icon on the bottom right:
The preferences should appear:
———————————————————— 465 ————————————————————

The first option of Premium Features lets you purchase the professional package if desired:
One of the features I am most happy about when it comes to the Pro Package is the ability
to download files on demand. This is particularly helpful for those databases that are PDF,
video, or audio file heavy. However, for the slip-box, which is mostly Markdown notes,
downloading everything is actually more useful.
Security
Security offers passcode/face ID options to block your database from prying eyes:
———————————————————— 466 ————————————————————

Sync
Let’s set up a synced location. We’ve already set up a synced database using our MacOS
DEVONthink client. Our Slip-Box database is patiently waiting for us to add it to DEVONthink
to Go.
• Select “Edit locations”:
• Select the desired sync location:
———————————————————— 467 ————————————————————

For our example, we’ll continue to use Dropbox:
• Enter your Sync store name and encryption key created in the earlier Setting up
Sync section:
With the professional edition, you can decide whether to have files downloaded Always or
On demand. Personally, I prefer to decide for individual databases, not for the entire sync. That
preference, however, will be found elsewhere. We’ll make that adjustment soon. In the
meantime, I leave this setting to “On demand”.
• Once you hit save, you’ll see your sync location stored:
Optionally, you can add additional sync locations by selecting Edit in the top right.
• Select the newly created location
———————————————————— 468 ————————————————————

You should see:
• Select the desired databases to sync. Here, I’ll select both the Global Inbox and
Slip-Box. DEVONthink will immediately begin to sync the databases to the phone:
To complete our sync preferences, let’s make an adjustment specific to our Slip-Box.
• Using the arrow at the top left, navigate back to the general preferences
———————————————————— 469 ————————————————————

The remainder of the sync preferences include letting DEVONthink know what you’d like to
do with conflicts, scheduling of sync, and how much to store. Personally, I set Conflicts to
“Duplicate” so I can decide on which notes to keep, set the schedule to “Automatic”, and set
the Keep All slider to the far right:
• Scroll down in the preferences
Of the remaining preferences, I have made changes only to the plain text size and the PDF
scrolling:
At the bottom, we have an option to integrate TextExpander. At its simplest, TextExpander

is an application that takes a few letters you type and turns it into a whole swath of text. There
are also options for fill-in-the-blank type of expansions and more. Since I do use TextExpander
quite often, I select Update.
———————————————————— 470 ————————————————————

Sync using Bonjour
Continuing our sync example using Bonjour instead of Dropbox:
• Go to DTTG
• Go to Settings (icon on bottom right)
• Go to Sync > Locations
• Select Edit:
• Select your computer:
———————————————————— 471 ————————————————————

• Choose your preferred options and select Save:
• Select/turn on your sync store and enter a password as necessary:
———————————————————— 472 ————————————————————

• Turn on any desired databases to sync:
———————————————————— 473 ————————————————————

DEVONthink to Go - Database Preferences
When done with the general preferences:
• Select the “x” at the top left to return to the home page
• Select the Slip-Box:
You should see the Inbox and Tags at the top with the Groups below:
———————————————————— 474 ————————————————————

• Select your notes folder. In my case, it is SB Notes:
• Select any one of your notes
When you do so, you’ll see an empty space with the option to download the file:
———————————————————— 475 ————————————————————

• Select the Download option to download the file
• Select the circled “i” at the bottom to see a simplified inspector:
Let’s make a few more preference modifications.
• Select the “x” at the top left of the info panel and return to the list of notes
• Select the lines on the far right of the bottom menu:
———————————————————— 476 ————————————————————

You should see preferences for this particular “SB Notes” folder:
We have the option to sort by Name, Kind, Modified/Visited/Added/Created, and Size. To

adjust the Modified section to another type, e.g. Added:
• Select the Modified option several times until it matches the desired sorting criteria
Secondly, we can adjust whether the selected criteria are listed in Ascending or Descending
order.
Personally, I select Modified and Descending allowing me to see the most recently changed
items up top.
We can also view only items that are flagged or labeled. We can have details such as type
and file size appear next to names. Personally, when I am looking at my list of files, I prefer not
to see any of those details.
Lastly, we can decide whether or not we see hidden items.
My personal preferences are as follows:
———————————————————— 477 ————————————————————

Which results in:
Which is a much cleaner list of items than seen earlier.
• Return to the Slip-Box home screen:
———————————————————— 478 ————————————————————

If you prefer, consider making the same preference changes to the Slip-Box in general by
going through the same steps at this screen. The result would look something like:
We’re almost done with our preferences.
• Select the circled “i” in the menu:
We are now in the Slip-Box database of DEVONthink to Go, not in the general preferences.
Therefore, our preference options are focused here.
———————————————————— 479 ————————————————————

If you prefer to have all of your files downloaded to your device for the Slip-Box database
as I do:
• Select “Always” under Download files
Your decision to do so or not will likely be related to the size of your iOS hard drive
availability.
DEVONthink will begin to download your files as indicated by a filling cloud icon on the
bottom menu:
Lastly,
• Return to the DEVONthink to Go Home page
Notice that there are two Smart Groups of ‘Recently modified’ and ‘Recently viewed’:
———————————————————— 480 ————————————————————

Setting up Dictation
DEVONthink to Go readily works with dictation. This works either with iOS or with MacOs,
though it is particularly handy with the iOS version.
We can set up dictation for iOS using Voice Control available in the Accessibility settings.
Using Voice Control in iOS
There are two main methods of setting up Voice Control. One involves it always being on,
and the other allows you to turn it on and off quickly. I prefer the latter, but the former is
simpler.
The simple method is as follows:
• Go to the Settings app:
• Select Accessibility:
———————————————————— 481 ————————————————————

• Select Voice Control:
• Turn Voice Control on:
IOS has a large number of useful commands. To begin browsing and learning them,
• Select “Customize Commands”:
———————————————————— 482 ————————————————————

You should then see a large list of commands grouped by type:
Turning On and Off Voice Control
Above, I noted my own preference to be able to turn voice control on and off easily. With a
few more steps, we can set up a method of quickly turning voice control on and off.
First, if you turned voice control on as I noted above,
• Turn off voice control
• Return to the Accessibility screen
• Scroll to the bottom
———————————————————— 483 ————————————————————

• Select “Accessibility Shortcut”:
• Select Voice Control:
At this point, you can turn on and off the voice control feature using a triple-click of the side
button.
———————————————————— 484 ————————————————————

Final Thoughts
Transition to Indexed Set of Cards
Having your files outside of DEVONthink can be quite nice if you’re planning to incorporate
other methods of accessing your files. For example, you could have your set of notes in
Dropbox, accessible to a large number of writing and text apps. Meanwhile, you can still work
from DEVONthink, taking advantage of its AI search, See Also, and Classify functions, for
example.
To make the transition, first be sure that your database is backed up. You may want to
duplicate the database file itself and set it aside. To do so:
• Close your database with the contextual-menu (accessible by Control-click):
———————————————————— 486 ————————————————————

• Find the file in the Finder using the contextual-menu again:
• Select the file in the Finder:
———————————————————— 487 ————————————————————

• Compress the file using the contextual-menu:
You will have created a zip file:
• Reopen the database, e.g. by double-clicking the Finder DEVONthink file:
———————————————————— 488 ————————————————————

• Drag your Notes folder to somewhere on your Mac:
Here I’ve placed the file on the Desktop, though only for demonstration purposes. You may
want to place it in a Documents, Dropbox, or similar folder.
At this point, you can either use your same database or create a new database. If you
decide to use the database that you’ve created alongside this text:
• Select Menu > File > Index Files and Folders… (Option-Command-x):
———————————————————— 489 ————————————————————

• Select the notes folder:
DEVONthink will display its indexing of files in the bottom left corner:
You will now have an indexed set of your files. Consider deleting the original set that were
housed in DEVONthink so that there are no duplicates. However, be sure that any tags and
groups created work correctly for the newly indexed files. If it does not behave as you wanted it
to, you have your backup created above to return to.
Alternatively, you could leave your database alone and create a new one for indexing
purposes:
• Select Menu > File > New Database
• Title and save the new database:
———————————————————— 490 ————————————————————

• Delete the default Smart Groups:
• Select Menu > File > Index Files and Folders… (Option-Command-x):
• Select the notes folder:
DEVONthink will display its indexing of files in the bottom left:
———————————————————— 491 ————————————————————

Integrating External Apps
At this point, you can integrate other applications quite readily. The following are examples
using three popular writing applications.
Ulysses
To add an external folder using Ulysses:
• Under External Folders, select “Add Folder…”:
———————————————————— 492 ————————————————————

• Search for and select the external folder:
IA Writer
To use the external folder with iA Writer:
• Open iA Writer:
———————————————————— 493 ————————————————————

• Select icon at the top left to open the library:
• Hover over the Locations section and select the “+” icon:
• Add the desired folder
You should now have the library available in iA Writer:
———————————————————— 494 ————————————————————

nvALT
To use the external folder with nvALT:
• Select Menu > Preferences… (Command-,)
• Select the Notes tab
• Select the option for “Read notes from folder:” and choose the desired folder:
• Select the Storage tab
———————————————————— 495 ————————————————————

• Select the option under “Store and read notes on disk as:” and change it to Plain
Text Files:
You should now be able to access your files through nvALT.
When returning to DEVONthink, be sure to periodically update the index:
• Menu > File > Update Indexed Items (Option-Command-s)
———————————————————— 496 ————————————————————

Thank you!
Well, that’s it. That’s all I wrote. Well, actually, I’ve added an epilogue post of “Why Care?”
to the end of this text so there’s that, too. But otherwise, that’s it.
Whether you go on to continue building a slip-box, set up a database for emails, or begin
fashioning a database of famous Youtubers and their timelines, I do hope that this guide has
been helpful in moving you along that path. DEVONthink has more features than I’ve been
able to present. Still, I do hope you’ve found some inspiration along the way and are starting to
blaze interesting new paths of thought for yourself.
Meaning is developed in time. It is about connection and context. It is about finding what is
interesting to you, playing with it over time, and maybe presenting those ideas to an audience.
Thank you for reading!
———————————————————— 497 ————————————————————

Why Care?
Why should we care about the work in front of us?
This may appear to be an absurd question. The reasons should be obvious. But any time
the words “should” and “obvious” appear in a sentence, I quite often find it useful to take a
closer look.
When we care about something, we pay attention to it. Furthermore, we pay a depth of
attention. The greater that investment, the greater the care.
Meanwhile, as we sustain attention on something, we tend to find more meaning in it.

Meaning is something developed over time. It involves a depth and breadth of connection
between thoughts, emotions, and experience, conscious and unconscious. The greater that
depth and breadth, the more meaningful it is. That holds for what a single person finds
meaningful or for a community.
Developing meaning is a fine goal, but let’s go further.
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re
really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life
experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being
and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” -Joseph Campbell, The Power of
Myth
Campbell, author of The Power of Myth and The Hero With a Thousand Faces, notes that
people generally do not seek a “meaning of life”, but instead seek a feeling of being alive. But
surely these ideas are related. In fact, I wonder if the development of meaning—within,
through, and around ourselves—at least lends to a feeling of being alive.
If the theory holds, then by actively finding ways to care, not only about our work, but also
about those around us and beyond, we gain an experience of being alive.
Now, we cannot simply say, “Ok, I’ll care then.” Caring is not something one can force into
being.
Let’s consider the the nature of caring in the context of depression. Depression often carries
a symptom of not caring, or at least caring less, about oneself or others. The process forms a
wall between the self and the world. One’s sense of being alone builds and sometimes even
paradoxically heightens when in the midst of others.
Often that sense of isolation is related to a feeling of disconnect, not only from others, but
from anything that feels meaningful. It is hardly surprising, then, to see that a parallel emotion
is a lack of feeling alive.
———————————————————— 498 ————————————————————

Telling someone who is depressed “to care” is similar to saying, “snap out of it”, which is
about as helpful as a slap in the face.
Navigating one’s way out of the hole of depression is rarely a simple matter. However, a
common thread in treatments tends to be to try to find something tiny that can be done. So
long as that tiny action connects to what feels meaningful, a small spark of vitality sometimes
appears. Picking up a single stray piece of clothing in a room of total disarray is sometimes
helpful. Any development will, of course, still need nurturing and guidance, but a start is a
start.
I present depression as an example of great distance from caring to highlight the growing
nature of caring. It is not something one simply does. Instead, it is developed over time—a
practice.
As we focus upon something, weaving a rhythm of being with it in some harmony with our
lives, considering how it can be meaningful, we tend to care more and feel more alive in the
process.
———————————————————— 499 ————————————————————

Books and Courses to Consider
The following are a list of books you may wish to consider for follow up. Of course, three of
them come from a completely biased point of view, me being the author and all…
More DEVONthink resources
Take Control of DEVONthink 3 - Joe Kissell presents a solid overview of DEVONthink with
comments of his own use and best practices.
DEVONthink manual - the official manual for DEVONthink.
Getting on Top of It All
Being Productive - Simple Steps to Calm Focus - a course that builds fourteen productive
habits one at a time and at the pace that you dictate. Being Productive incorporates ideas of
productivity, therapy, creativity, and mindfulness into a single simple package.
Creating Flow with OmniFocus - an eBook that takes the ideas of Being Productive and
walks the reader through building a system using the powerful task manager, OmniFocus.
Workflow Mastery - an eBook that deeply dives into the psychology of meaningful work, in
whatever shape that may take. Generally considered an advanced book, Workflow Mastery
aims to take your system to the next level so you bring calm focus to work or play.
Getting Things Done - I still consider this my primer of productivity. While I may have had
some ideas of being efficient, I could never quite wrap my head around it until I read David
Allen’s Getting Things Done. The concept of building a trusted system starts here.
On Reading and Note Taking
How to Read a Book - What sounds like a silly title for book is actually incredibly serious
and useful. Using its concepts, one can understand and design notes at whatever depth makes
sense to the user.
How to Take Smart Notes - A major inspiration in writing this book. Ahrens does an
excellent job of describing the benefits of creating a note-taking system using Luhmann’s
example of a slip-box.
———————————————————— 500 ————————————————————


Dini, Kourosh - Taking Smart Notes With DEVONthink (2020)

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Taking Smart Notes with DEVONthink

© 2020 Kourosh Dini

ISBN - ePub: 978-0-9863152-3-7

ISBN - PDF: 978-0-9863152-2-0

ISBN - mobi: 978-0-9863152-4-4

The Dini Group, Ltd.

Editing by Alyse Aiello of Stormwood Editing Services.

DEVONthink™ is a registered trademark and is used under license by DEVONtechnologies.

- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick1 1851

1 Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Bantam Books, 1967, p396

Thank you Rachel for helping me stand in front of an audience.

Thank you Robin for helping me keep my head on straight.

Thank you Alyse for continually helping gather my thoughts.

First Notes & File Types

Appearances & The Generic Inspector

Creating Series of Notes

Types of Notes and Favoriting

Using Tags to Create an Index

Creating a Reference System

Finding Return Links - AppleScripts and Smart Rules

Adding Files, The Inbox, and Processing

Using See Also, Classify, & Exclusions

Working with Views, Workspaces, & Databases

Developing the System

Using Templates and Placeholders

Syncing and DEVONthink to Go

It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.”2

- Vannevar Bush, 1945

1. Learn many of the ins and outs of DEVONthink.

2. Develop a powerful set of personal notes.

Let’s start with the first goal. What is DEVONthink?

So what about the second goal? Why take notes?

3 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017.

I guess this is all to say, have fun!

So, what is a slip-box?

Put simply, a slip-box helps us to organize our ideas.

Usually, if we take notes, whether writing in the margins of a book, underlining,

Meanwhile, with a slip-box, we document connections. By doing so, we free up some of

7 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017. p20

There are four tools that compose a slip-box:8

1. Something to capture ideas known as an Inbox

4. Something to help us write a finished product, such as a text editor or writing

In this text, we’ll be using:

• Any of a number of writing applications including DEVONthink itself. Other

Neither set of tools is better than another. Personal preference is key.

8 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017. p29

So in the end, it won, and here we are.

• Keyboard Maestro - an application that uses keystrokes as a trigger, though for

• OmniFocus - a task manager that I’ve written about extensively9

• BetterTouchTool - an application that takes a number of commands types and turns

9 Dini, Kourosh. Crea*ng Flow with OmniFocus. Third EdiEon, 2019.

In this way, as I mentioned earlier, a slip-box may better be described as a process, a

10 Sönke, Ahrens. How to Take Smart Notes. Createspace, 2017. p23-25

The first main processes is to develop ideas:

In this chapter, we will:

• Consider an optional adjunctive program, Keyboard Maestro

• Consider how to approach this guide

• Align our views

• Go to their download site

• Choose Save file:

• Double-click the downloaded zip file

• If another file appears, double-click that one as well:

• Hopefully, agree to the terms