Now that you know your way around DEVONthink, it’s time to create one or more databases and start collecting information. You can set up a database with just a few clicks, but you may also want to customize (and even password-protect) your database.
Create a New Database
DEVONthink Personal automatically creates its database (it supports only one) when you first launch it. DEVONthink Professional and DEVONthink Pro Office prompt you to create a database when you open them for the first time, and for many people that single database is sufficient. But if you want to create an additional database, the process is simple:
Choose File > New Database. A file dialog appears.
Enter a name for your database and choose a location (or accept the default location). If you’re tempted to choose your Dropbox, any iCloud Drive location, or a local network server as your destination, please read the sidebar just ahead, Where Not to Store Your Databases, first!
If you want to keep the information in your DEVONthink database from being indexed by Spotlight, uncheck Create Spotlight Index. Doing so doesn’t prevent you from searching within DEVONthink, but it does prevent the contents of the database from appearing in system-wide Spotlight searches. (Choose this option if your database contains sensitive data and you’re concerned that someone else with access to your Mac might stumble on it while using Spotlight.)
Click Create.
DEVONthink creates a new, empty database.
Configure Database Properties
In most cases, DEVONthink’s default options for each database are adequate. However, you can tweak a few database-wide settings that may be of interest. To see these settings, select a database in the sidebar and choose File > Database Properties > Database Name.
The Database Properties floating window (Figure 24) appears. The large middle portion of this window contains statistics—the number of items of different sorts that appear in your database.
But the top of the window shows your database’s location, and the top and bottom have controls for adjusting these database characteristics:
Exclude Groups from Tagging: When this checkbox is selected (as it is by default, for new databases), groups and tags are independent from each other in that database—that is, a group name cannot also be used as a tag.
When this checkbox is deselected, all group names automatically function as tags too, unless you have explicitly excluded a particular group from being used as a tag (by selecting the group, choosing Tools > Show Info, and checking Tagging in the “Exclude from” section). Groups that can be used as tags have gold icons with tags on them, while groups that are excluded from tagging have blue icons.
If you like to use both groups and tags, leaving this checkbox selected is a good idea, as it prevents confusion that can arise from having both a group and a tag with the same name.
Create Spotlight Index: DEVONthink always indexes your database internally. But if this box is checked (as it is by default), DEVONthink makes the database contents available in your system-wide Spotlight index too.
Rebuild: To rebuild the database’s Spotlight index (not the database itself), click Rebuild. This may be necessary if searches fail to return obvious document matches.
Share Database: To share the database using the built-in Web server in DEVONthink Pro Office (see Use DEVONthink’s Web Server), check this box.
Rename: To rename your database, type a new name here. This changes the name as it appears in DEVONthink, but doesn’t rename the database file as it appears in the Finder.
Comments: Enter any descriptive notes about the database as a whole here—but note that these comments aren’t the same as the Finder’s Spotlight Comments.
Protection: To password-protect a database, click the padlock icon so it changes to the unlocked state. Then, enter a user name and password in the fields provided and click the padlock icon again to lock it. The next time you open the database, DEVONthink prompts you for the user name and password before displaying its contents. (To remove password protection, repeat the procedure but leave the Password field blank.)
However, bear in mind that this is weak protection at best. DEVONthink doesn’t encrypt your data, and it can still be accessed in the Finder, so password protection won’t stop a knowledgeable or committed intruder. (See the sidebar just ahead for more on encryption.)