Explore DEVONthink’s Interface

Now that you know the basic concepts and terms that DEVONthink uses, it’s time to learn your way around. Because of the many ways DEVONthink can display your data and some of the unique tools it offers, you’ll be on a firmer footing if you take a few moments to read this chapter and learn how the interface is organized, where to find the things that you’ll use most often, and what some of the program’s icons and other controls do.

Support Assistant

The first time you launch DEVONthink, a window called the Support Assistant opens (Figure 1) to welcome you and offer tips, tutorials, support, and other help.

The Support Assistant window will appear every time you launch DEVONthink. To keep it from doing so, deselect the Show This Window When DEVONthink Opens checkbox. (You can then display it manually, whenever you want, by choosing Help > Support Assistant.)

Although it may not be obvious at first glance, you can access lots of useful features from the Welcome screen of this window:

• Intro screencast: Click Click to Play to see a movie demonstrating some of DEVONthink’s key features.
• Newsletter subscription: To subscribe to a free periodic newsletter with DEVONthink tips, enter your email address under “Newsletter.” Then click the green checkmark icon to subscribe.
• Tip and extra of the day: The right side of the Welcome screen presents a random selection from the tips and extras, all of which are found elsewhere in the Support Assistant.
• Technical support: Click the Get Support link at the bottom of the window for shortcuts to the DEVONthink FAQ, user forum, and contact page, plus tools to retrieve a lost license, extend a trial license, update your email address, and purchase an upgrade. (As with the newsletter subscription, if your email address is incorrect, you can triple-click it and type a new one before clicking the green checkmark icon.)
• Extras: Click the Install Extras link at the bottom of the window to display a screen with extra AppleScripts and templates (beyond those installed automatically, as discussed in Included Scripts and Template); you can install any of these with one click by clicking the Install button beneath it. (To remove an installed item, click Remove.)
• Tips and tutorials: Click the Tips & Tutorials link at the bottom of the window to show a selection of text-based tips (at the top) and step-by-step illustrated tutorials (at the bottom).

Main Window

When you create your first database in DEVONthink, the main window looks something like Figure 2.

This window—or some version of it—is where you’ll do most work in DEVONthink. Because every aspect of the window is customizable, yours may look different from the one shown here. But let’s take a quick spin through the major parts of the default window.

Toolbar

The toolbar at the top (Figure 3) contains controls that give you quick access to many common DEVONthink features, such as changing the view, creating groups and documents, and searching.

To learn what any button does, hover over it briefly with your pointer, and a pop-up tooltip tells you the button’s function. If you want to rearrange the buttons on the toolbar, add new ones, or remove ones you don’t need, choose View > Customize Toolbar. Using the dialog that appears, drag icons onto or off of the toolbar, or drag them to other positions on the toolbar. You can also determine whether icons, labels, or both appear using the Show pop-up menu, and optionally switch to a smaller icon size by checking Use Small Size. Click Done when you’re finished modifying the toolbar.

Every control on the toolbar is accessible in at least one other way (such as a menu command or keyboard shortcut). So, if you prefer to hide the toolbar to give yourself more space, choose View > Hide Toolbar.

Sidebar

Along the left side of the window is the sidebar, which is shown (in a somewhat compressed form) in Figure 4. The sidebar lists your global Inbox and Trash; your open and recent databases; your favorite databases, groups, or news feeds; and global smart groups (saved searches that apply across databases).

If you want to save a bit of screen real estate, you can hide the sidebar by choosing View > Hide Sidebar; to display it again, choose View > Show Sidebar. Keep in mind that if the sidebar is hidden, you won’t be able to see or access your global Inbox (see Inboxes) or Trash, which may lead to some confusion.

Views

A DEVONthink window can display its contents in any of six main configurations, called views (with some variations that I describe just ahead). You can switch views at any time by using the toolbar buttons shown in Figure 5 or the commands at the top of the View menu.

The first three options (Icon View, List View, and Column View) are similar to the Finder views of the same names and should be immediately familiar to most Mac users. The other three options (Split View, Three Pane View, and Tag View) arrange the window in different configurations that show you additional information.

Icon View

Perhaps the least useful view is Icon View (Figure 6), which displays large thumbnails of each document. (It’s a bit more useful when a group contains graphics or movies with thumbnails that differentiate them more overtly.)

While in Icon View, you can use the slider on the right side of the window, just below the toolbar, to adjust the size of the icons. You can also view Details about your documents, as I explain later in this chapter.

List View

As in the Finder, List View (Figure 7) provides more detail about each document, as well as a hierarchical view of all your groups.

By default, List View shows Name, Modified (date and time), Kind, Size, and URL columns. To change which columns appear, choose a column name from the View > Columns submenu. As you might expect, you can sort by a column by clicking its name; reverse the sort order by clicking again; drag and drop to rearrange columns; and resize columns by clicking the border between two adjacent column headers and sliding the pointer left or right.

Column View

Column View (Figure 8) lets you quickly navigate a deep hierarchy of groups without losing your place or running out of room on the screen. Column View includes an edit pane at the bottom that shows the contents of the selected document and lets you make changes without having to open another window.

As in the Finder, you can drag the dividers between columns to resize them individually, or Option-drag them to change the width of all columns at once. You can also sort by any criterion you prefer. To change the sort criterion, choose a command from the View > Sort submenu; choose Ascending or Descending from this menu to reverse the sort order.

Split View

Split View (Figure 9) combines a hierarchical list of group and document names with an edit pane. Because this shows documents and groups in a single hierarchy and provides a nice large area for previewing or editing documents, Split View is my personal favorite.

Three Pane View

If you like Split View’s edit pane but also want to see the extra information about each document shown in List View, choose the Three Pane View (Figure 10), which combines elements of both. Three Pane View is the default when you first run DEVONthink.

A curiosity of Three Pane View is that unlike List View and Split View, the list of groups (at left) is separated from the list of documents (above or left of the edit pane, depending on the Widescreen setting). According to DEVONtechnologies, the intention is to emulate Apple Mail’s separate mailbox list and message list. I find this disorienting because I think of DEVONthink as more like the Finder than like Mail, but your mileage may vary. Also note that Three Pane View has a second column that resembles the sidebar, so be careful not to confuse the two (the sidebar is at the far left).

Tag View

Finally, we come to Tag View (Figure 11). Like Three Pane View, it shows a list of documents in each group and an edit pane, but instead of the group list on the left, it shows a new column on the right with a list of all the tags (including group names) in the current database.

Because in some cases group names can also function as tags (see Understand Groups and Tags), DEVONthink distinguishes between these and ordinary tags by using color. Gray tags are groups, and blue tags are tags that aren’t also groups.

Tag View may at first seem irritating in that it doesn’t let you navigate your group structure in a hierarchy, even if your tags are nested one inside another. But that’s the whole point—it lets you view documents in a way that doesn’t require you to think of each one as existing in a tree structure. To navigate in Tag View, simply click a tag name in the column on the right, and all documents that include the selected tag (or that appear in the corresponding group, as the case may be) appear in the list. (To select multiple tags at once—filtering the display to include only documents with all those tags—Command-click additional tag names.)

Navigation Bar

At the top of every edit pane (including the main portion of individual document windows) is a narrow strip of controls called the navigation bar (Figure 12). The selection of controls on the bar varies according to what type of document is selected and its current state.

In general, the navigation bar contains controls for (you guessed it) navigation, such as visiting the next or previous page in a Web browser or PDF. It also lets you display various drawers, lock or unlock the current document, and toggle the tab bar (among other things). I describe most of these controls later in this book.

View Options

In addition to the six main views, DEVONthink offers several alternative ways of displaying your data, most of which apply to more than one view.

Cover Flow

Available in every view with an edit pane (Column, Split, Three Pane, and Tag), Cover Flow previews documents in the current group using the Mac’s Cover Flow feature. Figure 13 shows an example of Cover Flow in Column View.

To toggle the Cover Flow display, choose View > Cover Flow (Command-Option-0 [zero]). Cover Flow is applicable only when you’ve selected multiple documents—or a group, tag, smart group, RSS feed, or other item that contains multiple documents.

Tags

Any document in a database can have one or more tags. But you needn’t be in Tag View to see, edit, and apply them. You can also use the tag bar (Figure 14) (see Tag Documents for more). As in Tag View, group names are gray and non-group tags are blue.

The tag bar can appear at the bottom of the window in all views with an edit pane. To toggle it on or off, choose View > Show Tags or View > Hide Tags (Command-Control-Option-T), or click the Show/Hide Tags button on the right of the navigation bar above the edit pane.

Details

In Icon View only, you can choose View > Show Details or View > Hide Details (Command-Option-L) to toggle the display of additional details about each document (Figure 15), giving Icon View some of the additional benefits of List View.

Widescreen

Available in Split View and Three Pane View only, the Widescreen option (View > Widescreen or Command-Option-W), enabled by default, positions the edit pane on the right side rather than at the bottom. This arrangement makes more efficient use of screen real estate on large monitors (especially widescreen monitors). Figure 16 shows Split View with the Widescreen option turned off (compare this with Figure 9, a few pages back, where Widescreen was turned on).

Full Screen

If you find screen clutter distracting, you can view and edit any document in DEVONthink’s Full Screen mode, available in any view except Icon and List. When you choose View > Full Screen > Document (Command-F7), the selected document fills your entire screen; in the case of plain text and rich text documents, your entire screen turns black, with the text of the document displayed in bright green letters (Figure 17). To leave Full Screen mode, press Esc.

To adjust the font, size, colors, and text width of Full Screen mode, go to DEVONthink > Preferences > Editing > Full Screen.

Alternatively, you can opt for macOS-style Full Screen mode, which applies to the entire DEVONthink window, rather than to an individual document; to enter this mode, choose View > Full Screen > Window (Command-Control-F) or click the Full Screen icon in the upper-left corner of the window. To leave Full Screen mode, press Esc.

Panels

A few windows in DEVONthink, called “panels,” look different from normal windows and provide extra information or special features, rather than displaying a document or database. Some are floating panels, which means they appear in front of any other open windows—on the theory that you may want to keep an eye on them while working on other things. (I usually find them intrusive, however, so I close them when I’m not actively using them.) The following are the panels you’re likely to see most frequently.

Info

The floating Info panel (Figure 18) appears when you select a document and choose Tools > Show Info (Command-Shift-I) or click the Info button on the toolbar.

Besides listing statistics about the current document, this panel lets you rename the document; exclude it from classification, search, see also, and tagging; modify labels, tags, and Spotlight comments; see and navigate to duplicates and replicants; add aliases; and lock or unlock the document. I discuss many of these activities elsewhere.

Properties

The floating Properties panel (Figure 19), accessible by choosing Tools > Show Properties (Command-Option-Shift-P) is a bit different from regular windows (and even the Info panel) in that it’s black and translucent. It lets you enter or edit certain pieces of metadata about the selected document, such as its author’s name, copyright date, and subject (which may be different from the title). The fields available in this panel vary depending on the type of document selected.

Groups & Tags

Like the Properties panel, the Groups & Tags panel (Figure 20) is both floating and translucent.

As the name suggests, the Groups & Tags panel contains a hierarchical list of all the groups and tags in your database. To toggle the display of this panel, choose Tools > Show Groups & Tags or Tools > Hide Groups & Tags (Command-Control-G).

By default, the Groups & Tags panel floats above not only DEVONthink’s windows, but other applications too (to give you system-wide access to your groups and tags). If you prefer not to see it when you’re in another application, go to DEVONthink > Preferences > General and check Hide “Groups & Tags” Panel When Inactive (in the “Interface” section).

Since your groups and tags can appear in almost every view, why would you need this panel? It’s handy in a few situations:

• Dragging in items from the Finder: The Groups & Tags panel lets you drag data such as files, folders, and text selections from the Finder or any other application directly into a particular group or tag in DEVONthink, even if the main DEVONthink window isn’t visible. (This requires, of course, that you haven’t checked the Hide “Groups & Tags” Panel When Inactive box.) Dragging something to a group copies it to that group; dragging something to a tag applies that tag. Normally, dragging to either a group or a tag in this panel imports the item, but you can instead index it by holding down Command and Option while dragging. (But, if you primarily use the Groups & Tags panel for dragging in Finder items, read Use the Sorter to determine if the Sorter is a better way to work for you.)
• Tagging and grouping within DEVONthink: If you have a large number of groups, you may want to move or copy a document to a location elsewhere in your hierarchy without disturbing your current view. To do this, drag the document to the desired group in the Groups & Tags panel (hold Option to make a duplicate, or Command-Option to make a replicant).
• Moving or copying between databases: Because no view lets you see the hierarchy of more than one database at once, if you want to move or copy a document from one database to another, the Groups & Tags panel is a good method. Dragging an item to a location in another database without any modifier keys moves it. To copy it instead, hold down Option while dragging.
• Opening a group’s window: You may want to keep your main window focused on a particular task, but then open a secondary window to display the contents of another group. In this case, double-click the name of a group in the Groups & Tags panel, and DEVONthink opens it in a new window while leaving your existing window(s) undisturbed.

In addition, when importing documents into DEVONthink (for example, when using a scanner or a Safari bookmarklet), you may want to choose where each item goes as it’s imported, rather than just toss it in your Inbox for later classification. To display a somewhat different version of the panel automatically when you import, go to DEVONthink > Preferences > Import and select the Select Group radio button in the “Destination” section at the bottom. When the panel appears, select a group name and click OK to put the imported document in that group and dismiss the panel. For more on the various forms this panel may take, read Decide Where Your Documents Will Go.

Download Manager

When you download a file from the Web using DEVONthink’s built-in Web browser, a Download Manager panel appears, much like the one in Safari or Firefox. It shows your current, pending, and recent downloads and lets you stop or redirect them. The Download Manager doesn’t float—if you click another window, that window comes to the foreground and the Download Manager panel moves behind it.

To open or close this window, choose Window > Download Manager (Command-Control-L).

Log

The Log panel, which you can toggle by choosing Window > Log, lists errors and other status messages generated during DEVONthink’s normal activities, such as notices that documents have been imported or exported, or that the database has been converted from an older format. Like the Download Manager, the Log panel doesn’t float.

If you find the Log panel intrusive and want to prevent it from appearing unless you explicitly display it, uncheck the Show Log Automatically checkbox in the lower-left corner of the Log panel.

History

Every time you add or delete a document, DEVONthink keeps a record. To review what you (or another user) have changed in your DEVONthink database, choose Tools > History > Database Name. The (non-floating) History panel lists all recent history.

Activity

Various tasks that may take a while to complete display their progress in the Activity panel. For example:

• When you sync your database with another location (see Sync Your DEVONthink Databases), the Activity panel shows you the syncing progress. (If you’re syncing directly between two copies of DEVONthink, it appears on both Macs.) Ordinarily it disappears when the sync is complete.
• In DEVONthink Pro Office, when you choose Data > Convert > To Searchable PDF (or configure the program to perform OCR automatically on newly scanned documents), the Activity panel appears, showing the progress of each document as it is recognized and any documents waiting for their turn.

To display the Activity panel if it’s not visible, choose Window > Activity (Command-Control-A).

Drawers

In addition to the main window and various panels, DEVONthink uses two drawers that slide out from the side of the main window.

See Also & Classify

One of DEVONthink’s coolest and most powerful features is somewhat hidden: a drawer called See Also & Classify. The See Also & Classify features use artificial intelligence to help you determine where a document should go and what other documents may be related to it.

One way to open this drawer (Figure 21) is to select a single document and then choose Data > See Also & Classify. The top half of the drawer lists groups that may be a good place to store the document. The bottom half (the “See Also” section) lists other documents that have similar contents to the one you’ve selected. I discuss these features further in Classify and Auto Classify Documents.

Concordance

If you need a list of all the words in a single document, select the document and click the Words button on the navigation bar above the edit pane (available in every view except Icon and List). A drawer appears on the right side of the window (Figure 22) with every word listed by frequency (number of occurrences).

I discuss the use of the Concordance in more detail later (including how to use the feature across an entire database); see Search Using the Concordance.

Document Windows

Most of DEVONthink’s views have an edit pane, and if your monitor is sufficiently large, you may find it comfortable to do all your viewing and editing right in those panes. However, it’s often more convenient to view, edit, or create documents in their own windows, which also provide extra toolbar buttons for your convenience.

To open a document window, double-click any document (or choose a command on the Data > New submenu to create a new one from scratch). The appearance of the window and the controls available on the toolbar vary according to the type of document you’re editing. For example, Figure 23 shows the window for a rich text document.

Inboxes

The next-to-last item I want to introduce you to on this interface tour is the inbox, which as I’ve already mentioned is meant as a storage place for newly imported or indexed documents you haven’t yet sorted. In this respect it’s rather like the Inbox in your email app. (Just as I recommend trying to keep one’s email Inbox empty most of the time, I recommend the same for DEVONthink—the program is much more useful and effective when you group, or at least tag, each document.)

If you’re using DEVONthink Personal, you have just one database and therefore one inbox, which makes things simple. However, because DEVONthink Professional and DEVONthink Pro Office support multiple databases, they have multiple inboxes, too—one for each database, plus a global Inbox (which is technically a separate database). Even if you’ve only ever created a single database in one of the Professional editions, you still have two inboxes, because the global Inbox is always present. This fact can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view.

Your global Inbox appears at the top of the sidebar under Globals, which means that if your sidebar is hidden, you can’t access it unless the Groups & Tags panel is showing. (Choose View > Show Sidebar, Command-Control-Option-D, to display the sidebar.) Database-specific inboxes appear at the top level of each database’s hierarchy.

So, when you import a new document, where does it go—the global Inbox or the one for a particular database? It depends primarily on your preferences, as I discuss later in Decide Where Your Documents Will Go.

Workspaces

Workspaces let you save arrangements of open databases, windows, tabs, and more—views, sort orders, and everything—and recall them instantly. If you rearrange items on your screen (or switch to a different workspace), you can return the display to its previous state with a single menu command.

Here’s what you can do with workspaces:

• Create a workspace: Choose Go > Add. Enter a name for your workspace and click OK.
• Restore an existing workspace: Choose Go > Name of Workspace. You can also press Command-Option-number, where the number corresponds to the order in which workspaces are listed at the bottom of the Go menu.
• Edit workspaces: To edit a workspace, choose Go > Edit. Then:
  • To rename a workspace, double-click its name, enter a new name, and press Return.
  • To rearrange workspaces, click and drag.
  • To delete a workspace, select it and click the minus button.