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How to Use the Bookmarklets

February 13, 2024 — Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann

For capturing web content, DEVONthink comes with the Clip to DEVONthink browser add-on, DEVONthink To Go with a share extension. But there’s another way that can work even better, depending on the situation: bookmarklets.

Bookmarklets are, technically, bookmarks that you add to, e.g., your browser’s bookmarks bar. But instead of opening a web page they open DEVONthink (To Go) with as much data that they can get from the viewed page which, in turn, creates a new document with it.

Screenshot showing bookmarklets in Firefox' favorites bar.

While there’s no nice interface giving you the chance to edit the captured data before it is turned into an actual document, but, e.g., on iOS the bookmarklet can get a good deal of the HTML code of the viewed page, something a share extension cannot do. This lets you better capture web pages behind a paywall.

You can find our bookmarklets on the Handbooks & Extras page. Drag them from there to your browser’s bookmarks bar or bookmarks drawer. To use them, visit a page you’d like to capture, then activate the bookmarklet. We recently also added a new bookmarklet, Formatted Note, that works on both platforms, macOS and iOS, too.