Devonian Times Masthead

The DEVONtechnologies Blog

Shortcut to the Web

May 16, 2017

As some of you may know, DEVONagent Pro is the second flagship in our product line. As very powerful web search assistant with powerful search and scheduling tools, it can aid you in your online research. But, it’s a heavy hammer to swing if you’re just in need of a quick online search tool with more capabilities than a simple Google search. If that’s your need, take a look at DEVONagent Express. (more)

Sync Faster on Your Network

March 14, 2017

When it comes to synchronizing on any network connection, the quality and strength of your network matters — and is often not as good as you imagine. Can you hit the maximum advertised speed? Yes, but probably not sustained over the hours and hours you use it. Wireless networks are convenient, but they’re also subject to poor signal strength, noise, and other factors that can limit your sync reliablility. (more)

Add Hotkeys to Open With Items

February 28, 2017

Last week, we talked about editing options in DEVONthink: What happens when you double-click a file (and why) as well as the hotkey to open a file in the system default application. But there are also times when you want to open a document in an application other than the system default. (more)

Editing Options in DEVONthink

February 21, 2017

In DEVONthink, if a type of file can be edited in DEVONthink, it will open in a DEVONthink document window when the file is double-clicked. This makes it easy to isolate a document for editing while allowing you to keep your place in the other window. It also allows you to keep working directly in DEVONthink without having to jump back and forth between applications. (more)

Adjust Your PDFs

January 24, 2017

Recently, we had a customer expressing a desire to have black-and-white PDFs. Our head developer, Christian, suggested running a Quartz filter on them. When you export out of Apple’s Preview, you have the option of applying a Quartz filter to adjust the output. (more)

Batch Print E-Mail Messages to PDF

January 17, 2017

DEVONthink Pro Office stores email messages in their original formats. If you want to keep your messages in an easier to handle file format one option is to ‘print’ them to PDF and keep the PDF instead. Converting hundreds or even thousands of messages manually is a painful process, however. But, as long as Apple hasn’t killed Mac automation, there’s a solution for this: … (more)

A Fresh New Global Inbox

January 10, 2017

The Global Inbox is a built-in database, provided so you can start working (or playing!) in DEVONthink the moment you launch it. For DEVONthink Pro and Pro Office, it is ideally used as a temporary storage location — a place for transient or unfiled data. It’s a great place to capture miscellanous data when you’re rabbit-trailing around the web too. (more)

Use Text Expansion

January 3, 2017

If you find yourself typing the same things over and over again, there is a way to give your fingers a break. Text expansion is a method of assigning abbreviations for things like often used phrases. For example, you may create an abbreviation like em1, which could fill in your email when typed. Or you may have boilerplate text for a business, like thank yous. You could use the abbreviation tfyo that could expand to “Thanks for your order!” … (more)

Create Links to a Paragraph in a PDF

September 29, 2015

DEVONthink allows you to get a link to a selected page in a PDF document (Edit > Copy Page Link, hold ⇧Shift to show this open). Power user Chen Guo has created the open-source tool Excerptor that goes even further and  links directly to selected text. (more)

Free Your Menubar with Bartender

December 13, 2016

While we rely on our big powerhouse applications like DEVONthink, there are many smaller utilities we use for specialized purposes. However, this has lead to our menubars becoming increasingly crowded. Especially on a smaller screen, like a MacBook Air’s, this leads to the utilities’ icons being hidden from view. Enter Bartender. (more)