Devonian Times Masthead

The DEVONtechnologies Blog

Organize your XMenu

December 17, 2013

You may not really think about it, but under-the-hood of each XMenu icon is a simple Finder folder. This means you can create subfolders within these folders to help organize the menu contents. (more)

Get Started with Tutorials and Help Files

December 10, 2013

DEVONthink and DEVONagent are extremely feature-rich and deep applications, harder to master than, say, a simple to-do list app. But they come with an extensive documentation and many slideshow and video tutorials for many everyday tasks from ‘How to set up a first database’ to ‘How to use DEVONthink in a team’. We explain, e.g., the various options for sharing your knowledge, show you the pros and cons of importing vs. indexing, and give valuable tips. (more)

Labels with Keyboard Shortcuts

October 29, 2013

This tip comes from a question on our Facebook page: ‘Hi Guys, is it possible to assign an keyboard shortcut to a label? For example: If I press ⌘1 the first label is assigned to the current list entry?’ (Thanks, Christoph Jeschke!). Yes it is! Here’s the step-by-step… … (more)

Create Custom Forms with Google Drive

September 17, 2013

If you have a Google account and access to Google Drive, create a form there. (I’ll leave the how-to on that to your own research. It’s not difficult.) “Share” the form so that you get the link to the form, and create a bookmark in DEVONthink for that form. When forms are created in Google Drive, you have the option to create a spreadsheet there to collect the responses. Do so, then navigate to that spreadsheet and grab the link for it. Create a second bookmark in DEVONthink for the spreadsheet. (more)

When Chrome Doesn't Like Clip to DEVONthink

September 11, 2013

Even though Google Chrome probably shares more information with its maker than you like, it also does a lot to protect you from the (other) bad guys — and sometimes also the good ones. If our Clip to DEVONthink browser extension doesn’t seem to work in your copy of Chrome and just reloads the browser contents when you click its icon in the toolbar, here’s a possible cure: … (more)

Build Group Hierarchies with Templates

September 4, 2013

One of the most common ways we organize our data is with folders and subfolders (groups and subgroups in DEVONthink). Maybe you are someone that tracks your receipts on a monthly basis. Perhaps you are a teacher that organizes student data in a series of subfolders. Or you may be a real estate agent that creates a folder for each new property you’re working with and you like to have subfolder for pictures, documents, etc. If you ever find yourself reconstructing group hierarchies in DEVONthink, here’s a handy way to create a template that will do most of the work for you. (more)

Search Global Smart Groups

August 20, 2013

You may already know that you can create smart groups in the sidebar of DEVONthink Pro (Office) that collect documents from all open databases. If not: click the action menu button at the bottom of the sidebar and choose New Smart Group. (more)

We Favor Open Over Closed

August 27, 2013

Since the very first telephone companies and there is an ongoing struggle between advocates (and adversaries) of open vs. closed systems. Today is the time of the closed systems.

The Apple II was wide open and while the first Mac hardware was the exact opposite you could still do whatever your wanted in software. Even if there were no official hooks for this and that, as long as you knew how to access something there was no one holding you back. (more)

Summer Maintenance Updates

July 25, 2013

Today we have released maintenance updates for DEVONthink, DEVONnote, DEVONagent, and DEVONsphere Express. The updates add a few new features such as automatic updating of thumbnails of formatted notes and web archives for DEVONthink or support for WordPerfect files for DEVONagent. We have also improved the overall performance of all apps and, of course, fixed the bugs you have notified us of. (more)

EasyFind and XMenu Updated

July 8, 2009

Just a quick note that we have just updated our freeware apps EasyFind and XMenu. Personally I like especially XMenu’s new Snippets menu that allows me to store text snippets and URLs and quickly insert them into a new email message or any other text I am writing.