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The DEVONtechnologies Blog

Articles tagged with automation

How to Use Batch Processing

May 10, 2022

Screenshot showing the batch process panel

DEVONthink is well known for its automation capabilities: scripting, smart rules, folder actions, etc. However, sometimes you just need to make some quick impromptu changes in your database but don’t need — or perhaps don’t know how — to create something too complicated. Here’s how to use DEVONthink’s batch processing for making such changes. (more)

How to Fix the Create Item Shortcut

April 19, 2022

Screenshot showing the file selection menu in Shortcuts.

If you are among the DEVONthink To Go users inclined toward automation, you may have run into an issue with the Create Item Shortcut action. In some cases, it seems you can only select a static file, not pass input from a previous action. Here’s a workaround for that. (more)

How to Use JavaScript for Automation

October 5, 2021

Example JavaScript code automating DEVONthink.

For most of us, automation on the Mac means AppleScript. What few people know is that it’s also possible to automate applications with JavaScript. Here’s a tip to get you started. (more)

How to Create a Note with Shortcuts

April 13, 2021

Note in DEVONthink To Go with multiple images

From time to time we get an inquiry about creating notes with multiple images in DEVONthink To Go. Since Markdown is a mobile-native format, I suggested and built an iOS Shortcut as a starting point. (more)

How to Quickly Take Multiple Photos

March 2, 2021

In DEVONthink To Go, you can create a new image in a database with the New Document Assistant button in the bottom toolbar. This works great for a one-off image, here and there. But what if you wanted to take and add a series of images in a row? A Shortcut may help. (more)

How to Organize with Smart Rules

November 10, 2020

Groups of web clippings

One of the powerful new features in DEVONthink is smart rules. An extension of smart groups, they allow you to act on the matched item when certain events happen. Since capturing web content to DEVONthink is a common task, here’s an example to show how to use smart rules to dynamically organize web clippings. (more)

Two For One Windows

August 22, 2017

Support tickets sometimes present new ideas. And sometimes they rekindle old ones from the back burner. I recently had a ticket from someone who wanted to open a document in two windows at once. So, about half an hour later, another custom AppleScript script was finished — one that would open the same document in two windows, placed side by side on the screen. (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)

Code Snippets, XMenu-Style

January 7, 2014

Sometimes writing AppleScripts is monotonous. You end up typing the same thing over and over again. To this end we can buy a snippet organizer or we could use XMenu to assist. Here are two ideas to speed things up: … (more)