A question pertaining to the Properties pane recently came up on our forums. This can be found in DEVONthink with the menu command Tools > Show Properties. It seems to imply it’s a place where you can add things like comments, keywords, authors, etc. to any file. However, this is not true. The Properties pane allows you to view and edit the metadata supported by the file, but does not let you add data to the file which is not supported by the file’s structure. (more)

Many people use the DEVONthink browser extensions to clip information from web pages into their DEVONthink databases. We have extensions (or add-ons, different name but the same thing) for Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox. (more)

ePub and Mobi (the Kindle format) are solid file formats for electronic books. But they are harder to handle than, e.g., PDF or plain text as they are designed for reading on an ebook reader. They are not really suited for using them inside other applications or for long-term archiving. (more)

For those of you who are using the Opera browser for your web searching, it is possible to add our Clip to DEVONthink extension to it. We don’t have an Opera-specific version but with an Opera add-on, you can use the Chrome extension. (more)

We had a MacJournal user contact us, wanting to switch to DEVONthink. While we have no control over how easy or hard this may be, we took a look at what options there are. Nicely, the MacJournal folks have simple but useful export options (we always applaud when developers resist the urge to lock in someone’s data). (more)

DEVONthink’s sidebar allows you to keep your favorite databases always at hand. If you want to have something similar inside a database you can easily set it up yourself like this:

Alternatively you can use tags: … (more)

During the course of the day we often have a need to jot down a quick note in a database. Maybe it’s details on a customer inquiry, the idea for your next great invention, or a reminder to get milk on the way home (and yes, you can put little things like this in DEVONthink too, if you’d like). (more)

With apologies that the story won’t be as tasty as the title makes it sound.

With OS X El Capitan’s new views on ‘safety’, cookies are no longer shared between Safari and other applications. This can have an effect you might not expect. Even if you have logged in to your account in Safari, capturing a Readability page via the Clip to DEVONthink extension will not honor your choice of font and font size from your Readability account settings. Here is how you can set a per-application cookie for DEVONthink (using Readability.com as the example). (more)

New assignments bring also the dreaded due dates. Use DEVONthink and the Mac’s built-in calendar application to stay organized.

Select a document in DEVONthink Pro or Pro Office and choose Scripts > Reminders > Add as Event to Calendar. You’ll be given a choice of calendars to use as well as a relative date (tomorrow, next week, etc.) to set as the due date. This creates a new event in Calendar with a link directly to the document in your database. (more)

Classes are coming—sorry, we can’t stop it from happening—and with it: homework. And with homework come research and the need to organize information. Three simple approaches to using a DEVONthink Pro or Pro Office database for school: … (more)