Workflow on Mac (Mountain Lion) for PhD Thesis

Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Aug 13, 2012 at 11:21 AM

Peter wrote:
>Steve, the point about tagging outside of DevonThink is that DT only searches within it’s database, not the drive(s). With a simple tagger app Spotlight (like Windows Search) can be used to narrow searches outside of DT. Tagger (and I suppose Tags) also permits Boolean searches. I guess it’s a bit like advanced googling for your computer.

You can “index” files using DevonThink, which means DT will have an avatar like item in its database that is a link to the actual file outside that database. You can then create tags and add Spotlight comments right within DT. Indexing is a piece of cake. Just use the Index command from under the File menu and then select the folders you want to Index.

I just Indexed a folder of Scrivener projects as a test. Here’s a screenshot of what I got:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pk9ft4it6qze4sw/Indexed-Files-in-DevonThink.png

There’s a tutorial for doing this, which you can access under the “tutorials” listing of the Help menu. The tutorial is called Importing Data.

Anyway, I’m not necessarily saying this will be more effective than having a separate tagging program, but if it works to your satisfaction it will have to be a simpler solution if you’re already using DT for other information chores.

Steve Z.