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DevonThink Not Opening Data Base
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Posted by Tom S.
Aug 10, 2010 at 07:24 PM
Daly de Gagne wrote:
>Very simple. Yet even what you referred me to required me to draw an
>inference. I very much appreciate your giving me the reference; it allowed me to find a
>solution. But the article on tags - there were a great deal of words, most of which
>didn’t seem all that clear. The resulting discussion on tags sort of confirmed that in
>a way.
I have to be honest. I referred you to the discussion because I didn’t trust myself to explain it. To this day I really can’t tell you why it was necessary to have tags that aren’t groups since, as you found, they are effectively the same thing. At least it seems that way to me.
It took me weeks to figure that program out and get it to the point where I wanted it. I’m still finding things out here and there. I know it sounds odd but the thing is, rather than being frustrated, I actually like spending time doing that. I loved every minute of it.
Tom S.
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Aug 10, 2010 at 07:43 PM
The e book on Devon, of which Andreas sent me a copy, does a much better job of describing how tags work. This book reads like it is written by a real technical writer who knows his stuff.
I like a hierarchal structure, as provided by groups.
As I understand DT I can replicate, ie clone, files so they appear in more than one place in the structure.
But the book gives an example of groups having the main categories, for example: recipes/East India/dahls - each of the group names becomes an automatic tag but does not show up in the tag list.
Now the writer says you can use to tags for something which gives a different take on the information - individual recipes could be tagged as appetizers, or “prepare before,” etc.
The tags you make yourself which do not correspond to a group name show up in blue, and in the tag hierarchy as a tag.
I might use a group or folder hierarchy to organize subject areas within psychology.
But that will cover many writers - so do I replicate everything touching on a writer to a separate psychologists’ or writers’ group, or do I just tag everything “writer?”
In ways it is six of one and half a dozen of another. In EN, I only have one main notebook, so tags do everything.
I like the idea of having both groups/folders and tags - although in an objective sense, am not sure it makes any difference if tags can be shown as hierarchy.
Daly
Tom S. wrote:
>
>
>Daly de Gagne wrote:
>
>>Very simple. Yet even what you referred me to required me to
>draw an
>>inference. I very much appreciate your giving me the reference; it allowed
>me to find a
>>solution. But the article on tags - there were a great deal of words, most
>of which
>>didn’t seem all that clear. The resulting discussion on tags sort of
>confirmed that in
>>a way.
>
>I have to be honest. I referred you to the discussion
>because I didn’t trust myself to explain it. To this day I really can’t tell you why it
>was necessary to have tags that aren’t groups since, as you found, they are
>effectively the same thing. At least it seems that way to me.
>
>It took me weeks to
>figure that program out and get it to the point where I wanted it. I’m still finding
>things out here and there. I know it sounds odd but the thing is, rather than being
>frustrated, I actually like spending time doing that. I loved every minute of
>it.
>
>Tom S.
Posted by Hugh
Aug 10, 2010 at 07:59 PM
There’s been quite a lot of discussion on the DevonThink forums about when it’s better to use the tags approach and when it’s better to use a group/folder hierarchy. None of the discussions has resolved the issue in my mind. The ebook overall is good, but I don’t think it has really resolved the issue either.
The introduction of tags to DevonThink is very recent, in the latest whole-number version in the last few months, and I don’t think the developers have so far finessed their tags functionality as much as they could. My guess is they believed it was necessary to introduce them because there was a lot of - possibly misplaced - user demand. Personally, I have stuck with groups/folders. In general, I like tags and the philosophy behind them, but in DevonThink at the moment I think they can get in the way.
H
Posted by Tom S.
Aug 10, 2010 at 09:16 PM
HI, Hugh and Daly.
If I take a group in a hierarchy - lets say “status/in progress” - and I exclude the “status” group from tagging (right click -> exclude from tagging), isn’t “in progress” essentially a non-hierarchical tag? Other than the color in the tags list, I guess I never saw the difference.
Tom S.
Posted by Harlander
Aug 10, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Daly,
I am sure you have already found this article, but - if I am wrong - here’s a nice explanation, what makes DevonThink work for many people…
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2005/01/tool_for_though.html
Andreas