DTTG 2.0 has taken a long time to get here, but has finally arrived today on the App Store. So far everything looks very nice and polished. This is a huge step up from DTTG 1, and the new sync capabilities should make this my go to app. Here is a listing of the new capabilities from their site:


Synchronize: Direct connections, Dropbox, WebDAV, full or metadata-only**

Organize: Move, replicate, duplicate, trash, group and ungroup, tag

Drag: Grid view with Mac-style drag-and-drop (iPad and iPhone Plus)

Convert: Many document can be converted to other formats

Create: Document assistant for creating new items

Search: Full-text search with advanced search language

Navigate: Predefined smart groups for many common use cases

Annotate: New PDF support including annotations**

Edit: New editor for rich text and formatted notes, Markdown editing and live rendering

View: Email and sheet viewer**

Capture: Enhanced Clip to DEVONthink

** Metadata-only sync, editing PDF annotations, and email and sheet viewing requires a $4.99 in-app purchase.


So it is a free upgrade for v1 owners, with an optional $4.99 upgrade for the extra capabilities. The new sync engine in the Mac app has worked flawlessly and quickly using Dropbox and Box. I have not tested the other sync options yet but expect them to work just as well.

Damn, that's useful! Thanks for the tip, didn't pick up on that.

Cheers,
Bill

Looking for input on how people use DTTG2.

Is it to reference the main desktop databases on the go?

Or to collect information from mobile sources?

If it's the latter? are you happy with DTTG2? Applying tags to new content is tedious to day the least, and the native mobile content isn't great at making it into the app. (photos/and webpage content)

But does it sync well? Damn straight! they've spent those years wisely. I think this could really be something special!

The product page addresses your questions.

http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/devonthink-to-go.html

"Does it sync well". Sync, without the premium "upgrade", is "all or nothing" -- if you have an 4GB database you have to sync all 4GB unless you buy the premium feature to sync only part of the database. If you visit the DEVONtechnologies forum you'll notice that almost all the postings regarding this product relate to confusion about how to configure and activate sync and/or failure of the sync technology. In fairness, DEVONthink attempts to do more with sync than any other non-Apple product. Is it too much? Time will tell.

bigspud wrote:

Looking for input on how people use DTTG2.

Is it to reference the main desktop databases on the go?

Or to collect information from mobile sources?

If it's the latter? are you happy with DTTG2? Applying tags to new
content is tedious to day the least, and the native mobile content isn't
great at making it into the app. (photos/and webpage content)

But does it sync well? Damn straight! they've spent those years wisely.
I think this could really be something special!

I purchased the premium package. The first sync failed at version2.0 due to bugs in memory management. then v2.0.1 makes some progress and it seems the sync proceeds.But the 10G sync database on the dropbox seems never finish since as long as I press the sync button in the ios app, it always resume a full round of sync. I have to say it does work but with main bugs. My solution is to create some small groups say, less than 100M , and put it in global inbox and just sync it not the whole database which i have not luckily succeeded in any sync yet.

Overall I think it is an extremely powerful product, but has a few minor bugs to work out. The sync works, but at this point it syncs a lot of files often using Box.com. Support is aware of this and I'm confident they will fix it shortly. The Bonjour sync works smoothly. I haven't tested the other types of sync, of which there are many. Flags syncing is off, but also should be fixed by the next release. Given the scope of this product and the limitations of iOS beta testing, it feels like a very mature product despite these small issues.

I am not syncing my entire set of databases yet, just a few to test it out (there are over 60GB on the Mac). It is very nice to be able to see almost every type of file I would need on my phone and iPad. I had that with Evernote, but I never used it to it's capacity because I like to organize things through an outline. The ability to convert items, replicate and duplicate them, and then search on the with one of the most powerful searches is fantastic.

Being able to take voice notes is huge for me as I used that extensively in Evernote.

I use DTTG all of the time now. When I need something I haven't synced yet, I just add it to one of my synced databases and it shows up nicely. Speed is excellent, but I haven't tested it with huge databases yet.

The look of the application is modern and hopefully some of that spills over to the next update of DevonThink Office, which is currently at version 2.9.2.

Things that are missing for me are PDF capture of web pages and the ability to create smart groups. As with the above items, they should show up in the near future.

As Korm noted, understanding the sync process is the largest hurdle at this point to most people. It is not like Evernote where it just happens. But once you set it up, it works well and you don't need to worry about it. With so many option, it can be overwhelming. However with that comes the power of choice. If you want more security and don't want anything on the cloud, you have that option.

DTTG is the most used application on my phone at this point. I am mainly using it to capture web pages, take voice notes, reference existing data, and as a time management system. I look forward to what they have in store for future upgrades.

Hm, that is interesting. I use DEVONthink on the Mac exclusively as a (very powerful) reference database. I haven't experimented with using it for anything else, let alone with using the iOS version as a kind of do-it-all app.

As you say: I'd be a lot more inclined to do all of the above if the Mac version looked (and behaved) a little more "modern". But as a reference archiving platform, DEVONthink Pro Office is hard to beat.

the desktop version is very robust. but the togo2 is not so far when sync. I have some guess on how it works. they creat a sync database on dropbox which I use for sync. the cloud database is called dtstore conceptually. they do everything including version control stuff in this. every time things change, the store has to be updated. So the sync will be memory consuming and complicated.I found the download and sync are separated processes which is reasonable since this will speed up but also eat up a lot of memory. therefore, I find the sync is fast but never completely finished because it crashes before sync is done. my iPad is old so the sync has rarely done; my iphone6 sees the sync done fir only several times .

I'm no rocket scientist, I got my work to sync ok. Yes I paid the premium, I already shelled out good money for good product with DTPO.

I suppose I'm still trying to figure out what the hell that app is supposed to do well. Aside from all the sync complexity, I'm still baffled.

Paul Korm wrote:

The product page addresses your questions.

http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/devonthink-to-go.html

"Does it sync well". Sync, without the premium "upgrade", is "all or
nothing" -- if you have an 4GB database you have to sync all 4GB unless
you buy the premium feature to sync only part of the database. If you
visit the DEVONtechnologies forum you'll notice that almost all the
postings regarding this product relate to confusion about how to
configure and activate sync and/or failure of the sync technology. In
fairness, DEVONthink attempts to do more with sync than any other
non-Apple product. Is it too much? Time will tell.

bigspud wrote:
Looking for input on how people use DTTG2.
>
>Is it to reference the main desktop databases on the go?
>
>Or to collect information from mobile sources?
>
>If it's the latter? are you happy with DTTG2? Applying tags to new
>content is tedious to day the least, and the native mobile content
isn't
>great at making it into the app. (photos/and webpage content)
>
>But does it sync well? Damn straight! they've spent those years wisely.
>I think this could really be something special!
>

Hmm. So, let me get this right -- you paid $170ish for DEVONthink Pro Office plus DEVONthink to Go plus the DEVONthink to Go Premium and don't know what to use the software for? Hey -- there's a bridge over here you might be interested in ...

@bigspud

I suppose I’m still trying to figure out what the hell that app is supposed to do well. Aside from all the sync complexity, I’m still baffled.

It's not all that bad Paul!
9 years of agricultural research summation is my job. I can handle my dtpo OK. My role is to curate the meta data. The content is for other parties to use. Hence I paid that upgrade for it's promise.
Dttg1 wasnt that handy. I saw a bunch of beta test reviews of dttg2 praising it. So I bought it, being fairly heavily invested and all.
I've been asking more about how folk have been getting work done with dttg2. I'm enjoying it as a collector.
I'm not the only one! It's a humble and simple opinion only that it's not wonderfully resolved for curating what can be collected with it.
I was not intending to stir anything up. Asking what it does best is kinda different from asking what it does.

How do you find yourself using It to get the results you're after?

I only use DTTG2 for small databases, and I only sync over WiFi. Small databases because I see no point in carrying around the gigabytes of data many users reported were "essential" -- my main databases are that large but it's not essential to have them with me. WiFi because cloud sync is painfully slow with DTTG2, even on a fast internet connection.

I think I speak that language!

Paul Korm wrote:

I only use DTTG2 for small databases, and I only sync over WiFi. Small
databases because I see no point in carrying around the gigabytes of
data many users reported were "essential" -- my main databases are that
large but it's not essential to have them with me. WiFi because cloud
sync is painfully slow with DTTG2, even on a fast internet connection.

My intention to use togo2 is to search within PDFs. But I found if I choose not to download all but meta, I cannot search within PDFs. If only for capture, I don't need it on my Ipad.

Do you know if I can search within PDFs without downloading all?

Can't search a document that's not there. The metadata are the bits that show up in the Info panel for a document -- if you're downloading "on demand" then that meta is all there is. If you are on a network and have configured downloads on demand then you should be able to click, download, and then search the file.

Charlie wrote:

My intention to use togo2 is to search within PDFs. But I found if I
choose not to download all but meta, I cannot search within PDFs. If
only for capture, I don't need it on my Ipad.

Do you know if I can search within PDFs without downloading all?

bigspud wrote:

I'm no rocket scientist, I got my work to sync ok. Yes I paid the
premium, I already shelled out good money for good product with DTPO.

I suppose I'm still trying to figure out what the hell that app is
supposed to do well. Aside from all the sync complexity, I'm still
baffled.

I think that DTTG2 is similar to the Evernote iOS app, and I am guessing that is where part of their aim was.

I have written here before that I tend to like all-in-one type apps that can hold multiple document types for reference, and allow me to work in them for most of the day. When I was using Windows years ago, I used InfoSelect for just about everything including email.

With the advent of the iPhone and iPad, there is a new need for companion apps for mobility. Not everyone needs one for their reference material, but I like having access to certain files at all times. So I will lay out how I use DTTG now, realizing that it probably will not be a fit for everyone's needs.

Most of my work is performed on my Mac, with a lot of it being done in DTPO. A lot of it is time management, brainstorming, compiling stories to write about, writing them, referencing, and so on.

I should note that I just moved back to DTPO because of worries about where Evernote might be heading, and the fact that DTTG2 was coming out soon. DTTG2 was the main impetus. I was using Evernote and TaskPaper/Editorial for my data prior to that. Evernote for reference, voice notes on the road, website collection, etc. TaskPaper held most of the data I added to on a regular basis. I think the main reason I moved away from DTPO was their iOS app, DTTG1.

So what do I use DTTG2 for? By far the most-used feature is the website capture, where I find interesting articles to write about for my websites. I bookmark them and sometimes categorize them, or sometimes I categorize on the desktop. At present, DTTG2 doesn’t allow you to capture into a particular folder like the Mac does.

Probably the next-used feature is time management. DTTG2 is not as robust as OmniFocus that I had used, but it works for my simple time management system. Most people would probably want a dedicated app. Most planning is done on the Mac, but when I am away I write down anything that comes to mind, and sometimes plan out my day/week, complete items, etc. What I like about DevonThink is that I can have projects in my time management system, and I can put almost all of the needed data in that group/folder. A lot of times I just replicate items into the project group/folder, which is a very nice feature. DTTG2 also allows me to replicate, something I don’t remember seeing on other iOS apps.

Taking voice notes was something I was especially wishing for in DTTG2. I used that extensively in Evernote. I like the implementation in DTTG2 although it would be nice to eliminate a step or two to save.

The next phase that I haven’t had a chance to try much is writing while away from home. I had tried this while on vacation recently, where I made sure all of my information was downloaded on Evernote, and used Ulysses (very nice app) to write. It actually worked pretty well on the iPad. A keyboard would have helped though. I need to prepare for quasi-retirement somehow ;)

Another area that I recently used the app for was a new logo I was designing. I used the iPad to look for ideas and fonts, captured the web pages, and then did the actual work on the Mac. When it was completed I stored the logo, fonts, licenses etc. in DTPO. This will be nice for future use as I was updating a logo I did over 10 years ago and couldn’t remember the font I used, as the program I used to design it no longer exists.

Other ways I use DTTG2 are similar to how I used Editorial - keeping a journal, meal ideas, movies to watch, reference files, itineraries, packing lists, gift ideas, business ideas, etc. Where I could only store text in Editorial and other data in Evernote, now everything is in one place.

Are DTTG2 and DTPO for everyone. Definitely not. Most people would be better served by the ease and simplicity (somewhat) of Evernote. But if you like the ability to outline, replicate, sync multiple ways etc. then they might be worth looking at. I personally view Devon Technologies like Omnigroup. They are slow to release new versions of their software, but they continually update their existing versions and offer excellent customer support. If you take the cost of DevonThink Pro Office (DTPO), which I think was released in 2010, over the past six years the price is $25/year, or $13/year for just DevonThink Pro. No on-going fees. DevonThink To Go 2 was a free upgrade, with $5 for the pro features. Given the years of development, I think the $5 upgrade was a smart choice to offset some of those costs. I like to make sure the software I use will be around for awhile.

I have eagerly awaited the arrival of DTTG2 and am using it all of the time. It doesn’t do everything as well as dedicated apps (like Ulysses for Markdown, OmniFocus for time management, etc.), but it puts most everything in one place. It is not for everyone, just like DTPO. But it is extremely powerful in it’s scope and does things no other app does that I am aware of, like replicating and offering so many sync options.

Who knows, I may be crimping again in a few years!

Then I have to do a very important step of my workflow on Mac, which is to digest information in documents, mostly PDFs and then summarize in md/text files. Download only text/md files and a small group of selected PDFs in DT TOGO2. All PDFs and knowlwdge(in md files ,PDFs of handwritings and drawings, and mindmappings) are stored in dropbox.



Paul Korm wrote:

Can't search a document that's not there. The metadata are the bits
that show up in the Info panel for a document -- if you're downloading
"on demand" then that meta is all there is. If you are on a network and
have configured downloads on demand then you should be able to click,
download, and then search the file.

Hey,
DO you think the annotation ability thats kinda alright in DTTG2 spells an improvement for the mac version to come?

I've not really ever bothered annotating much on the mac version, theres so few ways to work with them as a user defined markup once made.

How awesome would it be to see some annotation types as filter criteria in smart folders or search queries!

DTTG2 is absolutely fantastic, brilliant, excellent.

The sync is amazing, and has worked quickly and flawlessly.

It has totally replaced Evernote for me and is much more powerful.

The only reason I went to Evernote was need for iOS however this is a perfect solution..

DEVONthink to Go 2.1 is out in the U.S. AppStore today (20170208) -- the significant new feature is DTTG's support for iOS document provider technology.

In practice, this means that other iOS apps that support document provider (like Documents, Ulysses, Apples iWork apps, etc.) can open and/or save documents directly from the app into whatever DEVONthink databases you have synced to DTTG.

It's like having DEVONthink make your data available as it if were a file server, for other apps in the the iOS ecosystem. This is far more robust than using Open In share sheets, and the old-way of having to round-trip documents from DTTG to another app and back again using iOS's share extensions. Think of this way: DEVONthink can play Finder to your iOS apps.

Very cool feature.

Well well, that is interesting.

Thanks, Paul; I haven't had a chance to play yet, but will certainly do so.

Cheers,
Bill

Yes, I'm pretty impressed with DTTG2. Alongside Literature & Latte (and maybe some other developers that I don't know about) Devon Technologies have made syncing of packages workable. From the user's point of view, it seems to me, the key to syncing of materials held by DT is, as Paul says above - to have relatively small, carefully specified databases.

This is a solid release. The document provider capability is exciting, especially since you can move through groups like you were in DTTG, and even search from within.

DevonThink has become my most valuable piece of software, and much like InfoSelect in years past I pretty much store everything within its walls. DTTG is much more powerful than what it appears to be at first glance, and keeps getting better.

Somewhat serendipitously, good ole' Federico Viticci has just posted a very thorough review of DEVONthink To Go on the excellent MacStories site. He's clearly making good use of the document management features. His explanations are really interesting.

Dang, and I was just looking for a good reason to CRIMP. This time using software I've actually got, but currently don't use much... (actually, I do use DEVONthink Pro a lot, but more as a database/document store than as a project manager).

Enjoy! Link here: https://www.macstories.net/ios/ipad-diaries-advanced-file-management-and-research-with-devonthink/

Interesting, what he writes right at the end about saving out web pages. I currently tend to save web pages out as articles, printed to PDF and stored in Curiota (a single operation from the print menu); contrary to Federico, I find that most hyperlinks are perfectly well preserved. Curiota is one of the most useful Mac apps ever, with an excellent quick-search function, but I'm disappointed that its parent app Curio shows no signs of being released as an iOS app (actually, the developer did explain the logic to me, and I do appreciate it - Curio is a mightily complex piece of software). But I can see no reason not to integrate Curiota's library with DEVONthink - doing so should be quite straightforward, in fact.

Wow, wot a lot of CRIMPing entertainment to look forward to!

Cheers,
Bill