Read Me First

Welcome to Take Control of DEVONthink 3, version 1.4, published in December 2020 by alt concepts inc. This book was written by Joe Kissell and edited by Kelly Turner.

This book teaches you the basics of DEVONthink version 3 on the Mac and DEVONthink To Go in iOS/iPadOS. You’ll learn how to find your way around, get information into and out of DEVONthink, and take advantage of the program’s most important features.

Copyright © 2020, alt concepts inc. All rights reserved.

Sponsored by DEVONtechnologies

This book was sponsored by DEVONtechnologies. Special thanks to Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann for his enthusiasm and support, to Christian Grunenberg for his clarifications about subtle features, and to Jim Neumann for his careful fact-checking.

Updates and More

You can access extras related to this ebook on the web (use the link in Ebook Extras, near the end). On the ebook’s Take Control Extras page, you can:

• Download any available new version of the ebook for free.

• Download various formats, including PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket. (Learn about reading on mobile devices on our Device Advice page.)

• Read the ebook’s blog. You may find new tips or information, as well as a link to an author interview.

DEVONthink’s Documentation

I refer throughout this book to DEVONthink’s documentation. It’s available within the app via Help > DEVONthink 3 Help; you can also download it in the form of a user handbook in PDF, EPUB, or Kindle (Mobipocket) ebook format from the DEVONthink Handbooks and Extras webpage.

What’s New in Version 1.4

This fourth quarterly update of this book brings it up to date with DEVONthink 3.6.1 and DEVONthink To Go 2.7.8, as well as reflecting a few changes in macOS 11 Big Sur. It also removed a few remaining mentions of iOS 12, and now covers iOS 13/iPadOS 13 and later. Apart from an assortment of minor corrections and clarifications, notable changes include:

• Added a link to information on simulating the old Three Pane view; see Missing Views

• Mentioned improved handling of incoming and outgoing document links; see Document Inspector and Create a Standard Link

• Described new DEVONthink services; see Use the Services Menu

• Included the Resolution setting in Configure OCR Preferences

• Configure OCR PreferencesAdded new methods to duplicate and replicate documents; see Duplicate and Replicate Documents

• Included new search options in Search Within a Document

• Added information on making high-level changes to PDFs; see Edit PDFs

• Covered additional conversion options; see Convert Document Formats

• Updated a handful of the graphics to reflect Big Sur’s appearance

Note: Most of the screenshots in this book still show DEVONthink as it appears in Catalina or earlier. For the most part, the visual changes in Big Sur are comparatively minor, such as new disclosure icons, a different toolbar layout, and some new toolbar icons. I’ve updated a few images to reflect Big Sur’s new look where they seemed most useful for clarity, and will update more over time.

What’s New in Version 1.3

The third quarterly update of the book made only extremely minor changes, mainly to cover small differences in DEVONthink 3.5.1 and 3.5.2. Changes included:

• Noted that you can rearrange items in the Reading List Sidebar by drag and drop

• Added a comment about Full Disk Access in Use the Mail Plugin

• Added a note to Use a Fujitsu ScanSnap about the surprise release of a 64-bit version of ScanSnap Manager

• Updated Configure OCR Preferences to include the new Resolution setting

• Included a note in Create a WikiLink about MashedWords and double brackets

• In Edit HTML and Markdown Documents, noted additional languages now supported by Prism

• Added a comment about Bonjour syncing via a USB cable in Sync Locations