I have a mechanically-inclined friend who doesn’t get too upset when the unexpected car repair hits—he says it’s just an 
opportunity to buy a new tool. I envy his cheerful outlook and realize that I’m not there yet but I am making progress. For example, the other day when I found out I’ll have to chair a task force I didn’t just see the down side (you know, the part where it’s your job to turn an open-ended charge into a compelling strategic vision and a vague sense that “we probably should be doing something†into a tightly-focused action plan). I also realized:
“Hey, this is an opportunity to try out some new software.â€
The choice of what to try was easy enough. A few months ago I posted a note touting a desktop federated search product called DEVONagent which I’m still using and now consider my go-to tool for in-depth web research. Given that this new project will begin with a wide-ranging survey of what others are doing or thinking about, I decided it was a good time to try DEVONthink. If DEVONagent is all about finding information, then DEVONthink is about making some sense of it.
So what is DEVONthink?
On one level, it’s a free-form database for documents (Word files, RTF, text, etc.), PDF’s, images, web pages, mp3’s, 
QuickTime files, RSS feeds, and more. Each database you create can have groups and within these groups a collection of all sorts of files, webpages, text notes, etc. When you add an item to your database (e.g., either via “drag and drop” or an application’s Services menu), you can either move the item into the appropriate folder/group or let DEVONthink apply its AI engine to automatically make the classification (yes, you can correct or change if necessary). I have just over 100 items in my database (scattered across seven or eight groups), and despite the relatively small sample size, I’ve yet to see DEVONthink’s “auto-classify†fail to figure out the proper group for a item. This auto-classification and the other semantic tools built into DEVONthink just get stronger as your database grows.
The AppleScript/Automator support in DEVONthink Pro extends import options. For example, you can set up “watch” folders and attach specific AppleScripts to each. One possibility: set up a PDF import folder and attach the text conversion script to it. When you drop a PDF into this folder, DEVONthink will convert the PDF to Rich Text and import the resulting item into your database.
Combining DEVONagent with DEVONthink takes database building to the next level. Run a search with DEVONagent, then use the built-in browser within DA to step through the results. If you see a ‘keeper’ just push the “send to DEVONthink†button and decide whether you want to store it as a PDF, a complete web archive (preserving all graphic content as well) or perhaps just a URL. Since DEVONagent has stripped out duplicates, spam, junk links and advertisements from the results set, you can quickly get just the important “hits†into your local DEVONthink database.
But DEVONthink is more than a database–it’s also a feature-rich work environment. There’s an integrated browser (built with the Safari Webkit), an RSS reader, an RTF editor, PDF viewer and more. A number of scripts and automator actions also simplify the task of working with the database and performing actions like backup. DEVONthink Pro also offers a database-wide concordance.
The AI capability within DEVONthink makes searching a breeze: find a document (exact text or fuzzy searching supported) then use it to identify related documents via the “see also†button on the results page. I found a web posting by Steven Johnson (from January 2005) that offers a really nice explanation of how semantic searching works within DEVONthink. The program’s evolved since that time but the ideas are still well worth reading and fully applicable.
I’ve only been using DEVONthink Pro in a serious way for a week and I continue to discover new things about the program. That doesn’t mean it’s poorly designed or difficult to use—just that it is an incredibly powerful piece of software that rewards exploration. For example, today I discovered it’s possible to export a group (or an entire database) as a website. I can imagine that would be very useful if I decide I need to share some of these documents with others. I tried a sample using a group of documents about ILL and electronic delivery. The site you end up with is pretty crude—just a directory listing of the files—but it wouldn’t take much work to build an intervening page that gave the documents some context. According to the documentation, you can do this document linking within DEVONthink using a wiki-style syntax—I’ll admit I haven’t seen the need for that yet. If this sounds like something you could use, a sample database on the DEVONthink website shows how an entire website could be built within DEVONthink and then exported to a server.
There are three versions of DEVONthink: Personal, Professional and Pro Office. DEVONtechnologies offers a “feature comparison†chart that helps differentiate the products.
I started with DEVONthink personal and finally decided to upgrade to the Professional version to pick up the multiple database support and AppleScripting capability. DEVONtechnologies offers liberal “full-feature demo†use for each product (150 hours of non-contiguous runtime) so it’s easy enough to grab a copy, give it a thorough testing and see if it meets your needs. If you’re affiliated with an educational institution, you can request and receive a 25% discount. DEVONtechnologies offers great technical support, has an active “users forum” and seems to be on a very regular update cycle.
Current version of DT Pro is 1.3 beta 2. Universal Binary. Requires Mac OSX 10.3.9 or higher (10.4 recommended).