The File menu contains commands creating and deleting databases. There are options for adding or exporting files, as well synchronizing them. Additionally, if you need to do database maintenance, you will find those commands here.
New & Open
New: Create new databases in your selected location. Read more about each type in the Building Your Database section.
-
Database: Creates a unencrypted database.
-
Encrypted Database: Creates an AES-256 encrypted database file at a user-specified size.
-
Audit-Proof Database: Creates an archival database for storing information that cannot be subsequently modified. This creates a database that conforms to many governmental and legal policies.
Open Database: Opens previously created databases. You can select multiple databases.
Open Recent: Presents a list of recently used databases, which gives you quick access to your frequently used databases. Choose Clear Menu to remove all items from the menu.
New Window: Opens a new
main window for a selected database.
Import & Export
Import: The Import submenu contains various options for importing data, e.g.,selected files, bookmark, contacts, and some data from compatible applications. Some options will import files into their own special groups at the root of the database.
-
Files and Folders: Imports selected files or folders to the current location. Finder comments will be imported. Finder tags may be imported if enabled in the
Import > Tags settings.
-
Bookmarks: Imports bookmarks from: Brave, DEVONagent Pro, Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari. Bookmarks are imported into a newly created group bearing the name of the chosen browser. Only new bookmarks are imported if you use this command again.
-
Bookmarks from HTML file: Imports bookmarks from an HTML file, e.g., exported from the Orion browser.
-
Contacts: Imports Apple Contacts addresses selected in the import dialog into a newly created group named "Addresses". Contacts can be imported as a sheet, as vcards (.vcf), or as bookmarks. Previously created groups are reused. Tip: To import all addresses, select all addresses in the group "All" and import them. Address card bookmarks link to the original card in the Contacts application.
-
Folders & Attachments from Notes: Imports your notes from Apple Notes.
Export: The Export submenu presents options for exporting selected documents or groups to the file system. In addition, the Export menu provides export methods based on plugins. DEVONthink comes with a number of standard plugins for exporting documents in different formats. For these formats, the export creates a single merged document when multiple files are selected.
-
Document: Exports the currently viewed document in its native format. For images exported from a separately opened document window, DEVONthink lets you choose the desired file format or image quality; e.g.,you can export a PNG files as a JPEG file.
-
Files and Folders: Exports the selected documents in their native format. Groups are exported as Finder folders, preserving the group structure you have built in DEVONthink. DEVONthink tags are applied as Finder tags to the exported files. Internal metadata for the items is preserved in .DEVONtech_storage files in the exported folders. These files are used for reimporting into DEVONthink. If you will not be reimporting the exported files, you can safely delete those files. Be aware the addition date of reimported items will change, if that is a critical piece of metadata for your database.
-
OPML: Exports the selected items as one OPML file.
-
PDF Document: Exports the selected items as a paginated PDF. Hold the ⌥ Option key to change allow the command to PDF Document without Annotations.
-
RTF/RTFD Document: Exports the selected items as one merged rich text file without embedded items (RTF) or with them (RTFD).
-
Text: Exports the selected items as one merged plain text file.
-
Word 2007/97 Document: Exports the selected items as one merged Microsoft Word .docx (Word 2007) or .doc (Word 97) document.
-
Website: Exports the selected items as standalone web site that you can upload to your web server and share with colleagues. In the presented dialog window, choose the desired template, text encoding, and whether DEVONthink should convert diacritics and accented characters to HTML entities or not. Check Create Index Pages to create index.html pages with cross-links to all included documents. Markdown and formatted notes are rendered to HTML, other file types that cannot be displayed in a web browser, e.g., Pages files, are converted to PDF if possible. Cross-links are converted correctly. For the export templates are used that you can modify yourself.
-
HTML Bookmarks: Export the URLs of all selected items and their children as an HTML bookmarks file.
-
Template: Saves the selected documents as a template, which can then be used to quickly create new documents using
Data > New from Template. Export multiple documents and/or groups at once to create e.g.,a project template. Data & New from Template & Open Template Folder; can be used to organize templates.
-
Database Archive: Creates an optimized ZIP file of the current database in the selected location. This can be useful as a secondary backup strategy. Databases are exported in their original format, e.g., an encrypted .dtSparse file. For encrypted and audit-proof databases, you will need to provide an encryption key before exporting.
-
Metadata (JSON): Export the metadata of the selected items as JSON data.
Share: This opens the standard Mac Share menu.
Index
Index: Use this command to add external files and folders from the Finder. This creates links to the files but leaves them in the current location. Regarding see-also and classification, DEVONthink treats these files the same as imported files. To easily distinguish indexed items, a small Finder icon is displayed to the right their name.
Update Indexed Items: Indexed items are updated when you view them. If you need to be sure everything is up-to-date use this command. If nothing is selected, the enclosing group of the current group is used. It also reads changes made to the Finder or Spotlight comments of the to-be-updated files and applies the changes to the files' counterparts in the database. Finally, this command removes indexed items that have lost their external counterpart. It does not affect items moved manually to the group.
Use Update Indexed Items to keep indexed groups and their originating folders in sync or to manually update an item that you have changed directly inside the database package when DEVONthink was not running.
|
Note:
Indexed groups are excluded from tagging by default. For more information on importing and indexing, please see the Import and Index section of the In & Out chapter.
|
Synchronize
Synchronize: Synchronizes the selected database with all its locations. Note, this command will be disabled if the current database has no active synchronization. Holding the ⇧Shift key shows the Synchronize All option to synchronize all actively syncing databases.
Download Pending Files: Downloads the files of selected documents if they are available through one of the database's locations. Only necessary if none of the database's locations is set to synchronize indexed files.
Database Properties & Close
Database Properties: Opens the
Database Properties popup for the current database. This panel presents a few options, statistics about the database, and allows you to change the displayed name, add comments, and add a username and password.
Close Database: Closes a selected database. If multiple databases are open, use Close All to close them all at once. If you'd like to keep the current database open but close the others, use Close All Except. Note that closed databases will not reopen on launch. Only databases that were open when DEVONthink quits will reopen on the next launch.
Database Maintenance
Like any database, DEVONthink databases need a bit of maintenance from time to time. All the commands you'll need for this can be found here.
Verify & Repair: Verifies all database structures and repairs them if possible. By default, DEVONthink automatically verifies the database structure every time you open a database. If it finds significant errors, DEVONthink will advise you to run this command.
Use this command whenever you feel it is necessary. If you're a heavy user of DEVONthink, running a Verify & Repair once a week or more often is a good idea.
Check File Integrity: Verifies the stored checksum for each file in the database. The results are reported in the
Log window or popover. Note: If you are indexing files and they have not been updated, they will report a checksum error. Read more...
Optimize Database: Creates an internal backup of the database and then optimizes the database structure. Optimizing removes unnecessary internal elements from the database and rebuilds the internal structure to optimize performance. DEVONthink also creates internal backups on a regular basis. Hold the ⌥ Option key to display the Restore Backup option. This allows you to roll back the metadata to a previous date. This option would only be used in troubleshooting situations.
Rebuild Database: Completely rebuilds the database by exporting all items to a temporary folder in the file system, creating an empty database, and reimporting all items. This removes any structural problems. Depending on the size of your database, this can take from a few seconds to several hours. This option is typically only used in a troubleshooting situation.
Delete Database: Closes a selected database and moves it to the Finder trash.
Print
Page Setup: Sets your preferred page size and printer settings.
Print: Prints the current document or view.
PRO
Pro/Server Commands
These commands are only available in the Pro and Server editions of DEVONthink.
-
Images (with OCR): Imports images and applies optical character recognition (OCR) to create a searchable PDF. This makes all written text searchable and available to DEVONthink's AI functions. You can change the setting in
OCR settings.
-
References from Bookends: Imports references from the Bookends application as rich text documents. These are stored in a Bookends group in the root of the current database. When run, you will have the choice to import the selection in Bookends or references from one of various collections. Several properties from Bookends are applied as
custom metadata, e.g., the abstract, authors, DOI, etc., if available in Bookends. Keywords are imported into the
Keywords field. Already imported references are updated, not duplicated.
-
Unix Mailbox: Imports Unix mailboxes, like those exported from Apple Mail.
-
Website: Opens the Download Manager and downloads a complete web page/site for archiving and offline viewing. By default, groups created by the Download Manager are excluded from tagging.
-
Unix Mailbox: Exports selected emails as a Unix mailbox, .mbox file, that can be shared or imported into many email applications.
-
Database Audit Report: Exports a full report accounting for all the documents added to an audit-proof database. This includes the original filename on import, unique identifiers, deletions and their date of deletion, etc. Exported as a .csv file for use in other applications, e.g., Excel.
|
