Once you get it set up how you want it, DevonThink absolutely rocks and it’s perfect for non-fiction research. It’s got a 100 hour free trial so worth testing it out. I’d recommend downloading the manual and/or the Take Control Of DevonThink book from the devontechnologies website (both free) and giving both a speed read so you get an idea of some of the stuff it can do.

Obviously depends on your own individual workflow but here are some of my recommendations:

Make sure you get the iOS companion app DevonThink To Go. This allows you to capture everything on your mobile devices. Also make sure you install all add ons via DevonThink3 -> Install Add Ons.

These add ons will:

- Allow you to view and import emails in DevonThink (you will also have to enable the plugin in the Apple Mail app for this functionality to work)

- Put an ‘Inbox’ folder in your finder which allows you to just drag any file or folder into it and have it appear in your DevonThink Inbox

- Give you OCR for all your pdfs

- Give you extensions for browsers to clip things easily.

When you clip something that you want to read or refer back to you’re generally best off using the ‘paginated PDF’ setting as not all the available options support annotation and the AI search. It’s not a big deal if you don’t because you can just right click something and click ‘Convert To’ to turn it into a pdf later.

Two settings I’d recommend trying out:

DevonThink3 -> Preferences -> General -> Interface -> Retain View (On)

Stops the view from changing every time you switch databases which can be annoying.

DevonThink3 -> Preferences -> General -> Interface -> Unify Inboxes (Off)

Moves each databases inbox into the database itself which makes it a lot easier for when you’re filing things.

Four Shortcuts I Find Useful:

Cmd-Ctrl-M - brings up a panel for moving a file quickly

Cmd-7 for wide screen view (makes more sense than the standard view)

Cmd-option-i - toggle right inspector

Cmd-option-1 - toggle left sidebar