DEVONthink and Mellel

[ochsenmeier]

Integration with DT would definitely be a major attraction to switch to Mellel. I have been testing Mellel and DT. I will adopt DT but probably would not adopt Mellel long term and not advise it to my students were it not to integrate will DT.
Erwin

[laup]

I am using DevonThink Pro and integration appears attractive. However, there are many things to be done and I can't reasonably assess relative prioriites without a better sense of tradeoffs.

[drhayton]

Okay, help me understand how one might exploit DT. I have looked at it once or twice, usually in response to somebody on this forum praising it, but I just don't feel compelled to use it.

How or why do you find it useful? How does it help you get your work done (explaining what type of work/research you do will be helpful here)?

Thanks in advance.

Best,
darin

[Timotheus]

See http://www.devon-technologies.com/phpBB ... um.php?f=7

[danzac]

Okay, help me understand how one might exploit DT. I have looked at it once or twice, usually in response to somebody on this forum praising it, but I just don't feel compelled to use it.

How or why do you find it useful? How does it help you get your work done (explaining what type of work/research you do will be helpful here)?

Thanks in advance.

Best,
darin

With the click of the mouse, you can save webpages, text clippings, anything- into your Devonthink database. It is easily arrangable, editable, and searchable using DT's AI technology. It is incredibly good at doing all of this. It's possibilities are really limitless.

[Craig]

Okay, help me understand how one might exploit DT. I have looked at it once or twice, usually in response to somebody on this forum praising it, but I just don't feel compelled to use it.

How or why do you find it useful? How does it help you get your work done (explaining what type of work/research you do will be helpful here)?

There's a little more here.

[talazem]

So I'm doing this 2000 word paper on Abbasid (Mideast) history. I've got tons of downloaded articles from JSTOR, about 10 articles I've scanned in with my desktop scanner, and a bunch of notes. All in Devonthink.

So while I'm reading one of the articles in my database, I come across an issue I wish was explained in more detail. I press the "See Also" button in Devonthink. It pops up with a list of related entries in my database...one of which is an article I didn't even remember I had, is about 20 pages long, and has half a page on the issue I'm researching. And that half a page explained exactly what I was looking for. And I didn't remember I had the article, and had never read it before, but it pinpointed it for me.

That's why I love DEVONthink.

[verma]

That's why I love DEVONthink.

I would agree, but that's also where it's first problem comes into play: if you don't preprocess your documents in DT, DT can't see them (well, it still can't see Mellel files either). Spotlight can, and with Finder Comments, smart folders and spotlight's metalanguage syntax, I believe you can find a lot as well.

Take mail. I receive between 150 and 200 mails a day. I don't read them all, nor do I have time to process them into some other software. And yes, I find stuff I didn't even know I had it on my HDrives...

The AI of DT is certainly interesting, but I'd prefer my software to work without me having to do a lot of pre-processing; life's too short (on weekdays).

Best,
V.

[talazem]

Well, I just put all my research material into DT (PDF's and such), and take all my notes in DT as well. Since everything I gather is in there (and it's not too difficult to send things into DT), those AI and organization features -- and all the text-processing and organizing it can do through the services and its applescripts -- I have no problem with "preprocessing". And like I said, the AI thing really is useful when you're dealing with lots of info and notes.

Of course, everyone would like it to be spotlight compatible, and that's coming in the next version. All of which doesn't mean I don't have my own criticisms: a note-taking/file storage system should, in my view, have endless abilities of metadata and tagging of various sorts (much beyond what DT or the Finder has now). But that is supposedly also on the horizon.

But basically, as it is, it does for me what I want it to do: store articles/papers intelligently, be a good place to take and store a large amount of notes long-term, and help me find the relations between them.

[ptram]

I'm very interested in DT, too, but still can't understand if the same things it does cannot be done with Smart Folders in the Finder. Isn't it using about the same concept?
Paolo

[danzac]

I'm very interested in DT, too, but still can't understand if the same things it does cannot be done with Smart Folders in the Finder. Isn't it using about the same concept?
Paolo

Well isn't one of the big differences that everything is also viewable in DT and available for editing, adding comments, etc?

Using finder to store html pages, PDF, RTF's, etc., no matter how good a system you have still means you are using a number of programs instead of one tidy spot.

[alexwein]

Ha, Maria. To the point, as always. I completely agree with you re DT. That's how I use it as well. And I agree that nothing else comes close to it, and I have tried many.

But I also know there's no 'one size fits all' for everyone. And if you can't see how it makes sense for you, than I guess it doesn't. No real disagreement there, just different needs and work styles.

[danzac]

I'm very interested in DT, too, but still can't understand if the same things it does cannot be done with Smart Folders in the Finder. Isn't it using about the same concept?
Paolo

Paolo, watching the DEVONacademy intro video to DT may help you understand its advantage better.

http://www.devon-technologies.com/suppo ... rials.html

[Guern Blanston]

After visiting the Mellel booth at MacWord I asked about DevonThink and the searchability of Mellel files. It seems to all boil down to "what is the next most important feature to add to Mellel?"... or in a word... "Priorities". While only the good folks at Mellel can make this decision they always seek our input!

I posted on DT forum about the readability of Mellel docs in DT. Here was the response from the developer:

"We have an XSLT-based importer in mind, so a soon as Mellel has an XSLT stylesheet for their XML file format (which is the #1 reason for choosing XML, IMHO) we're more than happy to support it in DEVONthink 2.0 (due, well, when it's ready)."

It seems the possibility exists... but only as function of time and prioritiy.

I guess the old saying may hold true... "good things come to those that wait."

Regards....

[rpcameron]

I posted on DT forum about the readability of Mellel docs in DT. Here was the response from the developer:

"We have an XSLT-based importer in mind, so a soon as Mellel has an XSLT stylesheet for their XML file format (which is the #1 reason for choosing XML, IMHO) we're more than happy to support it in DEVONthink 2.0 (due, well, when it's ready)."

It seems the possibility exists... but only as function of time and prioritiy.

This resopnse from the Devon folks is a bit cryptic to me, though. Does this mean that they require the Redlers to provide them with the XSLT? Or will the Devon folks create the XSLT from Mellel's XML. For the latter the Redlers need to post the schema/DTD used for Mellel's files in a fully documented manner. For the former, well, the Redlers have to craft it, but to what do the transformations conform to? Do the Devon folks have their format posted for XSLT targets?

(I vote for just opening the specification and giving us the DTD and/or schema.)