OK. It's been 11 days since my first post about DEVONthink. And I'm still going strong with it. Loving it. The only downside is that it's triggered the collector in me to scavenge the web for high-quality information which is a great diversion from the more challenging items on my to do list.
I tried NoteTaker and NoteBook and somehow tired of the multiple notebook approach. Then I've been creating little RTF and RTFD files when I find content I want to save for reference and dump them into my Information folder which I sort into subfolders periodically. Then I started trying other apps and most recently was putting things into StickyBrain 3 quite happily. But now I move those clippings into DEVONthink my current repository of choice.
I highlight what I want in a webpage or RSS reader or email or whatever and press Cmd-Shift-). That creates, compliments of the Services menu, a new little document inside DEVONthink's database named with the first line of the selection copied. You can also append to your last note just as easily.
Geof's comment to my first post was about how to decide when to use which tool.
I am interested to hear of your progress through Notebook/taker, StickyBrain, OmniOutliner, DevonThink and DevonAgent. This "knowledger" stuff fascinates me too, as I wrote to you last year. What I'd be most interested in is not what is "best" but a better sense of how to decide what tool for what job. These packages are not expensive but the time needed to use them well is the real "expense" it seems to me. - GeofGood Question, but the truth is, I don't really have an answer to that yet. I'm not sure I want to do more than one of these knowledge repository tools concurrently - but probably will use some of my other tools as I come across particular needs.
DEVONthink is oriented towards researchers and writers - a little more professional slant - than StickyBrain. StickyBrain slants more towards the *consumer* end of the scale and is actively improving in some important ways (such as Palm synching just recently). DEVONthink is more high-end with its speed, see also, auto classification, summarization and keyword comparisons. But, luckily it is not priced out of reach for someone who isn't a professional researcher or writer - just a passionate amateur here.
It's an interesting question whether to go with the tool with broader appeal (StickyBrain in this comparison) that may garner more market share due to it's simplicity and fun aspects (like colored stickies) or to go with the more powerful, higher-end tool. I often try to strike a balance because even though I want the more exotic features of the high-end tool, it may never sell enough to give the software company enough revenue/budget to make it a great product in terms of ease of use and look and feel. If you are really into this knowledge stuff, you'll find things like auto-classify a lot of fun anyway. It's fun to click the classify button to instantly see a ranked list of filing options. Sometimes I agree and, in one click of the Move button, it's there. A great way to while away a few spare minutes when I'm offline with my PowerBook.
There's an included AppleScript that moves all your Mail or a selected folder to DT too. I tried it on my entire Mail file - HUGE - but it timed out at one point and I haven't yet been able to find the partially transferred email. I'm hoping I can get this to work because there's lots of good stuff in my email archives that I would like access to with DT's cool search and organize tools.
DEVONthink personal edition strikes a balance towards the high-end but still gets the look and feel right (they recently overhauled the UI taking better advantage of Cocoa's UI toolset). This is a sweet spot that I find irresistable. Integration with DEVONagent (which I'm still trying out) plus the AI secret sauce you get in See Also is keeping me glued to DEVONthink right now.
Back to my apparent abandonment of the outliner-oriented tools. They're still strong as writing and thinking tools at minimum. When I need to write about something with some complexity, an outliner helps me gather, sort and organize the related information and ideas that I have. What I'm abandoning is outliner tools as my repository for the information I collect every day. And even then, DEVONthink works better when I put information into folders and subfolders which is essentially outlining. It just doesn't lead with the outline as it's primary feature.
What DEVONthink doesn't require of me is that I know where to put something at the point of acquisition. That's a huge advantage! I run across something interesting and all that means is that I recognize it as of interest to me. I may not know at that moment why it is interesting.
I just recently read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (great read) and he talks about the first 2 seconds of looking - the decisive glance that knows in an instant. I can grab stuff in that instant and review later to see why it grabbed me and where it goes in my folder hierarchy. And I don't worry too much if my classification step doesn't happen right away or isn't perfect because I trust the system to help me find it and take advantage of it even if it's not optimally categorized.
This is a very exciting space with lots of small players. Geof mentioned above that perhaps it is the learning time that is the gating factor in using these tools. Good point. That's why I keep my radar up scanning for better tools. I don't want to invest more than I should in any one tool if there's a better one out there. But the value is there and I want to participate in this process. And, with DEVONthink, I'm getting quick returns on my time and money investment.