The Mac has a wealth of information managers from the simple MoosePad to the full on relational database, Filemaker. For me, the one that offers the most power without building my own database is DEVONthink Pro. DEVONthink Pro is flexible, feature-rich, and extensible (via plug-ins, AppleScripts, and Automator actions), but its interface is clean and intuitive. Well, it’s sort of intuitive as it a lot of potential that I hadn’t thought to use at the “intuitive” level.

Fortunately, it also has excellent documentation, including a PDF tutorial as well as a pretty complete manual. I was getting a lot of use from DEVONthink by banging around but there is so much that the program can do that it is worth the time to dig in and read a bit.

At its most basic DEVONthink stores and displays documents, including web pages PDF’s Rich Text Format, Word, RSS feeds, and anything that Quicktime will handle including photos and movies. Just that fact that you can store, sort, search, edit and view a wide range of formats makes DEVONthink worthwhile as a sort of digital shoe box.

You can create an empty database and add new documents, or import files, folders, Address Book entries, web bookmarks, emails. Using OS X’s built in TextEdit editing options you can write and read most documents. With the built in Safari WebKit you can also browse web pages. DEVONthink will also archive web pages for offline browsing.

The ability to save web pages or sections from pages, then edit and organize them is an incredible way to compile documentation. I’ve set up folders of CSS and JavaScript web pages, PDF’s and notes I’ve written myself, along with actual scripts to create a pretty good personal reference library. I’ve done the same with online marketing tips and Search Engine Optimization ideas.

So DEVONthink is my web reference library. It is also a fine content creation tool with all the functionality of TextEdit and a very smart search engine, that does, within DEVONthink’s own database what Spotlight does for other files and folders. Files and folders can either be linked to or imported into the database.

But better than just indexing everything, DEVONthink also gives wonderful analytics to do any author proud. Want to find a frequency analysis of the words you you use? That’s just a menu choice away. You can do that on a document, folder or complete database level. Though it wasn’t intended as such, DEVONthink makes a good keyword analysis tool. The Devon people call their data mining tools artificial intelligence. It isn’t that but it DEVONthink can help you make better sense of your data.

Want to link separate documents or sections of a long document? DEVONthink does wiki style links easily. It even offers synatx coloring for editing HTML.

Want to gather all the source material for a project in one place and be able to view the different formatted documents in one program? Yep, DEVONthink does that will bells on.

Of course, you can view data in a table and export your database to plain files and folders as well as to your iPod or website, even OmniOutliner format. DEVONthink offers a half dozen different combinations of list, icon column and multi-panel views.

It also has deep Applescript and Apple Services support as well as a number of pre-built Automator work flows. This is a power tool. There is even a Applescript that will to out to the web and import today’s Dilbert cartoon.

I could go on and on listing all the features DEVONthink has but you get the idea. If you need to organize and work with a lot of data and files, DEVONthink has you covered. It is a great research tool, too. If you just need to jot down occasional notes, it’s probably overkill, but very clever overkill. However, if you need to track, organize and author a lot of information, or are simply an information junkie like me. This it a great tool.

The two times I emailed, once for tech support and once to retreive a lost password, I received prompt replies. I’m sold.

DEVON Technologies bills it a a “paperless office.” They used to promote it as “your auxiliary brain.” It’s both.

Publisher Devon Technologies
For Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher.

Features: 5
Ease of Use: 4
Value: 4+
Macness: 4
Documentation: 5
Support: 5

Highly recommended

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Software Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.