How to Use Extended Selection in iOS

When handling items in DEVONthink To Go, it happens that you need to deal with more than one at a time. Perhaps you want to email several documents to someone. Or maybe you need to copy them to a shared folder in Dropbox and don’t want to share them one by one. Here’s how to quickly select and handle multiple items.

In DEVONthink To Go’s item list, tap the Edit button at the top of the screen. The item list will switch to the selection mode. Alternatively, tap an item with two fingers and slide down slightly. Selected items will display in a blue field. Tap other individual items to add them to your selection, or two-finger slide to add multiple adjacent items to the selection. You may notice the same behavior is other iOS oder iPadOS apps, e.g., Apple Files.

To interact with the selected items, tap the encircled ellipsis to open the Organize menu. There you will find different options, e.g., adding those items to DEVONthink To Go’s Favorites. Using the Share button at the bottom of the item list or in the Organize menu, you can share the selected items with people or compatible apps, for example Apple Mail.

Another option to explore when sharing items to another app, is drag-and-drop. When you have some items selected, tap and hold one item, then slightly drag it. The items will float above the item list and show the number of dragged items. If you need to add items to the floating selection, tap unselected ones with your thumb. To cancel the selection, tap the Done button at the top of the screen.

You can then drag the selected items to another app that supports drag-and-drop. And note your free thumb comes in handy on an iPhone as you can use it to lightly swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the app switcher, then select the receiving app. This can also work the other way around, as you may be able to drag floating items from other apps into DEVONthink To Go.

One thing to be aware of: Groups in DEVONthink To Go are logical constructs within the app and therefore can’t be shared or dragged to other apps.