Some might not know but the documentation that is built into DEVONthink, DEVONnote, and DEVONagent Pro was always also available as PDF. But after the relaunch of our website they looked strangely old-fashioned I have to admit. In the last few weeks I reworked the layout and adapted it to our new design. And, as I was at it, I dropped the landscape-oriented PDF for reading on the screen in favor of an ebook. (more)

Rich text (RTF) is great for text with different fonts, sizes, or colors. The Style panel allows you to save often-used styles and apply them again with a few clicks but it’s not really an example of the Mac’s famous user-friendliness. Power user Alfred Schlatter sent us a tip for adding convenient keyboard shortcuts to styles to make your life with rich text easier: … (more)

Adding the ability to ‘rate’ items in DEVONthink, e.g. with stars, is already on our to-do list. Forum user Truhe couldn’t wait and simply used labels for his ratings. To create your own ratings use e.g. the Unicode characters ☆ and ★ to name the labels from ★★★★★ to ☆☆☆☆ and set the colors to support the rating. To enter the stars use the menu command Edit > Special Characters, switch to Bullets/Stars and double-click the symbol you’d like to insert. (more)

Did you know that you can select clickable web addresses in e.g. Mail.app and choose DEVONnote/DEVONthink: Take Rich Note in the Services menu to create a bookmark in your database? Unfortunately this does not work for links in Safari. To add a bookmark for them instead of creating a rich text document drag them to DEVONnote’s or DEVONthink’s dock icon.

Spring is in the air on the northern hemisphere, which means: time for some spring cleaning here at DEVONtechnologies: DEVONsphere Express is still new on the App Store and we’ve already submitted the second update. Not enough, we’ve also updated all our other applications, too, from DEVONthink and DEVONnote to DEVONagent and our freeware apps.

For bookmarks DEVONthink shows the linked web page immediately when you select it in any view that has a preview pane, e.g. in Split view. And as Google Docs is just a web page you can add it to DEVONthink just like any other bookmark. Select it and DEVONthink shows the complete Google Docs editor just like as if it was a local document. (more)

If you send e.g. a rich text document from DEVONthink or DEVONnote to someone else and the document contained links to other documents, the recipient will not be able to use the links as the other documents are missing. (more)

Some people use TJ HD’s excellent Language Switcher to start applications with a localization different than the system’s default language. Unfortunately this only starts the app in the other localization but breaks proper localization support for internal but independent elements such as smart templates or AppleScript scripts. So if you are using Language Switcher and experience that some smart templates or scripts don’t work please use it without Language Switcher.

Our friends over at TidBITS, one of the longest-running Internet publications, have set up a new membership program to support their excellent news service. By joining as a member you do not only support the editors but you also get access to some cool benefits like an ad-free view on the website, a full-text RSS feed, early access to new articles, and great discounts on all Take Control ebooks and Mac software like LaunchBar, 1Password, and … DEVONthink, DEVONagent Pro, and DEVONnote. Visit TidBITS, become a member, and save 25 percent on your apps!

Last week we explained why one could want to exclude groups or even whole databases from tagging in DEVONthink or DEVONnote. In addition both groups and documents can be individually excluded from classification, see-also, and search. Nice, but why would you do such a thing? (more)