I hope someone has answered this before and I’ve just missed it.
My research files are growing well beyond what Scrivener is designed for. I think I want to use DevonThink to tame them. I’ve read that the two programs are quite compatible, but can’t seem to find a “guide” on converting or working between them. Has anybody written something like that? Just a very basic tip sheet for getting started (or deciding whether to start switching) between them? Like, how hard is it to translate hundreds of documents to DevonThink, and how hard is it to make links back and forth with Scrivener?
A lot of people use DTP and Scrivener together happily, I think. A very quick précis…
You can export documents from Scrivener into DTP easily enough: Select your Research folder for example, File > Export > Files to DTP’s dedicated Inbox folder in Finder and they’ll all be available in the DTP immediately for filing / organising.
You can simply drag files from DTP into Scrivener to import them the other way.
You can copy a clickable link from any DTP document with a simple shortcut (cmd-opt-ctl-C) and paste it within Scrivener. I don’t think you can go the other way (without delving into individual documents in the Finder, which you probably don’t want to), but I’m not sure you want to do that too often.
The basic idea that a lot of people use is: DTP for a big bucket of all your research, where you can use the AI facilities to organise your material and discover links between it. It’s very good for this. When you’re ready to outline and write, drag the relevant subset of research documents from DTP into the Scrivener project – or just leave both programs open and switch between the two.
There’s a full-featured demo available for DevonThink, so it’s easy enough to try it out.
Personally, I think both programs are essential in their own way.
Just a note… The best way to maintain links to DTP items is to use DTP’s “Copy Item Link” functionality to generate a permanent link to the item and place it in the clipboard. In Scrivener, create a new reference, then paste in the link – it will look something like this:
This code uniquely identifies the linked item, so that the link is maintained even if you move the item within the database or if DTP’s internal housekeeping processes change its internal filename.
If you don’t use this method of linking, there is a risk that (over time) your links might break.
Just to make it clear there aren’t two different types of DTP link – the shortcut cmd-opt-ctl-C shortcut I mentioned invokes the Copy Item Link command Siren discusses above.
Sorry, David. Your shortcut is (of course) spot on. I just wanted to mention the name of the menu option in case people wanted to access it via the Edit menu or the right-click contextual menu. And, mostly, I wanted to explain why it is necessary to use “Copy Item Link” instead of simply copying what looks like a perfectly serviceable link to a DTP item. We do get users contacting technical support because their non-unique DTP links have degraded over time, and the only remedy is to go through and replace the links manually. A tedious exercise, and well worth avoiding, so it’s best to use unique links in the first place. Copy Item Link or its shortcut, cmd-opt-ctl-C, is definitely the way to go.
Hi Astrid – I think the information you gave was spot on and well worth giving. I didn’t give enough detail in the first post, so I didn’t want leave the impression there are two ways of linking.