Two people might choose to treat the same set of data very differently and see merit in consolidating it into one database, or separating it into several focused databases.ĭatabase SIZE (both file size and number of files) seems to have a very high upper bound before any performance degradation takes place.

False positives or difficult to parse search results (while the number and relevance of search results is, of course, also a product of your query, having a lot of files of questionable relatedness together can muddy results, especially if you are using a fairly vague query.) (also worth noting that the big ⌘-shift-f search window sill search all open databases (if you so choose, and is the default), so you CAN perform manual searches across all databases).īut all of the above considerations depend a great deal on how you see your data and how you use it.

This is both an issue of the overall relatedness of your database, as well as your chosen classification scheme – that is, this issue can just as easily arise in a small but badly organized database.)

Mis-classification in auto-classify (auto classify either puts something in the wrong place according to you, or is unable to classify because it cannot identify a clearcut group to send the file to.

This can happen if you have a lot of material that is unrelated by which might use the same words)

False positives in the See Also feature (that is – items that the AI thinks are related but aren’t related according to you.

There are a couple main considerations related to this: I think organization and retrieval is really the major consideration when thinking about number of databases. One major consideration is that the AI/See Also/Auto Classify features only work within the same database, and not across databases. Picking how many databases to use is a very personal choice that depends a great deal on how you work and the type of data you work with. ˆa common workflow for me is to scan a document with my phone using Scanner Pro, and import it into DEVONthink To Go, and in many cases this import process defaults to the global inbox You cannot sync a database by storing the. If you want to sync database contents between computers or with iOS you use the Sync function built into DEVONthink. *Except for directly in cloud-synced folders. †Not transportable as a database file – it CAN, however, be synced using DEVONthink’s built in sync functionality. A user-created database lives where you want it to. While the Global Inbox database is backed up along with the rest of your system (Assuming you have a backup!) it’s nestled way in the library/application support nether regions and is thus bit more cumbersome to track down and restore. The advantage to not living entirely in the Global Inbox is that it is relatively easy to duplicate a database and try new organizational schemes out in a non-destructive way, or retrieve a database from a backup should something go awry. I generally like to have NOTHING live permanently in the Global Inbox, and this is a strategy too can use regardless of how many databases you use, whether you choose to create only one single database, or many more focused databases. Then I take time to move things to the appropriate database’s inbox, and from there I sort it to the appropriate group (or let the AI sort it for me, depending on the situation). Personally, I see the global inbox as simply a staging area – incoming files go to the global inbox so I can capture things throughout the day without having to devote a lot of time to thinking about where it belongs while I’m in the moment. I have trouble grouping and tagging things because my brain is more like a spiderweb, where one node has many connections, … I am a synthesizer by nature, and strongly idea-oriented so that means I collect and consume (or rather hoard and gorge on) unwieldy numbers of books, articles, notes, quotes, videos, music, etc.

I have owned DT Office Pro for quite awhile and have a spotty usage history, because I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work for my thinking/processing style.

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