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DevonThink

Originally published by "dbarker" on 2005-02-13 09:29:00Z

DevonThink: Does anyone know of an application like this for Windows? I compile so many notes about so many things, I often find myself posting things to Gadgetopia just so I’ll be able to find them later.

It’s a notepad, outliner, scrapbook manager, information manager, freeform database, archive, bookmark manager and image database – all in one integrated application. DEVONthink intelligently stores your text files, PDFs, images, bookmarks, even QuickTime movies and MP3 files, and helps you organizing them. A hierachical filing structure and AI functions for sorting in and finding documents makes it ideal for both, keeping a simple notebook and organizing large information collections.

This guy put together a nice essay of why he loves this program so much. I could love it too, if it ran on Windows. Could you use a blog for something like this? A wiki? Traditional CMS? I guess I’d rather see it Web-based.

Comment by "Dave" on 2005-02-13 11:04:00Z

"I could love it too, if it ran on Windows." Or you could just buy a Mac.

Comment by "Dave Schroeter" on 2005-02-13 12:08:00Z

I use Keynote by Tranglos which is very flexible software. On my PPC I use ADB Idea Library by HappyJackRoad. Unfortunately Keynote doesn't support PDAs and Idea Library's desktop portion is still in beta; I'd love to be able to share databases across machines. Treepad is a much lighter hierarchical manager that I have used in the past. All of these programs are free, so give them a shot!

Comment by "Anonymous" on 2005-02-13 12:41:00Z

I'm with Dave. Buy a Mac you cheapskate. Honestly Deane, you'll never look back. Once you have your shiny new Mac give an app called VoodooPad a try. It's my own personal wiki. I use it to store all kinds of crap and it works like a charm.

Comment by "Deane" on 2005-02-13 13:05:00Z

I looked at some of the apps mentioned and got to thinking about this concept some more. Why couldn't you just use a WYSIWYG HTML editor and use the default file tree? Some of the advanced functionality might not be there, but it would be a simple way to have a "tree" of data with rich editing functionality. One thing I liked about Treepad Lite -- the EXE will run off a USB key, so you can carry around your entire database of ideas.

Comment by "Corie" on 2005-02-13 13:16:00Z

Or if for now you want to stick with Windows, theres a personal wiki like Voodoo Pad named wikidpad - [http://www.jhorman.org/wikidPad/](http://www.jhorman.org/wikidPad/) (no affiliation, just use to to hold all sorts of everything)

Comment by "bucca" on 2005-04-06 11:15:00Z

had the same question. but who gives a s**t about whether u have a mac or a pc -- i just need to get a job done. im so glad u feel like your identities are determined by a hunk of plastic.

Comment by "guinj" on 2005-06-21 08:19:00Z

Have you looked at InfoSelect? www.miclog.com I found devonthink through my search for a infoselect workalike.

Comment by "Peter Killick" on 2006-01-06 13:54:00Z

Expect you'll have found this by now -- your original post is nearly a year old -- but the equivalent Windows program is called WhizFolders Organizer Pro. Obviously, it's not a slavishly exact clone, but I'm sure you'll find it can do everything you said you are looking for and do it exceptionally well. You can get it at Amazon for about $40 -- well worth it, and cheaper than a Mac Mini! Highly recommended. Peter

Comment by "spokeshave mclachlan" on 2006-01-07 08:57:00Z

MyInfo. you will either understand the software's strength or you wont. if the latter than you wont require it, if the former then you'll know what to say to the the next person.

Comment by "Eric B." on 2006-05-20 17:43:00Z

Spokeshave, thank you for pointing out MyInfo. For business reasons I had to purchase a Wintel notebook and sold my old eMac (since I don't need two machines). I missed DevonThink Pro so much I nearly went out and bought another Mac just to get it back. While DT is an excellent app, MyInfo seems to be equally good and has some features that are more intuitive to use. In general -- using both Windows and OS X -- I've found OS X applications better thought-out and designed and I was beginning to think I'd never find what I was looking for. Since switching back to Windows I've tried Treepad, AskSam, Zoot and a number of related programs, but MyInfo is the most Devon-ish of the lot. You've saved me from shelling out another $1500 for a second computer I really don't need. Thanks again.

Comment by "Kaka55399" on 2006-05-28 13:52:00Z

Basically nothing noteworthy happening right now, but eh. Today was a complete loss. I haven't been up to much recently. I've pretty much been doing nothing worth mentioning.

Comment by "Sledgy" on 2006-06-01 15:32:00Z

Try OneNote from M$ (I know...*sigh*) [http://office.microsoft.com/onenote/](http://office.microsoft.com/onenote/)

Comment by "Sledgy" on 2006-06-01 15:40:00Z

or the free TiddlyWiki for a small portable platform independent wiki (but don't compare it to DevonThink ;) [http://www.tiddlywiki.com/](http://www.tiddlywiki.com/)

Comment by "Kaka54460" on 2006-06-03 09:02:00Z

My mind is like a bunch of nothing, but I guess it doesn't bother me. I haven't been up to anything recently. I've pretty much been doing nothing to speak of.

Comment by "Kaka10371" on 2006-06-11 16:14:00Z

My mind is like a bunch of nothing, but I guess it doesn't bother me. I haven't been up to anything recently. I've pretty much been doing nothing to speak of.

Comment by "Kaka59374" on 2006-07-06 09:38:00Z

My life's been basically bland today. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. My mind is like an empty room. I've more or less been doing nothing to speak of. Not much on my mind recently.

Comment by "Kaka32153" on 2006-07-08 16:31:00Z

Not much on my mind lately. My life's been completely boring these days. I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. So it goes.

Comment by "TramadoL95718" on 2006-08-01 13:28:00Z

My life's been basically bland today. More or less nothing seems worth thinking about. My mind is like an empty room. I've more or less been doing nothing to speak of. Not much on my mind recently.

Comment by "TramadoL11182" on 2006-08-07 14:44:00Z

Basically nothing seems worth thinking about. I haven't been up to much these days. I just don't have much to say right now. I can't be bothered with anything , but whatever.

Comment by "TramadoL15253" on 2006-08-13 10:33:00Z

I haven't been up to anything today. I can't be bothered with anything recently. Nothing seems worth thinking about. I haven't gotten anything done recently, but oh well. Not much noteworthy going on worth mentioning.

Comment by "Fran" on 2006-08-19 07:42:00Z

I was a heavy user of InfoSelect in Windows, so much so that I resisted moving to Mac OS because IS doesn't have a Mac version. Finally I got so fed up with Windows that I vowed to switch anyway. And here's DevonThink, which is like IS on steroids. For Windows, InfoSelect is the way to go. It has a much easier learning curve than DevonThink, and the documentation is in English. DevonThink's documentation is heavy on concepts and light on explaining exactly how those concepts work.

Comment by "Anonymous" on 2006-12-12 13:13:00Z

Check out Evernote. It can automatically grab stuff from web pages, and store notes in multiple positions in the folder heirarcy. -- Rick Taylor

Comment by "Sten15245" on 2007-01-23 15:00:00Z

I've more or less been doing nothing worth mentioning, but eh. My life's been really bland today. I don't care. I've just been letting everything happen without me these days. That's how it is.

Comment by "Sten19113" on 2007-01-27 16:37:00Z

I just don't have anything to say , but shrug. So it goes. Not much on my mind recently. I can't be bothered with anything recently.