DevonThink – The most powerful note taking application I have ever used
Truth be told, calling DevonThink a note taking app is like saying a Lamborghini is a neat car. In reality, DevonThink is a document management application which note only creates notes, but track documents, images, web pages, RSS Feeds and just about any other file you have on your system.
Originally I was stored code snippets in Boostnote and project documents in Freeter. I then had some documents tracked in Pagico and some in mini note. But that is too many notes and too many places to look for them. Then DevonThink came in and stored them all.
Since it is document centric, it stored files in it’s own database, or multiple databases. I now have a Project database, a Development database, a Review database and within each is a series of folders with notes, PDF files, documents, spreadsheets, shell scripts, document templates, diagrams, links, source code for Java and SQL, JMeter config files and every other digital note I have created.
In fact, everything goes into DevonThink because it is all searchable. I store PDF files, requirements documents, Jira links, test plans and all my project documents together. No more looking in multiple places or storing a little bit here, a little bit there.
As an example, for my latest testing project I created a new folder and created notes with links to the Jira requirements. I created notes for the SQL queries I needed to verify my results. There was a link to the test plan I was going to follow. Additionally I had a list of bug reports and outstanding issues. For reference, I had screenshots of what things should look like so I could check we had all the buttons and column headers.
This makes keeping up with the project so much easier. Everything is in one place, even if the documents are completely different.
There is also DevonThink To Go for iOS. I have a copy for my iPad which I use in meetings.
The list of features is impressive, almost overwhelming. With Black Friday sales coming up, with kids going back to school, with projects wrapping up for the end of the year, now is a great time to invest in some document sanity.
What’s more, there is a brand new version of DevonThink available. Version 3 has just come out with all new features, a new look and lots of improvements. If you collect a lot of data, DevonThink is a tool well worth investing in.
