Around the late 90's before all attention was captured by the Y2K issue, every other office round the world was discussing a Paperless office. Printers were still DotMatrix and Inkjet, Laser printers were not so common and the decision makers were already thinking of the planet, or rather their pockets, Computer stationery was not exactly cheap, specially the ones that required to be pre-printed.
From Devon technologies comes the suite of products that offer productivity enhancement. It is called DevonThink, the smart information assistant. It is available in three editions, Personal, Pro and Pro Office.
We have reviewed the Pro Office version. So, what is DevonThink, it is a productivity enhancing software, it is an office in a box. The most common tasks that anyone, be it a student, a professional, a hobbyist, a developer, anyone using a computer would want from software is the option to organise data. Any number of Folders and sub folders are not helpful in organising the data. There was a tip that iTunes is a very good PDF organiser, but what about RTF, DOC, PNG, etc documents? What about the scanned images? What about emails that are not exactly/technically in folders and sub folders on the HardDisk? What about access and sharing of these files when required? So to solve these issues there was a time when I was working with Plone, I set up a site on Plone that allowed for sharing of all types of documents. It worked but was a bit messy.
Now why try to complicate matter when there is an app that does all of the above in a very simple manner? DevonThink allows for all of the above points,
It allows for storage of documents, scans, emails, notes, bookmarks, etc in one place and allows access to the same via a web page (increasingly common with a lot of software these days) It allows for creation of RTF documents, editing images, annotation of PDF, search for documents. It can also show the relationship between the documents (automatically using AI). It can offer the documents on the go on the iOS device with "DevonThink To Go" It scans using the scanners, archives emails from email apps that use the UNIX mailboxes format. It can store and view practically any file format. It integrates the search of the documents with Spotlight and it also allows for Apple Script integration and Automator.
Quick look is integrated right into DevonThink, so at any point pressing space will bring up the quick view.
The app works without opening a database, but it is advised to created a database to start with, once created, it displays a similar hierarchy inside of the database. The main focus of the App is the Inbox, which acts as the Hub of all activity. Files, folders can be dropped or added to the Inbox and then moved or tagged accordingly.
New data can be created either from regular sources like the clipboard, text file, HTML, XML document, etc or a RTF document created from existing templates.
Well, it is an app to help create, organise and search for the information, there is not much that we could really convey via words for this product, this is one of the products that require hands-on to see what it can do. There is a Trial version of DevonThink that allows for 150 hours of continuous usage with 200 emails and 20 OCR runs per day. DevonTechnologies are happy to extend this trial period if you request them for the same and they also offer Academic (Staff & Student) discounts.
For those interested to know exactly what is different between the versions, there is a link http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/comparison.html to the differences, they even have a selector that allows to find out which version is suitable for your needs.
SUMMARY
Software : DevonThink Pro Office
Version : 2.0
Publisher : DevonTechnologies
Website : http://www.devon-technologies.com/products/devonthink/
Platform : Mac OS X (10.5.x or higher)
Twitter: @devontech
Demo : 200 continuous hours / 30 days
Price : $149.95 (Pro Office), $79.95 (Pro) and $49.95 (Personal)
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