Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

23 Mar 2013 10:13:14

Mark Ford

I have just returned to a project that I started 18 months ago and last worked on in November.
I am fed up with having various types of information on the same topic scattered all over the place e.g. - a few entries in Calendar; a card in Contacts; one or two email goodness knows where; a document of some sort filed away; a Note in Notes; a Messages chat .... you get the picture - all these bits are about one topic [and sometimes part of another too] that need to be tracked down and sometimes get overlooked..
There has to be an app for that.
The latest MacUpdate Bundle Offer has drawn my attention to DevonThink Pro 2 which I remember seeing around down the years. I have looked around and can't determine if DevonThink Pro 2 is an old version that needs a paid update or not.
There is not much in the way of reviews either.

Does anyone have experience of this application or another that might serve my purpose please?

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

23 Mar 2013 22:57:22

Gordon Clyne

Things.

the organiser.you can attach dates, notes, files, alarms, tags, and a way of organising them into sense for the way you live.

I love it and it works on iPhone, ipad, mac, and icloud sync as well.

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

25 Mar 2013 10:29:46

Mark Ford

Suddenly found lots of options once I opened up the world of GTD and watched one or two videos. I think I get it - but the software hanging on the coat-tails of these ideas range widely in price - Things at £56 [thank you for that suggestion Gordon] Soho Organiser and Notes at £91 [thanks Michael] and what looks like an interesting newcomer - organise:me at £31
More research to do - I must look more closely at what comes freely with the OS - including Automator!

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

25 Mar 2013 13:49:06

Douglas Cheney

Mark there is a program on the App Store called foo would this be of any use. I use a program called iDocument which I find useful.

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

25 Mar 2013 14:50:49

Mark Ford

foo?

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

25 Mar 2013 15:40:11

Douglas Cheney

Sorry Mark should read doo I didn't see the Mac change it

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

25 Mar 2013 18:09:49

Mark Ford

Thanks Doug, just had a look at Doo - it doesn't fit what I am looking for but I think I will make use of it anyway as I have stuff scattered around in various Cloud services and have resorted to making a separate list of what is where!

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

26 Mar 2013 02:38:10

Gordon Clyne

Omnifocus is another ....
http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/
In the seventy dollar range

Nearly all these GTD packages have been on the market for years, with vast sums of development dollars going into them, making software work the way humans operate is a really hard design challenge. I've listened to engineers from both omnifocus and things have a heated exchange at a bar near Macworld about six years ago, and it was interesting how their approaches to solving problems were so different given the same challenges.

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

29 Mar 2013 09:11:30

Euan Williams

The BBC has an interesting article about data tagging on its website this morning (29th March):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21945876

It seems it's more prevalent in the Mac culture rather than on PCs...

Re: Getting organised: DevonThink Pro 2 perhaps?

14 Apr 2013 16:46:02

Mark Ford

This has all proved more interesting and, potentially expensive, than I thought!
Thank you for all the insights. I played with Things until the trial ran out.
I wish all this stuff had been around 40 years ago when I really had too much to cope with.
Now, the price of the best compared to the size of my real [as opposed to my fantasy] need means that I have sought a cheap solution. Better use of Calendar - its Note, Add file and Alert fields combined with Yep [which I had already] and a bit more work on the way I might use Reminders might serve my purpose. I think I need to be more systematic!
When I have enough time to expend on saving time I must have a close look at AppleScripts again.