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Appendix

Application Icon   The Edit Menu

The Edit menu contains all commands and options relating to editing. You'll find the classic Mac cut/copy/paste and find/replace commands here, as well as many more.

Undo, Cut/Copy/Paste, …

Undo/Redo: Use these commands to undo or redo the last action, e.g.,to undo deleting a file. Undo and Redo work for most actions.

Cut/Copy/Paste: Do exactly what their names say.

Copy URL: Copies the URL of the selected or frontmost document to the clipboard.

Copy Item/Page Link: Copies a URL to the clipboard that links to the selected document or group. These links can be used to create a back link to the document in applications that support live hyperlinks. For PDFs, hold the ⇧Shift key to reveal the Copy Page Link option.

Paste and Match Style: Pastes text from the clipboard, matching the styles in the current document.

Delete: Deletes the selected piece of text.

Complete: Tries to auto-complete the partial word before the insertion caret. This standard Mac function uses the currently active dictionary, chosen in the language dropdown of the Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar panel.

Select All/Deselect All: Selects or deselects the complete content of the frontmost document. Hold the ⇧Shift key to reveal the Deselect All option.

Summarize, Tags, Set Name

Summarize: Summarizes the selected piece of text. Unlike the Mac's Summarize service, this command takes advantage of the built-in AI of DEVONthink, and uses the complete "knowledge" contained in the open databases for improving the results. The better your databases, the better the results.

Tags: Use this command to quickly enter tags for the current document. This displays the Tag bar, if necessary.

Set Name As: Applies the selected text as the document's name.

Find, Spelling, Insert

Find: This submenu contains standard Mac find commands, like those available in TextEdit. Searches on the current document are displayed in the Search Inspector. Two commands of note are:

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    In Database: Brings the search field of the frontmost window into focus.
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    Scroll To Selection: In long documents, this command scrolls the current document to selected text.

Spelling and Grammar: Provides the standard macOS functionality for checking text for spelling or grammar errors. To choose the language used for spell checking, or for auto-completion (see above), open the spell checker panel with Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar and choose your language of choice from the pop-up menu.

Substitutions: Shows the standard Substitutions preference panel and switch the available options manually on and off: Smart Copy/Paste, Smart Quotes, Smart Dashes, Smart Links, Data Detectors, and Text Replacements. Data Detectors analyze shown text and make context-sensitive actions available, e.g., when you hover the cursor over a phone number or postal address.

Note: The Spelling and Grammar and Substitutions commands can be temporarily applied to the current document. If you'd like these to be persistent choices, you can make global changes in Preferences > Editing.

Transformations: Use this submenu to change selected text to all lowercase or uppercase, or to capitalize every word.

Speech: Starts or stops speaking the selected piece of text.

Insert: Inserts items, like pictures, checkboxes, bulleted lists, etc. The options available are dependent on the current file type.

Dictation & Emojis

Start Dictation: Starts the Mac's dictation function.

Emoji & Symbols: Shows the standard Special Characters panel for inserting characters and emoji that you cannot enter directly with your keyboard.