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Quick links: |  | New & Open Import & Export Index and Update Synchronize Database Properties & Close Database Maintenance Print

|  |  | The File Menu

The File menu contains commands creating and deleting databases. There are options for adding or exporting files, as well synchronizing them. Additionally, if you need to do database maintenance, you will find those commands here. New & Open New Database: Creates a new database in the selected location. New Encrypted Database: Creates an AES-256 encrypted database file at a user-specified size. Technically this database uses an encrypted disk image but will not be visibly mounted in the Finder. Obviously, when you enable Spotlight for the database the data that Spotlight needs to store will not be encrypted. The anticipated size of the database can be specified in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). Open Database: Opens previously created databases. You can select multiple databases. Open Recent: Presents a list of recently used databases, which gives you quick access to your frequently used databases. Choose Clear Menu to remove all items from the menu. New Window: Opens a new main window for the selected database. Import & Export Import: The Import submenu contains various options for importing data, e.g.,selected files, bookmark, contacts, and some data from compatible applications. Some options will import files into their own special groups at the root of the database. Files and Folders: Imports selected files or folders. Files will be imported to the current location. Finder tags and Spotlight comments will be imported. Bookmarks: Imports bookmarks from DEVONagent Pro, Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari as bookmarks. Bookmarks are imported into a newly created group bearing the name of the chosen browser. Only new bookmarks are imported if you use this command again. Bookmarks from HTML file: Imports bookmarks from an HTML file, e.g., one exported from some web browsers' bookmarks. Contacts: Imports Apple Contacts addresses selected in the import dialog into a newly created group named "Addresses". Contacts can be imported as a sheet, as vcards (`.vcf`), or as bookmarks. Previously created groups are reused. Tip: To import all addresses, select all addresses in the group "All" and import them. Address card bookmarks link to the original card in the Contacts application. Folders & Attachments from Notes: Imports your notes from Apple Notes. Items from Yojimbo: Imports all items from Yojimbo into a newly created group named "Yojimbo". Imported items retain their name, label, flag, URL, comments, tags and creation/modification dates. Items without a URL link back to the original item in Yojimbo. Notes from Evernote: Imports selected notebooks from an import dialog into a newly created group named "Evernote". Tags, dates, and URLs should be preserved. OCR text is also imported if present in the data. Notes are stored as formatted notes. This option requires the Evernote application to be installed.
Note: The import from Evernote command only works with Evernote's "legacy version" as Evernote 10 no longer supports AppleScript. However, you can export notebooks to importable `.enex` files from within Evernote. Exporting individual notebooks is suggested.
PRO Images (with OCR): Imports images and applies optical character recognition (OCR) to create a searchable PDF. This makes all written text searchable and available to DEVONthink's AI functions. You can change the setting in Settings > OCR. Read more... References from Bookends: Imports selected collections from the presented dialog into a newly created group named "Bookends". Already imported references are updated. The keywords assigned to a Bookends reference are added to the Document Properties of the created rich text document. Use the optional script Scripts > Tags > Convert keywords to tags to convert the keywords to tags if needed. Unix Mailbox: Imports Unix mailboxes, like those exported from Thunderbird. Read more... Website: Opens the Download Manager and downloads a complete web page/site for archiving and offline viewing. Make sure the download options are set correctly, especially the options that define which links DEVONthink should follow (if any). All links within the site are modified so that they point to the downloaded images or other embedded objects. This ensures that the page/site can be displayed at any time. By default, groups created by the Download Manager are excluded from tagging. Scan from ScanSnap: Scans a paper document using an attached Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner.
Note: Groups created when importing bookmarks, contacts, email messages, and items from Evernote or Yojimbo are not automatically excluded from classification and tagging. This makes it easier to classify them later.
Export: The Export submenu presents options for exporting selected documents or groups to the file system. In addition, the Export menu provides export methods based on plugins. DEVONthink comes with a number of standard plugins for exporting documents in different formats. For these formats, the export creates a single merged document when multiple files are selected. Document: Exports the currently viewed document in its native format. For images exported from a separately opened document window, DEVONthink lets you choose the desired file format or image quality; e.g.,you can export a PNG files as a JPEG file. Files and Folders: Exports the selected documents in their native format. Groups are exported as Finder folders, preserving the group structure you have built in DEVONthink. DEVONthink tags are applied as Finder tags to the exported files. Internal metadata for the items is preserved in `.DEVONtech_storage files` in the exported folders. These files are used for reimporting into DEVONthink. If you will not be reimporting the exported files, you can safely delete those files. Be aware the addition date of reimported items will change, if that is a critical piece of metadata for your database. OPML: Exports the selected items as one OPML file. PDF Document: Exports the selected items as a paginated PDF. Hold the ⌥ Option key to change allow the command to PDF Document without Annotations. RTF/RTFD Document: Exports the selected items as one merged rich text file without embedded items (RTF) or with them (RTFD). Text: Exports the selected items as one merged plain text file. Word 2007/97 Document: Exports the selected items as one merged Microsoft Word `.docx` (Word 2007) or `.doc` (Word 97) document. Website: Exports the selected items as standalone web site that you can upload to your web server and share with colleagues. In the presented dialog window, choose the desired template, text encoding, and whether DEVONthink should convert diacritics and accented characters to HTML entities or not. Check Create Index Pages to create `index.html` pages with cross-links to all included documents. Markdown and formatted notes are rendered to HTML, other file types that cannot be displayed in a web browser, e.g., Pages files, are converted to PDF if possible. Cross-links are converted correctly. For the export templates are used that you can modify yourself. HTML Bookmarks: Export the URLs of all selected items and their children as an HTML bookmarks file. Template: Saves the selected documents as a template, which can then be used to quickly create new documents using Data > New from Template. Export multiple documents and/or groups at once to create e.g.,a project template. Data & New from Template & Open Template Folder; can be used to organize templates. Database Archive: Creates an optimized ZIP file of the current database in the selected location. This can be useful as a secondary backup strategy. Note: When used with an encrypted database, the database will be compressed in an unencrypted state. Metadata (JSON): Export the metadata of the selected items as JSON data. PRO Unix Mailbox: Exports all selected email messages and saves them as Unix mailbox file that can be imported into other email applications. Note this only applies to exporting native email (`.eml`) files, not files that have been converted to other formats, like plain or rich text. Share: This shows the standard Mac share menu. Index and Update Index Files and Folders: Link to files in the Finder, leaving them in the current location. See the In & Out > Importing & Indexing section for important information on indexing. Update or Refresh: This command dynamically changes, relative to what is currently selected. Update Indexed Items: Force DEVONthink to check for filesystem events and newer file dates on indexed items, and update them as needed. This is often used when indexing cloud-synced locations, e.g., folders in Dropbox, or when indexing items on networked volumes, as some volumes don't reliably support filesystem events. Update Items: Similar to Update Indexed Items but works with imported items. Sometimes used after editing documents in external applications when the application or the database is closed. It may also be needed when accessing a database stored on a networked volume. Refresh Feed: Manually refresh selected RSS feeds. Synchronize Synchronize: Synchronizes the selected database with all its locations. Note, this command will be disabled if the current database has no active synchronization. Holding the ⇧Shift key shows the Synchronize All option to synchronize all actively syncing databases. Download Pending Files: Downloads the files of selected documents if they are available through one of the database's locations. Only necessary if none of the database's locations is set to synchronize indexed files. Database Properties & Close Database Properties: Opens the Database Properties popup for the current database. This panel presents a few options, statistics about the database, and allows you to change the displayed name, add comments, and add a username and password. Close Database: Closes a selected database. If multiple databases are open, use Close All to close them all at once. If you'd like to keep the current database open but close the others, use Close All Except. Note that closed databases will not reopen on launch. Only databases that were open when DEVONthink quits will reopen on the next launch. Database Maintenance Like any database, DEVONthink databases need a bit of maintenance from time to time. All the commands you'll need for this can be found here. Verify & Repair: Verifies all database structures and repairs them if possible. By default, DEVONthink automatically verifies the database structure every time you open a database. If it finds significant errors, DEVONthink will advise you to run this command. Use this command whenever you feel it is necessary. If you're a heavy user of DEVONthink, running a Verify & Repair once a week or more often is a good idea. Check File Integrity: Verifies the stored checksum for each file in the database. The results are reported in the Log window or popover. Note: If you are indexing files and they have not been updated, they will report a checksum error. Read more... Optimize Database: Creates an internal backup of the database and then optimizes the database structure. Optimizing removes unnecessary internal elements from the database and rebuilds the internal structure to optimize performance. DEVONthink also creates internal backups on a regular basis. Hold the ⌥ Option key to display the Restore Backup option. This allows you to roll back the metadata to a previous date. This option would only be used in troubleshooting situations. Rebuild Database: Completely rebuilds the database by exporting all items to a temporary folder in the file system, creating an empty database, and reimporting all items. This removes any structural problems. Depending on the size of your database, this can take from a few seconds to several hours. This option is typically only used in a troubleshooting situation. Delete Database: Closes a selected database and moves it to the Finder trash.
Note: For more information on database issues, including reports in the Log window or popover, see the Repairing a defective database section.
Print Page Setup: Sets your preferred page size and printer settings. Print: Prints the current document or view.