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Quick links: |  | Document Analysis Summarize and Transform Text Documents Images and Media Files Tagging Controlled Recognition Speech-To-Text

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|  |  | AI and Your Documents

DEVONthink is focused on document and information management. AI is all about document analysis and generation. These facts make for an excellent cooperative relationship between the two. While AI is implemented in several other aspects of DEVONthink, let's take a quick look at how it works with your documents, including some practical examples. Document Analysis Broadly speaking, if you have a document in your database, you can use AI to analyze it. This could be content in a PDF document or a selection of rich text files. Say you have an invoice and a tools-compatible AI engine, you can ask questions about the contents. For example, you can ask how many widgets were purchased. You can then ask for a breakdown of the cost per widget, their percentage of the total cost, or any other questions for which you need answers. If this was an anticipated order, you could ask for it to provide the cost for different quantities. As you progressively ask questions, the AI will take previous parts of your conversation into consideration when it answers. Examining an invoice or receipt focuses very narrowly on its contents, typically requiring no outside information. But when generating responses about other documents, the AI engine may need to refer to other sources. To give you more control over where AI is getting its answer, you'll need to set permissions for what AI can access in the AI > Chat settings. For example, if you want it to use online searches, set it here. Imagine you have a PDF about the Hubble Space Telescope and ask chat, `In this document, what happened in 1995?`. The response may include links within the document or it some extra commentary with interesting information. You could then follow up with a question like, `Using other resources, how does Hubble compare to the James Web Telescope?`. This "gives permission" to the AI to consult other sources, like Wikipedia or online searches, for its response. Utilizing both the document and online resources can prove to be a very powerful combination in research and learning about documents in your database. "Translating" jargon or high-level language is another useful function. For example, say you have a PDF from PubMed but much of it is beyond your understanding. Select some text, open the Chat inspector and ask for an explanation in layperson's terms. And while it may not be wise to use this to make important decisions, e.g., medical or legal ones, it could help you understand the essence of the text.
Note: The responses vary per AI engine, e.g., ChatGPT versus Claude, but can also vary per-model. Temporarily change to a different engine in the dropdown next to the query field if you'd like to try for a different response. Note the more expensive models sometimes produce more in-depth and thorough responses, but the Chat assistant always opens to the default model you've chosen in the AI > Chat settings.
Summarize and Transform Summarize: Summarizing is an excellent way to quickly get the essence, the core concepts, of a document. Using the Edit > Summarize via Chat command or clicking the button in the Navigation bar opens the Summarize popover. This provides a simple analysis of a selected document, which you can save directly into a Markdown or rich text document. You can also query multiple selected documents when using the Summarize Documents via Chat command, with the key points broken down by document. Additionally, you can use the `summarize content of` AppleScript command in your automations. Transform: Logically, if you can edit the contents of a document in DEVONthink, you can also transform the text. Use this to rewrite content in a different style or tone. Select some text in a document then open the Transform popover via Edit > Transformations > Transform text via chat or press the button in the Navigation Bar. If you like the recommendation, you can replace the selected text with the click of a button. Text Documents There are many options for creating text-based documents with AI. From the Chat popover, you can ask a question and tell it to save the results as a Markdown document. Some AI engines, e.g., Claude, will often produce an appropriate document type on its own. For example, asking for a list of 25 European songbirds, including their common and scientific names, and notes about their migration patterns will likely result in a Markdown document. But you could also tell it to create a sheet, if that better suits your purpose. You may also find use in one of our AI-directed templates. With the Research Overview template, provide a topic for AI to research and you'll get the response delivered in a document. Or select an image and use the Story Assistant — Markdown to generate a story outline based on the contents of the image. Built with powerful automation features, DEVONthink can create documents with smart actions and AppleScript commands. Using your documents or queries as a starting point, you can use AI replies to create documents with more personalized and fine-tuned control. Images and Media Files Images have always been supported in DEVONthink but in more of a supportive role, e.g., as an illustration in rich text, etc. Within DEVONthink, AI has opened new possibilities for them. Image Generation: Open the Generate Image panel. Fill in a description of the image you want, including as many details as you have. Choose the generative image engine you have access to and let the AI create an image for you. Or perhaps you have a document with an outline or a synopsis of a story. Select it and choose the Short Story — Illustration from the Data > New from Template > AI menu. AI will "read" your document and create an image based on it. And if you're a scripter, there is an AppleScript command to create images with AI with more control in using the output, e.g., linking it to a Markdown document. Analysis and Recognition: The Edit > Summarize via chat can analyze and provide a description of an image's contents, e.g., as bullet points or a paragraph. You may even be able to get information about the subject of an image. For example, use the Chat > Geolocate Image script on an image of the Eiffel Tower. Obviously this would work best with well-known or often photographed landmarks. Images also can be converted to text via AI transcription. Using the Recognition > Transcribe Text & Notes command in the Data or context menu, AI can examine an image and extract the text much in the way OCR does, but utilizing either Apple's Vision framework or a vision-capable AI model. With an appropriate prompt and capable model, you can use this for a variety of purposes, including translating between languages. Speech to Text: Another powerful AI recognition function in DEVONthink is speech-to-text capabilities used with audio and video files. Long ago, this technology was a niche (and expensive) process that progressed to providing conversion of short bits of audio directly on your Mac. Now, the technology is capable of fully transcribing long audio and video content, providing a written transcript for you to use as you need. And with Apple's Speech framework, this can even happen on your Mac. After having set your desired options in the AI > Transcription settings, select an audio or video file and choose Recognition > Transcribe Speech command from the Data or context menu. This will process the audio and convert it into text. Logically, the longer the document, the more time is required to transcribe it. When transcribing images and media, it may appear nothing has happened. However, you need to look at where the transcribed text is being saved. In the AI > Transcription settings, you will find these options: Searchable Text: This functions similar to Apple's Live Text feature in that it recognizes the text but doesn't modify the actual file. The transcribed text is stored in the database's index and associated with the file, allowing for toolbar searches and See Also and classification, just like OCR'd documents. And even though there is no embedded text layer, in-document searches are still possible. Comment: The extracted text is stored in the document's Finder Comments. While this can't be used for in-document searches, you can still use the `comment:` search prefix for toolbar searches. Using the Finder comment also lets you access the extracted text in a more visually intuitive manner. Bear in mind, the Finder allows a very limited number of characters in a Finder Comment. However, DEVONthink supports storing much more text internally. Annotation: Storing the recognized text in an external annotation file may be a useful way to examine the text isolated from the original image. The annotation file can be edited and used in whatever way you need to, but it remains associated with the original image. Transcribed text may also contain timestamps, if you're transcribing to Finder comments or an annotation file. Timestamps can be toggled on or off via the Add timestamps to transcriptions setting. When transcribing to an annotation file, you can use them to jump to certain points in the playback. Be aware timestamps are inserted after short pauses in the audio, not periodically, so they may not always appear in a place you would put them.
Note: The recognized text may not be 100% accurate, especially when using local Apple Speech but it may also be more than sufficient for your needs. However, you may not want to send video to Apple's or OpenAI's servers for processing.
Tagging Lastly, if you often use tags on your documents, AI can provide assistance with it. With the Add Chat suggestions to documents option in the Files > Tags settings, AI can examine files and tag them as they're added to your database. To keep your tags from getting out of control, you can require AI to only use already existing tags. You can also use Apple's Vision framework for tagging images, if you aren't using a vision-capable AI engine. Controlled Recognition As mentioned above, the option to recognize text in images may be very useful. However, the option in the Files > Import settings is a global setting, meaning it will attempt to recognize text in every image you add. Not only may that not be necessary, it could incur a cost if you're using a commercial AI engine. However, we can exert a more control with a simple smart rule. 1: Select your desired database or location in the Navigate sidebar then click the button at the bottom of the pane and choose New Smart Rule. 2: Enter a name and ensure the Search in dropdown is targeting the correct location. 3: Set criteria `Kind is Image` and enter another filtering criteria, e.g., `Tag is not AI Processed`. This latter criterion can help avoid reprocessing documents. 4: Click the button to add an `On Import` event trigger. This is optional but adds some unattended automation to the database. 5: Choose the `Recognize` action and `Transcribe Text & Notes`. Following our example, add the `Add Tags` action and enter `AI Processed` as the Tag. Then press OK to close it. 6: Now drag and drop an image into the database. It should be transcribed automatically per the option you chose in the AI > Transcription settings. Lastly, drag and drop an image into another database and you'll see it doesn't trigger the smart rule. You could also add other filtering criteria, e.g., `Name begins with screen` to only process screen captures you've taken. Now you have much more control over when transcription happens, saving computer resources and potentially some money. PS: This same logic can also be applied if you want to use AI-assisted tagging on import. Speech-To-Text On Location: Imagine you're in school listening to a lecture, in a house of worship, attending a seminar, etc. You wish you could record and read what's being said later. Here's a way you could accomplish that assisted by AI. The first two steps are only for setup. Once they're set, you can leave them alone and just start at step 3. 1: Open the AI > Transcription settings. Choose the transcription engine and how you want to store the transcribed text. We'll choose Annotation to create a separate annotation file. 2: Optionally, open the Files > Import settings and enable Transcribe Audio Files. We'll enable it for this example. If you don't enable the option to transcribe on import, you can process the saved audio file later via the Data > Recognition > Transcribe Speech command or the context menu. 3: Open the Sorter's Voice Note view and start recording. 4: When finished, stop the recording. Choose the destination, modify any metadata, e.g., the name or tags, and press ⌘S or the Add button to save the audio to your database. The transcription engine should automatically start processing the audio. 5: Navigate to the destination and check the results, if finished. Note the length of the audio determines how long it takes to process, so be patient. On Demand: If you have a pre-recorded audio file, you can process it even more simply. Assuming steps 1 and 2 are set as needed, drag and drop the audio file into your database. It will be processed in the same way.
Note: Recording may not be allowed, or it may even be illegal, in certain locations.
We hope this provided a bit of insight, direction, and perhaps inspiration, into how AI can be effectively used with your documents.