One of the most powerful features of DEVONthink is the ability to insert data dynamically. A placeholder is a bit of code DEVONthink interprets when used in these scenarios, replacing it with a specific value. You may have an imprint with a Name placeholder defined in the title. When the imprint is used on a PDF, the placeholder is converted to the name of the file!
To extend the possibilities even further, you can combine static text and multiple placeholders to achieve truly custom results. You can use these in a variety of ways: smart rules and batch processing, Reminder alarms, custom imprints on images and PDFs, in WikiLink templates, and more.
Below is a list of placeholders currently available. Following each description is the raw placeholder that can be used when creating templates in external applications or using the import template AppleScript command:
Generic Info:
Name: The name or title of the document. (%recordName%)
Proposed Name: A suggested name derived from a document's title or from the first line of the document if no title is present. (%recordProposedName%)
Name Without Date: Returns the filename after parsing out any detected dates. (%recordNameWithoutDate%)
Aliases: Any aliases applied to the document. (%recordAliases%)
Finder Comment: Any Finder comments applied to the document. (%recordComment%)
File Name: The filename in the file system. (%recordFilename%)
File Extension: The extension of the document's filename. (%recordPathExtension%)
Kind: The kind of the file, e.g., group or rich text document. (%recordKind%)
URL: The URL in the Info pane. (%recordURL%)
Item Link: The unique URL of the document. (%recordLink%)
Location: The location in the database; e.g., /Inbox/Research. (%recordLocation%)
Tags: Tags applied to the document. (%recordTags%)
#Tags: Tags applied to the document but returned as hashtags. (%recordHashTags%)
Counters:
Index: An incrementing number relative to the number of items being processed, e.g., by a smart rule or imprint. (%recordIndex%)
Counter: Similar to the Index, this number is zero-padded. (%recordCounter%)
Bates Number: Inserts a Bates number. (%recordBatesNumber%)
Page Count: The total number of pages in the document. (%recordPageCount%)
Item Locations:
Group Name: The name of the group containing the document, e.g., /001/a/b/myfile.txt would report b as the group name. (%groupName%)
Top Group Name: The name of the top level group in the root of the database, e.g., /001/a/b/myfile.txt would report 001 as the top group name. (%topGroupName%)
Database Name: The name of the database containing the document. (%databaseName%)
Database Path: The filesystem path of the database. (%databasePath%)
Document Attributes:
Original Name: The persistent original name of a renamed document. Typically used in revision-proof databases. (%record_originalname%)
Attachments: The number of attachments in a document, e.g., a rich text document or email. (%record_attachments%)
PDF Annotations: The number of annotations in the active document. (%record_annotationcount%)
Incoming Item Links: The number of documents containing item links to the active document. (%record_incomingItemLinkCount%)
Outgoing Item Links: The number of documents linked to in the active document. (%record_outgoingItemLinkCount%)
Geographic Info:
Language: An abbreviation of language detected in the document's indexed contents. (%record_language%)
Country: The country in the geolocation data for a document. (%record_country%)
Postal Code: The postal code derived from the geolocation data for a document. (%record_zipcode%)
Administrative Area: This is state, province, or region in the geolocation data for a document. (%record_area%)
Locality: The city in the geolocation data for a document. (%record_locality%)
Formatting:
Tab: A tab character. (%tab%)
Line Break: A line break (return) character for multi-line text. (%newline%)
Detected Values: The following placeholders get their values from the name or content of a matched document. For example, the Document String is the result of a Scan Name or Scan Text smart action.
Document Amount: This is an monetary amount detected in the name or content of documents, typically receipts or invoices. (%documentAmount%)
Document String: This is a string detected in the name or content of documents. (%documentString%)
Digital Object Identifier: The unique digital object identifier of the active document, if available. (%digitalObjectIdentifier%)
International Standard Book Number (ISBN): The detected ISBN number of a document. (%internationalStandardBookNumber%)
Date Placeholders: There are several types of date-specific placeholders to choose from. You can choose from several built-in formats, e.g., the short date, or create your own with individual date component placeholders. Due to the repetition of date placeholders, the raw value of every individual placeholder isn't listed here. However, below are the date component raw values. Note some formats will appear relative to your geographic location, e.g., Jan 1, 2001 for the medium date would be common in the US.
Calendar Components:
01/01/2001: The short date format. (%shortDate%)
Jan 1, 2001: The medium date format. (%date%).
2001/01/01: The ISO date format. (%sortableDate%)
Saturday, Jan 1, 2001: The long date format. (%longDate%)
01: The zero-padded number of the date. (%day%)
Saturday: The name of the day. (%weekday%)
01: The zero-padded number of the month. (%month%)
January: The name of the month. (%monthname%)
2001: The full year. (%year%)
01: The short year. (%shortYear%)
Time Components:
Time: The current time shown in 12 or 24 hour format, depending on your system settings, e.g., 11:59:59 AM. (%time%)
Hour: The hour of the time. (%hour%)
Minute: The minutes of the time. (%minute%)
Second: The seconds of the time. (%second%)
Listed below are the supported date types with their raw prefix provided. The placeholders in the previous list relate to the current date, so entering (%month%) would give you the current month. To use other kinds of dates, e.g., Newest Document Date, use the raw value, then add the date component from the list above with the first letter capitalized. For example, getting the month of the newest document date would be: %newestDocumentDate% and month yielding newestDocumentDateMonth.
Current Date: Today's date. There is no prefix to the raw placeholders for current date.
Addition Date: The date the item added to the database. recordAddition…
Creation Date: The date the item was created. recordCreation…
Modification Date: The date the items was last modified. recordModification…
Date: This is a date detected in the document's contents, e.g., in a receipt. For PDFs only the first four pages are used. documentDate…
Newest/Oldest Document Date: The newest or oldest date detected in the document. For PDFs, only the first four pages are used. newestDocumentDate… and oldestDocumentDate…
On a side note, you can string together multiple date and time component placeholders, e.g., to create a Zettelkasten timestamp string like 20010101115959.
Clipboard:
Clipboard: Inserts plain text content from the clipboard. (%clipboard%)
Clipboard Styled: Inserts rich text content from the clipboard. (%styledClipboard%)
Clipboard Link: Inserts a link from rich text content on the clipboard. (%clipboardLink%)
Computer Properties:
Predefined Author: The Author specified in DEVONthink's settings. (%author%)
Username: The shortname of the current macOS account. (%username%)
Full Username: The longname of the current macOS account. (%fullUsername%)
Organization: The company name, if defined by the (Me) contact card in macOS Contacts. (%organization%)
Email Address: The primary email address, as defined by the (Me) contact card in macOS Contacts. (%emailAddress%)
Host: The hostname of the machine. (%host%)
Properties: Some files have specific properties, e.g., the author of an email. These are displayed in the Info > Properties inspector. Here are the supported properties and their placeholders, including the raw value.
Author: The name of the sender of an email. (%kMDItemAuthors%)
From: The email address of the sender of an email. (%kMDItemAuthorEmailAddresses%)
Recipient: The name of a recipient of an email. (%kMDItemRecipients%)
To: The email address of a recipient of an email. (%kMDItemRecipientEmailAddresses%)
Title: The title of a file. The title may be distinct from its name, e.g., a song title for an MP3 file. (%kMDItemTitle%)
Comment: The RTF-specific comments for a file. (%kMDItemComment%)
Headline: A headline applied to some files. Rare. (%kMDItemHeadline%)
Subject: The subject line from an email. (%kMDItemSubject%)
Description: The description found on some files, typically images. (%kMDItemDescription%)
Keywords: Keywords typically applied to PDF, rich text, or images. (%kMDItemKeywords%)
Organization: The company specified in imported links or vCards from the Contacts application. (%kMDItemOrganizations%)
Copyright: Copyright information in the metadata of a file. (%kMDItemCopyright%)
Album: The album information from media metadata, e.g., MP3 files. (%kMDItemAlbum%)
Composer: The composer information from media metadata, e.g., MP3 files. (%kMDItemComposer%)
Creator: The process or application used to create a file. (%kMDItemCreator%)
Producer: The producer of a file, usually applied to media files. (%kMDItemProducer%)
E-mail: Email addresses detected in a document. (%kMDItemEmailAddresses%)
Contributor: People or organizations who contributed to the document. (%kMDItemContributors%)
Publisher: The organization who published the document. (%kMDItemPublishers%)
Editor: People or organizations involved in editing a document. (%kMDItemEditors%)
Custom Metadata: This menu lists any custom metadata attributes you've defined in the Data settings. In order to use raw placeholders, add the md prefix to the identifier of the custom attribute shown in the settings. For example, mddoi for the Digital Object Identifier attribute.
User Input: The response returned from a User Inputsmart action.
Script Output: The output from the Script with Input/Output smart action. This placeholder is always a string, even if e.g., the script returned an integer.
Chat Suggestions: These placeholders are specific to smart actions so are only available in smart rules and batch processing. The values for the placeholders come from your AI provider. The AI engine will examine a document and return the value for the placeholder, e.g., the amount on a receipt. Many of these are described above: Title, Filename, Tags, Rating, Authors, Company, Address, Geolocation, and Date. However, there are some specific placeholders for AI:
