DEVONthink Standard

This maintenance release delivers a bit new, a bit improved, and some fixes. New in the File > Export submenu is a command to export file metadata to JSON data. In Tools is a new Split PDF submenu that includes an into Pages command to split a PDF file into individual pages. The Document > Annotations inspector shows the color of ink annotations, e.g., freehand marks, you've made.

DEVONthink 3.8.3 works better with indexed files in iCloud Drive, including those not locally available. Sync is even more stable and a bit smarter, including better empty file detection. The refactored and greatly improved smart rules run more reliably. When clipping web content, DEVONthink now converts available HTML metadata to PDF or RTF properties or Markdown metadata when possible. And as you can always expect from us, we have improved the overall performance and reliability.

New

• Added File > Export > Metadata (JSON) to export the metadata of the selected items as JSON data.
• Added Tools > Split PDF > into Pages to 'explode' a PDF file into individual pages.
• Added a new preferences option, Preferences > Files > Multimedia > PDF Clipping Width. It is used when clipping or converting web pages as single page PDF documents. The default is Automatic.
• Added a new AppleScript property, annotation count.
• Added a new hidden preference, EnableFSEventLogging, to enable logging of file system events. Enabling this preference may be requested by our support team. It should not be needed for general use.

Improved

• Completely refactored handling of smart rules, improving queuing and cancelling actions, especially actions like OCR or executing scripts. This also fixes issues where scripts were unexpectedly not triggered.
• Enhanced overall compatibility with indexed iCloud Drive files when they are not locally available. This improves operations like exporting, dragging to other applications, or opening files externally.
• Available HTML metadata of bookmarks and captured web pages, whether by clipping or converting, is converted to PDF or RTF document properties or Markdown metadata, if possible. This may include the title, subject, description, author, and keywords. For rich text and Markdown, the publisher, company, and copyright may be retained.
• Improved clipping of formatted notes retains styles better and embeds more data. This improves compatibility to other applications and platforms, as well as offline viewing.
• Improved preprocessing before clipping dynamic websites.
• Newly created PDF note annotations are now centered on the cursor instead of being shown in the corner.
• The dragging behavior of the PDF move tool is more consistent horizontally and vertically.
• Commands to split a PDF are now found in the Tools > Split PDF submenu.
• Added basic support for PDF color intensities, e.g., in ink annotations made in DEVONthink To Go.
• The Document > Annotations now shows the color of ink annotations, e.g., freehand marks, of PDF documents.
• The Table of Contents inspector and the Editing bar now show the page number when used with PDFs.
• Option-clicking on the column header used for sorting a sheet resets the sorting.
• The score column of search results shown in List views now takes up less space.
• You can save a toolbar search even when it returned no results.
• Utility popovers, e.g., Go > To Group, support using aliases. In addition, you can search for exact quoted substrings found in aliases via the Go > To Group and Data > Move To popovers.
• The Go > to Document popover now opens the document in a new window if the Option modifier key is pressed.
• The text field of certain number conditions of smart groups, smart rules, and the advanced search criteria is wider.
• The Import images to group option in Preferences > Files > Markdown shows placeholder text.
• Tools > Create Metadata Overview is faster.
• Renamed the Cancel action of smart rules to Stop evaluating rules. This is also no longer the default option when adding actions.
• You can now set the URL property of a DEVONthink window or tab via AppleScript to load a web page, even if a web page isn't currently displayed.
• You can use the current page AppleScript property to jump to a certain page of PDF documents.
• Improved concurrency between triggered, smart rule, and reminder scripts.
• Increased timeout of Scripts > Export > Daily Backup Archive to accommodate archiving larger databases.

Improved (Pro)

• Revised Preferences > Imprinter preference pane adds a contextual menu to the list of configurations and a button to delete configurations.
• The Duplicate item before imprinting setting is a configuration option rather than a global setting.
• Improved logging by the Download Manager, e.g., in case of skipped URLs already existing in the Downloads group.

Improved (Server)

• Users can now download files from the search results list in the web interface.

Improved (Sync)

• Each sync store now retries to upload missing files or locally unavailable cloud files until either the files become available or are removed from the database. The number of items left to be uploaded is logged.
• Better handling of deleting indexed items while synchronizing.
• More reliable recognition of empty files.

Fixed

• Splitting PDF documents into chapters via Tools > Split PDF > into Chapters could not always be canceled. Fixed.
• The center and right alignment options were swapped in the PDF annotations panel on Apple Silicon Macs. Fixed.
• Changing the highlight colors in Preferences > Colors > Highlighting wasn't immediately used, e.g., with the Format > Highlight command. Fixed.
• Annotations typed in the Annotations & Reminders inspector were always created in the shared Annotations group. Fixed.
• The Clutter-free option of the Sorter's Clip to DEVONthink tab was always enabled right after launching the application, independent of last used format. Fixed.
• Disabling or enabling smart rule actions via the contextual menu didn't immediately update the appearance of the smart rule if it wasn't selected. Fixed.
• The horizontal text alignment in the Navigate sidebar was wrong when using custom icons. Fixed.
• The See Also & Classify inspector didn't display results for selected bookmarks if the Current Database option was enabled. Fixed.
• File > Verify & Repair Database reported indexed but locally unavailable iCloud Drive files. Fixed.
• Renaming or moving indexed items could move the items to the system trash in some rare instances. Fixed.
• Finder comments were not always imported after moving or copying files to the Inbox folder in the Finder. Fixed.
• Importing email messages from Apple Mail via drag-and-drop could cause a rare crash. Fixed.
• Viewing web documents or bookmarks and receiving 'attachment' content-disposition responses could crash the app. Fixed.
• Removing the annotation of a record via AppleScript didn't update the contents of the Annotations & Reminders inspector. Fixed.
• Smart rules executing scripts on quit didn't work properly. Fixed.
• Smart rule actions using the Apply Rule or Execute Scripts actions could fail. Fixed.
• Smart rule actions using the Before Saving event trigger didn't always execute before saving the file. Fixed.
• The create formatted note/web document/Markdown from AppleScript commands incorrectly executed smart rules using the On Clipping event trigger. Fixed.
• Internally cached file sizes of items were zero in rare cases. Fixed.
• Certain file types, e.g., rich text or HTML, were not indexed or imported if the files were not locally available. Fixed.
• The path of rich text documents was not automatically updated after receiving file system events or using File > Verify & Repair Database if external editing of the document (e.g. with TextEdit) changed the extension of the document from .rtf to .rtfd or vice versa. Fixed.

Fixed (Pro)

• In the Download Manager, some downloads were skipped from certain sites and files downloaded were not imported to the specified database while sync changes were being made to that database. Fixed.
• The Apple Mail plugin wasn't always shown as installed in DEVONthink 3 > Install Add-ons on macOS Big Sur and Monterey. Fixed.
• Importing or archiving email could cause a rare crash. Fixed.
• A smart rule using an Imprint action could cause a crash. Fixed.
• Minor imprinter glitches. Fixed.

Fixed (Server)

• The position of the search field icon and search text in the web interface was incorrect. Fixed.
• The web interface didn't restore the chosen language between sessions. Fixed.

Fixed (Sync)

• The garbage collection could have caused a rare issue when removing multiple obsolete manifest files. Fixed.