Omnifocus & Devonthink 2
 

I've just made the happy discovery that I can archive searchable PDFs of individual OmniFocus projects to Devonthink, with DT making an automatic link back to OF for future reference. I may be the last person around to discover this, but in case there's anyone else inerested, here's the procedure.

- You can do this for any OF project, but I'm guessing that it's best done when you've archived a project to the Archive database, because the URL is then unlikely to be changed;
- Focus on the project in question and expand all entries and notes that you want to be visible.
- Open the Print window
- Using the PDF button, click on "Save to Devonthink"

... and there you have it - a searchable PDF of your project in Devonthink, with the URL field set to take you straight back to the original OF project if you need to revisit it.

(An error window pops up during printing, but everything seems to work regardless. I've filed a report to Omni.)

This is a great feature for my usage - most of my tasks are phone calls and emails, so I can archive all that contact info in my DT Work database, along with all the other project reference files, for instant recall.

If I need to resurrect those old contacts for a future project, DT points me straight to the OF project archive. I can drag and drop the old project into my current OF file and re-use the information. Perfect integration!

Matt

[QUOTE=bashosfrog;56782]
- You can do this for any OF project, but I'm guessing that it's best done when you've archived a project to the Archive database, because the URL is then unlikely to be changed;[/QUOTE]
I believe the URL doesn't change over time. It appears to be the unique item identifier used in syncing, so it would make life more complicated for the sync code if it changed. And worst case, if it did change, you've still got a picture of the project in DT that you can use to grab some search terms.

Using the latest beta of DT Pro, the pdf goes into DTP just fine, but the URL column is blank. I need to manually copy the link over. Any idea what might be going wrong, or is this a "feature" of DTP 2 beta

[QUOTE=rolian;61777]Using the latest beta of DT Pro, the pdf goes into DTP just fine, but the URL column is blank. [/QUOTE]

Probably worth reporting to the [URL="http://www.devon-technologies.com/scripts/userforum/"]DEVONthink forum[/URL]

In the meanwhile, I am using [URL="http://web.mac.com/robinfrancistrew/Site/OmniFocus_%26_DEVONthink.html"]these scripts[/URL] which (among other things) send whatever you select in OmniFocus to DEVONthink 2, with the URL, and in a choice of two searchable (and editable) formats: OmniOutliner 3, or TaskPaper-formatted text.

RobTrew

This is a very cool idea. I'm just getting into DEVONthink in the last month or two and trying to see how it can be helpful.

Rob, I've been experimenting a bit with your scripts and can't get them to work properly. I'm fairly inept with AppleScript, so it could be entirely my fault, but I can't for the life of me seem to get the Save2DevonAsOO3 to export notes - only projects. Kind of vague, I know, but any ideas?

Thank you for sharing :)

Can you provide a bit more detail on exactly what you see happening (or not)?

I wonder if you're being fooled by how DT displays OO3 files — it doesn't show the notes, but if you open the file, you should be able to view the notes. Stepping through the script, I didn't see any likely candidates for reasons why it might create an outline but not include notes.