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Essentially, DEVONthink Professional Office is DEVONthink Pro with the new features plus the usual under-the-hood refinements and bugfixes with a version update, In the interest of reasonable brevity I'll concentrate mainly on the new features in this review, and only outline the program's returning main feature set, referring you to my full review of DEVONthink Pro 1.0.1 , and my 1.2.1 Mini-Review update for a thorough treatment of the program's core functionality.
The first thing I noticed about DEVONthink Professional Office is that it has grown. A lot. A REALLY lot. Universal Binary support is responsible for some of this. DEVONthink Pro 1.0 was a 10 or so MB compressed file download. The first Universal version, 1.1, grew that to about 15 MB - a formidable but still manageable overnight download on my cold molasses-slow dial-up connection.
However DEVONthink Professional Office is in a whole 'nother dimension, as it were, at a whopping 88 MB and change for the Zip file that expands to a 135.7 MB disk image. It took me two attempts, starting in the evening and extending to the next morning to get it down - I think the largest file I've ever downloaded on dial-up. I'm thankful for the very slick interruptible/resumable download feature in Opera 9.
DEVONthink is a powerful database for all your digital files, be they text as most of mine are, PDFs, emails, Word documents or even multimedia files. Boasting "a refined artificial intelligence," DEVONthink is exceedingly flexible and adapts to the user's personal needs. And with the debut of DEVONthink Pro Office, if the files are not digital yet, paper capture support is already built-in.
Users can use the program as their general purpose document archive, their filing cabinet, their email archive, or their project organizer; DEVONthink can do it all. One can even collect and organize data from the Web, enrich it with sound and movie files, and then export the finished product as a website or to an Apple Pages document to print. Or one can copy the content to an iPod. The possibilities are vast and variegated.
Because DEVONthink keeps all important data in one database, it doesn't matter where the data is physically located. DEVONthink uniquely integrates both local documents and live content from the Internet to keep all project-related information together in one place. No more folders full of loosely organized files and overflowing bookmark bars in Safari; with DEVONthink, the user seamlessly mixes local documents, clippings, and live web pages in one dynamic database. This also makes DEVONthink extremely convenient to back up. Just copy the DEVONthink database file (normally in your Documents Folder) to your backup media and you're done. You can also schedule backups automatically in the Preferences.
However, DEVONthink more than a database, it's a flexible work environment, too, with powerful management features, and the tools you need to effectively work with documents. The integrated RTF editor is a convenient place to write new documents, edit archived ones or the user can open documents in a third-party application. Personally, I miss the AppleScript and text editing features of Tex Edit Plus for serious text crunching, but the DEVONthink text support is adequate for basic text editing and composing.
Another thing I LOVE about DEVONthink is that it supports import of Microsoft Word documents with formatting intact. I don't use Word, but I frequently receive Word documents as attachments, and DEVONthink serves nicely as a .doc "can-opener." Even more useful is DEVONthink's ability to open PDF documents as editable text. It's not as powerful as Adobe Reader, but I have DEVONthink up and running all the time, while Reader takes sooooo long to start up.
DEVONthink is designed to organize and navigate information collections quickly and accurately, both for filing documents and finding similar items. It can master huge data collections with a few simple clicks, saving time and aggravation.
This new version also seems a bit quicker and more responsive than the previous version of DEVONthink Pro did, so perhaps there has been some code optimization along with the new features.
Now, on to the new stuff.
Email Archiving
The program's advanced email archiver connects to all major email programs and imports messages or complete mailboxes to a database while keeping formatting as well as attachments intact. The simple interface resembles an email program and allows users to easily select mailboxes or messages to import. In addition, the user can filter messages by flags, priority or date range, and hide already imported messages.
The new email archive function is available from File > Import > Archive Mail. It opens a Mail-like window that lets you choose your email application of choice, browse through the mailboxes and folders, and import selected mailboxes or messages. DEVONthink Professional Office currently supports Apple Mail, Microsoft Entourage, PowerMail 5.0 or later, BareBones MailSmith as well as all email applications using standard Unix mailbox files, e.g., Thunderbird or GNUmail. Unfortunately for me, the two email clients I use regularly - Eudora and Nisus Email, store their archives in text files, which DEVONthink Professional Office refused to open. Perhaps Eudora support will be added to a later version (how hard can text files be?).
Messages successfully imported from a supported email client are stored as rich text files, using original formatting
and with all attachments embedded. The sender’s email address is stored as the URL of the document, and for email addresses links to the local Address Book are added. You can reply to archived messages using File > Export > as Email. This creates a new email message in your default email program with the text of the selected document quoted and the document attached.
For Apple Mail, DEVONthink Professional Office installs a plugin that inserts helpful commands into Mail's main menu for archiving mailboxes or messages directly from within the application. Also, the plugin speeds up the transfer of messages compared to AppleScript-based solutions.
Paper Capture, OCR, and Fujitsu Scansnap Support
The second enhancement over the regular edition of DEVONthink Professional is the integrated support for paper capture via flatbed scanners or the Fujitsu ScanSnap that allows you to either scan documents directly from within the application or by importing already scanned files. The embedded ReadIRIS optical character recognition (OCR) makes the created PDFs searchable while maintaining their layout. It places an invisible but machine-readable text layer behind the scanned image.
The built-in capture function supports all flatbed scanners compatible with Image Capture (the scan framework of Mac OS X, incarnated as the Image Capture application). Scanners (except for the Fujitsu ScanSnap; see below) with automatic document feeder are not supported due to shortcomings in the current implementation of Image Capture.
To scan a paper document directly from DEVONthink Professional Office, choose File > Import > Scanner > Capture. Check ‘Per- form OCR’ to run OCR on the scanned pages which makes the document searchable.
The Fujitsu ScanSnap is not Image Capture compatible but comes with its own scan application. DEVONthink Professional Office recognizes an installed ScanSnap and offers to change its preferences so that scanned files are automatically sent to DEVONthink Professional Office, run through OCR, and imported as searchable PDFs into the database
You can also import already scanned files into DEVONthink Professional Office and run OCR on them. Choose File > Import > Image with OCR. The document will be saved as a searchable PDF in the database. I tried applying the OCR function to a scanned document with Courier text saved as a TIFF file at 150 DPI. DEVONthink Professional Office took about a minute to process the document (1.33 GHz PowerBook ) did a superb job without a single error. The resulting text in the PDF document was copyable and could be edited the text editor. Pretty impressive.
I then tried giving it a more challenging task. I highlighted and copied a Web page on the DEVON Technologies Website and saved it as a PDF file. Again the OCR accuracy was amazingly good, with no errors and formatting intact. The rendering was a little fuzzy, but not bad at all. However, copying and pasting as text was not very successful, rendering this mess (no, your browser's text rendering didn't just go nuts!):
Not sure why, but I assume that it has something to do with the lower resolution of the original graphic document. Provisional recommendation: scan documents to reasonably high-res TIFF files.
In addition,the Fujitsu ScanSnap auto-feeder scanner is recognized when installed, and reconfigured if desired. The ScanSnap does not come with optical character recognition out-of-the-box, so DEVONthink Professional Office jumps in and automatically runs optical character recognition on all PDFs sent from the Fujitsu ScanSnap.
Web Sharing Inclusive
The third major new feature in DEVONthink Professional Office is integrated web sharing. Any database can be published on the local network as well as on the Internet with a single click. Users can search a shared database using standard web browsers such as Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer on any operating system, from Mac OS X to Microsoft Windows, or Linux.
The web interface resembles common web search engines. Found documents can be either viewed directly in the web browser window or they can be downloaded to the local machine as .zip files. Bonjour support allows users of, e.g., Safari to easily locate shared DEVONthink Professional Office databases on the local network. Password protection keeps unwanted guests away.
To switch on the web server, open DEVONthink Professional Office’s Preferences and switch to the Server tab. Enter a descriptive name for your machine, and adjust all other settings to your needs. If you’re using Bonjour on your LAN, you don’t have to bother with port numbers and such. Click ‘Start’ to start the web server. As soon as the web server is running, DEVONthink Professional Office displays the local URL for it near the bottom of the window. Click the URL to test it.
Here it is opened up in Opera showing a search field.
And here's a page of clickable search results, which appeared lightning-fast.
This is way cool, and something you might want to use yourself on the host computer. Personally, I prefer it's Google-like interface to the built-in one for general document searches.
The provided web interface gives other users the possibility to search for documents in
your database, just like they would do with Google. They can view found documents in the browser and download documents as .zip archives. Of course, they don’t have to use a Mac, DEVON Technologies says it also works perfectly from a Windows or Linux PC.
With s Bonjour-aware (ZeroConf in PC speak) browser like Safari, switch to the bookmarks pane, select Bonjour, and it will automatically list all DEVONthink Professional Office databases published on your network.
"Collecting and organizing data is just one part of the game. Sharing and collaborating is what really drives creative people. This is why we've added web sharing to DEVONthink Professional Office. Making your documents or your research results available to your coworkers or just everyone on the Internet was never easier" comments DEVON Technologies Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann. "DEVONthink Professional Office propels the successful concept of DEVONthink a huge step forward. with the integration of email archiving, paper capture, and web sharing it's now the Mac incarnation of what they had in mind when they invented the term 'paperless office'."
Because DEVONthink Professional Office is, technically DEVONthink Pro with some extensions, the databases are, of course, compatible. My DEVONThink Pro database opened right up in DEVONthink Professional Office.
If you are using Automator, AppleScript, or the Services menu commands, you should trash the regular edition of DEVONthink Pro while you’re evaluating DEVONthink Pro Office to avoid confusion for both your Mac and yourself. You can revert to the ‘regular’
version of DEVONthink Pro at any time by simply trashing DEVONthink Professional Office and reinstalling DEVONthink Pro.
To remove the Apple Mail plugin installed by DEVONthink Professional Office,
move the following file to the trash: ‘~/Library/Mail/Bundles/
DEVONMailConduit.mailbundle’ where ‘~’ stands for your home folder.
In summary, this is a major upgrade of one of my favorite Mac OS productivity tools, making it several magnitudes more useful than it already was. It's not cheap, but you'll look long and hard to find another applications that will do nearly as much for you for the money (and if you want a taste of the same basic technology at a really friendly price, check out DVONthink's "lite" counterpart, DEVONnote, for $19.95). Whether you're a DEVONthink (or DEVONnote) user, or have never tried the DEVON database programs, I encourage you to download DEVONthink Professional Office and give it a whirl. It will quickly spoil you.
DEVONthink Professional Office requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. It is immediately available as a public beta from:
http://www.devon-technologies.com
The final release is scheduled for January 2007. DEVONthink Professional Office does not require a valid license code within the public beta period, but the email import function is limited to 200 messages per day and the OCR function is limited to 20 documents per day.
DEVONthink Professional Office sells for an introductory price of US$ 139.95 during the public beta period in DEVONtechnologies' online shop. After the end of the public beta period, the regular price will be US$ 149.95. Users of DEVONthink Personal or DEVONthink Professional are able to upgrade for the price difference of US$ 60 or US$ 100 respectively. Upgrade coupons are available. DEVONthink Professional Office is also available together with DEVONagent as the 'Infoworker's Pro Office Bundle' for US$ 159.95.
For more information, visit:
http://www.devon-technologies.com
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Charles W. Moore
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