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DEVONthink Personal supports tagging in a way that makes groups and tags interchangeable. While this concept may sound a bit strange at first you will soon discover why it is a smart way to approach tags and group and to bring both together.


Introduction

Technically, tags and groups are identical: both are simply entries in a table that are somehow 'attached' to an item, usually a group or document. The difference is that tags are visualized as 'labels' attached TO the item while groups are visualized as groups CONTAINING the item. They are presented differently but internally they are the same.

DEVONthink Personal treats groups as tags and tags as groups. When it shows you the tags associated with an item it presents you with a list of all groups that the item is part of and that have not been excluded from tagging.

Example: A document is located in the group 'Science > Paleontology > Dinosaurs'. Consequently its tags are 'Science', 'Paleontology', and 'Dinosaurs'. Now you create a sub-group of 'Dinosaurs' named 'Land-living' and move the document into the new folder. Automatically it is now tagged with 'Science', 'Paleontology', 'Dinosaurs', and 'Land-living'.

The same happens when you replicate the document into multiple groups: It is tagged with the names of all enclosing groups (that are not excluded from tagging) of all its replicants.

When you assign a tag using DEVONthink Personal's user interface, move a document, or replicate it to another group, this is what happens:

  • Assign a tag: The item is replicated to the Tags group.
  • Removing a tag: The item's replicate in the Tags group is deleted.
  • Adding an item to a group: The group's name and the names of all groups containing the group appear as tags attached to the item.
  • Moving an item: The new group's name and the names of all groups containing it appear as tags attached to the item.
  • Replicating an item: The new group's name and the names of all groups containing it appear as tags attached to the item, too.
  • (Auto-) Classifying an item: This places the item into a new group and replaces all assigned tags.


The Tags Group

Every DEVONthink Personal database contains a top-level group named 'Tags'. It is used whenever you add a tag to an item e.g. through the tag bar, for which not yet a group exists. In this case DEVONthink Personal creates a group for the tag in the Tags group and places a replicant into it.

When you rename a group here all items associated with it (means: that have a replicant here) will show this change. When you delete the tag from the item the associated group in the Tags group is deleted, too, when the last replicant contained in it is deleted.


Using Tags

To use tags for selecting documents, finding them, or browsing tags DEVONthink Personal offers the following options:

  • Tags view: The tags view allows you to browse your documents by tags. In the tags view select a tag to display all items which have this tag assigned. Choose multiple tags, e.g. by clicking anothe one with Command held, shows all items carrying all selected tags.
  • Smart groups: Use smart groups to search for items with given tags.

Wherever tags are shown, ordinary tags (tags created in the special Tag group) appear blue, tags that are also regular groups appear grey. Tags, e.g. in the Tag bar, also show a pop-up menu when you click their downward triangle. It shows related tags which can be added to the item, and tags represented by a group can be revealed.


Aliases and Excluding from Tagging

DEVONthink Personal also honores aliases added to groups. You can add 'alternative names' to a group in it's Info panel and later use these alternative names as a tag.

Example: In the Info panel of the group 'Dinosaurs' you have added 'Dinos' as an alias. You can now tag items with 'Dinos' and they will automatically moved or replicated to the 'Dinosaurs' group.

Groups that you don't want to use as tags can be excluded from tagging. Select it and open the Info panel. Check Exclude from ... Tagging and the group will no longer be shown as a tag for items contained in it.


OpenMeta

OpenMeta is an open standard for storing tags with files in the file system. Using OpenMeta applications can add tags to files and let other compliant applications read them.

DEVONthink Personal supports OpenMeta when importing and exporting files. Files stored in the database are not tagged in OpenMeta-style but assigned tags will be added to the files as soon as you export them.

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