Most of the time you spend in DEVONthink Personal will be spent in a main window. Like Finder windows, main windows give you access to your groups and documents, while also allowing you to view and edit documents.
Open a new main window with File > New Window. DEVONthink Personal also opens a new window when you open a database; do this by checking Open New Window in Preferences, General tab.
The title of the window shows the name of document or group if one is selected as well as its icon. Drag the icon, e.g. to the Finder, to copy the document and click, with Command pressed, the title bar to reveal the document's location within the database. Select an enclosing group to reveal it.
Views
Different views present your information in exactly the way you need:
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List: Displays groups and documents as a list; groups can be expanded/collapsed by clicking the gray triangle in front of their name. Double-clicking items opens them in separate windows.
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Icons: Displays groups and documents as icons. Double-clicking items opens them in separate windows. For images, DEVONthink Personal displays a live thumbnail. Adjust the size of the icons using the slider at the upper right corner of the window, just below the toolbar. Use View > Show/Hide Details to switch between icons only and icons with details in a list.
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Columns: Displays groups and documents in columns and with a preview pane, similar to iTunes. Selecting a document displays it in the preview pane; selecting a group shows the items it contains in a new column to the right of it. Double-click the column resizer to make it fit automatically. Each column can be sorted individually.
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Split: Splits the window into an item list and a view/edit pane. To switch between vertical and horizontal split, use View > Widescreen. The item lists all groups and documents of the database and can contain one or more columns. By default, it shows only item names. Expand/collapse groups by clicking the gray triangle.
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Three Panes: Resembles the way Apple Mail displays folders, items, and contents. The pane on the left displays all groups, the top right pane displays the documents contained in the selected group, and the view/edit pane to the lower right shows the contents of the selected document and allows you to edit it if possible. Tip: When you click the Home button the toolbar, you will see also the files located in the root of your database.
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Tags: Shows all documents in a database for selected tags. Select a tag to show all items carrying this tag; select mutiple tags (e.g. by selecting them with the Command key held) to show documents carrying all selected tags. Select no tag to show all items. Delete tags by pressing the Delete or Backspace key; this moves ordinary tags to the trash and excludes group tags from tagging. [Read more...]
To adjust the size of the different panes, move the mouse to the divider between two panes until it changes into a line with two arrows. Then, click and drag the divider to adjust the size of the panes.
Items
DEVONthink Personal displays groups and documents, much as the Finder does. Select items with a single click, drag them with the mouse from one group to another. You can also drag items to the Finder or any other application, or drag folders and files from the Finder to DEVONthink Personal. You can also drag clippings such as text and images from any application to DEVONthink Personal and vice versa.
Press the Command and Option keys to link to the dragged item(s) instead of importing them to the database. Single-click items to rename them. Double-click items to open them in a separate document window or in the external application that has created it (depending on the document type). Press the Space bar to preview the item using Quick Look; close the preview with the close gadget or press Escape or Space again to close it.
Colored item names, colored group icons, and special icons tell you whether an item is a duplicate or replicant, about its 'unread' status or what type of search a smart group uses.
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Duplicates are shown with their name in blue, replicants are shown in red. [Read more...]
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Icons of feeds or other unread items show an 'unread' indicator in the State column. [Read more...]
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Smart groups using dates are shown with a clock icon, smart groups using the 'unread' status use a unique icon, too.
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Regular groups are shown in blue, groups also used for tagging are shown in yellow with a 'tag' icon embossed.
Additional icons behind item names (from left to right) indicate if the item has been indexed instead of imported, if it is locked, has a comment attached, or is scripted. Groups also serving as tags show, if necessary, a tag icon. Depending in your preferences replicants, duplicates, or replicated duplicates are also indicated with a little grey icon.

To view or edit the contents of a document or group, do the following:
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List/Icons View: Double-click the group or document to open it in a separate window. Hold the Command key as you click to close the originating window at the same time (hoisting). This also works in the other views.
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Vertical/Horizontal Split/Columns View: Select the group or document. The view/edit pane shows the contents of the group or document. Click the triangle in front of a group to expand it, then select a document to view or edit it.
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Three Panes View: Select a group or sub-group, then select the document you want to view or edit. DEVONthink Personal shows the group or sub-groups content in the view/edit pane. Click the triangle in front of a group to expand it. When you select multiple groups or news feeds the upper right pane shows all documents contained in all selected groups in one list, like in Apple Mail. This does not work for smart groups.
View/Edit Pane
The view/edit pane (not visible in icons and list view) shows the content of the selected document and allows you to edit it, if possible. You can edit plain text, rich text, and HTML pages.
Read more here about the various document types that you can view or edit in the view/edit pane.
Info Bar
Just below the toolbar you'll find the info bar. For selected items it shows icon, name including location, kind, size, and modification date. If you're not sure of what kind a document is, this is the place to look.
Adjust the size of icons with the slider in the right side of the info bar.
Toolbar
The toolbar of DEVONthink Personal main windows carries many commands for manipulating the way the application displays information, as well as for manipulating selected items. Many of these items in the toolbar are simply shortcuts for menu commands. Here's a short list of the available tools:
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Navigation: Navigates to the top level of the database, or one level up. Useful when you have opened a second main window by double-clicking a group and now want to move up the groups hierarchy in this window.
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Go To Document: Selects the first/previous/next/last document. Only available in Three Panes view or in separate
document windows.
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View: Switches between the possible views. See above.
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Actions: Provides some commands for modifying the selected documents, similar to the Action menu in other views. Generally, the Action menu contains a selection of the commands also available via the contextual menu.
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Quick Look: Opens the standard Quick Look panel for the selected items.
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Group +: Creates an empty group.
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Plain/Rich Text +: Creates a blank plain or rich text document.
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Link +: Creates a new link document.
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Mark Up: Highlights selected text, underlines it, or strikes it through. Available for rich text documents, editable PDFs, and web archive.
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Open: Opens the selected documents in separate document windows.
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Open With >: Opens the selected documents in an external application.
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Launch URL: Opens the Internet location stored in the URL field of the selected documents, for example, a web site URL in Safari.
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Copy URL: Copies the Internet location stored in the URL field of the selected document to the clipboard.
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Delete: Moves the selected documents to the trash.
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Save: Saves all changes to the currently edited document.
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Import, Export: Import imports new documents; Export exports the selected documents.
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Reveal: Reveals the location of the selected items in either the same main window, if possible, or by opening a new one.
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Show in Finder: Opens a new Finder window showing the selected items.
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Print: Prints the current or selected documents.
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Info: Opens the Info panel.
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Group, Ungroup: Group creates a new group and moves all selected documents into it. Upgroup moves all documents contained in the selected groups one level up and then deletes the then-empty group.
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Auto Classify: Classifies the selected documents and moves them into the most appropriate group if possible.
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Find (search field): Lets you search your databases. Select your search options from the magnifier pop-up menu, enter your search term, and press Return. The pop-up menu also lists the last 25 used search terms. Check Prefix while typing to let DEVONthink Personal begin to search while you are still typing. The last word of the term is treated like being a prefix ('word*'). Add more characters to refine and to speed up the search and press Enter or Return to finish the search and to search for whole words only. [Read more...]
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Find: Opens the Search window.
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Bigger, Smaller Font: Increases or decreases the font size.
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Subscript, Superscript: Makes selected text sub- or superscript.
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Ruler: Shows or hides the ruler for rich text.
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Fonts: Shows the standard Mac OS X Font panel.
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Colors: Shows the standard Mac OS X Colors panel.
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Make Plain, Rich Text: Converts the current text document to plain or rich text.
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Highlighting: Highlights selected text. The pop-up menu lets you select the highlight color.
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Link: Makes selected text a Wiki-style link. If the text is a URL, the link will point to that URL.
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Edit Source, Show Page: Toggles between source and page display of selected HTML documents.
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Zoom: Zooms in, zooms out, zooms to view width, or shows the document in 1:1.
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Full Screen: Shows the selected documents in full screen mode. Press Command-F8 to return to windowed mode.
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(Capture) Page: Captures a web page as HTML code to either the current group or to the inbox.
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(Capture) Web Archive: Captures a web page as web archive to either the current group or to the inbox.
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(Capture) PDF: Captures a web page as a PDF to either the current group or to the inbox.
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(Capture) Note: Captures selected elements of a web page as a rich text document to either the current group or to the inbox.
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DEVONagent: Opens DEVONagent. If the view/edit pane or frontmost window displays a web page, it opens the same URL in DEVONagent.
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Backup: Creates an internal backup of the database and then optimizes the database structure; same as Tools > Backup & Optimize. File > Backup & Optimize.
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Verify: Verifies the database structure; same as Tools > Verify & Repair. File > Verify & Repair.
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Send by Email: Creates a new email message in the default email application and attaches the selected items.
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Take Note: Lets you take a quick note.
Note: Not all of these commands are always available. You can customize the toolbar by selecting View > Customize Toolbar or by clicking with Control pressed (right-click) the toolbar background and selecting Customize Toolbar from the contextual menu.
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Shortcuts & Modifier Keys
You can use a couple of shortcuts and modifier keys for group and document icons in both the item list and when displaying a group's content in the view/edit pane.
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Space: Opens the standard Quick Look panel showing a preview of the selected items.
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Command+drag-and-drop: Copies items to the drag destination instead of moving it.
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Command-Option+drag-and-drop: Links/replicates items to the drag destination.
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Shift-click: Selects multiple items.
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Shift-Left/Right/Up/Down Arrow: Extends the current selection.
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Option-double click or Command-Shift-O: Opens selected documents/groups in a new tab or a new main window (depending on whether tabbed browsing is active or not) and closes the current window ('hoist'). Activate Always open groups in a new window in Preferences, General tab.
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Command-click: Opens the target of a link in a new tab or separate window.
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Command-Option-click (a cross-link or Wiki link): Positions the insertion caret inside the link for editing.
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Option-click (a word): Looks for the clicked word in the database, like the contextual menu command See [word].
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Option-click (the triangle in front of a group): Expands or collapses all groups that are containted within this group as well.
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Left/Right arrow: Expands or collapses the selected groups in Horizontal Split, Vertical Split or List views, or navigate to previous/next item in other views.
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Option-Left/Right arrow: Expands or collapses the selected groups and all their children in Horizontal Split, Vertical Split or List views.
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Control-Tab: Cycles through all panes.
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Control-Shift-Tab: Cycles through all panes in reverse order.
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Up/Down arrow: Navigates up and down in all views. Use Shift to select multiple entries.
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Space/Shift-Space: Scrolls one page down or up, in non-editable views (for example, in a locked document).
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Return: Renames documents in main windows.
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Escape: Cancels renaming.
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Backspace: Deletes selected items.
Contextual Menu
The contextual menu (which appears when you right-click or Control click an item) offers a range of commands tailored to what you wish do with the clicked object (for example, a text passage).
Most of the commands offered by the contextual menu have counterparts in a main menu, so you'll recognize them immediately. However, to save menu bar real estate, DEVONthink Personal gives you access to some options only via the contextual menu.
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New Window: Opens a new main window.
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Open Database: Opens the selected database.
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Close Database: Closes the selected database.
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Empty Trash: Empties the trash can.
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New: Creates a new document.
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Open: Opens a selected documents in a new window.
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Open in Tabs: Opens a selected documents in a new tab.
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Open With: Opens a selected documents with an external application.
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Launch URL: Opens the URLs indicated by the URL field of the selected documents.
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Copy URL: Copies the Internet location indicated by the URL field of the selected document to the clipboard.
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Refresh Feed(s): Manually refreshes the selected news feeds.
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Edit: Opens the smart group editor (only available for smart groups).
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Exclude from Tagging: Excludes the selected groups from tagging.
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Add to Favorites: Adds the selected item to the favorites.
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Move To >: Moves the group or document to the group you select in the sub-menu. Note: Moving items to another database cannot be undone.
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Replicate To >: Creates a replicant of the group or document in the group you select in the sub-menu.
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Duplicate To >: Creates a duplicate of the group or document in the group you select in the sub-menu. Note: Copying items to another database cannot be undone.
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Label: Changes the label of the selected items.
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Mark: Marks the selected items as flagged/unflagged, read/unread, locked/unlocked and shows or hides the state of the items.
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Move to Trash: Moves the selected items to the trash.
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Move All Instances to Trash: Moves all instances (including replicants) of the selected items to the trash.
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Thumbnails: Creates, updates, or deletes the thumbnails for the selected items.
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Convert: Converts the selected items to other document formats.
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Group: Creates a new group containing the selected items.
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Auto Classify: Classifies the selected items and moves them to the group where they best fit into.
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Send by Email: Creates a new message in the default email application and adds the selected items as attachments.
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Sort: Sorts the list of items to any available criterium.
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Empty Trash: Empties the trash (only available for the trash).
Note: For your convenience, DEVONthink Personal also makes the Services menu, available via the contextual menu.
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