Using Notecards

[Mushussu]

I have played with the new notecard function for the last couple of days and found its handling as well as the added value it brings to Bookends excellent. However, I haven't really worked out of how to integrate the new function into my workflow, which usually includes Devonthink as repository for quotes and comments on texts. I was now wondering whether there are users with a smilar workflow willing to share how they use notecards in interplay with Devonthink. Every suggestion much appreciated. Thanks

[Jon]

I hope others who use DT and Bookends will contribute to this thread. The one comment I want to make is that I believe you can insert links to DT records (URIs) in other applications. If I'm right, then you can use these in Bookends notecards to go to those records directly (right-click on the notecard to get a list of such links and use them).

Jon
Sonny Software

[AsafKeller]

I, too, am looking forward to integrate Notecards with DEVONThink (and/or Tinderbox). I have two stumbling blocks:
(1) DEVONThink (DT), in beta 2, no longer has the useful feature called Sheets. This allowed viewing of references exported en block from BE to DT, through a BibTex export from BE. You can still import into DT, but the resulting table in DT is unwieldy and impossible to work with.
(2) At the moment, Notecards cannot be exported as separate notes, which would have made integration with DT very efficient. A suggestion was made to enable such an export, with each note containing metadata that would allow linking back to the original reference in BE. Such standalone notes would work nicely once exported to DT or Tinderbox. Jon hinted that such a feature might be implemented one day (unless I misunderstood him).

Regardless, the addition of Notecards significantly enhances this already excellent application.

[Jon]

Hi,

You can't export each notecard as a separate file, but you can export each Note field (which contains one or many notecards) as a separate file. And you can embed the link to the Bookends reference the note field is in the notes (Edit -> Copy Hypertext Link As Text). You can then get back to the reference from DT by this method.

Jon
Sonny Software

[AsafKeller]

You can export each Note field (which contains one or many notecards) as a separate file. And you can embed the link to the Bookends reference the note field is in the notes

Indeed you can, and I neglected to mention that this is how I use this powerful new feature. In the previous post I was referring (all too vaguely) to a solution allowing editing of Notecards in multiple applications. The suggestion was to store the Notecards in a separate folder (similar to the current storage of Attachments; Caveat: I have no clue if this is even possible). These notes can then be edited by not only BE, but also by other applications (such as DT).

[Jon]

Hi,

You can already attach and read text files. Making them editable in Bookends would mostly fill your needs, I think. But it would have be be text-only, for now at least (no styled text).

Jon
Sonny Software

[AsafKeller]

The ability to attach and read text files is useful, but it would be superb if these files would appear where the Notecards are displayed now. That is, the user would be able to rapidly enter notes in this stream, and view the contents of all the notes. The user would not need to open files individually, and to be concerned about attaching them manually. All Notecards related to the same reference might be grouped in an appropriately named folder, and these folders would reside in a "Notecards" folder.
Text only would be OK.

[AsafKeller]

Now (v. 10.5.1) that we have the ability to edit text files that are attached to a BE reference, there exists a very efficient workflow to interface with DEVONthink. (Note that this workflow does not use Notecards). I have one or more RTF files that I attach to a BE reference, with each file containing quotes and notes related to that reference. That file also contains links to the parent reference and to other references (or to anything else for that matter). These RTF files are stored in a folder which is indexed in DEVONthink, within which they can be searched or edited.