About this Database
This database is a simple example on how to use DEVONthink for organizing your notes, your thoughts, your knowledge in a cross-referenced network of documents, and publishing it as a Web site.
DEVONthink Pro allows you not only to write rich text documents, but also to make selected text a hyperlink to other documents or link to any external URL. Automatic Wiki-style links also automatically make text that equals the name of another document in the database “clickable.”
How this Database is Constructed
This example database consists of a part of the DEVONthink Tutorial database that gives some tips, tricks and troubleshooting for DEVONthink Professional.
It is made of rich text documents with cross-links to other documents in the database. Here are two starting points for exploring this mini-web:
Click the links above to jump to the linked documents. Use the links there to navigate further trough the documents.
How to Create Cross-Links
To create a hyperlink, do the following:
1. Select some text that you want to make a link.
2. Control-click it.
3. Select “Link to > …” from the contextual menu, select your link target.
You can also create hyperlinks to any URL, e.g., your homepage. Do the following (Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” only):
1. Select some text that you want to make a link.
2. Select “Format > Link…”
3. Enter the URL and click OK.
On Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” do the following:
1. Write a URL into the text.
2. Select the URL.
3. Select “Format > Make Link.”
4. Command-click into the now clickable URL in your text to place the insertion caret into it.
5. Change the text to a descriptive text.
Use Wiki-Style Links
Alternative to creating cross-links manually, you can rely on DEVONthink Pro’s automatic Wiki-style links. This feature automatically makes text that equals the name of another document or group clickable. First, activate automatic Wiki links in DEVONthink Pro’s preferences, tab “Editing.” Choose either “MashedWords and Aliases” or “Names and Aliases.” The first further restricts the automatic Wiki links to words with an uppercase letter in the middle of the word so that this mechanism doesn’t make strings clickable by accident. Here’s an example for an automatic Wiki-style link: Copyright Notices. If “Copyright Notices” is not clickable, you need to switch on automatic Wiki links in your DEVONthink Pro’s preferences.
How to Export Your Knowledge as a Web Site
To export the knowledge you have accumulated in a database and that you have carefully cross-linked, you simply select everything in the groups/documents list, and choose “File > Export > As Website…” To make a Web site out of the “To Publish” group we have prepared for you in this database, do the following:
1. Select the group “To Publish” in the groups/documents list.
2. Select “File > Export > As Website…”
3. Choose your target directory, e.g., the Desktop.
4. In the Finder, open the created folder, and open “About this Database.html” by double-clicking it.
To publish this mini Web site, copy the created folder (“To Publish”) and the accompanying CSS file (“website.css”) on your Web server. To publish it via personal web sharing, move these two items to ~/Sites/ and switch on personal Web sharing in your system preferences, section “Sharing.”