DEVONtechnologies Releases Third Public Beta

DEVONtechnologies has released the third public beta of version 2.0 of all editions of its information manager DEVONthink as well as of the smart note-keeper DEVONnote. The third public beta of DEVONthink 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0 finally brings back optical character recognition (OCR) to DEVONthink Pro Office, introduces a new Boolean operator, and brings a number of bug fixes and detail enhancements.

Starting with this beta DEVONthink Pro Office's OCR is based on the ABBYY FineReader engine which delivers premium results, creates smaller PDF files, and gives the user much more control over the OCR process. The new ABBYY OCR engine is fully embedded into the application, an 'OCR Activity' panel shows all pending OCR processes and lets the user stop each of them at any time.

"The new OCR engine based on ABBYY FineReader finally gives our users maximum control over the text recognition. It uses less memory due to the enhanced job control, the created PDFs are generally smaller and the text recognition is more accurate than with the engine we used in earlier versions. We are happy to announce that we are able to deliver this great new user experience as part of this upgrade without any additional costs for our customers", so Eric Böhnisch-Volkmann, DEVONtechnologies' President.


All editions of DEVONthink and DEVONnote now feature the 'OPT' operator which allows the user to add words or terms to a search that preferably match the resulting document but don't have to ('preferred but not required term'). If they match a document, they increase its ranking and so allow to fine-tune complex queries. In addition, public beta 3 increases the compatibility to del.icio.us, enhances the Adium chatlog import, displays the PDF page count, and shows custom icons for databases in the sidebar. Of course, a number of bugs and glitches have been fixed as well and the performance has been slightly improved.

The version 2.0 upgrade addresses a large number of feature requests from the active user community and modernizes almost every aspect of the applications. These public betas are still incomplete but the already existing functionality is stable enough for sharing with the public. Smart tags, a fully functional sidebar, PDF annotations, enhanced image editing as well as the ability to upload files through the web interface are not implemented yet but will be delivered one after the other with each subsequent update. The user interface of all editions will be further polished, too.

New features of version 2.0 include but are not limited to: the ability to open multiple databases simultaneously (DEVONthink Pro), all advanced Boolean and proximity operators (as known from DEVONagent), wildcards and unlimited complex search terms, smart groups, unlimited undo/redo, an inbox, a trash can, and the support for almost all common file formats. The new Finder-like sidebar facilitates working with multiple databases.

DEVONthink 2.0 imports and displays Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), OpenOffice and iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) files as well as Skim PDF packages and all other files that support or are supported by Mac OS X 10.5's QuickLook. Using Spotlight importers and plugins for indexing DEVONthink can also search files that it cannot display due to the lack of QuickLook support (Spotlight does not need to be active). Metadata, e.g. from PDF files, email messages, or Office documents is imported, indexed, displayed, and can be selectively searched, e.g. using smart groups.


DEVONthink 2.0 allows to create documents from templates and DEVONthink Pro Office 2.0 shares databases with other users on the local network or over the Internet via an interactive web interface based on the latest web technologies. RSS, RDF and Atom news feeds can be added as self-updating groups to any DEVONthink Pro database and so integrate live content with local documents. The independent 'Sorter' panel lets the user add data to your databases even when DEVONthink Pro is not open. Tabbed browsing and editing as well as Cover Flow simplifies working with large numbers of documents. A PDF sidebar allows rearranging and deleting pages.

The new database engine incorporated into DEVONthink 2.0 not only speeds up working with large databases but also stores all files in their original file format, e.g. Microsoft Word files and email messages. Files are no longer converted when imported and can be edited using external applications. In addition, all documents can be accessed from outside DEVONthink using a standard URL. This highly improves workflow integration with third-party solutions such as iCal, OmniFocus Daylite, Bookends, or Endnote.

DEVONthink Personal 2.0 and DEVONnote 2.0 inherit the three pane view formerly exclusive to the Pro editions as well as separate document windows and the full screen mode. In addition DEVONthink Personal is no longer limited to 10,000 images.


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