## Automate Referencing on iPad with Shortcuts and Zotero

Update (2019-01-26): If you’re a Better BibTeX user, there is a new shortcut available to extract your citation keys

### Citation Management on iOS

For as long as the iPad has been an excellent device for focused writing, it has never been good for citations and referencing. Referencing on iPad remains the final, stubborn piece of the puzzle to fully untether iOS from the Mac for academic writing. It appears, without exception, the iOS is not yet viewed by developers of referencing software as a fully fledged computing platform. That leaves us with a choice between poorly designed companion apps, or hacking together a solution of our own. I have opted for the latter, by configuring different workflows using Apple’s Shortcuts app and the excellent Zotero API.

What follows is not a primer on referencing, rather it is a means for managing citations on iPad, or even iPhone in a pinch. It assumes some knowledge of Zotero, but that is not difficult to acquire. These tips will be useful regardless of whether you work with both macOS and iOS, or do everything on an iPad. With a little help from iOS Shortcuts, referencing on iPad is that little bit less painful.

### Getting Material into Zotero on iOS

Maybe one day we’ll get extensible browsers on iOS. Until then, we still have JavaScript bookmarklets. Most of your research is done online anyway, so using the Zotero Bookmarklet in a web browser works just fine. The only real caveat is you want to get your references from a source that Zotero will recognise. That will usually mean a university library, and my EZProxy shortcut can help with that.

Another convenient option is to use the WorldCat Catalog. The WorldCat option has the added virtue of not needing a login, which makes it a hassle free way to get full bibliographic records. I have setup a shortcut that can be invoked from the widget to send a search query to WorldCat, and open the results in Safari. 1 Once you have the bibliographic record up, as long as you are logged in to Zotero, the Bookmarklet will scrape everything you need to populate your library with that record. Download the shortcut here:

WorldCat Web Search Shortcut

### Cite as You Write on iOS

There are different ways to come at this. The method you choose will depend on a few variables. The biggest distinction is likely to be whether you work iOS only, or you also operate a Mac. However, there is also a question of how complex your work is, and whether or not you want to automate the process entirely, or you’re happy to manage a few aspects manually. If you are looking for the more comprehensive option, see the section below on rendering a bibliography.

If you write exclusively on iOS, and all you want to do is insert references from your Zotero library as you write, the following shortcut will do that. Invoke it from the widget to search your collection, and it will place a formatted in-text citation on the clipboard, eg. (Dickens, 1837, p. 21) 2

Zotero Cite as You Write Shortcut

See below for how to automate the creation of your reference list.

### Cite as You Write on iOS for macOS Users

If you are also using a Mac, you only need to know how you intend to process your finished works so you know which cite key style to use. If you intend to use Zotero’s own RTF scanner, your citations must be enclosed by {curly braces}. If you’re a Pandoc user, no doubt you already know you need [square brackets], among other things. 3

Zotero RTF Shortcut

Zotero Pandoc Shortcut

### Automate Rendering a Reference List or Bibliography

Depending on the complexity of your needs, this is where it can get tricky. If you’re writing anything genuinely long form — a dissertation, thesis, or a book — then this is the last remaining task where it is useful to have access to a Mac, or PC if necessary. That doesn’t mean you need to own one. Workarounds exist to make this possible from an iPad.

#### The Simple Method

For the most simple version of this, Zotero can produce a bibliography online, but it’s not pretty. Fortunately, Shortcuts can retrieve a formatted reference list from the Zotero API. If you want to use the Cite as You Write shortcut from above, you can retrieve the reference list, or bibliography from the relevant collection with the following shortcut.

Zotero Bibliography Shortcut

Note, these workflows don’t know what references are in your document, there is no way to automate that via Shortcuts. They are by no means perfect, so proof your work carefully.

#### Run the Zotero RTF Scanner from an iPad (almost)

Should you wish to automate the process completely, you will need access to a desktop to scan your work through the Zotero RTF scanner. The good news about keeping your references in Zotero, being a web service you can make use of on demand computing. You don’t need to maintain your Zotero library in a local database, it remains in the cloud. That means you only need temporary access to a desktop for the sole purpose of running your work through Zotero. 4

#### Amazon Workstations

If you cannot access a desktop directly, there is always Amazon Workstations. It’s free to set one up, and you’ll only need it briefly. Be careful to choose an option available on the free tier though, or you could be in for an unpleasant surprise when a bill arrives. The iPad app for Amazon Workstations is useable enough for this. You can manage your referencing on iPad with Zotero, then setup a workstation to run the finished project through the scanner.

#### Portable Apps Zotero

Often on campus it is easy enough to access a desktop, but installing software can be a problem.  For that situation, the unofficial Portable Apps version of Zotero should do the trick.  Install it on a portable drive and run it on demand. To be honest, I like this option more than using AWS.

### Bonus Features

#### Windows version

This might not seem a big deal for iOS and Mac users, but Windows is everywhere. Apple users tend to forget this. Microsoft devices have improved dramatically recently, and there are plenty of other reasons for cross pollinating platforms.

#### Private Wifi Syncing and WebDAV support

I would like to see Notebooks add iCloud, and support for the iOS Files App, but the existing syncing options work well. Particularly pleasing is the consideration for privacy coded into the app via the Wifi option. If you have good reason for avoiding Dropbox, syncing can be managed across a local network. WebDAV support means Notebooks can also be synced via Synology and other private cloud solutions.

### The Question of Handwriting

Devices like the iPad Pro are finally delivering on the long promise of matching the cognitive advantages of handwriting to digital convenience. At the same time, where handwriting recognition and inking engines have improved out of sight, the apps that deliver these tools can be limited. As such, I have come to think of handwriting apps as an interface for capturing notes. Notes ultimately end up elsewhere, in Notebooks, DEVONthink, or Keep-It.

I have flipped between Notability, MyScript Nebo, and GoodNotes for handwriting. Nebo unquestionably has the best handwriting recognition, but the app hasn’t had much attention 7. Notability is a good self contained app if you can work with its limitations. However, I have returned to GoodNotes since it started generating searchable notes on the fly. Between the now instant OCR, and one of the best drag and drop implementations, GoodNotes is currently my favourite handwriting companion for Notebooks. Once a note is written, I open Notebooks and drag it from GoodNotes in slide over. The notes are preserved perfectly with the searchable layer.

Handwriting is the most obvious missing feature of Notebooks at present, but it’s likely to be added in a future version. If and when that happens, this already excellent tool will become a bonafide killer app. Until then, I still recommend it as a better place to store handwritten notes, and GoodNotes has the most compatible feature set right now.

#### Final Remarks

I say final, there is another post following with Workflow and url scheme automation. Despite this relatively lengthy post, there remains a lot I haven’t covered. Nonetheless, I believe these highlights make Notebooks, in my opinion, the best general purpose note taking app on iPad for academic use. There is room for improvement, no doubt. I expect that handwriting will arrive at some point, and while the hooks are already deep in iOS further integration

I have a final superficial qualifier. If I am going to spend any amount of time working in an app, I want it to look good. No problems here, the understated minimalism and use of whitespace make Notebooks a handsome app.

1. The scope of the article covers iOS. However, Notebooks is cross platform, with excellent versions on macOS and Windows.
2. Liquid Text has function for working with two documents, but it work vertically. Besides, Liquid Text is a world unto itself, so a subject for another time,
3. As opposed to dictating notes to text
4. If you know what MathJax is, chances are you have no problem with editing a few lines of HTML
5. I’ll be honest, I wish the app cost more since I have come to reply on it. Given what it can do, I feel it is seriously under priced.
6. It seems to get more buggy as iOS is incrementally updated.

## Creating Smart Reading Lists on iOS with Notebooks

If Notebooks isn’t best note taking app for iPad, it is definitely the most underrated.  If you’re looking for a markdown notes app, a writing app, or a document storage container with a few unique tricks, you won’t find many better. Part notebook, part storage locker, and part GTD task management system. That might sound like a janky combination, but not only does it work well, it looks pretty too. It has been around for a while, so in lieu of a comprehensive review, I want to highlight a particular feature I haven’t seen anywhere else. The ability to turn notes into tasks.

If you have a lot of reading to keep up with from a variety of sources, this is very handy. For planning and tracking big reading projects I still use TaskPaper on macOS, with its counterpart TaskMator on iOS. That system works well, with the outliner style lists making it easy to break up books, journals and so on with due dates. Using Notebooks has a distant advantage over that system, as it can collect the reading material itself. Web pages, notes, PDF documents, Word files, you can read them all directly in Notebooks. It will even let you index epub files to open in a third-party reader, like Marvin. Remember, at its core this is note taking app, while reading you can highlight text, make annotations, take clippings, and more. You can also take notes.

This is a simple idea that in practice will help keep track of reading lists, note revisions, or really anything text based. It’s true you can fashion a similar system by chaining apps like DEVONthink and Things 3 together. To my mind this is more elegant, or at least less confusing.

It works like this. As I collect reading material, I drop it into a Notebook that has been setup as a task list. When I’m on the clock I can setup due dates, reminders and so on. More importantly, I can tick items off as I go, meaning a quick visual guide is available to measure progress. It’s easy enough to use Notebooks’ share extension for this — or bookmarklets on the Mac — but there are two alternative methods I prefer. First, Notebooks has a very hand URL scheme which is clever about capturing all kinds of data, which makes setting up a custom action extension for Workflow trivial.

### Notebooks Drag and Drop

The Workflow action above is especially handy on the iPhone, but the iPad has another option that is easier still. Notebooks has excellent support for the drag and drop feature of iOS 11. So if you don’t fancy using Workflow, you can use multitasking to simply drag links and files directly into a reading list. Or, you can use something like the excellent shelf app Gladys to hold the material you collect before dropping it into Notebooks later. Gladys now has a Mac version too, which adds some continuity to the workflow.

### Among the Best Note Taking Apps

If you follow this site, you probably know by now that all my data ends up in DEVONthink, one way, or another. Whatever passes through Notebooks still ends up there, but DEVONthink’s super power is search. It has passable editing and annotation tools, but I prefer doing the interactive work before it ends up in what is essentially a personal research database. For a lot of users Notebooks might even be enough. While the task management features were no doubt conceived for GTD nerds, they end up making Notebooks among the best note taking apps for college, or university users. The caveat being it’s not a handwriting app. In fact if anything holds it back, that would be it. I would get around that by using Nebo as a capture tool myself, they complement each other well.

If DEVONthink’s not your jam, or you’re looking to replace Evernote with something private and local, Notebooks is a handsome and feature rich app. It has relative feature parity across macOS, and iOS, and a lot of unexpected touches. GTD purists could configure tickler files, and contexts until their head is sufficiently empty of all that arduous, excess thought. 1. It can even run its own local WebDAV server for private local sync. It sounds strange, but it’s really not.

1. I’m joking, you beautiful nerd you.

## iPad Hacks: Migrating Evernote Data on iOS

A few days back I posted a fairly detailed introduction to DEVONthink to Go for iOS. To follow that up, I promised some options for iOS users wanting to leave Evernote, and bring their data with them. Whether you want to go all in with DEVONthink, or you have in mind another app, the question is how to migrate Evernote data to another iOS app.

On macOS, you have a number of options. The most simple and clean being a direct transfer within DEVONthink Pro itself. Managing this process without a Mac, on the other hand, requires more creative thinking. What follows are some options for iOS only users wanting to export all Evernote data. DEVONthink is the endpoint in this case, but the process can easily be adapted for apps like Notebooks, Bear, or even Apple Notes.

### Some of the Gotchas

I’ll admit I’m fortunate I could use a Mac to do this, but it’s not quite as difficult on iOS as it once was. Some advice out there will have you believe otherwise, but you can migrate your data without having to do it one note at a time. It is worth considering these potential stumbling blocks before you do it. I would pay special attention to the data you consider most important in Evernote, either tag it as such, or place it in a specific notebook. Reading on, you might also want to delimit different data types, such as text, PDFs, and images.

The arrival of drag and drop had me wondering if we could simply drag the notes across to another app. I will come back to this below. You can bring drag and drop come into play, it just won’t solve the problem on its own. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as dragging all your notes from one place to another. If you try to transfer directly from Evernote, these are some of the frustrations you will encounter:

• Notes in Evernote are stored in a proprietary rich text format. If you try to drag notes, some apps like Apple Notes, will refuse the transfer when you try to drop them. Others, like DEVONthink, will allow you to drop the note, but will strip all the formatting. That might be fine for text only notes, but everything else is lost. The worst part is losing all your links.
• If you try dragging a note with an attachment, you will get the title and nothing else.
• If you can open the note and drag the attachment itself, it will come across no problem. Which is fine if you only want to drag a couple of items. I have hundreds of PDF attachments in Evernote.
• When drag and drop doesn’t work, you might think you could use the share sheet. You’d be right, if you want to choose between exporting web links for notes, or sending each individual note via email in Apple Mail.
• Evernote is mired to a functionality issue that, until recently, has bloodied the foreheads of iOS users. It doesn’t do multiple files.

Yep, it’s painful. Which is why so many people hit these walls and keep the status quo. 1 Thankfully, we now have tools that can help overcome these problems. If you really want to migrate your Evernote data to another iOS app, you can.

### Using Workflow

The Workflow route is straightforward enough. As alluded to above, depending on how precious you are about the data, it might require some preparation in Evernote. Whether you want to do this could come down to the number of notes you have, but discriminating by notebook or tag can help get better results. Tedious work on iOS, I know. You can always go nuts, and deal with the consequences later, whatever your destination. I’ll confess, that’s how I roll.

I have played around with this for long enough to feel confident advising a uniform approach to importing notes, whether you choose to bring them across as text, or PDFs. Technically Workflow, and DEVONthink can both handle the rich media that Evernote stores. Setting up a complex workflow with IF conditionals is possible, but you can end up with a lot of wacky results in amongst the ones that transfer properly. Likewise, encoding the rich text itself via URL isn’t as consistent I’d like.

Bear in mind, you’re not deleting the data in Evernote through this process. Even if you proceed after testing, and you’re still not happy with the results, you can try the other method below. 2 The best results I get via Workflow are from encoding all the data as a PDFs. That won’t suit everyone.

Alternatively, you can do the same thing using Markdown, but any PDFs in Evernote won’t be encoded, they’ll come across blank. This is where that preparation comes in. If you have separated data types by tag, or notebook, you can run the different workflows individually. You can apply the same logic for images if you wish, although I haven’t set that up myself as I never stored any in Evernote.

No doubt somebody is reading this thinking the workflows don’t need to be separated. That’s true, or at least it should be. As I mentioned earlier, my efforts at combining them turned out some garbage. If you’ve had more success, I would love to hear about it. Read on, and you will see the workflows can be combined more easily when taking a different route.

Disclaimers

The workflow will make you specify the number of notes you want to export/import. This is a limitation of the API, you have to specify a number. It’s a good idea to test this anyway, so set the number low to start with.

These workflows also leave the ‘title’ parameter blank, as there seems to be a bug in one of the apps along the chain that interrupts the URL encoding — or decoding. 3 I will update the workflows when I’m certain the bug is squashed, but read on as there are better options below.

You can adapt this workflow for you own needs, of course. If you want to know more about the DEVONthink URL scheme, the documentation is included with the app. Or you can get it here

### Instructions, or TL;DR

Optional: Organise your Evernote data by data types using tags, or notebooks for Text and PDF 4. This is a giant pain, so before you go ahead and do it, make sure you have checked out the alternatives below. Either way, the process is as follows:

• If you don’t want to distinguish the data types, just run the PDF workflow for everything to come across as PDFs.
• If you have separated the data types, run each workflow separately.

### Using a Cloud Service with Workflow

This route adds more complexity, but it gives you more flexibility as a result. There are some concessions with the form the data is transferred in, but that is true of all these methods. I have played around with a few different services, the main prerequisite being ease of use on iOS. A lot of web apps have awkward UI for touch control.

Google cloud transfer for Evernote, and you will most likely find results dominated by MultCloud. I can’t recommend it for this job, to start it’s a poster candidate for shitty web UI for a touch interface. But, the real reason is MultCloud transfers without conversion, so you end up with a bunch of ENML documents. 5 Outside Evernote they’re all but useless. At best, MultCloud is a backup option.

CloudHQ is also awful to look at, but it has much more granular options for the transfer, and the real kicker, it will actually work. You can use a free account with CloudHQ to export your notes in PDF, plain-text format, or both. It will export everything to Dropbox, or your pick of service. If anyone is wondering how this fits with my thoughts on cloud storage, data in Evernote is already insecure. This is about changing your ways.

Once you have everything transferred, you will do the same thing as above. However, there is some good news. The DropBox API will expose a lot more information to workflow from the initial call, so it is easier to set conditions in the workflow to combine the actions. In other words, if you transfer the data to a storage service first, you can run a single workflow from there.

### Dropbox to DEVONthink Workflow

This workflow is setup to import PDFs, and Plain text files. Migrate your data from Evernote to Dropbox via CloudHQ

### Drag and Drop for Best Results

Drag and has made a lot of tasks on iOS much easier than ever before, with transferring data among them. With the help of the files, you can forget workflow altogether, and use drag and drop to manage the last part of the migration. The first step is the same as above, prepare and transfer your data from Evernote to cloud storage.

You can do this with with Dropbox, or Box. I haven’t tested it with any other cloud services, so your mileage may vary elsewhere. If you’re using free plans, it’s worth knowing the box free plan gives your 10gb of storage – the maximum file size is 250mb, but that won’t be a problem here, in fact unless you are storing large video files it is unlikely to be a problem ever. 6

The key is how you set the apps up. You probably know by now that integration with the Files app can be hit and miss. This process exemplifies the difference between Files, and the more traditional Finder on macOS. You might expect you can open up Files and drag documents from one service to another, like you would between folders on macOS, but if that works it all it is very limited.

For example, if you try to drag multiple files after selected them via the select function, you won’t be able to drop them anywhere. However, if you collect the files together by taping on them one at a time, then the files will stack together and you can drop them no problem. Then there is the matter of how folders must be setup to accept dragged items; the inbound folder accepting the files has to be added to the favourites section of the Files sidebar, to make it available as a drop destination. When you do get it to work with the files app exclusively, other strange things can happen. Like the metadata being out of whack.

The point I’m making is the process is more complicated than it seems. Illustrative of how much room for improvement remains in the brave new world of iOS Files. But, this is only true if you are trying to manage the entire process in the Files app itself. The story is completely different if you you start in the Files app, and drop your notes in the third-party app itself.

Instructions:

• You can skip organising your Evernote data type for this method, it will make no difference
• Use CloudHQ  to transfer data to Dropbox
• Open up the files app. Select the notes your want to transfer, and dry them into the new app.

### Other Apps as a Destination

Using DEVONthink as a destination, the results have been gapped doing things this way. The beauty of this method, however, is any app that accepts compatible data — and supports drag and drop — can be setup to receive the notes. She of the more popular note-taking apps on iOS will make the process even easier by providing an import function. Both GoodNotes, and Notability will let you import directly from cloud storage, without any further rigmarole. You can use drag and drop with both apps too, but you don’t need to.

If you want to migrate data from Evernote to alternate notes apps, all you need to do is transfer it via the CloudHQ method above, then import the notes via the import function of the app in question. If the app is only using iCloud, you should still be able to use the Files app to mitigate that problem. If not, I have setup a quick and dirty workflow to transfer from Dropbox to iCloud, you can get it here 7

### To-Do

Evernote’s API offers potential for users migrating data. Like most folks, I’m a little light on time to do this sort of thing right now. I’m not making any promises, but I’m half thinking I will play around with both Workflow, and Pythonista over the holidays to see what can be done. 8 Anyone familiar with this site will also know how much I admire the Notebook app. It also has an excellent custom URL scheme. I intend to use it for setting up more workflows.

Even though I have already transferred the bejesus out of data from Evernote, I will still mess around with these workflows some more. If you’re interested in how any of this this progresses, signup to the mailing list. Or, I will post it here at a later date.

1. I should point out here that my leaving Evernote had nothing to do with the price of a subscription.
2. I do think it gets better results
3. It’s most likely DEVONthink, the developers assure me it’s not happening in the next build
4. You can do images too, but you will have to adapt a Workflow for that
5. Evernote markup language
6. This is something that appears to confuse a lot of people. Box don’t do themselves any favours by wording it strangely either. The site says 250mb maximum upload. What it means is file size, not transfer limit.
7. If you just want to archive your Evernote data in iCloud, this will work for that too.
8. There are some existing scripts, but Evernote has moved to a new API. I haven’t yet found any in current working condition. Then again, I haven’t looked too closely yet.

## Advanced Data Management for iOS with DEVONthink

This has been a while coming. 1 Having mentioned this app a number of times, I haven’t yet offered a detailed account — something it thoroughly deserves. Those mentions have prompted a reasonable question, is it worth buying DEVONthink to Go for iOS if you don’t have a Mac? The short answer is yes. Qualified by what you want to do with it, but you won’t be short on possibilities. Whether you’re looking for a private Evernote alternative, want to improve your digital file management, better organise research material, or you want secure storage and advanced search capabilities for your data. There is much that DEVONthink can do on iOS. Of course, that leads us to a much longer answer — and, believe it or not, this is a mere introduction.

### On Being Unique

Most of the apps we use on iOS can be distinguished by category, or specific task. They’re often things we need, but as long as you have something in that category, capable of a specific job, the app itself comes down to personal preference. It’s true we’re not always spoilt for choice — and I’ll happily point out that some things are better than others. Nonetheless, if it’s a PDF reader, notes app, text editor, or email client, they’re all interchangeable to some degree. Whether you prefer GoodNotes to Notability, or PDF Expert to PDFpen, either will do the job. Until something better comes along, that is. 2

There is a different kind of app where interchangeability no longer applies. Or at least, where it’s not quite so simple. They’re few and far between, but there are some obvious examples. Take Drafts for iOS, sure it’s a text editor — and there are plenty of those — yet, that seemingly simple function belies a unique automation engine for text based productivity. Having popularised the x-callback-url system on iOS, Drafts is as much an inception as it is an app. 3 By all accounts, inter-app automation via URL was only half a hack until x-callback allowed apps to return the call — so to speak.

The likes of 1Writer and Editorial can be loosely grouped with drafts. Like Drafts, 1Writer uses javascript automation, but more to bridge the gap from text editor to word processor. While Editorial is a high-spec graphical automation tool for manipulating text with Python. Then there is Pythonista. I can’t think of anything else like it. Not really. There are other code editors, but Pythonista can be invoked as an extension to perform scripted automation. Something that seemed at one time like it would never arrive on iOS. How Pythonista ever sneaked past moderation remains a mystery. Thankfully it did, and it remains a fixture of advanced automation on the iPad.

Perhaps the most obvious example is Workflow. Apple swallowed it whole to make an entire subset of fan-geeks exhale a coordinated, and confused sigh. What will happen? The optimists are betting on some form of native integration with iOS, while the half-empty crowd are clasping their hands and pursing their lips for a round of tutting on podcasts. Jokes aside, if Apple ever took Workflow offline, they wouldn’t so much be shooting themselves in the foot as they would be cleaving the entire leg off the idea of an iPad as a serious working device. These are all unique, and important apps.

Before I digress any further, I’m trying to provide some context for DEVONthink to Go. 4 Both to place it in good company, and to make the case for how unique it is. To view it as nothing more than a companion app for the macOS versions of DEVONthink would be a mistake. Sure, it can be used like that. As far as companions go, it’s a particularly powerful one. The iOS version, however, can stand on its own. It is something of a category in itself, given its crossover functionality. This is quite an achievement, especially as the app was completely re-written for version 2.0. 5

When used to its potential, DEVONthink can be just as important as the apps mentioned above on iOS. It’s easily as unique. But like anything, it comes down to how you intend to use it. Implementation is key. Getting the most from any of the DEVONthink apps means putting them at the centre of your workflow for capturing, storing, and retrieving data. DEVONthink to Go is no different.

### All in the Tags

Amid the changes in iOS 11 were significant improvements for managing files. There is no doubt the Files app — even in these early stages — is a welcome and useful development. The caveat is recognising where some of Apple’s long held resistance to such an app came from. For example, organising files and folders — stacking iCloud with a folder hierarchy — is now easier than ever. Yet, to do so embraces an outdated method of organising data. Where research and study is concerned, how one archives important material is a serious consideration. This is not to say you shouldn’t use folders, but if you’re handling a lot of data, it can get very messy.

This is where tags come in. A shallow file structure with carefully chosen tags adds depth to your metadata, giving you more surface area for search queries. Tagging gives you more hooks, but less visual confusion. Not only does the Files app allow more fine control for folders, users now have immediate access to Apple’s native tagging system. Whether carried over from macOS, or implemented locally on an iOS device, tagging can be utilised for search queries and data retrieval.

Apple’s implementation of tagging across platforms has been casual at best. It’s kind to say it remains a work in progress. However, if only a gentle nod, it is still an acknowledgement of the utility in tagging for organising data. Ironically, if you find tagging useful and want to get more out of it, then you will need to go beyond the files app.

This is just one area that DEVONthink shines. Tagging is part of the DEVONthink DNA. Some aspects of native iOS tagging remain mysterious, but DEVONthink is smart enough to import the metadata applied in the Files app. Unfortunately, it doesn’t yet work the other way around.

### A Secure Central Repository

While organising a folder hierarchy in iCloud Drive is much easier with Files, ironically that app makes it less necessary to do so. I tend to work in the DEVONthink app directly, but DEVONthink data in Files is incredibly useful, and not just for quick access.

This is something I mentioned in my post on cloud storage. Regardless of the storage provider, by storing data in DEVONthink you can couple the convenience of the Files app with strong client-side encryption. The previous post talks about syncing with macOS, but the same applies if you are only using iOS. The data is encrypted and decrypted on your device, making it secure during transfer, and at rest in the cloud. From that post,

If you are already a user on macOS, adding DEVONthink to Go to your workflow is straightforward. The database itself is encrypted, and the app supports pretty much any file type you can throw at it. Devon Technologies are one of the oldest Apple software developers around. So it is no surprise to see them embracing the new Files App. This means DEVONthink to go can be used as a file provider. So you can store your files safely, and edit them in place using third-party apps. In my opinion, this is a pretty sound option. In many cases, it could be enough. If it is, managing files through DEVONthink will avoid the need for a dropbox alternative.

DEVONthink is also very smart about storage, giving you the option to keep metadata locally, and download files on demand. Or if you prefer, you can store everything locally. As the engine is built to sync databases individually, there is even a little storage hack — if you are so inclined.

Each database can synced using the same, or different cloud services. That means you can use the free tier of different services to save on the cost of storage. Admittedly the supported services are still limited, but if you are just starting they will be more than adequate. Perhaps more to the point, it also means you can sync multiple copies of databases, adding redundancy to your backups. This includes backing everything up to iCloud.6

Backing up data on iOS requires users to think differently, especially if you are not using a Mac or a PC as the mother ship. DEVONthink is one of few apps that can give you extra peace of mind.

All but the most perfunctory writing requires research. Couple that to the focused nature of an iPad workflow, and you have a use case for a purpose built repository. Writers using Scrivener have tools built in to that app, but while they might be enough for some writers, that research is — in practical terms — silo’ed by project. I like to have that material available more generally, whether during, or after a project is complete. 7 Spotlight is a great tool for search, DEVONthink is better.

DEVONthink is built for search. A consistent naming convention, and tags can only be helpful to maintaining a research database. DEVONthink comes preloaded with tools that will either compliment that process, or help you retrieve data regardless. With Boolean search operators, and parentheses, refining search terms will return items with more specificity. You will find more, and lose less.

Search queries can be constructed using the boolean operators AND, OR, NOT, and the truly helpful NEAR. For example, I might remember that I saved an article that included the phrase ‘Why Aristotle was never quite as awesome as Plato’. I can search for the document with: NEAR (Aristotle Plato, 10), and DEVONthink will return items that have the keywords Aristotle and Plato within 10 words of each other. Of course, you can go much further by changing search queries together.

My first example returns a lot of results, but let’s say I remember it was an informal source. I could construct a search query to eliminate results that have a keyword to indicate it comes from an academic journal. I would use something like NEAR (Aristotle Plato, 10) NOT Journal. I could use a DOI number, or Abstract as elements common to those kinds of results.

Even if by trial and error, the ability to construct granular search queries makes DEVONthink to Go an invaluable tool. If you are a user of DEVONthink Pro on macOS, you should know the query syntax is a little different. It can be frustrating if you don’t know that, but the simplified version for iOS makes sense. While accurate searches are crucial, there is a swiftness involved with mobile input. The developers are on record as saying an alternative syntax is on the roadmap, to make the apps more consistent. The existing syntax would remain, which is a good thing to my mind. I have never had so much success at finding what I need among my haphazard collections.

### PDF Management

I have consistently recommended PDF Expert for a stand-alone PDF reader on iOS. Until recently, together with the free Documents app from Readdle, and Papers 3 for iOS, that was the extent of my PDF workflow. It is not so clear cut anymore. For one thing, the makers of the PDF framework PSPDFkit released their free PDF Viewer app, making powerful PDF management available to users for nothing. But there are other reasons, one of them is DEVONthink to Go.

Some advice I give out freely but struggle to keep is, try to minimise the apps you use for essentially the same task. Managing PDFs for your research can get out of hand if you don’t have a clear idea of how you organise them. There is no problem with using a third-party PDF app with DEVONthink to Go.The support for editing files in place means you can edit files in other apps, without having to copy them to another app. However, DEVONthink’s built in PDF editor is more than capable. It gets out of your way, includes excellent Apple Pencil support, and has all the requisite annotations tools. You can edit the documents themselves, even add pages if necessary. Sometimes you might need to do more with annotations, but that is about the extent of the limitations.

These are considerations to make if you are assessing the in-app purchase. Especially if you are setting your iPad up for the first time, it could make a lot of sense to go all in and keep your document editing and annotations in one place.

### Note Taking

The actual in-app note-taking features are quite sparse, but functionality of the app makes up for that in other ways. I have been making a point of laying out a use case where DEVONthink is a central hub for storing data, but it can be a point of creation too.

DEVONthink to go supports rich text, plain text, and markdown, with the ability to capture, read, edit, or create within the app itself. The editor in the app itself is very basic, so I tend to use a third-party text editor. The ability to edit files in place means you can use whatever app you choose, as long as it supports file providers. In my experience to date, the app with the nicest integration is iA Writer, especially since the recent update. Another with reliable support is 1Writer.

Editing in place means you are opening the file in your choice of editor, and the changes are reflected back in the database. Until recently, this wasn’t really possible. DEVONthink used a workaround it called ‘round trip’, which worked, but wasn’t ideal. Once the file is the database, the changes will be reflected whether you edit it in the third-party editor, or in DEVONthink itself. If you know anything about iOS system extensions, you will now that there are two types of actions in the share menu for files. One opens the file in another app, the other copies the file into the other apps storage. Edit in place means you are not making a copy.

There have have been reports of strange behaviour, although I have only experienced it a couple of times myself. It seems to happen more when using the share extension, rather than starting the edit in the text editor first, and using the files integration. It is also worth pointing out that all of this functionality is new, as are the frameworks in iOS that support it. There are a few bugs in the system, but nothing catastrophic.

This might appear to work back to front at first, but if you think of DEVONthink as the storage facility, it will sink in. Where it gets messy is if you try to edit the same file with multiple editors, you will end up with conflicts and error messages. My best advice is to be consistent.

### Replacing EverNote

This is something that comes up a lot in relation to DEVONthink apps. Except for a couple of passing comments, there is conspicuous absence of Evernote coverage on this site. It’s not that I don’t think Evernote is useful. If anything were a gateway drug to digital productivity apps, Evernote is it. I was once a heavy user. The idea behind Evernote is to throw everything you ever come across at it, it can even be therapeutic for a digital pack rat who can’t let anything go. Clip it, and forget; or come back to if you will.

If the defining Evernote feature is its clipper, that can be a problem, as there is nothing judicious about the process. Capturing information is ridiculously easy with Evernote. DEVONthink can operate on the same principle — if you wish — only completely private. The DEVONthink clipper might seem basic 8, but it is a powerful little extension. With the extensive automation feature on iOS, you can customise and extend its capabilities to suit your own needs.

Unlike Evernote documents are not stored with DEVONthink in a proprietary format, so your data doesn’t feel so captive. If you’re a macOS user getting your notes out of Evernote is not difficult. 9 Yet, the more material you store there, the more reason you have to be nervous about the portability of that data. This is a double edged sword for Evernote and some users. The more you get drawn in, the harder it is to leave, and yet if you have a lot of important data there you’ll start to think about what might happen to it.

I was concerned about securing the future of my own access to my data, but ultimately it was Evernote’s access to that data that provided the final push. What promoted me to jump was the increasingly creepy feeling I had about their privacy oscillations. Not long before all the hullabaloo about flip-flopping over their privacy policy , I was one of the users hit by a bug that deleted attachments from certain notes. I was among a group of users who received a year’s free premium subscription by way of apology. Ironically, the only thing I used Evernote for over the course of that year was to export my data.

### Moving out

Truthfully, I hardly ever used Evernote to take notes. As I think many people do, I used it like a database. Moving that workflow to DEVONthink is very simple. Although, even if I still throw a lot at DEVONthink, I tend to do it with a little more foresight. That you can delineate types of data within a hierarchy that goes all the way to database level, means I don’t have the overwhelming sense that my research data is being polluted by gift ideas, and tutorials for obscure automations that I’ll probably never use. As for the data itself, I can still have the convenience of cloud storage, only now it’s encrypted and I can choose how, and what I want to synchronise.

These things are just as true for an iOS only workflow as they are for a full blown DEVONthink Office pro user archiving their email. There remains a problem, however. As I alluded to above, getting your data out of Evernote, and into DEVONthink on the Mac is a trivial matter. DEVONthink makes it very simple, with Evernote API integration. Without a desktop of sone form in the middle, however, the same is not true for iOS users. The pressure points for going iPad only are now much fewer than ever, but there remain a couple. I often mention citations, then there is this kind of data transfer.

There are workarounds for this. If you’re considering it, you’ll be happy to learn I have you covered. I was going to include the options, with different instructions and a couple of workflows I have built in this post, but I took a look at how long it is getting and broke it off into a seperate piece. It will go up not long after this.

### Automation Meets Drag and Drop

Speaking of Workflow, an area of considerable value to an iOS only working life is automation. While the default iOS interaction model of one app at a time has been supplemented with multitasking features, the secondary, and even tertiary apps are almost exclusively invoked as part of a singular, focused task. 10 The benefit, whether intentional or not, is the iPad encourages a kind of focused work that more traditional computing interfaces do not. This is particular beneficial for academic work.

This is a curious strength, but as anyone who has done a lot of work on an iPad will tell you, it has its drawbacks. Thankfully, most if not all insurmountable problems have been made history by two significant developments to the platform. The first was the aforementioned Workflow app. That app might be somewhat indebted to the inception of x-callback — as mentioned above — but Workflow kicked the automation door off its hinges, and you get the sense something much more significant is coming from that app. 11 The second development happened this year: drag and drop.

It’s amusing to think the introduction of copy and paste to the iPhone was once an event. 12 Copying and pasting was for so long a cumbersome, finicky, and frustrating. With the APIs available to developers in iOS 11, we can now evaluate particular apps on the basis of how well they take-up native technologies, rather than what they can do to overcome a lack of the same. It might have been a stretch to call url-based automation native, but Apple has burred that distinction with Workflow. Regardless, DEVONthink To Go is tapped into both of those features — automation, plus drag and drop — extensively.

Drag and drop is pretty self-explanatory, although the version we get with iOS 11 makes it feel like a completely new innovation. It’s deep integration, system wide even mitigates the need for some, albeit minor, automations. The kind of work one tends to do with DEVONthink, however, is ripe for automating. Something the developers are keenly aware of.

The URL scheme in DEVONthink to Go allows a user to build very specific automations for every data type a database can hold. This includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Create images
• Create Bookmarks
• Create documents, including Plain-text, Markdown, Rich Text, and HTML
• Create Web Archives
• Retrieve file contents, and/or metadata
• Perform custom searches

DEVONthink to Go will even perform service tasks via URL, such as indexing, syncing, and rebuilding caches, and you can change app settings. A lot these touches will be beyond most users needs, but it shows the meticulous level of detail that DEVON technologies drills into. More than that, these options provide troubleshooting options that may prove useful as databases become larger, and more devices are added to the chain. If you never use them, they offer security by way of both usefulness and insight into the forethought put to building the app. A it is intended for storing important information, all of this matters a great deal.

### In Summary

To button this up, by returning to the question. Is DEVONthink to Go worth buying if you are an iOS only user? The answer remains, yes. Whether it is to act as a repository, a midway for automation, or to distill the need for multiple apps into one. There is a lot going on here. I’m not going to pretend it couldn’t be improved, but then DEVON technologies are nothing if not proactive in that regard.

I’ll also admit that I get more from this, as I use DEVONthink on both macOS and iOS, but that doesn’t diminish its role on my iPad by any stretch. If it were to go away, I would have a serious nuisance on my hands to pick apart the various things it does. As I’ve been writing this, the capacity of DEVONthink for working on iPad has had me peeling back layers of functionality.

At this point I’m aware of so many little things I have missed.This is especially true for Mac users, but that it should be obvious that was never the point of this post. At the moment I am experimenting with building more Workflows for DEVONthink to go, and that includes building on the options I have put together for referencing and citations. In the meantime, I have added a couple below that might be of interest.

### Workflows

These workflows are experiments. I’m posting them here as examples of what you can do with automation and DEVONthink. They remain a work in progress. If you are inclined to improve upon them, I would love to hear about it. If you build your own, think about adding them to the Workflow Directory

• DEVONwiki — DEVONthink’s internal linking structure remains consistent across platforms. This means you can use DT2GO for setting up a wiki style research library that will work across devices. This workflow uses a note in Drafts to reference PDF documents added to a DEVONthink database, either directly from the web, or from another storage location. With x-callback URL you can maintain the note itself in DEVONthink. I will post variations of this in future.
• RSS to DEVONthink — As one of its many powers on macOS, DEVONthink can be used as an RSS aggregator and reader. The iOS version doesn’t have the same feature, but we can achieve a similar result with Workflow. 13
• Evernote Text to DEVONthink — I mentioned above, the trouble with getting your data from Evernote to DEVONthink on iOS without a desktop computer in the middle. This should be self-explanatory. Bear in mind it will only transfer text notes. I have a follow post in the works for a more thorough migration,

You can pick up DEVONthink to Go on the App Store for US$21.99, with an in-app purchase case of$11.99 for the pro package 14

Until next time, enjoy.

1. Longer even, since I tried to stay off the internet as much as possible last week for fear of spoilers. Sadly, I’m not joking.
2. Or something new and shiny at least
3. Greg Pierce the developer wrote the spec for x-callback
4. Forgiving the name, that is. I can’t imagine why DEVONthink iOS wasn’t enough.
5. If you haven’t looked at it since version 1, this is a completely different app
6. The architecture is currently incompatible for DEVONthink’s version of selective sync, so iCloud Drive is only supported for backup at the moment.
7. I have the advantage of using a Mac here, I keep mot scrivener and DEVONthink research in sync with Hazel. Something I will post at a later date
8. The mobile version at least
9. For iOS see below
10. The exception here might be picture in picture, but you get the point
11. Or rather, the developers of that app. Now with Apple
12. Or testament to the breakneck speed of development since then
13. Note, depending on how the feed is setup you may need to make changes to this for the desired results
14. PDF annotations, and selective sync
Categories iOS

## DEVONthink To Go updated for iPhone X, adds PDF and sheet editors

This round of updates sees DEVONthink To Go  updated for iPhone X, adding PDF and sheet editors. I mentioned DEVONthink to go as a novel solution for better data security recently. While that alone is a good reason to put it to use, it drastically undersells the apps all round utility. DEVON Technologies summarise the app like so:

DEVONthink To Go is DEVON technologies’ document and information management solution for iOS. Serving as repository for a large variety of data types it lets users keep their important documents with them at all times. It offers a rich set of organizing features as well as built-in viewers and editors for many file formats. Document provider and file provider extensions make documents available in other apps, and an encrypted synchronization keeps all data in sync with other iOS devices as well as with its Mac counterpart, DEVONthink, without compromizing the user’s privacy.

Apart from the obligatory iPhone X support. This update includes further improvements to File App integration, smarter PDF interactions and markup, new document editing capabilities for table data., and refinements to database syncing.

Effectively using DEVONthink apps is a huge topic, given what you can do with them. I have every intention of a deep dive on DEVONthink, when I can do it the justice it deserves. It is tidbits for the meantime. For users of DEVONthink on macOS, DEVONthink to Go is an ideal companion app. On its own merits, it is also an excellent self-contained solution for iPad first, or iOS only users. Now with drag and drop on iOS 11,  OCR integration with third-party apps like Scanbot is much easier. The excellent native x-callback-url support also makes DEVONthink to Go one of the best apps you will find for Workflow automation. All in all, you can set up a robust research system on iOS using DEVONthink. With, or without a Mac.

## iPad Diaries: Working with Drag and Drop – Bear and Gladys – MacStories

Another link from MacStories. Now that the dust has settled on their annual iOS review, it is good to see a return to this more detailed, useful content.

If you haven’t come across this regular series, iPad Diaries. Go back through some of the old posts, there are some great tips for working exclusively on the iPad. Some of them will be a little dated since iOS 11. But with all the little automations and workarounds to sift through, you are bound to find some good ideas for working smarter on that slab of glass.

Be warned though, you might end up cycling through a lot of different apps. Students with a penchant for procrastination are particularly vulnerable.

## Workflow 1.7.7 Brings Drag and Drop Integration, iPhone X Support, and More iOS 11 Changes – MacStories

As usual, MacStories has the full scoop on updates to Workflow. This is timely. I needed a prompt to write up some citation workflows for students I have been playing with. Writing any detail about the release itself is redundant. Viticci has that completely covered,

The marquee addition of this release is full support for drag and drop in iOS 11, which is especially impressive on the iPad as it allows you to trigger actions based on content you drop into a workflow. In the original Workflow, if you wanted to feed external content (text, images, links, videos, etc.) to actions, you had to manually select an item from a native picker, use the iOS clipboard, or use Workflow’s action extension in other apps. The system worked well, but it was neither fast nor intuitive.

## macOS High Sierra: Safari’s iOS Style Permissions

There was a time that Safari was a clunky, annoying browser that you could install on Windows.  To be fair, pretty much all browsers met that criteria at one time. Things change. In this week’s show and tell I included a link from The Verge, who are shipping Safari as the best reason to upgrade your Mac to High Sierra. So far it’s hard to argue with that. With features added to both iOS 11 and macOS, there is a lot to like about the development of Safari. Of particular interest is the new ability to control some of the internet’s more annoying tendencies with Safari’s iOS style permissions

This is one of the areas that I have tried to balance security concerns with usability. I haven’t always felt comfortable with the results. For a time I used a tricked out install of Firefox, in accordance with one of my favourite privacy resources. The industry around tracking and data collection is so cunning that extensions can become a data point for tracking in themselves. This is one of many reasons the evolution of Safari has become so interesting, moving protection to within the webkit framework brings that balance a little closer.

### Safari’s iOS Style Permissions on macOS

It is the new granular approach to permissions that I am most impressed with. Particularly on macOS. Safari itself now contains the kind of detailed permissions that we are used to applying on a per app basis for iOS. Something I find incredibly annoying — and invasive — is having websites try to send me push notifications. Who in their right mind would want their browser to badger them all day long? It’s more than just an annoyance, though. While some of the older security issues of Push have been incrementally addressed, by design they provide another means for tracking. Look closely and you will notice there is an irony in the way Apple is implicated in the origins of this. Thankfully, they are getting better at addressing these — perhaps unintended — consequences. Notifications are among the many things addressed in the new ability to control permissions for Safari. The upside of Push, it is a permission based protocol. So ultimately, it is one of the web’s annoyances that we can actually opt out of, and now without much trouble. It is not the only one.

The influence of the mobile platform on macOS is becoming more and more obvious. The rollout of Continuity has no doubt made this inevitable, but we have seen more and more features make the crossover. From small, but important additions like Night Shift, to the way iOS devices have been the testing ground for significant new technologies. From a user standpoint, I feel the most significant, visible influence right now is the approach to permissions. The improved preference allow a user to block an entire category. Or you can manage them on a case by cade basis. Like iOS, you can manage access to the microphone and camera, access to location, and notifications. Then there are usability features, like the ability to turn on Reader mode by default for particular sites.  And, you can now put an end to those pesky auto-pay videos — you know who you are… Macworld.

You can access all of these permissions in Safari’s preferences. Or, if you want to change settings on the fly, you can right-click — or ctrl + click — on a website’s name in the omnibar, and select Settings for this Website…

### Gaining Control

The reality of the modern internet is it is a cesspit of shady behaviour by supposedly legitimate actors. Without even getting into the relevant arguments, the performance of websites is a case in itself for having control over the excess. I won’t lean into the rest of the story here, I can make my case another time. Suffice to say, there are good reasons to have some control over this. I will say that Apple’s interventions are doubly interesting, considering the industry built up around its fandom. Apple related sites are some of the worstoffenders too. My sense is there is much more nuance to this than you can glean from the exploding heads who are worried about their wallets. The argument that Apple is doing more to save advertising than harm it in these moves, should carry water with anyone thinking clearly.

But Webkit more generally has ushered in significant, positive changes. Especially when it comes to performance. Webkit also provides significant advantages for the implementation of content Blockers. One of many reasons Safari is starting to back up some of it’s claims.

### Reasons to use Safari Browser on iOS

iOS users have had good reason to keep an alternative browser around. I still keep iCab Mobile on hand, for all the little things it can do. It has always been like a browsing pocketknife. It really is the only genuinely extensible, standalone browser on iOS. 1 The built-in download manager retains its utility, even as we move into the brave new world of the iOS Files App. For as long as I have been an iOS user, anytime I hit a road block while browsing, I knocked it over with iCab. However, Safari is extensible insofar as iOS itself is extensible. As the operating system has improved, so too have the default apps. Like other native apps, it is the system wide hooks that make it so useful. 2 From handoff, to iCloud synced history, bookmarks and reading list. All of these features are available system wide. Where third-party developers have cottoned on to the beauty of app extensions, iOS has improved out of sight. With Apple taking possession of Workflow, this is only going to get better.

From the more incremental improvements in iOS 10, it is hard to argue that Safari is Apple’s most mature, even its best iOS app. In iOS 11, Safari comes loaded with all kinds of new tricks. Like macOS, there is further control granted to user permissions. Although, it is more clear the influence iOS has had on the Mac. There is also the addition of WebRTC and media capture, and even access to experimental features. Nobody could argue that iOS — the iPhone in particular —hasn’t significantly influenced web technology. One of its most significant achievements is surely that hand it played in burying Flash. I would argue that this trend is going to continue through the extension of new features in Safari.

### Look Again

If, for whatever reason, you have held on to the impression that Safari is a clunky waste of time, trust me it is worth another look. You don’t have to go far to find lingering impressions of the browser are outdated. 3 I know, I was a subscriber to that view. Even for established users, there are new reasons to to use Safari. The changes in macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 are impressive. Apple has found a way to make privacy its point of difference. While I would urge people to see that for what it is, I’m not churlish enough to overlook the way it benefits users. These a big improvements.

1. Despite what other browsers may claim
2. The Notes App is a particularly good example of this.
3. The icon in that link was replaced more than 3 years ago. The browser is unrecognisable from that time.