Home | Appendix

|  |  | Placeholders

One of the most powerful features of DEVONthink is the ability to insert data dynamically. A placeholder is a bit of code DEVONthink interprets when used in these scenarios, replacing it with a specific value. You may have an imprint with a Name placeholder defined in the title. When the imprint is used on a PDF, the placeholder is converted to the name of the file! To extend the possibilities even further, you can combine static text and multiple placeholders to achieve truly custom results. You can use these in smart rules and the command Tools > Batch Process, in alarms on Reminders, custom imprints on images and PDFs, and in templates for creating WikiLinks documents. Below is a list of placeholders currently available: Name: The name or title of the file. Proposed Name: A suggested name derived from a document's title or from the first line of the document if no title is present. Aliases: Any aliases applied to the file. Finder Comment: Any Finder comments applied to the file. File Name: The filename in the file system. File Extension: The extension of the file. Kind: The kind of the file, e.g., group or rich text document. URL: The URL in the Info pane. Location: The location in the database; e.g., `/Inbox/Research`. Tags: Tags applied to the file. Digital Object Identifier: The unique digital object identifier of the file, if available. Index: This is a number that increments based on the number of items being processed by a smart rule. Counter: Similar to the Index, this is a zero-padded incrementing number. Amount: This is an amount detected in scanned documents, like receipts or invoices. Bates Number: Inserts a Bates number. Page Count: The total number of pages in the document. Group Name: The name of the group containing the document, e.g., `/001/a/b/myfile.txt` would report b as the group name. Top Group Name: The name of the top level group in the root of the database, e.g., `/001/a/b/myfile.txt` would report 001 as the top group name. Database Name: The name of the database containing the document. Database Path: The filesystem path of the database. Attachments: The number of attachments in a file. Language: An abbreviation of language detected in the document's indexed contents. Country: The country in the geolocation data for a file. Postal Code: The postal code derived from the geolocation data for a file. Administrative Area: This is state, province, or region in the geolocation data for a file. Locality: The city in the geolocation data for a file. Tab: A tab character. Line Break: A line break (return) character for multi-line text. Current Date: Today's date. Addition Date: The date the file added to the database. Creation Date: The date the file was created. Modification Date: The date the document was last modified. Document Date: This is a date detected in the document's contents, e.g., in a receipt. For PDFs only the first four pages are used. Newest/Oldest Document Date: The newest or oldest date detected in the document. For PDFs, only the first four pages are used. When using dates, you can choose the format as defined in System Preferences > Language & Region > Advanced > Dates. The default is the medium format, but you may choose short or long formats as well. You can also choose specific parts of the date or time, e.g., the month, year, or hour only. Clipboard: Inserts content currently on the clipboard. It can be inserted as rich text, plain text, or a link, depending on the type of data and the file the data is inserted into. Predefined Author: This is the Author specified in DEVONthink's Preferences > Editing. Username: The shortname of the current macOS account. Full Username: The longname of the current macOS account. Organization: This is the company name, if defined by the (Me) contact card in macOS Contacts. Email Address: The primary email address, as defined by the (Me) contact card in macOS Contacts. Host: The hostname of the machine. Properties: These are potential metadata properties found in the current file. A more extensive listing of these can be found in the Metadata section. Custom Metadata: This menu lists any custom metadata fields applied to the file.