Synchronize Simplenote with a "Notes" group in DEVONthink

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I use Simplenote and the Simplenote sync service all the time, and I recently decided I'd like all my notes to be archived for searching and sorting in DEVONthink Pro Office. Now I can take notes on my iPhone in Simplenote, or on my laptop with Notational Velocity, and everything is automatically stored in a particular group in DEVONthink Pro Office while avoiding the Global Inbox and not requiring any further manual organization from me. The tools I used to accomplish this are:

Notational Velocity
Hazel
Automator
DEVONthink Pro Office

1. Set up synchronization in Notational Velocity's preferences. Also, make sure Notational Velocity is set up to read notes from folder "Notational Data" (or whatever folder you choose). Under the "Storage" tab of the Notes pane in NV's preferences, set it to store and read notes on disk as "Plain Text Files".

2. Create an Automator workflow. Here's mine:

Get Selected Finder Items
Set Current Group (a DEVONthink Pro Office automator action).
Choose the database you want, and group you want. I've got a "Notes" group inside a "Resources" database that I chose.
Add Items to Current Group

3. Make a Hazel rule for the folder "Notational Data". Mine looks like this:

If all of the following conditions are met for the file or folder being matched:
Date Last Modified - is after - Date Last Matched
Name - is not - Interim Note-Changes
Current Time - is at - 5:00 AM

Do the following to the matched file or folder:
Run Automator workflow - {Automator workflow created earlier}

I set the "Current Time" setting so that it doesn't add the files at a time when I'm in the middle of adding notes in Notational Velocity, disrupting my workflow. You could set this on your home computer to a time when you'd be away at work, to synchronize all the notes you take away from your computer if you'd like, but since I work from home, I set it to a time when I'd (hopefully) be asleep.

You could also create different Hazel rules based on different key words used in the notes, and create a separate Automator workflow for each rule to organize each keyworded note into a different group if you wanted to get real fancy.

Hope someone else will be able to use this bit of advice!
ferdinandcc
 
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Joined: Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:55 am

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