How I use DevonThink - A Lighting Designers view

January 11, 2026 Reading time: 20 minutes

How a stage and television lighting designer uses DevonThink

Over the years, I have used both PC and MAC computers, but for the last 15 years, I have settled on a MAC for work and personal use. When I bought my first MAC I came across DevonThink and found the concept very intriguing, but at the same time confusing. I couldn’t quite get my head around it. It all sounded a bit… well… abstract. I had more questions than answers. I also found it a little clunky, so I gave up. Just like that! I never touched it again. Maybe I was trying to overthink the whole thing. I couldn’t see the wood for the trees as it was actually very simple.

Fast forward to November 2023, and I thought that I’d give DevonThink another go. I downloaded it and installed the trial, but before the trial had ended I purchased the Pro version. Now DevonThink is the heart of how I work and run my work life. So how did this happen?

By trade, I am a stage and television lighting designer. I do many different kinds of shows and events, from small 300-person business conferences to arena-sized music shows, TV and video shoots. The biggest thing about my gig is the paperwork. There can be so much of it. CAD drawings, PDFs, images, photos, and all formats of documents, such as Word, Pages, and spreadsheets. Sometimes, the amount of paperwork for one job can be so overwhelming.

My old method of keeping this stuff in order was to simply create a job folder in Finder with the name of the sho,w and inside the folder, there would be many sub-folders where I would put all the various assets sorted into categories as they came to me. Later, whenever I needed to access a document, I’d either go into the job folder and click through the sub-folders tree until I found what I needed, or use Spotlight to hunt the document down, which didn’t always work as I would expect. Yes, I used tags, aliases, and so on, and this simple method kind of worked, but it was slow, messy, and clumsy.

DevonThink has changed all of that now and has become the real hub of my work, and has converted and improved my workflow, making me think and organise myself with more clarity. Now I can find anything that I need with speed, freeing up time to act on what I was searching for and not having to think too hard about where it is in my file structure.

So, how do I use DevonThink as a stage and television lighting designer?

It took a little thinking through and a leap of faith. I did a lot of YouTube watching and reading on the DevonThink forum. Lots of experimenting was also done. It’s the best way to learn, just keep a backup, that’s all! I wanted to make sure that I understood clearly what DevonThink was all about. With trepidation, I created a database called WORK. In this work group (or folder for simplicity) I created some more groups that relate to my work. These are just generic work folders that contain health and safety docs, first aid, public liability insurance docs, and other insurance documents. I also have manuals for software and lighting equipment manuals in these folders. I started with items that didn’t change very much, important to my work, yes, but not accessed very often. I did a full Files and Folders Import. DevonThink was to become my go-to place, so Indexing Files and Folders was not for me. I didn’t want to use the OSX Finder at all.

Once I had experimented for a while with these folders and files and was happy, I decided to move over all of my work. The jobs that I am currently working on and the jobs coming up in the future. I kept the original folders in Finder for a while until I was happy and that I wasn’t going to mess it up with DevonThink. The paranoia was so much that I ran both methods at the same time until I was absolutely happy. Even then, I zipped up and archived the Finder items and kept them safe for a while longer… Just in case!

After moving some items around and creating new groups, I wanted to automate the process so that when a new job came in, all the groups that I needed, along with a single “Where are we with this job?” document, would be created and populated for me, ready to receive all the documents that would soon come my way.

I started by creating a template that would generate a group of folders for me. I managed to create a template called New Job, which was easy to create within DevonThink and on OSX. So now when I click:

Data/New from template/Classifications/New Job

A new group is created in the Global Inbox that looks like this:

To a non-stage lighting person, this probably looks like nothing, but to me, it makes my work much easier and cleaner, and I can change the template as I go, adding and removing folders as my requirements change.

CADS: is where all the CAD drawings go to
Accommodation: Details about where I’ll be staying for the job. This would be a collection of web links, a reservations pdf, etc. I can stay in many different places on a single job!
Travel: Self-explanatory. How am I getting there? What are the details? Flight, train, and car rental dates and times.
Documents: Spreadsheets and text docs, any document that is a PDF.
Visuals: This is where all the visuals that I have generated for the client’s show or event using my visualisation software are kept.
Finance: All the quotes from equipment suppliers, my costs, crew costs, etc. Anything to do with money!
PDFs: This folder is always the most populated, as in my industry, the PDF is a big deal!
Notes: Any extra notes that I might take or get about the job that I have to deal with much later on.
Kit Lists: An important one this. It has all the equipment that I will spec and use for the job. This can constantly change.
Images and graphics: Photographs of the venue, and images from the client, such as set ideas, logos, etc.
Inbox: Nothing in here yet.
Anything Else: This is where stuff goes that I can’t put away anywhere else for the moment, or needs me to think about it a bit more.
Capture: This is the virtualisation software I use. Many versions of a show go in here. I can create 3D renders for a client and myself that change regularly, so all the files for Capture go in here.

Finally, JOB NAME - Where are we with this Job? This is a rich text document that does what it says. It’s a partially empty document with some basic information that is already in, such as the show name, client name, and dates of the event. Then, under that, I insert the date and time and then add significant notes and details about the job. Changes to the show, key people’s contact details, change of times, etc., etc.

This document is the hub of the job because anywhere within the document, I can place a copy link from any asset in DevonThink, which will then allow me quick access to the ite,m saving me from searching for the asset. This doc gets my daily attention as I have to keep it up to date with new and changing information, and add any other asset link addresses for later use. I boil down all the important information from all the sub-folders of a job into this one document using links and edit it every day. Being able to link to other items in DevonThink in a document is one of the great advantages of using DevonThink, but you do have to keep it up to date for it to be useful.

This New Job template is created in the Global Inbox. All I do is rename the group with the show name and copy that name to the JOB NAME document within the folder, then move the lot to the JOBS group in my WORK group. Now all my jobs are in one folder.

Then the real fun starts. Items such as drawings, CADs, docs, and PDFs come via email, shared or Air Dropped to me. In the old days, I’d just gather this new stuff on my desktop and then file it into the appropriate folders in Finder. Now DevonThink AI does this for me.

I was a little sceptical about this function at first, but I found that the more data I put into DevonThink, the more the AI kicked in and suggested the right folder to put items into. Now, 90% of the time, DevonThink knows which job group and sub-group an item needs to go to. It is rather spooky to watch, but I can tell you it does work.

Each job can have lots of emails and docs. For each attachment or shared item that comes to me, I just put it into the Global Inbox via OCR, and I convert almost everything I can into a searchable PDF. Everything goes in there, but I mean everything. I print nothing, I save nothing in the usual way in Finder. I just sent it to DevonThink. It’s like a “scruffy” unorganised folder where stuff just gets thrown into for sorting later. I didn’t intend to go paperless; it just happened naturally. I have invested in a scanner now, so if I do get given something on paper, I scan it into DevonThink, and I’m done.

So I have all these items in my Global Inbox. When do I clean it up?

This usually happens at the end of the working day. I get a large glass of red wine, and I go through all the items in the Global InBox. As I click each item in the Inbox, the See Also & Classify tab in the inspector suggests where the item should go in my database. First, I read or look at an item and act on it if I need to, and copy the link item into my “Where are we with this?” document. I’m a big fan of tags, so I will tag the item, then click the suggested location in See Also & Classify, and boom, it’s gone to the right group.

When I go to a meeting or an on-site location, I use my iPhone or iPad to recall everything I need to know about the job I’m working on. All at my fingertips and instantly available. No trawling through folders or searching with Spotlight. Using DevonThink To Go, all my jobs and the assets for the jobs are all there. Using an Apple Pencil, I can amend PDFs and schedules, etc. During the meeting, all my new notes get synced back to my MAC for sorting later on. The DevonThink sync function is taken care of using WebDav to my self-hosted Nextcloud instance. It has not let me down yet!

It has taken a bit of trial and error. Reading, watching, and listening to other DevonThink users, but without a doubt, my old cumbersome, messy workflow is now streamlined and easy. I am spending less time looking for stuff; now I’m doing stuff. My creative lighting designs may not have improved, but the way I put a job together and manage it is now at another level.

Now I can’t do without my DevonThink. I am now in the process of moving and administering all my personal stuff. I have created a new database called Personal, and everything not work-related is thrown into it. I write as a hobby, so I have moved my research and writing to DevonThink.

Of course, people have different jobs and have different ways of using DevonThink. My method is no big deal, but I wanted to share how I use this software. Maybe you have spotted another way of doing what I do, or maybe I have given you an idea of how to streamline your work.

Help or harm?

Dj

The end of Rocketbook?

January 11, 2026 Reading time: 6 minutes

How do you like to take notes? Do you prefer using an electronic device like an iPad with an Apple Pencil? Or perhaps you have one of those lovely Remarkable notebooks? Or do you still enjoy the classic way with paper and pen?

 

I mostly use my laptop or phone for everything. I like Apple Notes and DevonThink, but I also love jotting things down quickly with pen and paper.

 

I discovered Rocketbook, the reusable notebook, and decided to give it a shot back in December 2025. I picked up the Fusion legal-sized notebook and a three-pack of Pilot Frixon pens from my local stationery shop—they come in black, blue and red. Very handy! I used the Rocketbook app, which was alright. What really stood out was how well it transcribed my handwriting. My handwriting isn’t perfect, but it got it right about 95% of the time, which was enough to copy the transcribed text into a document I needed to share.

 

Then came the disappointing news that BIC, the company behind the Rocketbook name and IP, was pulling out of support. It’s a shame. Yes, the app will be supported for another year, but what happens then? The books are now available at huge discounts.

 

So, what should I do?

 

Electronic note-taking devices are generally quite good, but what if something goes wrong with the device? You’d have to get it fixed, which can be expensive. What if the battery dies? You’d have to replace it, which isn’t great for the environment either. What if it gets stolen? (How’s your backup working? Is the device locked? Anything private?)

 

The reusable Rocketbook notebook. You can scratch out your notes, take a photo, wipe it clean and start fresh. That’s a pretty good idea. The books are cheap, especially now. You can get the Frixon pens at any stationery shop, well, almost. It’s good for the environment because I only need one book, no batteries or charging to worry about, and no repairs.

 

And what about transcribing my notes? The Rocketbook app was the best in all the tests I did for transcribing my handwriting. I tried the following:

 

CamScanner - Didn’t quite get my notes right.

Adobe Scan - Needs a monthly subscription to transcribe.

Google Lens - Didn’t work for me.

Google Drive - Needed Google Docs, but it just wouldn’t cooperate.

Nextcloud Scan - Gave a good preview, but saving it as the preview was a bit tricky.

Pen to Print - pricey if you didn’t transcribe often.

 

None of these options was perfect, and some features required a subscription. Instead, I took a photo of my notes and uploaded it to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or CoPilot, asking it to transcribe. It was almost spot on, and with ChatGPT, I even got a summary of the notes! It was fantastic. Sure, you might need to pay the chatbot a monthly fee (on ChatGPT, I used four image uploads before my free quota expired for the day), but if you upload lots of images, the bot can do much more than just transcribe your notes.

 

I’m not saying I don’t love electronic note-taking. I use Apple Notes and DevonThink every day at work and in my personal time, but sometimes I prefer writing and being able to jot down notes during meetings instead of typing like a court stenographer. But the reusable notebook is definitely a winner. It’s affordable and good for the environment; what’s not to like?

 

So, if you’re a Rocketbook user and a bit bummed about BIC’s withdrawal, don’t worry! Buy the books—they’re so cheap now. But maybe grab some Pilot Frixon pens from your local stationery shop. Use the Rocketbook app until it’s no longer available, or someone takes over, or just take a photo of your notes, use a chatbot to transcribe them and then copy and paste them wherever you need.

 

 

Is it really the end of the Rocketbook?

A laypersons guide to SSH security

August 20, 2025 Reading time: 19 minutes

How to secure your SSH connections

A simple layperson… yes, that’s me, I'm afraid. I’m not a coder, or a network wizard, or an expert scripter. I'm a hobbyist who enjoys tinkering with computers. I’m just a guy who hosts his own stuff from home using a tool that makes that journey so easy. The tool I use is Yunohost. They have put together a nice system that, for people like me, is easy to deploy, use and maintain. They have an excellent catalogue of applications, which are all packaged for use on their platform. This means that the security of the apps is already taken into account, allowing you to install with peace of mind. There are other systems around that do similar, but I have found the Yunohost system to be the better one (FWIW). I make a monthly contribution because it's worth it. You can see my system and what's in it here.

That's the advert done with, now to the reason for this article.

Despite the excellent YNH offer, the excellent catalogue of apps, and ease of use, sometimes you do have to get your hands dirty, and when I say that, I mean using a terminal application and something called SSH to log in to your system and do admin 'stuff' or even more terrifying, fixes... Gulp!

What does SSH mean?

It means Secure SHell (or Secure Socket Shell). It is a collection of utilities that provides encryption, key authentication and strong passwords. SSH is used by us users (admins) to manage our systems and applications remotely, enabling us to log in over a network, remotely or locally, to execute commands and to fix and add things, move files from one place to another, and so on. It's a bit more technical than that, obviously, but that's the basics of it.

Something you should probably do first... Maybe. If you want. I would!

Once you have successfully installed and tested your new Yunohsot system, change the SSH port number. SSH is one of the most scanned ports used by hackers to get into your system. The default port is 22, so change it to something else; anything above 1024 should do the trick. So, using terminal and log in to your system with:

ssh username@123.123.123.123 (the username you used to install YNH, the numbers are your server's IP address).

Hit return and enter your password; this is the one you set when you installed YNH in the first place.

Now type in, or copy:

yunohost settings set security.ssh.ssh_port -v 1234

The 1234 should be your chosen port number above 1024 that you want to use. If you really fancy getting your hands really dirty, you could do the following in terminal:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

This will open up a Linux editor called Nano, and you will have the SSH configuration file in front of you. Scroll down to the line that says #port 22. Delete the hash symbol (the comment) and enter a new port number so it will now say port 1234, the number of the port that you want to use. This method will require a restart of the SSH service, which you can do in the YNH GUI under Services, or while you are here in terminal type:

sudo systemctl restart ssh

However, if you want to keep things nice and simple, use the command yunohost settings set security.ssh.ssh_port -v 1234, which will keep things in order for you.

Some folk will probably say don't bother changing the port number if SSH is not forwarded on your router to your server, but whatever, I'd change it. You do have to remember the port number, though, when entering some commands that require SSH access, like logging in using terminal in the future. You will need to enter the port number prefixed with a -p. We shall see that later.

So once you have changed your port number and restarted the SSH service, instead of logging in with:

ssh username@123.123.123.123, you will now need, ssh -p1234 username@123.123.123.123

To be or not to be...

Ask yourself this question. Do I want to access my system via SSH inside my local network, outside or both? Don't be afraid to access your system outside of your network; you just have to think about a few extra things to stay secure.

Here is a little cut-out and keep table of your options and what you should consider.

ACCESS	PORT FORWARDING	ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGE
Internal only	Not required	Your SSH port won't be found when scanned by hackers.	If you are away and need to fix something, you can't. Sorry.
External Only	Required	You can do some work on your server. Excellent.	Your SSH port number (22) is exposed. Good job, you changed it!

Personally, I want both. So I have a Raspberry Pi with a VPN server installed on it. Many places on the internet tell you how to install a vpn on a Pi and how to include it in your network. Once you have installed the vpn server, you only need a vpn client on your device(s). I use WireGuard on all my devices. If I need to do anything, I just fire up Wireguard, make the connection and open a terminal app and log in using my username and password. Everything appears to me as local, as if I am in my living room or kitchen with a cup of tea by using: ssh -p1234 username@123.123.123.123 (Yes, I changed my port number, so I need to remember the -p switch and use -p1234.

Can I be even more secure?

So far, we have been using SSH using a username and password for authentication, whether we are local or remote. (IP address when local, domain names when we are remote, unless you are using a vpn, then it's local.) There is another level of security I have recently tried called Key Authentication. This is a process of generating encrypted public and private keys, one on the server and one on a device that you will use to access your server. When you attempt to log in, if the keys match, you get in; if they don't match, you can't. If you lose your device or it gets corrupted, then you are effectively locked out of your server, but there are backdoor ways to get back in and reset. You'll need a monitor and keyboard connected to your server. More on that later.

So let's assume that for this example, we want to access our server, called myserver.com, remotely. We have changed the default port number for SSH from 22 to 1234. We have configured our modem's firewall to port forward SSH 1234 to our server's IP address. When we open a terminal in the coffee shop down the road and type:

ssh -p1234 username@myserver.com

Followed by the password. We now have our server in front of us, and we can do some stuff. But what happens if we are snooped on, wifi sniffed, our credentials compromised or found, whatever...? We can set up our device or devices to use an authentication key so that only those devices can access the server. Let's just do one device for now, a MacBook Pro 16.

Open up a terminal session on your MacBook Pro 16 (other computer manufacturers and models are available!) and type the following:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C device_name Here the device name will be macbook16 so:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C macbook16

When you hit enter, you will be given a path name to save to. Accept it as it is, just hit return. You will then be asked for a passphrase, which is just another word for a password. You could just not bother and hit return, but I'd advise you to set one. Make it a good one, a long one, so long you need a password manager app to remember it. Again, some may say you don't need it, but what if someone gets a hold of your device? You will be asked to confirm the passphrase.

Your device will now create two keys, a private one and a public one. We need to copy the public keys to our home server with:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub username@myserver.com

Hit return. Oh no, you got a connection error. Hmmm. This command assumes that you are using port 22 for SSH, but we have changed it to 1234. Remember that little -p switch? So now type:

ssh-copy-id -i -p1234 ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub username@myserver.com

That's it. Done. Close all your terminal sessions, and log in using,

ssh -p1234 username@myserver.com 

Now you will be asked for your passphrase and not your password. Enter your passphrase. If you get the server prompt, then the key authorisation for your MacBook Pro 16 to your server works. You still have the old method of logging in using your username and password. We can turn that off so that you can only use key authentication on your MacBook Pro. To turn this off, again, whilst in terminal type:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

You will have probably been here before if you chose to change your SSH port using Nano, the Linux text editor. Scroll down the open file and find the lines:

PasswordAuthentication yes and edit this line by changing the yes to a... no, so now it will read:

PasswordAuthentication no

Also, change the line:

PermitRootLogin yes to no

Save the file and exit. Again, you will have to restart the SSH service through the web GUI, or while you are in terminal type:

sudo systemctl restart ssh

You are all done. Access to your server at home can only be done with your MacBook, remotely. However, can you see the problem here? Your MacBook craps out, breaks down, gets stolen, whatever... You can no longer access your server. You have turned off the username/password method of getting access in favour of key authentication. What do you do?

If you want to use key authentication only, then just repeat the above steps on other devices, iPhone, iPads, Android, and just change the "device name" to the device name you are adding. You can use one key for all, but don't, just don't do it. Create a key for each device. It's safer and easier. You will be able to get access if you lose one device by using another.

Help...! I can't log in. My server is 'bricked"

So you have lost all your devices, or the key authentication process is just not authenticating anymore. How do we get access to our server and reset back to logging in using a username and password? This is where, when you get back home, you get the keyboard and monitor out. Plug them in and log in as admin locally, and let's turn back on password authentication with:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change the lines:

PasswordAuthentication yes 

PasswordAuthentication yes

Restart the SSH service with:

sudo systemctl restart ssh

Now you can reset or recopy your keys from your device as we did above. Of course, if you are using a VPS, then you will have to use the provider's console to do the above.

Basic Security Tips

These are not in any order or preference, so take your pick of either or a combination of:

• The easiest one is to use SSH locally only, take the port off your router, so no port forwarding.
• Change the port number for SSH.
• Recycle passwords every few months.
• Use key authentication on more than one device.
• Keep your admin group small.
• Use a VPN on a Pi to log in remotely.

There are probably more things you can do, like check that Fail2ban is working and so on.

I told you that this was a layman's guide, so I might have got one or two things wrong. Please let me know. I'm trying to make this easy for those of us who have had difficulty understanding and securing SSH and using Key Authentication.

There is, however, excellent documentation on SSH and key authentication at the Yunohost website, which, of course, should be the definitive guide rather than my 'Janet & John", ABC version. I only write from experience, trial and error.

dj

Why self host...?

August 11, 2025 Reading time: 8 minutes

Why bother?

There are many reasons. For me, it's a hobby, but it might be different for you, of course. I have also become more resistant over time to letting big corporations be responsible for my data. How many times have you heard that such and such has been hacked? Of course, that can happen to anyone self-hosting as well, but at least I will be responsible for any loss. I can also react quicker and shut it all off, and as long as I have a backup, I can rebuild and be up and running again quite quickly.

So, what do I self-host, and how did it come about?

Back in the day, my email was hosted by FastMail and my files by SugarSync. Ah, those were the days. To be fair to them both, they were never hacked while I was with them, but I quite liked the idea of having everything under my control, files, photos and music, but how? I'd heard and seen a demo of OwnCloud. It was a file-sharing and sync server; it was in its infancy at the time and a pain to get and to keep going. 

I invested in a QNAP NAS, a small but slow one to start with. It was quite good and did more or less what I needed. I could store and share my own files and photos, and music, but my email was still with FastMail. The slow speed of the server started to become a pain, so I upgraded to a larger, faster model. Now we were talking. It was a much better experience. I also had a slow Raspberry Pi that ran the file sharing and application suite, Nextcloud. Again, Nextcloud was a bit troublesome, but it soon made rapid improvements. It’s just that the Pi could not keep up with the demand of Nextcloud, and I found it offline more than on.

While on a trip, I was searching the internet for self-hosting solutions and discovered, by accident, a community of people that had put together a self-hosting server called Yunohost. A bit of an odd name, but it had a good application catalogue that included Nextcloud for files, Piwigo for photos and Navidrome for music. 

My new fast QNAP NAS came with an app called Virtualisation Station, which allowed you to install a full operating system in its own container. Interesting, I thought, and installed Yunohost into a container and set it up to speak to the outside world. It was a eureka moment. It was quick and very stable, and very soon I had Nextcloud working and usable. Next, I moved my website over, which was easy to do; all I had to do now was move my email over. A scary thought indeed. 

With the fantastic help of the Yunohost community and some fiddling with DNS records at my domain registrar, I was off and running. Now I had everything I needed, working from a small server in my garage at home. Excellent… until… I was hacked! There were a bunch of hackers that had been targeting QNAP NAS machines online, and mine was one of them. I was locked out with ransomware. My blood turned cold when I logged into the server and saw the message. Fortunately, the container that my new test server was in was isolated from the ransomware that had changed the file name of every file on the system, but the isolated server within the server was still clean, and I had a backup, but everything else was gone; the backup was 4 weeks out of date. No way was I going to pay £530 in bitcoin to release my files. Instead, I wiped the QNAP NAS clean and sold it. I couldn’t wait to get it out of the house; never again will I buy a QNAP product.

The next day, I bought a small form factor desktop computer on Amazon, installed Yunohost and restored from my backup. Since that day, five years ago, I have had a flawless system; only once was I hacked with some porn on my photo server, and that was my fault and was quickly fixed.

Pros and Cons

So what are the pros of self-hosting?

• The obvious one is that you are in control of your data.
• If you do the right thing, your data will be safe.
• Cheaper. Online service providers are charging more and more each year to host your stuff. Sure, there are free services, but they are not really free.

...and the cons?

• Power outages that are out of your control. UPS? Backup?
• You must keep the system up to date to avoid security breaches.
• Keep the server apps up to date.
• Don’t forget to backup.
  • If the system fails, you will need to recover from it.
  • If you are hacked, you will need to recover from it. Make sure that the apps are set up correctly and understand permissions. Again, porn was dumped on my photo server due to bad permissions. I’ve learnt since!!!
• You’ll need an understanding of how the internet works; things like DNS and DNS records will suddenly become a new thing for you to learn and understand.

Is it really worth it?

If you have the time, do some preliminary research and try a bit of trial and error work, then yes, it is worth it. My server runs smoothly, is backed up every day, and is updated weekly. I have several websites on my server, including photo galleries, file storage and sharing, as well as a large music library. Sure, I have faced a few ups and downs, but with some reading and help from the community, I have been up and running within a couple of hours. You will also gain a good understanding of how networks and the internet work. It's very rewarding to know that everything is under your control and knowledge. You don't need to know too much, but the more you learn, the more beneficial it is to keep your homelab server running.

My Yunohost Homelab

Have a look at my set-up at digitalcarnage.co.uk, and if you have any questions, do reach out 

dj

Personal Knowledge Management

August 11, 2025 Reading time: 17 minutes

Taking notes, good old pen and paper, or electronic?

PKM - Personal Knowledge Management, can mean anything from how we take notes to how we sort them out and file them with supporting documents and objects. Are you a pen and paper person, a notebook person with bits of paper shoved in between pages, stapled items to pages, folded pages or paper with a pen and a highlighter? It's all PKM. These days, we all seem to have more and more information and notes that we need to consolidate in one place, and be able to access at a moment's notice.

Your pen and paper may work perfectly well for you, so why should you change? There are a few computer applications that can help, but are they just a hammer to crack a nut? Are they necessary?  Here is a personal reflection on my work. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to take and file notes; it's like telling someone whether their shirt should be tucked in or not. The shirt is on, that's it. A poor analogy, but you get the idea. Here are a few examples, not in any order, you understand:

I'm a stage lighting designer, so I have different clients with different needs, crew lists, kit lists and venues all different, some cross over to and from different jobs, so I need to be able to keep track of them, and sometimes they link together. This conversation can be cut short now if you have a look at my article about Devonthink. I'm a big, big fan of this application. I dipped in and out of it for a while, but I have committed to it now and find it almost indispensable for the work I do.

Having said that, I have recently come across a new application called Capacities. It's very similar to Devonthink, though not as powerful, but it looks better and is easier to navigate than Devonthink.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of their key differences:

Feature / Mindset	Capacities 🧠	DEVONthink 📚
Purpose	Grow and connect ideas	Store, organise, and search documents
Data Type Focus	Notes, images, links, concepts	PDFs, scans, documents, email, media
Core Strength	Linking concepts into a network	Advanced search, tagging, OCR
Where Data Lives	Cloud only	Local-first with optional sync
Access	Cross-platform (web, Mac, win, iOS, Android)	macOS + iOS only
Offline Use	Yes	Yes
AI Use	Summarisation, idea linking	Smart classification & search
Best For	Creative thinkers, writers, and content planners	Researchers, archivists, lawyers, academics
Metaphor	Digital “second brain”	Private “personal library”

You can use the two in combination with each other, which I do, but really, it's a bit pointless. I need to come down to one or the other. They both have excellent AI functions, with Capacities doing the job better, I think. As a self-hoster, I sync Devonthink between my devices via my self-hosted Nextcloud instance. Capacities, however, is hosted and synced through Capacities in Germany. Despite that small detail, I think my preference is leaning more towards Capacities, if only you can sync through WebDAV. They both lack a good calendar and contact plugin. Capacites can use your Google or Office 365 contacts and calendar, but I'd like to see CalDAV/cardDAV support, again for us self-hosters!

The other compelling reason for using Capacities is that notes or objects are linked. There are no folders, groups or hierarchy; you just create an "object" and then link them together with tags or groups as collections or queries. It all works very smoothly and efficiently.

Here is a list of applications that do PKM and journaling.

📒 Note-taking & Writing

• Obsidian – Local markdown files, powerful linking, plugins, great for “second brain” setups.

• Logseq – Local-first, outline-based, daily notes, backlinks, and graph view.

• Roam Research – Popular for networked thought and daily notes, cloud-based.

• Notion – Flexible database-style system with pages, embeds, and collaboration.

• Evernote – Classic note-taking app with web clipping, tagging, and search.

• Apple Notes – Simple, synced across Apple devices.

• Google Keep – Sticky-note style, fast and minimal.

📚 Research & Knowledge Curation

• DEVONthink – Mac/iOS powerhouse for storing, tagging, and searching documents.

• Zotero – Reference manager for academics and researchers.

• Mem – AI-driven note management and linking.

📅 Daily Planning & Journaling

• Day One – Rich journaling app with media support.

• Reflect – Daily journaling with backlinks.

• Capacities – Combines objects, notes, and tasks into one graph-based PKM system.

• Trilium Notes - Daily journaling with backlinks.

📂 Plain Text & Markdown Lovers

• Joplin – Open source, cross-platform markdown notes, sync options.

• Standard Notes – Encrypted notes with extensions.

• TiddlyWiki – Self-contained personal wiki in a single HTML file.

Out of the above, I have tried:

Obsidian, Notion, Evernote, Apple Notes, Joplin, Capacities, Devonthink, Standard Notes, Trilium and TiddlyWiki.

Comments on the above:

Obsidian - Couldn't get my head around it. Uses markdown. Hate markdown!!! Sorry if you are a user!

Notion - Similar to Capacities, but a bit more 'faffy'. Nice though.

Evernote - I used to subscribe to this app when it first came on the scene. Not mad on it now.

Apple Notes - Excellent. Use on its own or in conjunction with Devonthink and Capacities.

Joplin - Excellent app which can host yourself. A bit boring to look at, but easy to use.

Capacites - Love it!

Devonthink - Love it!

Standard Notes - Very nice, but expensive for what it does. I used to self-host this server and use the app, but the support for self-hosters stopped. Shame that.

Trilium - A very nice PKM that you can host yourself. Very fast and responsive.

TiddlyWiki - Very nice app that you can self-host. Uses your browser to store and secure your notes.

Final note. I can't be doing with Markdown. What's it for...?