Adding and Organizing Archival Documents in DEVONthink

Organizing archival PDFs in DEVONthink becomes dramatically more useful once citation data is permanently tied to each document—so later writing can pull footnotes and bibliographies automatically instead of forcing researchers to backtrack through sources. In a walkthrough built around Abraham Work Dots’s papers from the Archives of American Art, the process starts with creating a folder structure, importing the first batch of PDFs, and immediately converting them into fully searchable text so key dates and names can be found with DEVONthink’s search tools.

The first concrete step is practical triage: the archivist creates a subgroup for “Folder 1,” drops in seven PDFs, then renames each file with meaningful identifiers. One PDF is renamed “Dots CV” and annotated with “Circa 1961,” while a tag such as “biography” is applied to support later chronological or thematic searching. A key issue appears right away: although the file is labeled “PDF plus text” (OCR output), it still isn’t searchable inside DEVONthink. The solution is to re-OCR the document so that text can be highlighted and searched—demonstrated by searching for “1889,” which becomes findable only after re-OCR.

Next comes the citation backbone. The workflow uses a custom “super annotation” file—created as part of the DEVONthink for Historians super user materials—that stores the citation metadata needed for Chicago-style references to archival documents. The annotation captures author and title, the archive name and location, and the relevant date (with collection number skipped when the archive doesn’t provide one). It also includes personal research notes, such as a reminder to check specific event dates later. After saving, the researcher exports the super annotation to Bookends, a reference manager, using a provided script that transfers the citation record so it can be used in Microsoft Word.

To make writing faster and more reliable, the workflow adds the Bookends reference ID number directly into each document’s filename. That way, when drafting in Word, citations can be inserted via the Bookends integration using the “squiggly line” citation workflow. The payoff arrives at the end of writing: once claims are linked to the correct archival documents, Bookends can generate complete footnotes and bibliographies, including automatic handling of repeated citations in short form.

Beyond citations, the method is framed as a structured first review of the materials. Renaming, tagging, and writing targeted comments forces a slower look at what each item is and how it might be used later. The result is a database that supports both retrieval (searchable text, tags, and annotations) and writing (citation records that survive file moves, accidental deletions, or assembling documents into smart groups). The presenter notes that while edge cases exist for tricky citations, the super annotation format is positioned as sufficient for most archival documents, with the DEVONthink for Historians super user guide detailing how to set up the custom citation record for other reference managers such as Zotero.