Project templates in DEVONthink

I keep project information in DEVONthink, organized like so…

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Clients
|->ClientA
|->ClientB
   |->Project One
   |->Project Two
      |->Tasks.taskpaper
      |->README.md

Lately I’ve been adding Labels to indicate status (“In Progress”, “Inactive”) and collecting them into one folder using DEVONthink’s “Smart Groups”. One problem with this is that a project folder named “Website Redesign” doesn’t tell me who the client is when viewed out of context, so I started naming project folders things like “ClientB: Project Two”. Also, the “Tasks.taskpaper” document, opened in TaskPaper, doesn’t show the client name either, so I rename the file to something like “Project Two Tasks.taskpaper”

Of course all that extra typing is exhausting! :)

Long story short, I thought I’d try automating the process a bit.

DEVONthink has a pretty fancy templating system, so I modified the existing “Project” template based on this tip from Jim Neumann. The template contents look like this:

Now, when I want to create a new project, I select the client folder, choose “Data->New from template->Client Project”. I’m prompted for a project name, and the project hierarchy is created for me. The project folder and Taskpaper document are automatically named the way I want them, e.g. “ClientB: Project Three”

I didn’t do this just because I’m lazy (which I am), but it also helps enforce consistency, which I struggle with.