When a website creates an ugly PDF…how to fix in DevonThink

So I’ve gone pretty much all in on DevonThink 3. David Sparks said on one of his podcasts something to the effect of, “I had DevonThink 2, but I wasn’t sure how to use it. Now I’m all in on version 3.” ^[1]Not a direct quote, and he’s talked about DevonThink on several different podcasts. So, consider that a rough paraphrase. That reflects my experience as well. At this point, I have at least 25 databases in DevonThink that include everything from notes on accessibility to vocal training exercises. ^[2] Don’t judge. I know that some people will throw everything into one database. And there’s an argument to be made for that. However, it helps *me* to keep things straight… But that’s not what this post is about. I’ll include more about the why and how DevonThink is useful in other posts on the website. I’ll just say here that DevonThink is one good reason to have a Mac, and in all seriousness, I did ask on job interviews whether I’d be allowed to have a Mac as part of my questions. Fortunately, I’m in a field where using Macs isn’t really questioned, but many college campuses are PC-dominant for the most part, and one sometimes has to make an argument for using a Mac.

There are some websites that can create ugly printouts because of the CSS (cascading style sheets) that the website uses (I won’t mention any names… Faculty Focus…). And some in particular are so bad that the widgets used on the website bleed over into the content. This will take a little explanation before I tell you the trick, but you may learn something about all the different ways to get content into DevonThink in the meantime.

There are several ways to save a particular webpage into DevonThink:

• Print to PDF. MacOS, iOS and iPadOS have various ways of doing this without having to resort to the next option. You then use the share sheet to get the PDF into DevonThink. In iOS and iPadOS, you can select the database from the share sheet menu. Otherwise, drag and drop the PDF from Finder, Forklift, or your favorite file utility into the desired database.
• Print to Adobe Acrobat. You can get this from the System Print Dialog if you have Acrobat Standard or Pro. You can then use the share sheet to get the PDF into DevonThink, or drag and drop from Finder, Forklift, or any other file utility.
• Save PDF to DevonThink. You can get this from the System Print Dialog. The PDF will then go into the general inbox.
• Web Archive. Please don’t use this. I’ll tell you why below.
• Web Internet Location (Also known as a bookmark). Again, please don’t use this…I’ll tell you why below, but using it led to this solution.

The first three options are perfectly reasonable, and lead to PDF’s that you can store and won’t change. That’s the whole point of PDF, right? Print to PDF and Save PDF to DevonThink will likely still need to go through Acrobat Pro if you really want an accessible PDF, but we’ll save the details of making those PDF’s accessible for another time….

The last two options aren’t good because they rely on the website being active. If you’re a researcher or academic, you can’t take that chance. You want to make sure you have a stable copy. But, occasionally, a website on the iPadOS version of DevonThink to Go only gives you a bookmark or web archive option. This is where you want to go back to your desktop/laptop and change the bookmark or web archive to a PDF.

Here’s where the trick comes in, and this trick does require the desktop version. If you saved the file as a bookmark, and then right/option-click on the bookmark, you’ll get a long menu of options. What you want here is the Convert option – then convert to a paginated PDF.

Here’s what happens with the first three options I mentioned above: the second page of my practice URL was intentionally not converted to an accessible PDF. For those who are reading my website through a screen reader, let me try to convey the horror of this page. There are repeating elements at the top of each of the PDF pages: a link to the homepage (in blue, that overstrikes the first line of the page), the “hamburger” three line menu, a “sign up” graphic, a share graphic, a search icon, and the URL of the signup link. All of those overlay the text. An absolute mess.

However, if you convert to a paginated PDF, it actually works. I didn’t include the full PDF because (a) copyright, and (b) what I’m trying to show doesn’t need the full PDF – just the top of a page. The page itself still needs a LOT of help in order to become accessible. Adobe Acrobat found 20 problems, and I’m pretty sure there are more than 20 problems on the page itself — I didn’t check it in Access for All’s Free Accessibility PDF checker. But, for a sighted user, this page is at least usable. It’s not great (what’s up with the gray text on the top right hand graphic?). But at least it’s more usable than the first example.

TL;DR: If you find that a PDF is coming out all garbled when it’s imported into DevonThink, try the convert to paginated PDF option. You might be pleasantly surprised.

PS: Bonus hint: the educational discount for DevonThink is 25%. But if you order at the beginning of September, they’ve been known to offer a 40% educational discount. There’s also a 25% discount during the annual Winterfest sale that also includes a variety of utilities from various companies, and you don’t have to be an educator to get the discount during Winterfest. I’ll list in a separate post some other places to learn about DevonThink. There are differences between DevonThink and DevonThink Pro – for me, the main differences include having optical character recognition available in DevonThink directly, being able to scan directly into DevonThink, and grouping similar items together – which is the function that I use the most (I can have different groups in each database). I know that the price difference is pretty significant, but here’s how I look at it: DevonThink is where many copies of articles and research for my classes live. DevonThink allows me to export those files at any time into other formats; I’m not locked in to DevonThink. And with the iOS app (an extra cost, to be sure), I can have everything synced to my iPad as well. So I can prep for classes, work on articles, or refresh my memory on certain tasks/ideas anywhere I go. Having awesome search capabilities, OCR access, and groups makes the application worth it for me.