Hard-copy storage
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I use a vertical storage system, chronologically sorted. When the file begins to tilt, I start a new one to prevent the tilt from becoming a topple. Once the area of "files" exceeds the size of the room allocated to them, I do a sort and purge operation to cull out items that are no longer critical, or have become moot. A dumpster is often helpful in this process.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Sometimes that's the only way anyone remembers projects that never fully materialized. They ended up on the bottom of the pile. What's really bad is when paper sits for too long it starts to smell "old". Time to pull the recycle bin over to my desk and start purging. (Sounds like Bolemia X| )
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I'm leaning toward that. Do File - Save As from the browser to get an offline copy of web pages. Create shortcuts to other documents. Organize however necessary. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking about a small database as an enhancement to using explorer. It might be time for another article. (It's been years since I wrote one) This all started because I'm getting an office of my own at work :-\ and they have given me a choice of shelves or drawers (5 drawer lateral file cabinet). What I really want is both, but there isn't room. :( At home I have a shelf over a smaller file cabinet and it works well, but I don't have stacks of printouts there.
If you are using firefox, check out the extension "scrapbook" http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/[^] It gives you a one-click offline copy, and can optionally crawl x levels deep if you want. has pretty good search and annotation features too. Highly reccommeneded! If you aren't using firefox... then WTF are you doing!! download it NOW!! :-D
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Different people have different styles. What I'm looking for is ideas. I work on many different projects. I tend to start gathering pieces of information long before actual coding begins. This includes gathering information about similar programs, useful articles etc. What I end up with is several piles on my desk, one for each project as well as a growing "future reference" file. Sometimes I get organized and put some into file folders, or large projects get a notebook. My problem is, that it's very difficult to keep track of everything. How do you guys keep track of documentation? Brad
I used several different ways. Both software or a special folder. Nothing worked for me until I followed a different organization. Instead of having one storage for all of my researches, all information related to a project, namely reasearches about that project, are stored in one place. Each time I have a new job, I create a new folder with a proper name for the job in my WindowsProjects folder, inside which my visual studio project folder exist either so I have one big folder for each job. Inside the folder you can find a project folder, a picture folder, a research folder, a notes text document, todo list software storage file, etc. The research folder mostly contains a web sub folder inside which are html and downloads sub folders. This way I never search for anything related to a project, I never ask myself where should a page go, etc. It's still folders but I think it's much easier to keep track of them.
"In the end it's a little boy expressing himself." Yanni
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Good points! toner, paper, time Oh wait! I know! I WANT ONE! - better not tell them this too early.
Yeah it kinda sucks when the reasons you want one are the same reasons that will help make you more efficient; and you have to keep the word 'want' out of the explanation to the boss :laugh:
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
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Okay, how about telling him it will make you 1/3 more efficient. This is what I have experienced - however what I did is I bought in my own second monitor. There is no question, in my experience, that any serious developer needs 2 monitors - one to read the specification/look at output on and one to code on. It takes a little bit of getting used to the extra monitor i.e. actually making use of it and once you do you will never want to look back. Just think of all that toner, paper, walking to the printer, switching back and forth between screens that you will save with a second monitor.
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
GuyThiebaut wrote:
however what I did is I bought in my own second monitor.
I've got two, but looking at buying my own third one. :)
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GuyThiebaut wrote:
however what I did is I bought in my own second monitor.
I've got two, but looking at buying my own third one. :)
Wow you could play racing/simulation games with all round views ;)
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
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Any additional arguments I can use to convince the boss I need a second monitor? I've tried showing GUI debugging as well as creating and reading documentation while in whatever application I've been working on, but he's just said to switch tasks. I'd love to find a good cost justification for a second monitor. Without having one, anything I say about time saved etc is just a guesstimate and ignored by the penny pinchers. Thanks
Brad Bruce wrote:
Any additional arguments I can use to convince the boss I need a second monitor?
Surely no manager can be that stupid? Ok maybe :) Second monitors are mandatory for developers here, they are considered as important as a mouse over just a keyboard. Note: Might be worth trying to justify keeping your manager to his boss.....
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Yeah it kinda sucks when the reasons you want one are the same reasons that will help make you more efficient; and you have to keep the word 'want' out of the explanation to the boss :laugh:
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
The increase in efficiency of having two (or more) monitors has been known for some time. Tell your boss to read the study by NEC-Mitsubishi, ATI and University of Utah (see a reference to it here http://features.cgsociety.org/story.php?story_id=1674[^]), also there's lots of anecdotal evidence like this http://blog.alecsatin.com/2008/06/two-monitors-are-better-than-one-for-efficiency-that-is.html[^]. And tell him the extra work you'll do will pay for the monitor in two months! Derek
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I use a notebook and a 3 ring binder for each project. When I do print out documents, I usually only print out the material I need on hand at the moment and promptly put them in the binder. This helps me with the piles.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
This helps me with the piles.
Erm....hope you're sitting comfortably...
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I'm leaning toward that. Do File - Save As from the browser to get an offline copy of web pages. Create shortcuts to other documents. Organize however necessary. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking about a small database as an enhancement to using explorer. It might be time for another article. (It's been years since I wrote one) This all started because I'm getting an office of my own at work :-\ and they have given me a choice of shelves or drawers (5 drawer lateral file cabinet). What I really want is both, but there isn't room. :( At home I have a shelf over a smaller file cabinet and it works well, but I don't have stacks of printouts there.
I also keep some electronic documentation checked into SourceSafe (I know, I know). It makes a dandy collection point for documents, and since it's centrally backed up, fairly secure as well.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
1 binder, 1 project. Sort of like 1 Ranger, 1 riot.
Best wishes, Hans
[CodeProject Forum Guidelines] [How To Ask A Question] [My Articles]
Hans Dietrich wrote:
1 Ranger, 1 riot
Friday by Robert Heinlein.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
If you are using firefox, check out the extension "scrapbook" http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/[^] It gives you a one-click offline copy, and can optionally crawl x levels deep if you want. has pretty good search and annotation features too. Highly reccommeneded! If you aren't using firefox... then WTF are you doing!! download it NOW!! :-D
I feel ya bro. Our office has a 'Microcrap' only policy :wtf: so FireFox is out. At home though I run with the Fox, baby! It rocks. :cool: I really like the add-on aspect of FireFox; it has such a huge list of cool feature progs to tack on it, and they all seem to work so well. This is what a browser has always supposed to be !
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Different people have different styles. What I'm looking for is ideas. I work on many different projects. I tend to start gathering pieces of information long before actual coding begins. This includes gathering information about similar programs, useful articles etc. What I end up with is several piles on my desk, one for each project as well as a growing "future reference" file. Sometimes I get organized and put some into file folders, or large projects get a notebook. My problem is, that it's very difficult to keep track of everything. How do you guys keep track of documentation? Brad
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Any additional arguments I can use to convince the boss I need a second monitor? I've tried showing GUI debugging as well as creating and reading documentation while in whatever application I've been working on, but he's just said to switch tasks. I'd love to find a good cost justification for a second monitor. Without having one, anything I say about time saved etc is just a guesstimate and ignored by the penny pinchers. Thanks
Poke around on NEC's website, they've got at least one whitepaper on the subject somewhere.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Poke around on NEC's website, they've got at least one whitepaper on the subject somewhere.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
Oh man! I WANT THIS http://www.necunifiedsolutions.com/main/Products/ProProduct.asp?catid=29&prodid=340[^] That would be cool! Imagine that on a tablet pc!
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Good points! toner, paper, time Oh wait! I know! I WANT ONE! - better not tell them this too early.
I also forgot to mention one of the most important tools I use: Agent Ransack A freeware program that is the fastest searching utility I have come across (it accepts regular expressions as well). I have found it to be invaluable for searching for files and text within files.
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
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Different people have different styles. What I'm looking for is ideas. I work on many different projects. I tend to start gathering pieces of information long before actual coding begins. This includes gathering information about similar programs, useful articles etc. What I end up with is several piles on my desk, one for each project as well as a growing "future reference" file. Sometimes I get organized and put some into file folders, or large projects get a notebook. My problem is, that it's very difficult to keep track of everything. How do you guys keep track of documentation? Brad
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If you are using firefox, check out the extension "scrapbook" http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/[^] It gives you a one-click offline copy, and can optionally crawl x levels deep if you want. has pretty good search and annotation features too. Highly reccommeneded! If you aren't using firefox... then WTF are you doing!! download it NOW!! :-D
Johnno74 wrote:
If you are using firefox, check out the extension "scrapbook"
There's one for IE here (Standard & Pro versions): http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/Inquiry_Standard_Edition.htm[^] http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/mpProducts_Detail.asp?id=30[^] Rich
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I'm leaning toward that. Do File - Save As from the browser to get an offline copy of web pages. Create shortcuts to other documents. Organize however necessary. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking about a small database as an enhancement to using explorer. It might be time for another article. (It's been years since I wrote one) This all started because I'm getting an office of my own at work :-\ and they have given me a choice of shelves or drawers (5 drawer lateral file cabinet). What I really want is both, but there isn't room. :( At home I have a shelf over a smaller file cabinet and it works well, but I don't have stacks of printouts there.
About your database app you mentioned building. . .I started something in MS Access to simply store items with a url, keywords, description so I can at least search for it later. I learned about, but haven't tried Endnote and now, thanks to your posting and the replies, other products. I will try Evernote. How has it worked for you so far? Thanks to all the posters with suggestions.