Do you know any good, free, desktop document management?
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Damn, this looks good. Going to try it out. :thumbsup:
Yep - couldn't do my work without it nowadays. If you have a paranoid IT security department then Mythicsoft have rebranded it and called it FileLocator Lite - one place I worked at the IT support manager took one look at the name and said "There is no way I am letting you install software with a name of AgentRansack!" :rolleyes:
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Damn, this looks good. Going to try it out. :thumbsup:
It is good! :thumbsup:
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
You're obviously talking about using a library system that's based on meta-data, rather than a hierarchical directory system, so it's likely that you're asking the question in the wrong place -- us devs like our hierarchical directory thingies. The problem is that you want a "desktop" DMS, and it might be hard to find one that both meets your needs AND is not an absolute PITA to maintain. However, you could just install Joomla, or similar, on your local machine, and only use it on your local machine. There are no laws that say that a DMS system has to be on a dedicated server, so you can simply 127.0.0.0 everything.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
Echoing the others, write your own. :-D I have a similar problem and have loosely specced an outline for my own needs. One day I'll actually get around to writing it... For the time being I keep documents/files/notes/whatever in a folder hierarchy. This actually works surprisingly well, as long as I remember to make the effort to files things properly (including occasionally adding keywords for indexing, see below). In addition, I use Windows Search to index content (and metadata, where possible). This works exceptionally well. Windows Search is maligned by many but, for me, it's a fast, very capable and potentially extensible document content indexer. It just works. (I'm on Windows 10 but Windows Search works similarly on Windows 7).
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
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Roll your own.
Rolling his own solution is probably not feasible. The OP is running a startup, he probably does not have time to do extraneous programming.
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On windows, before you build your own document management system or something, "well organized folder structure + meaningful filename + a small app called Everything" really saved me a whole bunch of time
I recommend UltraSearch software. Extremely fast searches for arbitrary words in less than 15 seconds on your entire hard drive with a very simple interface. UltraSearch finds files and folders on local NTFS drives and provides the results including a file preview in just a few seconds. The free tool is available in German, English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
Behzad Sedighzadeh wrote:
I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder.
This is EXACTLY the way a good document management system works: each of your indexed values (document type, customer, date, etc.) is a "tag" and is searchable. Your result set for a search is the subset which lies at the intersection of each individual field's query. Hierarchies are of limited use when trying to find a particular document, and require much greater human time performing such search when a "tagging" technique leverages the computer's time to do the search. I also understand the value of buying a package that meets 80-90% of your needs rather than spending vast quantities of time building something that is not directly profiting your business. I don't know which bundled systems would be inexpensive enough for a small business; I have worked with enterprise level document management systems. Currently, my company uses DocuWare, but I don't know if they have an affordable version. Good luck on your search.
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
Windows Search would seem to be the path of least resistance while allowing humans to be human (not break when you forget to tag with the correct word(s) or organize something properly to fit a strict rule). Full text search of common document formats is a capability as well, likely a big plus.
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
What I use for this is Microsoft OneNote. Set up your categorization system in OneNote, then drag and drop the documents into new pages. You can drag the file right into the database, or "print" it into the database. I have been using OneNote to track important documents for years now, it works splendidly.
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
Actually, I am about two thirds done with the exact type of software you are looking for. My desktop document management system currently stores WORD (doc, docx) documents, PDFs, and TEXT. I was told by some people in the field that no one would be interested in such a software tool. But here you are. It probably wouldn't take all that long for me to finish the application. Let me know if you are interested... :)
Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
doesn’t windows 7 have tags? I think you can tag any file and search for it that way. It supports multiple tags iirc.
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Office 365 - Sharepoint Online?
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I recommend UltraSearch software. Extremely fast searches for arbitrary words in less than 15 seconds on your entire hard drive with a very simple interface. UltraSearch finds files and folders on local NTFS drives and provides the results including a file preview in just a few seconds. The free tool is available in German, English, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
If nobody didn't suggest it yet, a nice idea you can start from is Johnny.Decimal approach.
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You might be able to get .dan.g.'s excellent ToDoList to do the job, as you can insert file links in comments. But it might be a bit awkward - I don't know. Did you google "file tagging"? A tabbles.net option comes up that isn't free, that looks decent. Another option that appeared is Microsoft's Tag Explorer, for free. It might use File Manager tags, so you would not need the program to view the tags, which is a plus. If none of those work for you, as others said, you might want to create what you need for yourself, if you have the time. If it was me, I'd use MS Access and get what you need real quick, as it is excellent for putting a design together fast.
David O'Neil wrote:
Another option that appeared is Microsoft's Tag Explorer, for free.
Tag Explorer is a third party program, not a Microsoft one as far as I can see. Not that that is a problem; it's just an observation. It looks very handy and goes some of the way to what I'd want.
David O'Neil wrote:
t might use File Manager tags, so you would not need the program to view the tags, which is a plus.
There is in fact no general tagging system in Windows Explorer/File Explorer. It relies on native tags being present in each and every file type. It can expose tags present in a native file format (as long as it has a Property Handler for that file type) but file formats that have no tagging don't get any. At one time, there was an idea to store tags in NTFS alternate data streams (and for these to be searchable from Windows Search, or Windows Desktop Search as it was at one time) but this ability was dropped when alternate data streams were deprecated. Alternate data stream are still there and Microsoft themselves still use them for some things but there's no built in way to use them to add generally available tagging.
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David O'Neil wrote:
Another option that appeared is Microsoft's Tag Explorer, for free.
Tag Explorer is a third party program, not a Microsoft one as far as I can see. Not that that is a problem; it's just an observation. It looks very handy and goes some of the way to what I'd want.
David O'Neil wrote:
t might use File Manager tags, so you would not need the program to view the tags, which is a plus.
There is in fact no general tagging system in Windows Explorer/File Explorer. It relies on native tags being present in each and every file type. It can expose tags present in a native file format (as long as it has a Property Handler for that file type) but file formats that have no tagging don't get any. At one time, there was an idea to store tags in NTFS alternate data streams (and for these to be searchable from Windows Search, or Windows Desktop Search as it was at one time) but this ability was dropped when alternate data streams were deprecated. Alternate data stream are still there and Microsoft themselves still use them for some things but there's no built in way to use them to add generally available tagging.
:thumbsup:Good info. Thanks!
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
When I started up one of the first things I did was imagine that my company (just me) was huge and tried to come up with systems to suit - it is tough if you outgrow your systems. On one general drive we have folders for:- Administration, containing everything administrative including financial, Asset Management - everything which appears in our Asset Schedule, basically, Clients - folder for each client with their likes, dislikes, contact details, non project correspondence and so on, Computing - folders for hardware, software, IT Management systems and so forth Development - folders for planning, business plans, budgets, etc Library - one place to store all those useful documents which are timeless Meetings - records of all in-house meetings Our People - (forget HR, it is so dehumanising) all about the people who actually do the work Our Suppliers - every company or person who supplies our inputs Quality - everything about our quality systems Production - rules about how we do things, analytics on production, that sort of thing, Templates - all standard documents and templates Training - all systems and records to do with Training. And then we have another drive for each (numbered) project. Most important - we use links to access files which could be in several places, we never have two copies. Thus there are a links to client projects inside the client folder. When we started a wiki we kept the same structure. I try to use the same structure in my Outlook folders. It works well, but I would love to hear about a better system! Good luck.
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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this? I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
When I started up one of the first things I did was imagine that my company (just me) was huge and tried to come up with systems to suit - it is tough if you outgrow your systems. On one general drive we have folders for:- Administration, containing everything administrative including financial, Asset Management - everything which appears in our Asset Schedule, basically, Clients - folder for each client with their likes, dislikes, contact details, non project correspondence and so on, Computing - folders for hardware, software, IT Management systems and so forth Development - folders for planning, business plans, budgets, etc Library - one place to store all those useful documents which are timeless Meetings - records of all in-house meetings Our People - (forget HR, it is so dehumanising) all about the people who actually do the work Our Suppliers - every company or person who supplies our inputs Quality - everything about our quality systems Production - rules about how we do things, analytics on production, that sort of thing, Templates - all standard documents and templates Training - all systems and records to do with Training. And then we have another drive for each (numbered) project. Most important - we use links to access files which could be in several places, we never have two copies. Thus there are a links to client projects inside the client folder. When we started a wiki we kept the same structure. I try to use the same structure in my Outlook folders. It works well, but I would love to hear about a better system! Good luck.