Re: AskSam version 6

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 3037

Posted by 100341.2151
2005-03-26 18:04:31

Having used the DOS version of AskSam, I went on to buy the Windows version when it came out - first, v3, and then v5. For some reason, though - I think because I was so wed to Lotus Agenda and Lotus Magellan at the time - I never really warmed to the program, which requires everything to be imported into it before it can be indexed and searched.

For my purposes, a combination of Zoot plus an indexed search program seems to fulfil my needs, probably because it is so like the Agenda+Magellan combo, and because it was able to import my Agenda files so well.

As my search program I first used Wilbur (free), then dtSearch - although X1 is getting better all the time - to index everything that won’t go into Zoot. This means mainly long txt, doc, pdf, and htm files, which I keep in a logical folder structure on my hard disk. Where I have comments to make on the files I have indexed, I make them in Zoot and link the file in question to the comment.

This is a pretty simple arrangement and has its clunky aspects, but Zoot is so useful that I’d be reluctant to give it up now. However, it does sound from what you say as though AskSam may be moving towards combining these features. And a big advantage of AS for some people is its reporting facilities. Maybe it’s time I took another look…

Derek

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