Forum Posts Feed
Using a PIM to catalog files and folders
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 16, 2012 at 12:52 AM
P.S. I’ll just add that even though it took 2 days to transfer and create headings for all the files from 167 folders, once all that information was on a single page in CT, it only took me about 50 minutes to organise those 167 headings (“folders”) into 17 main themes using cut-and-paste. This speed is possible because everything is on one page but also because the TOC now updates live, and the main headings can be collapsed, making it easier to navigate and focus on specific topics.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jun 16, 2012 at 11:56 PM
Dr Andus wrote:
>The main obstacle is the hierarchical organisation: Windows
>Explorer or my other PIMs would only allow me to see the contents of one folder at a time.
>I want to be able to see all my folders and files, so I can start rearranging the contents
>into new themes or connect them to existing themes.
FYI there’s at least two alternatives to Windows Explorer that can show so called “flat views” including all files in subfolders in a single view. They are Directory Opus (paid) and UltraExplorer (freeware). UltraExplorer’s website http://www.mustangpeak.net/ seems to have gone blank but a Google search will find the installer in many software libraries.
I’ve found this view very useful for overview and reorganisation via links. Keep in mind that it might require increased PC resources for large numbers of files.
Posted by Dr Andus
Jun 17, 2012 at 01:20 AM
Alexander Deliyannis
>FYI there’s at least
>two alternatives to Windows Explorer that can show so called “flat views” including
>all files in subfolders in a single view. They are Directory Opus (paid) and
>UltraExplorer (freeware). UltraExplorer’s website
>http://www.mustangpeak.net/ seems to have gone blank but a Google search will find
>the installer in many software libraries.
Many thanks for this! I’ve downloaded UltraExplorer but I couldn’t really reproduce this view in Opus which seems to be the most interesting to me, as it shows the folder names alongside the file names (UltraExplorer only seems to show the file path):
http://www.gpsoft.com.au/program/ss/13.jpg
I’ll need to check out Opus as it looks good. It would definitely speed up the drag and drop into CT for annotation and analysis.
Posted by jimspoon
Jun 17, 2012 at 02:24 AM
Here is another method that others may find useful - it involves two tools - Voidtools Everything and xplorer2.
Everything is the fastest file searcher for Windows that I’m aware of. Probably many of you use it and I rely on it. It indexes path and filenames. The indexing is ultrafast and continuously updated. It doesn’t index by traversing the whole file tree; rather it gets its information from the NTFS USN (?) file journal.
With Everything, you can type in any string, and any file whose name (or path) that contains that string will appear instantly in a list. If you type in two strings separated by a space, the list will show all files that contain both strings - a boolean AND. You can chose to search filenames only, or paths as well. The list is sortable by filename, path, date, etc. All the usual right-click menu options are available. The key aspect of Everything is the speed.
Unfortunately Everything has no file preview window.
xplorer2 to the rescue. xplorer2 has something called a “scrap pane” in which you can collect files from many different directories. (Any file search in xplorer2 displays its results in a scrap pane). It can easily give you a flat view of the files in a folder and all its subfolders.
You can highlight all the files turned by an Everything search, and drop them into an xplorer2 scrap pane. Voila! Now you can browse through all those files and view each file’s contents in a preview pane.
Posted by Zman
Jun 17, 2012 at 04:20 AM
Topicscape pro 2 does this well in the Topic Center View, and Zoot XT is also very powerful in linking both folders and files - if you link in a folder, it can link in all the subfolders and files and also gives summary information on each in the separate pains, and it also indexes the files.
zman