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Document Management Systems
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Posted by Gary Carson
Jan 27, 2013 at 03:59 PM
Now that you guys have brought it up, I’ve got to admit that I’m not sure why I need an “document management system.” I’m not even sure what that is.
I don’t work with PDFs very much and I have no need to scan documents. All I really need to do is keep the documents and other files that I create organized so that I can find them again. But really that’s just a matter of exercising some discipline, isn’t it? This is something you have to do even if you’re using an actual document management system.
The one thing that I’m doing now that I wasn’t doing several years ago is storing files that I need to keep long-term in OneNote. That’s my long-term archive. I just use Windows Explorer to organize everything else and every now and then I’ll do a backup to an external hard disk which I keep in my safety deposit box at the bank.
I don’t really trust online storage services. It’s a privacy/security thing, mostly, and I want to keep control of my own files.
Posted by Graham Rhind
Jan 27, 2013 at 05:23 PM
Gary, you more or less outlined my own thinking about this.
I use PaperPort as a scanner front end and do look regularly at document management software, but they all require a lot of discipline to make them useful, reading in documents and tagging them, and they are all really overpriced. I can’t see anything much in a product like My Digital Documents that I can’t do in, for example, TreeProjects. That said, the same discipline is required to use that program too, and it creates files that (on my system) are too large to exchange with other computers via Dropbox/Skydrive/Google Drive etc.
With OneNote, because it creates file per section, that’s no problem, and synchronising across a network is a doddle. So I, like you, put documents into OneNote for archiving (when I remember to ...). Tagging is not done optimally in OneNote, so you have to think of some very clever tags to make it useful, so I may end up trying alternative tagging programs as well.
Graham
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 27, 2013 at 08:07 PM
When you say you put files in OneNote, do you mean actually embed them, i.e. import them _into_ OneNote notebooks?
And are you talking about different kinds of files (which themselves alone can be really big), including Word documents, images and PDFs?
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 27, 2013 at 08:29 PM
In short, I’m trying to understand why would anyone want to put files into files for archiving purposes (if this is what we are talking about here) unless it would be some kind of .zip archive.
P.S. Copernic Desktop Search will be on sale at Bits du Jour this week http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/copernic-desktop-search-professional-2
Posted by Slartibartfarst
Jan 28, 2013 at 03:42 AM
Posted by Daly de Gagne, Jan 26, 2013 at 10:59 PM:
...The free version of qiqqa only handles pdf files, but I believe the paid version handles other document types.
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As a KM (Knowledge Management) tool, Qiqqa (which is an academic Reference Management system) is a superb product. I use it a lot, and have only so far needed to use the FREE version.
There are 3 “editions” (versions): (http://www.qiqqa.com/About/Editions)
1. FREE - uses a local (client-based) library.
2. Premium - a PAID version (uses a local and a “cloud-based” library ).
3. Premium Plus - a PAID version (uses a local and a “cloud-based” library ).
By the way, there is a useful comparison between Qiqqa, EndNote Zotero and Mendelay here: http://www.qiqqa.com/About/Compare
The FREE and PAID versions of Qiqqa currently seem to be focussed on only PDF format files, but the Premium Plus version can convert Word documents to PDF.
The “cloud-based” library and collaboration features are a major difference between the FREE and PAID versions.
There is another system worth relevant mention here, and that I use a lot for multiple document formats - including PDFs - the FREE Calibre e-Book (Personal Library/Document) Management system copes better than most (including PDF, Word and various eBook formats) - see Mini-Review here: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=29691.msg275706#msg275706
You can use Qiqqa and Calibre to augment KM, because, though they overlap in some ways, they are different creatures and complement each other. For example, they both help me to achieve the objective of improved KM on my client devices (usually laptops).
Qiqqa’s highly accurate OCR scanning features of imaged PDF files are especially useful. Many PDFs are essentially a collection of images of text (documents), so the text is effectively locked away because no program can search their text, or allow you to copy and paste - unless you first use OCR - e.g., Qiqqa’s powerful built-in OCR. You can then perform fast full-text searches, copy text, get automatic abstracts, keyword extraction, and so on, on the OCRed documents in the Qiqqa library.
Qiqqa does not lock you in, and enables you to copy your entire library to a combined BibTeX file for import elsewhere. All your PDFs are included with smart links in an html page, so you can easily access them by tag, author, and title, even without Qiqqa.
You can also backup all your Qiqqa work at any time for any reason to a zip file.
Refer: http://www.qiqqa.com/About/Features (Export)
Calibre is great as a document library management tool - it can also strip DRM (Digital Rights Management) locks from proprietary formatted ebooks, and save them in different (Open) formats. This restores freedom of control and use to you as the document owner, and enables you to read documents on different ebook reading devices/software. (No more lock-in.)