Forum Posts Feed
Document Management Systems
< Next Topic | Back to topic list | Previous Topic >
Posted by Daly de Gagne
Jan 26, 2013 at 10:59 PM
Gary, I don’t if this would be helpful or not, but I have recently decided to shift my pdf file management from Mendeley to qiqqa - both are free programs.
http://www.qiqqa.com/ (qiqqa is pronounced quicka)
The free version of qiqqa only handles pdf files, but I believe the paid version handles other document types. Paid version is $3.99 per month. If one pays for 12 months, there are 3 free months.
Both versions allow for on-line storage - 200 meg with the free version; 8,000 meg with the paid version.
qiqqa features include tagging, annotations, highlighting in different colours (rather than just the usual yellow), tapping into different libraries for references, etc. Essentially it is meant for academics, writers, researchers.
However, if you have a mess of documents you want to restore order to, documents you want fully indexed for fast searching, etc. qiqqa may be a solution.
It has a built in browswer.
While I understand you may not have need of some of qiqqa’s features, it may, nonetheless, be helpful with organizing documents.
Daly
Gary Carson wrote:
I noticed that a document management system called My Digital Documents
>is on sale at Bits today. Has anyone used this before? If so, is it
>worth the price? Also, has anyone had any experience with other document
>management systems (for single computers)? I have hundreds of documents,
>image files, audio files, etc., etc., to keep track of, but so far, it
>has seemed more efficient to just use Windows Explorer.
Posted by Slartibartfarst
Jan 26, 2013 at 11:05 PM
Gary Carson, Jan 26, 2013 at 03:36 PM: I noticed that a document management system called My Digital Documents is on sale at Bits today. Has anyone used this before? If so, is it worth the price? Also, has anyone had any experience with other document management systems (for single computers)? I have hundreds of documents, image files, audio files, etc., etc., to keep track of, but so far, it has seemed more efficient to just use Windows Explorer.
_________________________________________
Alexander Deliyannis, Jan 26, 2013 at 03:41 PM: Hi Gary, take a look at the recent thread on Paperport etc. http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4698/0/paperless-paperport-14
_________________________________________
Posted by Gary Carson, Jan 26, 2013 at 06:20 PM: Thanks. Interesting thread. I don’t have any need to scan anything myself, so I guess using a document management system would just add a redundant layer of complexity. I try to keep my setup as minimalistic as possible and Windows Explorer, after all, IS a document management system in its own right.
_________________________________________
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis, Jan 26, 2013 at 07:23 PM:
Gary Carson wrote:
>Windows Explorer, after all, IS a document management system in its own right.
I agree. What I would find useful in this regard is a lightweight Explorer replacement providing fast Boolean search of document contents and preview of just about any kind of document.
_________________________________________
I suspect that what might be needed is a definition of a DMS (“Document Management System”).
Having had the experience of developing, installing and using DMSes (for myself and my clients) over the years, one thing in particular stands out: the general need to establish requirements - e.g. what the user requiring DMS functionality actually means when they say they want a DMS, or something like that.
The criteria that you might expect to list - i.e., the things that a DMS functional definition would need to meet - is typically likely to be largely based on perceived needs, which may often be derived mainly from experience.
If your experience is of the Windows OS’ logical hierarchical filing system (e.g., consisting of nested folders on a disk drive), then you could argue that “Windows Explorer, after all, IS a document management system in its own right”, and you would arguably be right in a circular fashion, as it would be so, according to your experience/perception and implicit/assumed definition of a DMS. So Windows Explorer would be a good DMS tool, and (say) xplorer² might be even better (I use it anyway, because I find it far better suited to my peculiar needs).
If you get users like this involved in trialling a DMS such as, for example, Microsoft’s SharePoint (A DMS and a document development and collaboration system), the experience can sometimes “blow their minds” as they start to realise new concepts of what is possible - lots of things that they never new existed and that are tremendously useful - things they never really knew they needed until now.
What has happened is that these become newly-discovered requirements which really make a distinction between a tool for working on a purely “administrative” DMS structure and a tool for working on an arguably much more useful thing - a basis for KM (Knowledge Management).
So regardless of what you might define as a DMS, here’s a suggested definition of :
KM - Definition of Knowledge Management.tif
http://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9rIby-RfgLNWEJzZXk4R2VGSnM/edit
Not forgetting something I referred to in a separate thread on this forum:
Documentation Standards and Methods: Repository documentation - File naming meta data standards and methods.
http://docs.google.com/document/d/1YtT6JaN0sOsCTbBd6UBE-1OPQSleBCbGkB8X0i-FKDg/edit
If you establish a definition for KM that works for your needs, then the requirements for a supporting DMS are much easier to identify - they are (say) all the administrative and collaborative tools/functions that you might need to support YOUR KM definition and the building of YOUR Knowledge Base.
You won’t need to ask, for example, “Has anyone tried out My Digital Documents?”, you will be able to go to the website and see how its functionality stacks up against your defined requirements (which presumably don’t include document scanning at present). You could do the same for Paperport and any other DMSes that might be mentioned in that thread. You’d be in control, armed with a clearcut requirements definition.
Posted by Richard06118
Jan 27, 2013 at 04:45 AM
Gary,
I don’t know if this helps but I use the free version of Copernic Desktop Search and the Sleuthhound, which I paid less than $20 for, to locate files and documents on my hard drive. Both index every word in a saved document. Both work like a Google search and show a list of hits to your search criteria, showing the filename, path to the document and a sentence or two of the document will be shown. All you have to do is click on it to open the file/document. The reason I use both is that Copernic includes PDF documents.
~ Richard
Posted by Dr Andus
Jan 27, 2013 at 11:47 AM
Slartibartfarst wrote:
>If your experience is of the Windows OS’ logical hierarchical filing
>system (e.g., consisting of nested folders on a disk drive), then you
>could argue that “Windows Explorer, after all, IS a document management
>system in its own right”, and you would arguably be right in a circular
>fashion, as it would be so, according to your experience/perception and
>implicit/assumed definition of a DMS. So Windows Explorer would be a
>good DMS tool, and (say) xplorer² might be even better (I use it
>anyway, because I find it far better suited to my peculiar needs).
>If you get users like this involved in trialling a DMS such as, for
>example, Microsoft’s SharePoint (A DMS and a document development and
>collaboration system), the experience can sometimes “blow their minds”
>as they start to realise new concepts of what is possible - lots of
>things that they never new existed and that are tremendously useful -
>things they never really knew they needed until now.
>What has happened is that these become newly-discovered requirements
>which really make a distinction between a tool for working on a purely
>“administrative” DMS structure and a tool for working on an arguably
>much more useful thing - a basis for KM (Knowledge Management).
Good points!
I also thought that file and folder explorers are a different category from document management software. Probably a lot depends on the volume of existing and incoming documents one needs to manage, and the frequency of having to recall them, which will call for specific solutions.
But re file/folder explorers, I think it’s definitely a category where if you try a Win Explorer replacement, you’ll have few reasons to return to Win Explorer, even with the free versions, such as Explorer2 lite.
I’m a very basic user of Directory Opus (just scratching the surface) but since I’ve tried it I couldn’t live without (mostly for reasons of time-saving):
- opening pre-set number of folders (in tabs) simultaneously, when Dopus launches;
- switching on vertical dual-panes with one click, whenever needed;
- having key folders colour-coded (creating a bread-crumb trail to destination folders);
- ability to resit my pre-set default view and location with one click, when things get messy.
- a preview pane that can view pretty much any files out there.
As you said, I didn’t know these features even existed until I tried my first Win Explorer replacement - which is why it’s worth to keep on CRIMPing…
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jan 27, 2013 at 03:38 PM
I will agree that my use of the term Document Management _System_ for Windows Explorer is a bit far fetched. It is first and foremost a File (including Documents) Management _Tool_.
A System implies that there is some method/procedure/framework, as shown by Slartibartfarst in respect to Knowledge Management. Though Windows Explorer has not much to offer in terms of facilitating such work, I maintain that there is some kind of underlying framework, as witnessed by specific conventions:
- Folder tree
- Default user directories
- Shared folders
- Network sharing
- File associations
- Versioning
- One document - one file
- Files can only be in one folder at a time
...
All of the above are conventions which facilitate document organisation, development, collaboration and distribution. We take them for granted, but they are not; in the thread on Paperport, a tool is mentioned which puts all documents in one big bucket and organises them via tags. There are tools like Scrivener and PageFour which take care of the file infrastructure, while the user works with ‘books’, ‘projects’ and ‘chapters’. There are other tools which store multiple documents in database files, etc.
In short, one can build a Document Management System using Windows Explorer as the Document Management Tool, and standard Windows conventions as the framework to implement specific procedures. There may be more advanced tools, better suited for particular work; the advantage of Windows Explorer is that it’s already there, wherever you may find yourself.