askSam dead?

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Posted by Vic Church
Feb 12, 2015 at 05:36 PM

As noted, AskSam will export text. MyInfo has a plugin that specifically processes AskSam exports, including the custom fields using the square bracket notation. The plugin uses a configuration file to map AS fields into MI

The plugin info (a MyInfo topic) includes the following:

During import MyInfo is usually working with UTF-8 strings. The plugin, however, is configured for ASCII/ANSI strings as they are produced by askSam. In case you need an UTF-8 import plugin, please let me know.

While importing to MyInfo you can map any askSam field you have to MyInfo's attributes. This even works for multiline fields.>

The description also has a pointer to the author:

You will find me at the MyInfo forums (

http://www.milenix.com/forums), my user name is “mfelix”.
Simply open a new thread or send me a private message.>>

I used AS for many years (my earliest file is an import from DOS-based MemoryMate). I am sorry to leave it, but I share the point of view that without multiplatform and cloud capabilities, no outliner software can be adequate today.

—Vic Church

Posted by Informaticus
Jul 19, 2015 at 12:00 AM

I too have used askSam for many years to manage a large archive of medical articles and resources, most of which are in .pdf format. I am still using version 5.1, which I have found it to be quite capable of handling the databases and of being able to search multiple files as I need to. I recently downloaded the trial version of askSam 7.0xx from a 3rd party vendor but when I installed it it said the trial had 0 days left. I then tried to purchase it but was unable to, because as we know the website is dead. It’s very disappointing that the software is no longer available from any source.

AskSam’s .pdf importing left much to be desired as it could not format text into columns, and would run columns together in one line. However, as I only need the Abstract of each article to display in the AS text window, I was satisfied with being able to click on the link in the Entry Form to bring up the original .pdf file.

I looked at MyInfo but it doesn’t yet have the ability to import pdf files and put the link into the Entry Form. When it can do this I will definitely consider buying it. I hope its developers can be encouraged to continue to expand and improve the product’s features to make it a true AS replacement.

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