Hello fellow CRIMpers

I've been looking for an IM app fo Windows that can Index (not just import) files and/or folders from the computer to its database and treat this indexed files as if they were in the database it self, just like Devonthink does.

Does anyone call give me a light on this?

So far if been playing around with myBase, that can just import the files. By the way, I've been surprised with myBase. It does (somtimes in awkward ways) almost everything I miss in Devonthink...

Thanks

To be more specific, what I'd like to do is write a bunch o .txt files in any app I want, just throw this files in a folder and thenm index this folder i a PIM, Devonthink like app, and organize, tag, categorize and etc....


rafael costacurta wrote:

Hello fellow CRIMpers

I've been looking for an IM app fo Windows that can Index (not just
import) files and/or folders from the computer to its database and treat
this indexed files as if they were in the database it self, just like
Devonthink does.

Does anyone call give me a light on this?

So far if been playing around with myBase, that can just import the
files. By the way, I've been surprised with myBase. It does (somtimes in
awkward ways) almost everything I miss in Devonthink...

Thanks

Ultra Recall comes to mind. You can drag a folder of txt files to UR and all the contents will be searchable, and you can also use all of UR's metadata features on each file (assign custom fields, etc.). You can edit in UR or launch externally.

RightNote (http://www.bauerapps.com/rightnote/ should be able to import a folder and subfolders with txt, docx, pdf and index them.

Every PIM/2-pane-outliner can import text files & search them. What DevonThink can do that (not many) Windows apps can is relate disparate topics together in logical groupings, on its own using AI (albeit a very simple AI). You can also use PDF's and most other formats (like Scrivener, Docx, RTF, etc) directly within DevonThink. TheBrain is one which can but it takes a lot of time to understand. DT is a whole lot simpler to understand/use.

If you're doing research on a complex topic -- OR you want to relate multiple topics together in ways that you might not realize -- DT is a VERY useful app. DT (and the enhanced Mac version of Scrivener) are basically the only reasons that I use MacOS.

You can, btw, install MacOS on (most) modern desktop PC's fairly easily; single or dual-boot.. Google hackintosh for more info.There are a lot of (especially used older and cheap) laptops (like older ThinkPads) which can be hackintoshed as well.

You can also, of course, install a Windows guest on a Mac host using a VM like Parallels and run both OS's together. It's a lot more difficult to install a MacOS guest on a Windows host but it's possible. I don't have the link handy but there's a YouTube video from Linus Tech Tips explaining the procedure. VM's are nice because the guest can be seamlessly integrated into the host, so it (essentially) becomes just another app on the host.

Thanks for the responses...

I´ve found out that myBase has a feature called "shortcut" that does what I want.

I´ve tried ultra recall and indeed it does it too, but I´m having trouble with the encoding of the text (written in portuguese). I´ve had the same trouble with myInfo. myBase didn´t had this problem at all.

As far it goes, I think i´m sticking with myBase... it's been a good surprise.

**CRIMPing MODE ON**
On a downside, the tagging systen that is not good, despite being possible to make nested tags, that is great, until now I haven´t discoverd if it has some kind of auto-complete for tagging. Don´t kwon how I will manage this when I reach a bigger number of tags... anyway... thanks again

Listerene wrote:

Every PIM/2-pane-outliner can import text files & search them.

What I´m looking for is not just the Ability to import, but to Index the file and its content without creating a copy of the file in the PIM database. The file remains in its original folder, and any modification I do to it, can be read by the App.
For exemple, I could edit a .txt file in my iPhone, sync with dropbox e then when I was back to my Mac, the changes where there in Devonthink as well.

DT is aVERY useful app. DT (and the enhanced Mac version of Scrivener) are
basically the only reasons that I use MacOS.

I miss DT and Omnifocus a lot....


For various reasons i´ve decided that I don´t want to live in the Apple shiny and Magical Ecosystem anymore.... and so far I really don´t miss the hardware. I can live very well with an ugly Dell laptop. But all the cool and well thought out productivity apps that only live in there.... It has been a loss...

There are two well-established Windows search engines that do what you want: Copernic and A1 (both work like FoxTrot on Mac)

They’re pure search engines, so not PIMs as such. But then as Paul Korm has remarked elsewhere, so what?

With reference to Listerene's post above, one thing to bear in mind is that installing one operating system (Windows, say) on top of another (macOS say) can be very demanding of a computer's resources, especially RAM. At least that was my experience, using Parallels as the "interface" on my Mac. I ended up having to install 16 Gb of Ram (more common now, less so at the time I did it), and still the whole thing ran slowly.