System, Folder, File Monitoring and indexing "Magic"

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Posted by Nomatica
Apr 23, 2021 at 07:43 PM

I am having a hard time remembering what Windows applications I have experimented with that had the ability to monitor a folder’s contents and update its database/index to include any new files that might have been added to the folder or based on actual changes that were made to the files. In the case of a PKM or PIM,applications, this would mean the user does not need to manually add a file to the application. Beyond saving time, it also means that information processed elsewhere, might be worked with or incorporated in immediately.

While I am interested in a information management and information processors, I realize there are other tools that might be used to achieve the same result, like file tagging systems (like tag spaces) and file search utilities (copernic, dtsearch, xplorer2 etc) or the document management applications businesses use which often include features like metadata creation and versioning. In fact, incorporating file metadata and versioning could be really nice. Years ago I used Lucion’s Filecentre at work and it was extremely powerful.

When monitoring folders and indexing, the file type is also a factor. Monitoring and indexing text based files (plain text, rich text, html, mhtl, docs and pdfs) is easier than pdfs. I accept that a seperate tool might be needed to index pdfs.

Ultra Recall, and Zoot will index files when importing them. I believe that InfoQube, myinfo can likely monitor/index files. Rigfhtnote? NotecasePro? Are there any document managers or file search programs that people would suggest I look at?

Posted by jimspoon
Apr 29, 2021 at 03:41 PM

Infoqube does index “Document Pane” content including PDFs but it does not yet monitor folders and include new files in its database. That may come down the line, I hope so! You have to manually link an Infoqube item to an external file like a PDF, but it’s not hard to do so.

You may also want to check out Voidtools Everything. It’s a very fast file searcher. It achieves its great speed by indexing only the data in the Master File Table, and not the contents of the files. You can still search for content, but contents search is not aided by the index. However version 1.5 (now in alpha version) will expand what is indexed to include metadata and “Windows properties”. The developer *may* also allow users to create their own metadata fields and values.

You can also look at this thread which discusses this subject in depth:
https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/9274/0/file-searcher-with-user-defined-metadata-columns-windows

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