askSam dead?

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.