Any Windows offline note taker apps that allows to import MS Office (msg, docx, xlsx) and pdf files and search within them?

Posted by dan7000
Oct 21, 2015 at 08:46 PM

MotionTwelve wrote:
Thank you for the tips. I just finished test driving Zoot, The Brain
>and UltraRecall and seems like all of them perform some sort of file
>conversion to extract metadata. Therefore, you don’t get to see the
>attached files in their original form when previewed inside. They tend
>to get distorted. UltraRecall also relies on MS Office, similar to
>another outliner called TreeProjects.
>Although more of a document manager, Lucion FileCenter utilizes Oracle
>Outside In Viewers that virtually display document files in their
>native format. However, it doesn’t have a rich text editor for note
>taking. I think this is showing a big gap that not too many developers
>have been considering to fill in. :-(
>What makes me wonder even more, how could a software giant like
>Microsoft not see this need with OneNote. All they’ve done is fake it
>by converting imported documents to images. What a joke.

I think I must have misread your initial post. I thought you were looking for applications that 1) import .doc and .pdf and others; and 2) search in those files. I think people here have suggested a number of applications that do both of those things. But now I think I understand that my saying “import” maybe you meant also “preview and edit’? And you want something that allows editing Office docs *without* MS Office installed (and Acrobat docs without Acrobat pro installed)? I assume that you don’t want Office installed because it sounds like that’s what you find deficient about Ultrarecall? And it has to do this all offline? If so I see why you are having trouble finding it. I suspect that developers would not be inteested in filling this need because it sounds like a very unusual set of requirements for which there would be maybe a market of 1. Generally the type of user who is interested in powerful information management will also have MS Office installed and will be online.
Please clarify if I am misunderstanding your requirements.

Note that if I’m wrong and you are not looking for preview/edit functionality then in addition to those others have mentioned, Evernote does what you are asking for but you have to go online.
If you are OK having office installed then why not try Outlook? It does basically everything you are looking for if I understand correcly.