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Using a PIM to catalog files and folders REDUX
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Posted by Cassius
Jul 3, 2012 at 06:31 AM
I’ve started a new topic, as the original wandered off into Connected Text.
My original thought was related to the concern (that many of us have and some of us have experienced) about a PIM becoming moribund and the necessity of transferring the information stored in it into some other application.
One possibility for avoiding this problem is to store all information in standard files (Word, Excel, .htm, .jpg, ...) and use a single PIM (or PIM-like) program (call it K) to store links to these files, with the links cataloged or categorized by topic.
Preferably, one would like the application K that stores the links to be one that is likely to be around for a very long time. MS Word would seem to be a good candidate.
I am still using Word 2000 and while it has some outlining capabilities, they are insufficient for the needs of most of us. Perhaps a later version of Word has better outlining capabilities.
A second requirement from my point of view is the ability to be able to drag and drop file links directly into K. Several applications have the capability of storing a link, but the process is more time consuming than a drag and drop.
Unfortunately drag and drop does not seem to work in Word 2000 (at least for .htm and .gif files).
Perhaps a later version of Word can accept drag and drop. (Anybody willing to test this for different file types?)
As I stated in my original topic ( http://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/4079/0/using-a-pim-to-catalog-files-and-folders ), I found only one application that would accept every link I dragged and dropped into it. That application is TreePad Business. There probably are others, but not among the ones I have.
If anyone knows of others, or has other ideas, please let us know.
Thanks!
-cassius
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jul 3, 2012 at 01:10 PM
Here are the applications I’m aware of that (I believe) do what you’re looking for:
TheBrain: You can choose to have either “virtual” folders, which provide links to all the files within a folder outside TheBrain, or you can choose to move those files into TheBrain. If you do this, the files remain in their native format… the advantage is that TheBrain then indexes the contents of the files for fast searches.
Zoot: You can drag files onto any Zoot folder and you get an option to import the file or create a link to it. Depending upon the file type, you have other options for how to handle them within Zoot. Zoot will also optionally try to import text from the linked file into the note area so that it can be found in a search. I have only tried Excel files and PDFs, but this seems to work fairly well.
OneNote: Drag and drop to a OneNote page also gives you the option of creating a link to the original or importing the file directly. If the Word option appeals to you, OneNote might take this one step further, allowing you to annotate your links very easily.
Anyway, those are the ones I’d check out if you haven’t already.
Steve Z.
Posted by Cassius
Jul 3, 2012 at 09:58 PM
Just tried InfoRecall portable 15.3 trial version. It appears that one cannot drag and drop a link onto an IR “document” (right pane). It causes IR to freeze.
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Jul 4, 2012 at 05:38 AM
Thinking of the example of UltraRecal which should also do drag-n-drop with almost any file, files should be dragged to the tree pane to be included as separate elements.
Posted by Cassius
Jul 4, 2012 at 05:56 AM
Alexander Deliyannis wrote:
>Thinking of the example of UltraRecal which should also do drag-n-drop with almost
>any file, files should be dragged to the tree pane to be included as separate elements.
======
Question: If one did this, would the contents of the file appear in the right pane? If so, might one be tempted to delete the original file?
My thought was that if one couldn’t find a suitable single pane outliner (that would have an extended life), one could use a two pane PIM (with an extended life) and place links in the right pane along with added commentary, notes, bibliographical information, etc.