Software for documents management in Windows

May 21, 2007 2:51 PM

Software for documents management Hi all, I am looking for a software for documents management. I mainly have .pdf files and some ms office documents, text files and a few .chm files.

The main requirement of this software is to allow me to search inside these documents.

I know about PaperPort, but this one is very expensive. Also today I've found out about DocsVault, but even the Professional version doesn't allow searching in pdf files.

So, is there such a software for Windows? On my mac I am using DevonThink Professional, which rules. But I have no clue on Windows...

I was also thinking about just structuring the docs into folders and use Google Desktop Search, but I've found out that I am not allowed to install GDS on my computer at work :-(

So if you have any suggestions, please tell me.

BR,
panzerboy

posted by panzerboy to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I would highly recommend Docsvault. There are 3 versions (Home, Small Business, and Professional), of which one (Home) is FREE and very-well featured.

I use Docsvault Home myself and have for several months. It's extremely simple to setup and use, and the features are great. All your files are stored in Docsvault's database, which is very well-compressed and is regularly compacted to save space. Therefore you can still keep the original version of your file on your hard drive if you want, in addition to the copy that Docsvault saves in it's database (if you don't trust databases, etc). There's a backup/export tool that saves your entire database out to a handy single file for easy backup to CD, DVD, flash drive, or anywhere else you'd want.

You can import just about anything in and give it text-based tags or descriptions for easy searching. Docsvault also searches within most files, including PDF, TXT, etc, meaing you can find exactly what you want quite easily.

When used in combination with my Canon MP530 ADF scanner it makes for extremely easy and painless digital archiving of my important paper documents.

I find Docsvault to be the perfect blend of simplicity, power, and convenience. And the price is right - I haven't yet found myself needing any of the features of the pay versions (which are very modest in themselves, should you decide to spend a little money).
posted by sprocket87 at 3:55 PM on May 21, 2007

Whoa, sorry, I just realized you already mentioned DocsVault (sometimes I skip lines ;)). But I'm confused about the searching-within-PDFs thing. Their site claims you can search within PDFs as long as they were "created directly from any application using the Docsvault PDF writer", and that "scanned documents and files created from image application are stored in image formats and hence are not searchable."

I wonder if that means it will search free-text or OCR'd PDF files created by Adobe Acrobat, etc, or if they HAD to be created with DocsVault's PDF creator...?

Sorry again for the mixup; I haven't had to do PDF searching in the months I've used it (I tag my files pretty well).
posted by sprocket87 at 4:02 PM on May 21, 2007

Well, yeah, that's the problem, I have a HUGE amount of PDF files that I've downloaded from the Internet (for example the transcripts of the Security Now! podcasts) and when I try to search for some words that I _know_ are in those PDFs, nothing is returned.

And Google Desktop Search is able to search through those ... let's hope they improve this in the next versions.
posted by panzerboy at 4:18 AM on May 22, 2007

Microsoft OneNote?
posted by healthytext at 7:24 AM on May 22, 2007

Tried OneNote as well, doesn't work very well with "attachments" (for example pdf files) to notes.
posted by panzerboy at 8:03 AM on May 22, 2007