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I have my own startup and am facing the problem of managing firm's documents. I have so many documents: Letters to individuals or other firms, Contracts, Technical documents, etc. I have different folders for different categories: Letters, Docs & Projects, Finance, Law Docs, etc. The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search. I have decided to use tagging system instead of storing files into categorized folder. Is this a good idea and do you know of any software that simply does this?
I have Win7 inside a vm and the guest is Linux. I prefer a Windows software.
Behzad
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Rolling his own solution is probably not feasible. The OP is running a startup, he probably does not have time to do extraneous programming.
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0) How is some random app going to be any better than a well-organized folder hierarchy?
1) You're a programmer, and you have an idea of how you want it to work. Write an app yourself.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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>"1) You're a programmer, and you have an idea of how you want it to work. Write an app yourself."
Yup, that would be the best advice out of all of the others.
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I think categorizing like you have complicates things considerably. I think it would be best to sort by customer so all of your documentation relating to one customer is in one place.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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That was my exact thought when I read what was being done.
Create a folder for document templates, don't touch it except to update those templates. Then create a folder for each customer, copy templates as needed and modify those, name them in a meaningful way.
That or get a CRM system (SalesForce, Dynamics, Sugar), load your templates into a library and then your customers as accounts/contacts/etc. and then let it keep track of all that for you. Then you can focus more on running the business instead of wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel when someone has already made one that works.
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Since you replied to me, which I appreciate, I don't think he'll see this.
"They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers! Can I get an amen?"
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Behzad Sedighzadeh wrote: The problem is, I frequently forget which document belongs to which category an fall into endless problem of folder search
That is not an issue that software will auto-magically fix for you.
you need to step up your game in management/business best practices..
I'd rather be phishing!
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Fogbugz.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Office 365 - Sharepoint Online?
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Are you mad??
More seriously we never got it to work satisfactorily
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You might be able to get .dan.g.'s excellent ToDoList to do the job, as you can insert file links in comments. But it might be a bit awkward - I don't know.
Did you google "file tagging"? A tabbles.net option comes up that isn't free, that looks decent.
Another option that appeared is Microsoft's Tag Explorer, for free. It might use File Manager tags, so you would not need the program to view the tags, which is a plus.
If none of those work for you, as others said, you might want to create what you need for yourself, if you have the time. If it was me, I'd use MS Access and get what you need real quick, as it is excellent for putting a design together fast.
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David O'Neil wrote: Another option that appeared is Microsoft's Tag Explorer, for free.
Tag Explorer is a third party program, not a Microsoft one as far as I can see. Not that that is a problem; it's just an observation. It looks very handy and goes some of the way to what I'd want.
David O'Neil wrote: t might use File Manager tags, so you would not need the program to view the tags, which is a plus.
There is in fact no general tagging system in Windows Explorer/File Explorer. It relies on native tags being present in each and every file type. It can expose tags present in a native file format (as long as it has a Property Handler for that file type) but file formats that have no tagging don't get any.
At one time, there was an idea to store tags in NTFS alternate data streams (and for these to be searchable from Windows Search, or Windows Desktop Search as it was at one time) but this ability was dropped when alternate data streams were deprecated. Alternate data stream are still there and Microsoft themselves still use them for some things but there's no built in way to use them to add generally available tagging.
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 Good info. Thanks!
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I have the same need for personal documents and was looking for (but still haven't found) a similar solution. I have no time for experimenting right now, but I was going to try Alfresco[^], the free Community Edition should be enough.
Let us know if you find something.
Luca
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance. -- Wing Commander IV
En Það Besta Sem Guð Hefur Skapað, Er Nýr Dagur.
(But the best thing God has created, is a New Day.)
-- Sigur Ròs - Viðrar vel til loftárása
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As Rick pointed out, you probably wouldn't see this in a reply to his comment so here is my suggestion.
Get a CRM system (SalesForce, Dynamics, Sugar), load your templates into a library and then your customers as accounts/contacts/etc. and then let it keep track of all that for you. That way you can focus more on running the business instead of wasting time trying to reinvent the wheel when someone has already made one that works.
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use agent ransack to search.... there is nothing free all come with a price
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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I would say a combination of devising a folder hierarchy that works for you and Agent Ransack – Mythicsoft[^]
(probably the best search application I have come across and I have now been using it for 10+ years)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Damn, this looks good. Going to try it out.
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Yep - couldn't do my work without it nowadays.
If you have a paranoid IT security department then Mythicsoft have rebranded it and called it FileLocator Lite - one place I worked at the IT support manager took one look at the name and said "There is no way I am letting you install software with a name of AgentRansack!" 
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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It is good!
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You're obviously talking about using a library system that's based on meta-data, rather than a hierarchical directory system, so it's likely that you're asking the question in the wrong place -- us devs like our hierarchical directory thingies.
The problem is that you want a "desktop" DMS, and it might be hard to find one that both meets your needs AND is not an absolute PITA to maintain.
However, you could just install Joomla, or similar, on your local machine, and only use it on your local machine. There are no laws that say that a DMS system has to be on a dedicated server, so you can simply 127.0.0.0 everything.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Echoing the others, write your own. 
I have a similar problem and have loosely specced an outline for my own needs. One day I'll actually get around to writing it...
For the time being I keep documents/files/notes/whatever in a folder hierarchy. This actually works surprisingly well, as long as I remember to make the effort to files things properly (including occasionally adding keywords for indexing, see below).
In addition, I use Windows Search to index content (and metadata, where possible). This works exceptionally well. Windows Search is maligned by many but, for me, it's a fast, very capable and potentially extensible document content indexer. It just works. (I'm on Windows 10 but Windows Search works similarly on Windows 7).
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On windows, before you build your own document management system or something, "well organized folder structure + meaningful filename + a small app called Everything" really saved me a whole bunch of time
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