How to manage documents for many tasks/projects

Question

I'm probably asking for the world, but is there any Windows-based software for easily managing lots of tasks/projects and all the associated documents (spreadsheets, Word documents, other files) that can be quickly navigated/searched.

I deal with probably 10-20 active projects and tasks, some lasting only a day or so, some lasting weeks, and some that go for months. I like to keep everything about any project in a single folder, but it seems like I spend forever navigating folder trees when saving a spreadsheet, SQL script, or if I want to drag a website shortcut to a folder so I can find it when I need it.

I've tried various folder organizations (i.e. a top level project directory, then broken down by department or person or application), but no matter what I try, it's still too time consuming to find what I'm looking for. The closest to what I'm looking for is like Lotus had in their Agenda program back in the DOS days, where you could organize and view data multiple ways, I'd like to be able to do the same thing with a nice fast Windows app that would fully integrate with Explorer so it would know what projects I'm actively working on when asking me where to save something, and maybe even do some minimal project management so as I mark things complete, their directories would no longer appear, or if something is marked as high priority, it would show at the top or be color coded.

Edit: Adding user-defined labels to Explorer, with filtering would probably go 90% of the way; if I could define 10 - 20 labels, and have an option in Explorer to show a single label, which would then show only any folders that have content marked with that label. It's be even slicker if you could have a tabbed interface, one tab for each label. Mac's have had color coded user labels on files for at least 10 years. I hate to ask if Vista has this, but I'd take a look at it if it did.

Answer 1

Yes, Microsoft Team Foundation Server does all of this (it ties in with and uses SharePoint web sites), of course it will cost you a bit. :-)

Add Project Server into the mix and you have Microsoft Project capabilities published to share point viewable sites as well.

Ron

Answer 2

You should take a look at Tele-Support HelpDesk. It has a known issues database that now allows attachments that you can use for your projects. The priority system allows color coding, and it has an extensive filtering system. You can even attach "contacts" to each known issue to give you a quick method of contacting the person for whom the project is for.

While there is no integration with the shell the way you mention, links can be added to a known issue or inquiry using a simple drag/drop procedure.

Answer 3

It seems that the root of the problem is with locating the right file.

Why do not you try Windows Search (obviously it integrates with Office products, including Outlook) or Google Desktop?

Simple folder structure, tagging files and search do help me in my software dev projects.

Answer 4

I agree with Rinat, Google Desktop or Windows Desktop search will get you about 80% of the way there. The other thing you need is some kind of revision control - CVS, RCS, SVN, GIT, Clearcase...

Answer 5

I've had this same problem.

I believe the answer hasn't yet been invented (if I had the time, I'd write it myself and make millions).

Essentially we need to steal GMail's idea of 'labels' and use it to completely replace windows explorer for management of digital resources.

The idea would be simply that you would 'label' or 'tag' each resource as many times as you need (e.g. 'Project Albatross', 'Analysis', 'Phase 1', etc).

The application would then allow you to browse by label/tag dynamically (selecting "Project Albatross" would show subfolders of "Analysis" and "Phase 1", selecting "Phase 1" would show "Analysis" and vice versa), rather than being confined to a static tree.

Some web sites (like this one) and Outlook already have a similar idea. In fact, I would argue that integration with Outlook and web site tagging would go a long way to making this application a must-have. Unfortunately, for web site integration, we almost need some sort of open standard for tagging, which might be a fair bit of work to take on...

Answer 6

Vista does have some tagging capabilities that might help with docs: Tag Files and Save Searches in Windows Vista (LifeHacker).

Answer 7

Omea Pro
It is free.