Submitted by David_H on 2016/01/12 17:59
I've always been frustrated with the folder filing system on PC's, which is really a 30-year old technology hold over.  If you think about why we all love IQ it's because it allows us to tag our information with meta data which then allows us to view and structure information in any way we want - moving beyond the folder paradigm.  I'd like to be able to do the same for files - assign a file to a project folder, contact folder, year folder etc. all at the same time, and be able top find that file by looking in any of them.
 
Windows took some baby steps with the addition of "libraries", and allowing users to tag some files, but basically abandoned and never finished it, so windows metadata (tags for instance) cannot be consistently used across all file types.
 
Here is an example of something I'm looking at for our business you can skip to 50 seconds in if you want: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seTjogkSApc
 
Of course there is nothing like that for personal use, but with all the power users here I wondered what if any others have come up with to achieve better file organization in Windows?  Do you tag your documents in the file name?  Use an add on?  Whatever it is, I need something that works across computers, i.e. dropbox etc.  I found some file managers like Directory Opus that allows tags to be used on ALL files, but the information does not sync with the files.
 
Thanks
 
p.s. I suppose that IQ could be used for this, but it's just not practical for me to try to create an IQ item for every single file.

Comments

And BTW, if there is anyone I expect to give me some super geeky solution, it's you Armando !

David_H

2016/01/13 00:43

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Yes, that is one of the many I have looked at, but the question is where it stores the tags and if they can be synced?  I tried a similar but more powerful files browser named Directory Opus, but the meta data does not sync reliably.

Armando

2016/01/14 18:27

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It's true that I have my own solution for that and it's been described in a few places here and on DonationCoder.com
 
Apart from that I tried to find a post where I described how IQ could be the tagging system for all files/documents making sense on one's drive. IQ could then be a kind of desktop search software + what it is, already.
I.E. basically, all documents would appear in IQ, as in a desktop search, but  data could be added to those documents (not directly, but through their "representation"/linking in IQ) through field usage -- desktop search software don't allow that.  

I'm short on time right now... hopefully my description makes some sense.
 
[Edited for clarity]
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Disclaimer: "Testing IQ with the most advanced/complicated IQBase in the world". I.e. slower than average.
Windows 8.1
CPU: Intel i5 2.6ghz

David,
 
I use XYplorer.  It has tags but I rarely use them and don't know anything about synching.
 
I rely primarily on key words in file names combined with a search program. 
 
XYPlorer also has a "Catalog" where you can put links to frequently used folders.
 
I find myself moving away from the subfolder system because it's just too difficult to navigate and maintain.  I use a few, relatively large folders to grossly sort files by topics but avoid getting into micro-managing multiple subfolder layers.  If I want to find a file inside a folder, I either search for it inside XYplorer or just scan the list. 
 
Sometimes I need to pull scattered files together for a project.  Rather than move the files to a new folder, I leave them in place and create a new folder with links to the files I need.  I believe this is what Explorer libraries does (which you mentioned) but I've never gotten in the habit of using it.
 
Bitsdujour has run specials on a tagging program called Tabbles.  Never tried it myself but you could probably do a trial.  http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/tabbles
 
Wayne
 

I dont have any tips for Computerwide tagging -- as you say, Armando is the man, but he probably needs to write a book about it ;-)
 
Tagging does need to be very structured and planned I think, even in IQ I get a bit lost at times wondering how should I tag things...
 
Over the years, I have linked a lot of files to IQ (around a couple of thousand by now). With one job of about 700 files (illustrations for archaeologists) I did use tagging (Wikitags) to describe the contents, and keep track of conventions used. It has been very helpful. I also used IQ to keep track of status of the figures (e.g. finished / change-request / approved / finalised). And of the time spent on each figure.
Again, IQ has been very helpful for these aspects, especially for that big job.