Database and document manager program

[roque1]

I am looking for a mac program that can act both as a database (similar to an excel) and a document manager (where i can put all my important documents).
The ideal would be a single platform where both kinds of data could be stored and then searched/retrieved.

I know FileMaker can do this; however when i want to put different kinds of data I have to be constantly creating new databases and it's hard to make searches in all of them. Bento is more effective on this; however I have limited folder/sub-folder/sub-sub folder creation options and also limited sharing with other people.

Thank you

 

[steveoc]

There are many options. I like DEVONthink Pro because of its amazing workflow including integration with document scanners and OCR. It also archives webpages or anything else. It is on the higher end and takes a little getting used to.

Yojimbo by barebones is often cited as an alternative. Journler always was highly regarded, but I believe development has stopped,

I'm sure others will have recommendations.

 

[roque1]

Reply to database thread

Thank you very much for your reply.

I have downloaded the free trial of DevonThinkPro, but I have one doubt: can I search within the excels I put there? So far, when I add one excel, Devon search can identify that that excel has the searched word; however, it does not say me where, so I have to manually open the excel and do a search again. This can be complicated when i'm searching information that is in several excels, for example a name that is related to completely different databases...

Many thanks,

 

[steveoc]

You might want to pop into the DevonThink Forum, search and ask. There are some pretty sharp people there that might have some ideas that may help you.

I am not sure there is a document based database program that would do what you want.

 

[hotoru]

Maintain Original Files

I too am looking for a good document manager for the Mac..One of my worries is locking myself into a document manager is the need to get to that data again in 5-10+ years. What is the company goes out of business?

Thus, I would like a document manager that preserves and organizes the original files similar to the way Aperture and Picassa preserve original photos. Ideally, a manager that would automatically rename the files similar to the tags you give and organize them in a directory structure similar to the way to have in the manager. That way the files would be organized on disk and backups even if the original manager became defunct.

Anyone know of any of the managers that work in this fashion?

Dave