Tracking journal articles where you work

[SarcasticDwarf]

I am starting a new position and I am running into a problem where I have already accumulated several dozen highly relevant (both in the short and long term) articles to what I am doing/ The problem is that organizing them is becoming a pain and I am curious if anyone here uses any software to do this at work (not school) and if so, what it is.

Edit:
To follow up on this I wanted to give an example: Biblioscape Server

 

[LS21]

why dont you just upload them all to google docs, to take advantage of its tagging feature

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: LS21
why dont you just upload them all to google docs, to take advantage of its tagging feature

A couple of different reasons:

1) Tagging does not scale (both in terms of quantity of documents and over time) for individuals.
2) Limited features (Unless I tag every entry I can not browse every article cited by say journal title).
3) Only holds documents, not bare citations

 

[Train]

When in doubt, do it in excel.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

Actually, I am not in school. While the real world runs on Excel, it is blatantly obvious that certain things (including those which track a sufficient number of independent variables) are better suited for a database than a spreadsheet.

 

[LS21]

google desktop reads pdf right, just store in a folder and let google index it.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

Actually, I am not in school. While the real world runs on Excel, it is blatantly obvious that certain things (including those which track a sufficient number of independent variables) are better suited for a database than a spreadsheet.

Lots of things are "obviously" better suited for a DB. Your problem is one of them. However, how much time are you going to invest in doing so? Setting up/linking to a DB, designing the tables, and then an interface... a few months from now you'll look back and say damn I could have just done this in excel and pretty much gotten the same results and spent my time on something more productive.

I have a folder called "Research" full of work related PDF's granted I dont have a ton of them, so I dont really need to search and sort them, maybe as it grows someday I will. But if I were to walk into my bosses office tomorow and say, hey im gonna spend X hours putting my research papers into a DB, he'll say "are you fucking crazy, put it in excel and get back to work on billable projects" Time is money. If I could convince him that maybe spending X hours now will save me X hours over Y period of time, then after that its just free increased productivity, he MIGHT consider it, but even then, clients take priority. If we really wanted it we'd sell the solution to a client so they pay us to develop it. Other than that it goes in excel, or just some semi organized folders on a fileshare.

Why do you think companies who spend millions on Oracle or SAP still resort to excel when the need to get things done? For the record I HATE excel, but it simply the shortest point from A to B for damn near anything in the business world. The "blatantly obvious" solution is also the losing solution if it doesnt deliver first.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

Actually, I am not in school. While the real world runs on Excel, it is blatantly obvious that certain things (including those which track a sufficient number of independent variables) are better suited for a database than a spreadsheet.

Lots of things are "obviously" better suited for a DB. Your problem is one of them. However, how much time are you going to invest in doing so? Setting up/linking to a DB, designing the tables, and then an interface... a few months from now you'll look back and say damn I could have just done this in excel and pretty much gotten the same results and spent my time on something more productive.

I have a folder called "Research" full of work related PDF's granted I dont have a ton of them, so I dont really need to search and sort them, maybe as it grows someday I will. But if I were to walk into my bosses office tomorow and say, hey im gonna spend X hours putting my research papers into a DB, he'll say "are you fucking crazy, put it in excel and get back to work on billable projects" Time is money. If I could convince him that maybe spending X hours now will save me X hours over Y period of time, then after that its just free increased productivity, he MIGHT consider it, but even then, clients take priority. If we really wanted it we'd sell the solution to a client so they pay us to develop it. Other than that it goes in excel, or just some semi organized folders on a fileshare.

Why do you think companies who spend millions on Oracle or SAP still resort to excel when the need to get things done? For the record I HATE excel, but it simply the shortest point from A to B for damn near anything in the business world. The "blatantly obvious" solution is also the losing solution if it doesnt deliver first.

I think you are misunderstanding. I have no desire to store them in any kind of homemade db solution. I would prefer to store them within software that *uses* a database.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

Actually, I am not in school. While the real world runs on Excel, it is blatantly obvious that certain things (including those which track a sufficient number of independent variables) are better suited for a database than a spreadsheet.

Lots of things are "obviously" better suited for a DB. Your problem is one of them. However, how much time are you going to invest in doing so? Setting up/linking to a DB, designing the tables, and then an interface... a few months from now you'll look back and say damn I could have just done this in excel and pretty much gotten the same results and spent my time on something more productive.

I have a folder called "Research" full of work related PDF's granted I dont have a ton of them, so I dont really need to search and sort them, maybe as it grows someday I will. But if I were to walk into my bosses office tomorow and say, hey im gonna spend X hours putting my research papers into a DB, he'll say "are you fucking crazy, put it in excel and get back to work on billable projects" Time is money. If I could convince him that maybe spending X hours now will save me X hours over Y period of time, then after that its just free increased productivity, he MIGHT consider it, but even then, clients take priority. If we really wanted it we'd sell the solution to a client so they pay us to develop it. Other than that it goes in excel, or just some semi organized folders on a fileshare.

Why do you think companies who spend millions on Oracle or SAP still resort to excel when the need to get things done? For the record I HATE excel, but it simply the shortest point from A to B for damn near anything in the business world. The "blatantly obvious" solution is also the losing solution if it doesnt deliver first.

You're friggin kidding us right?

You'd be fired in my company.

I work in a Pharma where we have millions of research, legal, clinical, development, etc documentation.

We use several document management applications and currently have a RFP for an enterprise solution that will cost $100,000s.

So, no. Any real company does not use Excel to catalog their documentation.

OP - do a google search on 'document management software'. It will really vary based on the kind of documentation you plan to archive.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

Actually, I am not in school. While the real world runs on Excel, it is blatantly obvious that certain things (including those which track a sufficient number of independent variables) are better suited for a database than a spreadsheet.

Lots of things are "obviously" better suited for a DB. Your problem is one of them. However, how much time are you going to invest in doing so? Setting up/linking to a DB, designing the tables, and then an interface... a few months from now you'll look back and say damn I could have just done this in excel and pretty much gotten the same results and spent my time on something more productive.

I have a folder called "Research" full of work related PDF's granted I dont have a ton of them, so I dont really need to search and sort them, maybe as it grows someday I will. But if I were to walk into my bosses office tomorow and say, hey im gonna spend X hours putting my research papers into a DB, he'll say "are you fucking crazy, put it in excel and get back to work on billable projects" Time is money. If I could convince him that maybe spending X hours now will save me X hours over Y period of time, then after that its just free increased productivity, he MIGHT consider it, but even then, clients take priority. If we really wanted it we'd sell the solution to a client so they pay us to develop it. Other than that it goes in excel, or just some semi organized folders on a fileshare.

Why do you think companies who spend millions on Oracle or SAP still resort to excel when the need to get things done? For the record I HATE excel, but it simply the shortest point from A to B for damn near anything in the business world. The "blatantly obvious" solution is also the losing solution if it doesnt deliver first.

You're friggin kidding us right?

You'd be fired in my company.

I work in a Pharma where we have millions of research, legal, clinical, development, etc documentation.

We use several document management applications and currently have a RFP for an enterprise solution that will cost $100,000s.

So, no. Any real company does not use Excel to catalog their documentation.

OP - do a google search on 'document management software'. It will really vary based on the kind of documentation you plan to archive.

Millions is a little different than "several dozen", but if you wanna justify $100,000s for "several dozen" maybe your the one who'd get canned. Or maybe pharma is the best place for you.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf

Originally posted by: Train
When in doubt, do it in excel.

/me prays you do not work in IT

You're obviouly still in school. Heres some learnin' for ya... the world runs on excel.

And this is from a guy who's been doing professional SQL Server/Oracle work (among many other types of programming) for 10 years.

Actually, I am not in school. While the real world runs on Excel, it is blatantly obvious that certain things (including those which track a sufficient number of independent variables) are better suited for a database than a spreadsheet.

Lots of things are "obviously" better suited for a DB. Your problem is one of them. However, how much time are you going to invest in doing so? Setting up/linking to a DB, designing the tables, and then an interface... a few months from now you'll look back and say damn I could have just done this in excel and pretty much gotten the same results and spent my time on something more productive.

I have a folder called "Research" full of work related PDF's granted I dont have a ton of them, so I dont really need to search and sort them, maybe as it grows someday I will. But if I were to walk into my bosses office tomorow and say, hey im gonna spend X hours putting my research papers into a DB, he'll say "are you fucking crazy, put it in excel and get back to work on billable projects" Time is money. If I could convince him that maybe spending X hours now will save me X hours over Y period of time, then after that its just free increased productivity, he MIGHT consider it, but even then, clients take priority. If we really wanted it we'd sell the solution to a client so they pay us to develop it. Other than that it goes in excel, or just some semi organized folders on a fileshare.

Why do you think companies who spend millions on Oracle or SAP still resort to excel when the need to get things done? For the record I HATE excel, but it simply the shortest point from A to B for damn near anything in the business world. The "blatantly obvious" solution is also the losing solution if it doesnt deliver first.

You're friggin kidding us right?

You'd be fired in my company.

I work in a Pharma where we have millions of research, legal, clinical, development, etc documentation.

We use several document management applications and currently have a RFP for an enterprise solution that will cost $100,000s.

So, no. Any real company does not use Excel to catalog their documentation.

OP - do a google search on 'document management software'. It will really vary based on the kind of documentation you plan to archive.

Millions is a little different than "several dozen", but if you wanna justify $100,000s for "several dozen" maybe your the one who'd get canned. Or maybe pharma is the best place for you.

There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. One app turns out to have securty flaw, problem is it's OSS release is 3 versions past what we have installed, because no one is paid to make sure all the free apps we have installed are all patched up. And we'd need a backup and update script run on the db tables to upgrade it, now who gets paid to do all that? What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

And that's why you're a developer and not in management. How is excel going to scale? And you think managers/directors are going to be happy with having to use excel to search for their documents and not have a search engine based app? When excel can't handle the volume anymore and the data hasn't conformed to a locked format, enjoy spending the time scrubbing the data for migration to another system. How about web access or security?

 

[TwiceOver]

Sharepoint Knowledge Base

 

[Chryso]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. One app turns out to have securty flaw, problem is it's OSS release is 3 versions past what we have installed, because no one is paid to make sure all the free apps we have installed are all patched up. And we'd need a backup and update script run on the db tables to upgrade it, now who gets paid to do all that? What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

This man speaks the truth. I hate it but it is true.

(I'm just glad they are all in Excel now and not mixed between it and Lotus123.)

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

And that's why you're a developer and not in management. How is excel going to scale? And you think managers/directors are going to be happy with having to use excel to search for their documents and not have a search engine based app? When excel can't handle the volume anymore and the data hasn't conformed to a locked format, enjoy spending the time scrubbing the data for migration to another system. How about web access or security?

I used to be a disciple just like you, but there's theory and there's practice. In reality, what you describe is much less likely than the problems I described above. And as far as mangers go, managers and directors LOVE excel, they frikkin speak it. And again, for the record, I HATE excel, but I'm also a realist.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. One app turns out to have securty flaw, problem is it's OSS release is 3 versions past what we have installed, because no one is paid to make sure all the free apps we have installed are all patched up. And we'd need a backup and update script run on the db tables to upgrade it, now who gets paid to do all that? What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

While typical, what you refer to is not true of every organization. Smaller organizations such as mine are better able to handle things like that. For instance, while we have hardware standardization we have none at all for software due to the unique role each person has.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

And that's why you're a developer and not in management. How is excel going to scale? And you think managers/directors are going to be happy with having to use excel to search for their documents and not have a search engine based app? When excel can't handle the volume anymore and the data hasn't conformed to a locked format, enjoy spending the time scrubbing the data for migration to another system. How about web access or security?

I used to be a disciple just like you, but there's theory and there's practice. In reality, what you describe is much less likely than the problems I described above. And as far as mangers go, managers and directors LOVE excel, they frikkin speak it. And again, for the record, I HATE excel, but I'm also a realist.

Yes, when I worked for small/start-ups, excel is fine. Excel is fine within a single department or limited user small scale situations.

When you get into a larger environment when your apps need to reach multiple organizations with multiple users, excel doesn't work as a central depository. If it's a public company, SOX or another audit will bite you for security/data integrity issues.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
...
There are also free and inexpensive solutions also that are better than Excel.

Example

Sure, so you download and install this app. Now you have your own doc management app. Then you follow the same thinking and download another free app to track time for projects, another to track bugs, another to track XYZ for clients... see where I'm going? Some guy sets up a fancy little app to track something then leaves... the app goes into disarray, people all use it differently, etc. What can go wrong will. After 10 years in companies with this line of thinking, they tend to have piles of servers with apps all over the place that no one can remember or figure out what goes where or does what. In the mean time the person getting something done whipped it out in excel.

And yes, this is coming from a very strong DB developer. Minimalism is king.

And that's why you're a developer and not in management. How is excel going to scale? And you think managers/directors are going to be happy with having to use excel to search for their documents and not have a search engine based app? When excel can't handle the volume anymore and the data hasn't conformed to a locked format, enjoy spending the time scrubbing the data for migration to another system. How about web access or security?

I used to be a disciple just like you, but there's theory and there's practice. In reality, what you describe is much less likely than the problems I described above. And as far as mangers go, managers and directors LOVE excel, they frikkin speak it. And again, for the record, I HATE excel, but I'm also a realist.

Yes, when I worked for small/start-ups, excel is fine. Excel is fine within a single department or limited user small scale situations.

When you get into a larger environment when your apps need to reach multiple organizations with multiple users, excel doesn't work as a central depository. If it's a public company, SOX or another audit will bite you for security/data integrity issues.

Here's another not so well guarded secret: Most of the Fortune 500 run on excel too.

in fact, there was even a thread here about it:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...keyword1=runs+on+excel

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Train
Here's another not so well guarded secret: Most of the Fortune 500 run on excel too.

in fact, there was even a thread here about it:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...keyword1=runs+on+excel

Sure for limited uses. They don't run on Excel. They all use an ERP solution.

 

[Train]

did you read the thread?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: Train
did you read the thread?

Yes, looks like you need to reread it.

 

[Train]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Train
did you read the thread?

Yes, looks like you need to reread it.

I reread it, looks like a thread full of people agreeing with me, and you being the lone (maybe there was one other) dissenter. lol