Document managment

arggem

I just got assigned the task of organizing our team's files, stored on Dropbox: 15 GB of data consisting of 1900 files in 266 folders.

Many are duplicates and occur in multiple folders.

We are all on Windows machines and the file explorer seems a bit cumbersome.

So, I immediately thought of using Zotero. I think between tags and collections it would work.

But since Z is designed for biblographic management, it might not be the best tool for the job. (Or is it?)

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

EDIT: also, am I correct that I cannot selectively file sync one of my groups and not others (especially "My Library")?

adamsmith

I'm not sure about the best tool -- that really depends on what you're after, so you'd have to say more about this.
One thing is that if you want to use a group, you can't use Zotero link to files (e.g. via ZotFile), so that might not be desirable.

As for your question -- look at the preferences: you can indeed enable file sync for My Library and Groups separately.

arggem

look at the preferences: you can indeed enable file sync for My Library and Groups separately.

Ah, yes, missed that. Thanks!

As for what I'm after:

I'm not wanting to link to other files, rather, have all files stored and organized in one place.

Right now all files are on DropBox.

So there is a folder: /Key docs on Leadership/ and a file "10 Leadership principles."

But now, one of the team is going to put together a workshop on Leadership, so he/she makes a new folder: /Workshops/ and COPIES the file "10 Leadership principles" to the new folder.

So now, we have 2 copies of 1 document in two different folders. And no way of tagging all documents (Some are taggable, but others aren't).

That scenario is multipled many times over.

So, Zotero seems appealing: 1 File in the Leadership Library...which can be tagged till our heart's content!

and it can be listed in multiple collections (Workshop 1; Workshop 2; dissertation docs, etc.

Not looking for anything super fancy, just have docs organized, findable, and can be organized in collections w/o duplication.

adamsmith

Zotero isn't the only way to do this, but it does sound like it's a good way. The main downside I see is that the PDF files wouldn't be accessible easily from outside Zotero and people might balk at that.
Another downside is that, as far as PDF sync is concerned, Zotero is on the pricier side, since it has all the other ref management features.
Finally, as you know, Zoteor works best with PDFs attached to metadata items. It's not necessary, but without it the level of data you can add to files is limited (though you do have tags & collections either way, so might find that enough).

So YMMV, but yes, Zotero will certainly work for this and the collection model would seem like exactly what you need.

arggem

I agree with all your down-side assessments.

You said _Zotero isn't the only way to do this_ Do you know of any other software out there that would do what I need?

I've found some Document Management Solutions out there, but they seem to be really pricey.. one was $30/month/user!

Thanks for helping me think this through! I appreciate it!

bwiernik

Zoho might be able to meet your needs.

arggem

Thanks! I'll check it out!