Getting Started With Existing Organized Word Documents

EagleFiler
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Hi. I have used EagleFiler in the past to store and search an archived email library. Now, however, I want to use it to facilitate better searching of my business files - specifically Microsoft Word documents currently located within client folders. I need help figuring out how to best get started and organize my library.

Here’s my setup: Each of my clients has a folder, within which are any documents I’ve worked on for that client. Folders are on my computer, with some in my Dropbox folder, synced to Dropbox, and some in strictly local folder locations. I may work with a client for two or three months, then not hear from them again for years (or ever).

I want to be able to search all the Word documents in all my client folders looking for particular words and/or phrases in the documents, and see all the results. I don’t need the documents in EagleFiler to be arranged in client folders, but I do need at least copies of them to stay in their client folders. The folders and files that are on Dropbox need to stay there so I can access them from other computers and mobile devices.

What’s the best way to accomplish my goals? How and where should my library be set up? Should I simply add a copy of each of the Word documents to a new EF library that I store on my computer? Is there a way to accomplish my goals without duplicating the documents?

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It’s probably simpler if you put the actual client folders in EagleFiler. That way you don’t have to worry about keeping EagleFiler up-to-date or about duplicate files.

If your folders were all local or all on Dropbox, you could simply create an EagleFiler library that location and then move the existing client folders into EagleFiler’s folder.

But it sounds like you want parts of the same library to be stored in different places. In this case, you should create the library in a non-Dropbox folder and move the existing local folders. Then you would add one more symlinks for the client folders that are on Dropbox. There’s some discussion of this here and here, and I can help you more specifically if you provide more information. For example, are all of the Dropbox client folders within the same subfolder? If so, you could just link that from EagleFiler. Otherwise, you might need one symlink for each client folder.