hi there

I am in a nightmare of organising my data - lot of PDF, lot of pictures, few videos . . . download off from the internet.

for example, I have a folder containing PDF and pictures about Thai farmers. yet they could be related to agriculture, economy, political and news . . . and could be organised into many different ways. I used to have very structured single topic folders, but about 500+ of them ( about 1TB ), and in this way I have 'memory' problem of remember where they are. I need catalogues, tags . . .

any simple way to organise these data :

1) native Windows 7 and Windows 8

2) add-on application, paid or free

thanks . . .

Not sure about your pictures, but to organise your PDF files the ideal solution is the free Calibre eBook library manager.

Whilst I do not think it will let you organise your pictures, they can be compiled as eBooks for different subjects or even possibly added to your existing PDF files.

calibre will let you categorise your PDFs and assign searchable tags. As it is free give it a try.

Not sure about your pictures, but to organise your PDF files the ideal solution is the free Calibre eBook library manager.

thanks, will look into it. actually I have no problem of my OWN digital photos, all well-organised in Adobe Bridge ( part of creative suite ).

but, my 500+ FOLDERS contain downloaded information of different data formats, and some cross-reference to each other, then I have headache. basically I am looking for an indexing, tagging and catalogue system, that I could VISUALLY locate my information easier.

I think document management is what you need and maybe you take a look here since it's freeware http://www.bitfarm-archiv.com/

Lots available for a single file type but different types have different methods and abilities.

A structured multi level directory structure works best.

As was mentioned, sounds like you need a document management system. Many open source options available, depending on the value of the data (ie.business or personal) a wide variety of complexity to set up. Feel free to PM me for more info.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Suggest you organize links to the files rather than the files themselves. Do that by an info manager such as Keepnote or Evernote. Drag in a file and it becomes a link. Then tag the note with appropriate tags. More than that, use a personal wiki. These start with tiddlywiki or Wikidpad and move to flat file wikis such as PMwiki or Dokuwiki. The cross-referencing ability of wikis is fantastic. If you have more time and want serious perspective and relationship, use mindmapping software. I like XMind best of the lot. Same idea, put in links and text into nodes.

Hope that helps.

thanks all for the advices !! yes, I should say - document management system, rather than data organisation. while I was a corporate man, we used to have a database that manages all the complexity in tagging, and connecting. I think it is a FileMaker Pro over the network.

now I am running this for just updating my rusting 'brain', and certainly my IT man not next to me :- ) need to keep everything simple :- ) I did use 'link' as a physical connection, but can't help.

off-the-shelve document management system sounds good,

personal wiki ( if not too complicated ) even better !

thanks . . .