RE: What do you use for File management?

["Dori Green" <dgreen -at- associatedbrands -dot- com>]

On my recommendation, my boss purchased an ISO documentation management
Access database from Point-to-Point Consulting.

It arrived with NO documentation and only standard Access help files.
E-mail help support had been promised, but Point-to-Point has not responded
to any of the e-mails I've sent since last March.

I'm an Access power-user and I've written documentation for some pretty
complicated turnkey systems written for Access -- does anybody here have any
idea about how many forms are required to transport a human body across
state lines?

But I digress.

If anybody here likes the Point-to-Point samples and is thinking about a
purchase of their package, I offer three pieces of advice:

1.  Be prepared to work without any support.

2.  Not only is there no documentation, many of the fields are named in
German or Dutch.  Get a good dictionary and keep it close by.

3.  Don't ever let your database get out of control -- if you move a
document or take action on it, it must become your religion to update the
status field.  Once out of control, that database will be g-o-n-e.  This
last point is true about any control system, of course.

For electronic master copy file management I use the company's server and I
do daily backups onto a USB flash device.

For physical master copy file management I use a four-drawer file cabinet
here in my cubby, and the terrified belief by everybody here that I really
might be crazy enough to carry through on my threat to stab them in the
wrist with a plastic fork if they touch those files.

Dori Green

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