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Cross Platform Document Management Systems?

Posted by Cliff on from the organizing-the-21st-century-office dept.

Alan asks: "I'm looking for a way to do document management at the office. We have windows people and linux people, some writing documents that are a few lines (developer notes for example) and others are full of charts, graphs, etc. Currently we have a file server that has shares set up for the documentation, but it lacks any sort of revision control, and with the salespeople writing in Microsoft Word there are cross-platform issues. We were thinking of setting up an wiki or an everything-based site, but as it is only text, it's not good enough for everyone. There is also the matter of getting our master documentation (which is in PDF format) accessable to everyone as well, possibly in an XML format that can be imported into indesign or Pagemaker or something. There are lots of solutions that work for different departments and different systems, but it would be nice to have something that works for everyone."

2 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. Simple by BRO_HAM · · Score: 3, Interesting



    Here is the best system for managing documents, it's simple, yet very effective. The technology or database here is a matter of preference - let's address "business flow".

    You need a single directory to store all of your documents - no subdirectories. The categorization should be held in the database. This makes for simple backups and not having to heavily integrate your application with the server's file system.

    You should have 5 ways to access the files - categorical, by date, by "uploader", by type, and a search function that indexes the complete text held within each document. Verity has a very nice offering for indexing MANY different types of files.

    All of the 5 different methods of access should be linked. For instance, if I am browsing categorically and I run across a documentation style I like in particular, I should be able to click a link that takes me to the "uploader" filter that will show me all the other documents that individual uploaded.

    Another example is if I did a full-text search for "widgets 123" and had a long listing of documents, you should list the categories they reside in so the user can click that category and be taken to all of the documents in that category.

    Two phrases should be at the top of every thought you have regarding this system:

    Fully Integrated
    Stupid dumb easy to use

    Adam.

    --


    my sig is so witty and fun - it tickles almost everyone who reads it.
  2. I'm I the only one who thought of this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Format documents in HTML. Simple, supports practically all platforms out there. Most tools will export to HTML these days...

    (Or, alternatively, PDF, which is equally well supported. Though you lose the ability to browse the documentation off your favorite web browser.)

    For revision control: Try CVS with SSH (instead of RSH) for updating. Cheap. Effective. Highly portable. Add a little script so that it automatically checks out the latest versions of whatever is checked in, and checks them out into a public place -- perhaps into your intra-web-server's (Apache's) directory.

    For your sales people, add commands (batch or bash scripts) to create/checkin files to their windows explorer browser commands list... So they can easily update/checkin files using their winX click and drool interfaces... (But, of course, it only works for the "right" file types...)