Ministry & Technology - searching for information

Technology can be a great asset in ministry. Email, web searches, retaining research done on a computer can be a great time saver. However, the challenge of locating that information across the different folders on a computer can be a challenge -- even when logical folders are used to file the data. I had been using PaperPort v 9, which allows the saving of documents, pictures, etc. with descriptions which are searchable. However, it has a problem, and now hangs when started. I had also been using the index solution of Wordperfect (but that had also stopped working). The problem was also that Wordperfect could not index many other types of files.

So the search began for a means by which to index PDF files, documents, etc. I first tried Software995's "Search within". It seemed to index the harddrive fairly well, but the search routine was too spartan. Google Desktop had released a free search utility, but it doesn't search Wordperfect documents at this point (I switched to WordPerfect following Wordstar -- that goes back a few years and just haven't made the switch to Word).

Yahoo Desktop Search (based on X1 search engine) - beta (link) has the ability to search over 200 file types, and also gives a viewer pane to show where the word/s are listed. This was much closer to what I was looking for. Yahoo Desktop Search is in beta form, but I did not have any problems with it, though didn't really do an extensive evaluation because I moved on to Copernic Desktop.

I have landed on Copernic Desktop Search (link) as my search engine of choice. It also searches the major file types, including word processing, email (Outlook & Outlook Express), pictures, audio and shows a viewer pane with the results. Booleen operators (and/or) are possible as well as date searches. It is free and works well. In some recent research I need for a sermon, I was able to search through 900+ emails from a particular email list of which I am a subscriber and found some helpful information. Copernic has the ability to search through the viewer pane and highlights the search words.

So, if you are in need of a program to index and search your computer harddrive for stored research, etc., Copernic Desktop Search is worth a look. Note: for materials that I scan, I save in a PDF file (Use Acrobat 5.0) and then use the paper capture tool which turns the scan into a searchable file from the scan.

One final note: I did notice that Yahoo Desktop Search found some things that Copernic did not -- so, it is possible to run both programs!