Re: OT:macros or software?

Philip Herlihy wrote:
Mr Sandman wrote:
"Mike Scott" <usenet.11@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:b4OMi.42198$ka7.40776@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Philip Herlihy wrote:
Mr Sandman wrote:
Hi all,

need to ask a question, but not sure where to ask it, so i thought as you
lot have a lot of time spent on Windows, someone will be able to help!

Basically i want a program that will monitor a folder on my hard drive, and
when a .PDF (searchable PDF) file is stored there, search it for certain
words and depending on weather those words are found in that document, move it to a predetermined folder.

I heard i could do this with a macro....but not sure how to do it. But is
there something already out there that will do this for me? If this is not
the best place to ask this question...any suggestions as to where ask it?

Best regards all,

Steve
Easy enough if it were a text document, or even Word, as you could write a DOS script, or a VBS script if you had to load Word to read Word documents, although writing such a script can be harder to a beginner than some might think.

As the content is PDF, the puzzle is how to search through that in a script. I know Adobe Acrobat Professional (not the Reader) has a JavaScript capability which might do the trick, but you'd need to have that program available (not cheap) if it turned out that it will do what you want. I suppose you could try running Word with the "recover text from any document" component installed - you'd want to program Word itself (VBA), as the naive scripter's trick of starting a new Word process for every file in the folder will slow the process to a crawl. You might like to try asking the question in comp.text.pdf.
Might be possible to use ghostscript to get at the ascii text in the pdf. If it were me, I'd be looking at a perl script plus ghostscript (possibly in the shape of pdf2ps and ps2ascii).

Anyway, it's a pretty hideous thing to have to do. You're going to search, regularly, through every file in a folder for a string, just in case a new file contains it? I bet there's a better solution...
I agree. I remember being told once "if you want to go there, don't start here". Maybe the OP should say what the /real/ problem is, rather than asking for completion of a part, kludge-looking solution.


--
Mike Scott (unet <at> scottsonline.org.uk)
Harlow Essex England

OK the goal is to put the numerous files scattered everywhere on the computer at work into easy to use folders for my staff to access simply. ideally with a group of say 10 folders placed on the desktop. the problem is when new documents get saved, different staff put the documents in different places and things quickly get messy. Further complicating matters is the fact that all incoming mail is scanned and stored for filing also.

I use X1 to help search for documents, but its a messy solution and new staff need to be able to put there hands on what they need quickly.

Steve


Probably bigger and more expensive than you need, but this might be of interest:
http://www.google.co.uk/enterprise/gsa/

You're trying to create a content-indexing system, essentially as part of a document retrieval system. This is the sort of facility that gets more and more complex the more you look into it, and I think it would actually be very difficult to do using a home-made program or script - you'd keep on finding problems ad infinitum. For example, what if a document had two or more of the "interesting" strings in it? Better, in my view, to look for a package where someone has worked out all (?) of the wrinkles already, or simply work out a sensible classification system and train your staff to use it. I don't know a package that I could recommend, but there are plenty of applications for "tagging" photos for later retrieval, so there are likely to be similar ones for documents. It's a universal rule, though, that if you want to be able to retrieve information at a later time, you need to label it somehow at the time of storage.

Hope that doesn't sound too glib!

Phil

Hadn't spotted the Google "mini". http://www.google.com/enterprise/mini/index.html

This might be a good deal for you from around £1000 - if your business is generating chaos now, it'll continue to do so at an exponential rate, so nip it in the bud now to save grief later!

Phil
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT:macros or software?
    ... when a .PDF file is stored there, ... words and depending on weather those words are found in that document, move it to a predetermined folder. ... Easy enough if it were a text document, or even Word, as you could write a DOS script, or a VBS script if you had to load Word to read Word documents, although writing such a script can be harder to a beginner than some might think. ... OK the goal is to put the numerous files scattered everywhere on the computer at work into easy to use folders for my staff to access simply. ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: OT:macros or software?
    ... when a .PDF file is stored there, ... words and depending on weather those words are found in that document, move it to a predetermined folder. ... Easy enough if it were a text document, or even Word, as you could write a DOS script, or a VBS script if you had to load Word to read Word documents, although writing such a script can be harder to a beginner than some might think. ... If the string was in the name of the file it would be less work - you can set up the rather marvellous "robocopy" but that won't read inside a file, and certainly not a pdf! ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: OT:macros or software?
    ... Basically i want a program that will monitor a folder on my hard drive, ... when a .PDF file is stored there, ... a DOS script, or a VBS script if you had to load Word to read Word ... computer at work into easy to use folders for my staff to access simply. ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Re: OT:macros or software?
    ... when a .PDF file is stored there, ... words and depending on weather those words are found in that document, move it to a predetermined folder. ... Easy enough if it were a text document, or even Word, as you could write a DOS script, or a VBS script if you had to load Word to read Word documents, although writing such a script can be harder to a beginner than some might think. ... Maybe the OP should say what the /real/ problem is, rather than asking for completion of a part, kludge-looking solution. ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • RE: incoming mail to sharepoint+PF+folder
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    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)