In today's world "paperwork" can consist of email, electronic documents, faxes, web sites, contact names and history, phone calls, meeting notes, agendas... almost everything you might use in day to day operations involves paperwork of some kind or other. Volumes have been written about organizing regular paperwork, but in today's column I'd like to focus on a new application which effectively manages your Electronic Information. If you've tried organizing your Electronic Information before you've probably used one of the following yet inadequate tools: Web Browser Bookmarks
These allows you to mark a page for later retrieval, and pages can be grouped into various folders for easier management and reference. Anyone who has used this system for any length of time has likely discovered that it can become cumbersome and confusing. You must remember which folder you put the page in, then you must remember the title of the page and sometimes try to figure out why you book marked it in the first place. Personal Information Managers (PIM)
Good PIMs track history information of various types for your contact management. Most keep the web page URL, email address and other pertinent information close on hand. However, many PIMs are slow in retrieving related information because they must search a database to extract only the relevant items. And, you have to open separate software applications in order to access the reference materials. Start Pages
Setting up a portal page, sometimes called Start Pages, gives you quick links to most of your frequently used information. They also allow for the creation of notes, todo lists and scheduling plans. Start pages are normally web based systems that work nicely as an alternative for expensive contact managers. But they can become cumbersome because you tend to end up with 5 or more web pages open simultaneously along with various other programs depending on what your working on. In the past, I've used the above tools for keeping track of my day to day information. Recently however, I discovered a new application that reduces my daily juggle and makes me much more efficient. Enfish Onespace.
Enfish Onespace is a free software program that is installed on your local computer. The software lets you have your Information Manager, Web Browser, email, contact lists, reference pages, weather, news, and all relevant information from your system all rolled into one. The tool does not use additional hard drive space by copying everything you already have in place, and it does not use long searches to retrieve information. Instead it indexes as much or as little as you tell it to, on a schedule that you give it, so that everything is always up to date and on hand. Now the biggest difference between Onespace and other Information management tools is that you can have everything readily available at a glance. For instance, if you have an order management system that involves 5 different web pages, notes, contact and todo lists, you might currently have to open 5 different program windows in order to access everything at once. Using Onespace you can instead set up a custom access page that has all relevant pages in one place. Multiple custom pages can be set up with a variety of information types in each one. Documents, PDF files and Webpages are just some of the file types that can be opened and viewed from within the program. This makes it extremely convenient to access all related materials for one particular topic at once. This program does have one downside that may hinder use for some of you. In order for your appointment and todo items to be integrated fully into the software, you must be using Microsoft Outlook. The system allows other email programs to be used, however functionality from directly within the program is more limited with others than it is with Outlook email. Enfish is working to integrate other scheduling and email programs though, so as those are added this tool will become even more invaluable. I have been using Onespace for a couple of weeks now and it is wonderful. Of all the Information Management options available, even with its small limitations, the Enfish Onespace software is what I would consider the ultimate in Electronic Information Management. Resources: Enfish - http://www.enfish.com ### Kathy Burns has been starting and growing online businesses for several years. She currently runs a large Palm Pilot handheld computing website and writes a syndicated daily Palm Pilot column - The Daily Dose. View other articles by Kathy online at http://www.palmpilotfiles.com/dailydose
or browse her website at http://www.palmpilotfiles.com |