Whether it's desktop, internet or email searching - this skill doesn't just talk when it when it comes to money – it screams. Being able to quickly find dates, phone numbers, files, pictures and forms is also critical in having a productive and non-frustrating work day. There are many tools built right into your computer that can help. There are
also many third party tools that can really help and at no-to-low cost.
New to Vista and Windows 7 is an "integrated search" feature (and long available as Searchlight on the Mac) which creates an index of "everything" on your computer and allows you to search across and within documents, emails, folders and internet favorites. Access if from the Windows bubble. It's ok enough, especially if you have nothing else but it can take a little longer than most of us would find acceptable. Read more about Windows Search here.
Google Desktop Search is offered as a free download and is pretty awesome. It puts the power of Google INSIDE your computer and returns results like an internet Google search would. In the set up, you can even tell Google to search a shared drive on the network or to exclude a certain folder (like your music folder for example.)You can opt to turn off the feature that also searches internet at the same time and the option to send feedback to Google. You can read all about it here and download it here. Here's a review I found at Consumer Search:
Reviewers say Google Desktop keeps getting better with each version -- it's free and available for Linux, Mac and PC. It also has an Enterprise version for businesses and a new Quick Search tool. Google Desktop indexes… the content of files as well as most file types and is easy to customize. Add-ins are available -- for example, to index QuickBooks, OpenOffice and WordPerfect files. An optional sidebar can be customized with over 150 fun and useful widgets that draw information from the web. You can even set up Google Desktop so you can search your hard drive from another computer. The main drawback is the limited categorization of results, plus previews that have minimal formatting. You can add a search toolbar inside Outlook, but these results show no previews at all.
Other notable 3rd party tools include Copernic and X1 (both cost about $50). Here's CNET's review of Copernic. Some of these tools offer enterprise versions which allow you to share the index databases with other people in your office. Good idea for you solos and smalls that don't have a true practice management or document management system in place. Info on Google Enterprise is here. Some features it lists:
- Centrally control user features and preferences
- Control content and enforce document retention policies
- Encrypt all user data and search index files
Check out this case study about a 1000-seat law firm that installed X1 corporate suite and it's Interwoven connector. There's a good blog post over here at Pandia which review these products as well as some others.
Without a good storage, searching, indexing and retrieval system - you and your peers and staff are wasting colossal, I mean COLOSSAL amounts of billable time. Make it a goal to get on this today!
