Arranging files into folders is one way of organizing your files, but is limited in that it will not allow you to easily place a file into several categories simultaneously, and can be a lot of work to modify and maintain.
Enter DiviFile, a free program which provides another way to organize your files, namely, a ‘virtual’, user-defined hierarchical structure that can be used alongside any folder structure that you may be using. It also allows you to store notes and URL’s as well. Your files and folders will not be moved from their location on your hard drive.
DiviFile’s objective? To be a “hub for all your information”; i.e. (1) a file tagging utility, (2) bookmark manager, and (3) a note taking app. It lets you import bookmarks from Internet Explorer and import notes from MS Outlook, and provides a search box for quick retrieval.
This program is very similar to hierarchical note taking apps, with one exception; it lets you drag and drop files and folders from the desktop onto the structure to organize them within it, not just notes. You can place the same item in multiple nodes simultaneously.
Some notes on this program:
- Hierarchical Structure: create nodes and sub-nodes, in a tree like structure.
- Multiple locations: the same item (file, folder, bookmark, note) can be placed in different locations on the hierarchy. In fact, moving an item from one node to another copies it rather than moves it, by default.
- Reconciling hard drive location: an excellent feature whereby if you move an item on your hard drive that exists in DiviFile, the program is able to quickly reconcile the item to the new location. Works remarkably well.
- Search box: lets you find items quickly. Works well.
- Drag and drop: files and folders from the desktop to the hierarchy, or items within the hierarchy itself.
- Import bookmarks: from Internet Explorer; tried it, works well.
- Import notes: from MS Outlook; did not test this myself.
Wish list: of how this program can be even better
- Friendlier interface: especially for the creation of the node structure itself, where although drag and drop is implemented it somehow requires a bit of getting used to.
- Differentiating moving vs. copying items: for example, employing a hotkey, such as pressing CTRL+dragging and dropping an item to move rather than copy it to another location.
- Importing bookmarks from other browsers: Firefox, Chrome, would be nice, and not just IE.
The verdict: as a tool for organizing information, this program is quite interesting. If you find that you need a different way to organize your files or folders than Windows’ folder structures then give this one a try. DiviFile can also organize not just files and folders but also notes and bookmark URLs, all in the same program. Note that this technically is NOT a tagging program, properly speaking, because it keeps a hierarchical structure (and duplicates node names).
This program is not for everyone; it’s user experience can be made better (and slicker), and it requires a bit of work to set up initially; but it can potentially offer a lot of value added – test it out for yourself.
Version Tested: 1.0
Compatibility: Windows (32 bit and 64 bit).
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 4.53 megs).
Thanks for this review. I love this idea. Many “notes” apps provide you with a self-contained database that ends up importing PDFs, RTF files, text notes, images, and so forth all into a single, huge database file. While they can be great for some purposes, I’d prefer the option to keep all my files where they already exist on my hard drive, but still be able to access them in a hierarchical notes fashion. I haven’t tried this app yet, but certainly will!
@ Doug A: you’re welcome.
I try since some time an other tagging program called Tabbles. It has several interesting features like hierarchical tags and auto-tagging of files following some rules. It can also store urls. There is a version of Tabbles free for personal use with no limitation (the only added feature of the paid version is the possibility to share tags between several computers). To understand the interface takes a little time, but it works well.
@ Marc T. I used the free version of Tabbles for weeks, testing it for a possible review, but at the time it only allowed for tagging a maximum of 1000 files in the free version, which annoyed me and caused me to give up on it.
I wrote to the Tabbles people suggesting this setup was counter productive, and received something to the effect that they will consider removing it. I wonder if this ceiling is no longer the case now. Will look into it.
Thanks for the review. I used Tabbles for quite a while–I even bought it. The sharing across computers is great and seemed to work well; but they refused to add a simple option of pure mirroring of Tabbles tag structure. It’s a extremely interesting project, nevertheless; if this appeals to you, you should definitely check it out. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to know your thoughts about Tabbles itself and in comparison to DiviFile, which I am now going to try out.
The 1,000 file limit in Tabbles applies ONLY to sharing your tabbles with other users on a shared drive. Otherwise there is no limitation for organizing the files on your own computer. As reported in http://tabbles.net/blog/blog/2010/11/02/tabbles-sharing-free-for-personal-use-license-lottery/ “Tabbles is now free for personal use! The free license doesn’t have any file limitation anymore (the tabbles-sharing is enabled but up to 1000 files).” And indeed the Versions page on the Tabbles website says essentially the same thing.
Perhaps you could reconsider reviewing Tabbles here. Many users don’t need to share Tabbles, and could benefit from unrestricted use of the program on their personal computer.
I think there are a number of ways that we can organize our files. When you think about it, there is sites like http://www.dropbox.com, https://www.mypdv.com, http://www.box.net, etc, that all exist where we can store out files…It’s huge and growing at the moment.