Converting a large word document into a study notes database

D

DDawson

I received a large document from a colleague containing study notes for
various topics. I'm looking for suggestions on the simplest and most
effective way of converting this word document into a database. I want to be
able to find relevant paragraphs of text using a multiple keyword search and
have all the results displayed in one place.

Dylan
Click to expand...

I don't think Word is designed to get you what you want, and as Robert says,
would be a big hassle.

You might look at notetaking programs, which I would expect to have built-in
features to make this type of search easier (and I would expect any of them
to accept text from Word smoothly). Perhaps MS OneNote? You might ask in
those forums whether this would be possible.

On the Mac, I might recommend DevonThink, which is advertised as an
"information manager", and I believe does things like this. Googling
"DevonThink windows" turns up something called EverNote, perhaps check that
out:
http://slackermanager.com/2005/03/i_still_dig_eve.html

Or converting it to PDF would allow a Mac user to use Preview's search
capability, which shows a listing in a task pane of the occurrences of a
single word, with the surrounding few words. Much less efficient, more like
an instant index, but could be helpful. Again, not sure if Windows Acrobat
offers something similar, may be worth checking.

EndNote, the bibliographic management software, has room for people to take
notes on readings, and may have decent search capabilities, I've never tried
them.
 
D

DDawson

Patrick,

Its a word document (.DOC), 148 pages in length, 545KB.
It contains hundreds, maybe thousands, of paragraphs of study notes on
different subjects.

Patrick Schmid said:
Sounds more like something for OneNote. What kind of document it is (in
what format)? How long?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

I don't think Word is designed to get you what you want, and as Robert says,
would be a big hassle.

You might look at notetaking programs, which I would expect to have built-in
features to make this type of search easier (and I would expect any of them
to accept text from Word smoothly). Perhaps MS OneNote? You might ask in
those forums whether this would be possible.

On the Mac, I might recommend DevonThink, which is advertised as an
"information manager", and I believe does things like this. Googling
"DevonThink windows" turns up something called EverNote, perhaps check that
out:
http://slackermanager.com/2005/03/i_still_dig_eve.html

Or converting it to PDF would allow a Mac user to use Preview's search
capability, which shows a listing in a task pane of the occurrences of a
single word, with the surrounding few words. Much less efficient, more like
an instant index, but could be helpful. Again, not sure if Windows Acrobat
offers something similar, may be worth checking.

EndNote, the bibliographic management software, has room for people to take
notes on readings, and may have decent search capabilities, I've never tried
them.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
P

Patrick Schmid [MVP]

Hmm...You might want to use OneNote, but manually split it apart when
copying & pasting from Word into ON.
Having so much info on one OneNote page is not going to be easy to use.
So maybe group them by subject?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Patrick,

Its a word document (.DOC), 148 pages in length, 545KB.
It contains hundreds, maybe thousands, of paragraphs of study notes on
different subjects.

Patrick Schmid said:
Sounds more like something for OneNote. What kind of document it is (in
what format)? How long?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

On 10/30/06 4:14 AM, "DDawson" wrote (Previously in Word General Questions):

I received a large document from a colleague containing study notes for
various topics. I'm looking for suggestions on the simplest and most
effective way of converting this word document into a database. I want to be
able to find relevant paragraphs of text using a multiple keyword search and
have all the results displayed in one place.

Dylan


I don't think Word is designed to get you what you want, and as Robert says,
would be a big hassle.

You might look at notetaking programs, which I would expect to have built-in
features to make this type of search easier (and I would expect any of them
to accept text from Word smoothly). Perhaps MS OneNote? You might ask in
those forums whether this would be possible.

On the Mac, I might recommend DevonThink, which is advertised as an
"information manager", and I believe does things like this. Googling
"DevonThink windows" turns up something called EverNote, perhaps check that
out:
http://slackermanager.com/2005/03/i_still_dig_eve.html

Or converting it to PDF would allow a Mac user to use Preview's search
capability, which shows a listing in a task pane of the occurrences of a
single word, with the surrounding few words. Much less efficient, more like
an instant index, but could be helpful. Again, not sure if Windows Acrobat
offers something similar, may be worth checking.

EndNote, the bibliographic management software, has room for people to take
notes on readings, and may have decent search capabilities, I've never tried
them.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
B

Ben M. Schorr - MVP

Aloha DDawson,

I agree with Patrick. OneNote wouldn't be bad and the instant search of
OneNote 2007 would be especially handy, but I would break it apart into separate
pages (and probably separate sections) based upon the topics.

-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr - MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
Microsoft OneNote FAQ: http://www.factplace.com/onenotefaq.htm
Patrick,

Its a word document (.DOC), 148 pages in length, 545KB. It contains
hundreds, maybe thousands, of paragraphs of study notes on different
subjects.

Patrick Schmid said:
Sounds more like something for OneNote. What kind of document it is
(in what format)? How long?

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh (B2TR):
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/09/18/43
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed
On 10/30/06 4:14 AM, "DDawson" wrote (Previously in Word General
Questions):

I received a large document from a colleague containing study notes
for various topics. I'm looking for suggestions on the simplest and
most effective way of converting this word document into a
database. I want to be able to find relevant paragraphs of text
using a multiple keyword search and have all the results displayed
in one place.

Dylan

I don't think Word is designed to get you what you want, and as
Robert says, would be a big hassle.

You might look at notetaking programs, which I would expect to have
built-in features to make this type of search easier (and I would
expect any of them to accept text from Word smoothly). Perhaps MS
OneNote? You might ask in those forums whether this would be
possible.

On the Mac, I might recommend DevonThink, which is advertised as an
"information manager", and I believe does things like this. Googling
"DevonThink windows" turns up something called EverNote, perhaps
check that
out:
http://slackermanager.com/2005/03/i_still_dig_eve.html
Or converting it to PDF would allow a Mac user to use Preview's
search capability, which shows a listing in a task pane of the
occurrences of a single word, with the surrounding few words. Much
less efficient, more like an instant index, but could be helpful.
Again, not sure if Windows Acrobat offers something similar, may be
worth checking.

EndNote, the bibliographic management software, has room for people
to take notes on readings, and may have decent search capabilities,
I've never tried them.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 

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