[Hidden-tech] Need Document Control System

Spike McLarty spike.mclarty at gmail.com
Fri Jun 26 12:45:41 EDT 2015


I second Chris's suggestion of Dropbox.
It isn't even really a 'place' for people to go, it shows up as a folder on
your computer - just a regular Windows folder.
Pioneer Valley Habitat uses it extensively so I've been able to watch over
my wife's shoulder as she uses it daily.

Anything involving a server, or Sharepoint, will involve significantly more
(and more technical) administrative overhead than Dropbox, unless you've
already got somebody who knows what they're doing and is willing to add
this to their plate.

The trick with Dropbox is setting up the information organization (folder
structure, naming conventions, procedures) so it's easy for people to
understand and conform to.
Have one sensible person do that early on, otherwise you'll get the same
mess you'd get with paper documents + no system.

With the right options turned on in the account, you get off-site backup
(with zero effort), you can see when files were changed and who changed
them, and retrieve any previous version.

Another plus for Dropbox: easy to find people who've used it, not hard to
find people who use it a LOT.

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 8:46 PM, Lesley Schneider <lesley at hthconsulting.com>
wrote:

>
>
>
>
> I better get clearer. This is for a Technical Publications department.
> Technical manuals written in Word. They were trying to use Sharepoint, but
> they never managed to make enough room for it on the server. This is a
> Windows place. They are very set in their ways. Not thrilled with change. I
> was hoping for something that could be a plug-in to Outlook or Explorer.
> Does that help? Just want a system for version control, a central place
> where people can always know they are getting the approved version of a doc
> in PDF format. And where we can store the original Word files where no one
> else can mess with them.
>
> Thank you again,
> Lesley
>
> On Jun 25, 2015, at 6:02 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
>
> At Thu, 25 Jun 2015 14:53:11 -0400 Lesley Schneider <
> lesley at hthconsulting.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi all. I am at a company from the dark ages. They have around 50 people.
>
> They have no doc control system in place. I need something easy to install
>
> and use, and cheap. Just for Technical Publications right now. Any
>
> suggestions?
>
>
> What format are these documents in?
>
> What operating system(s) are you using?
>
> If the documents are some form a text (eg LaTeX)  and the operating system
> is
> some flavor of UNIX/Linux (or if the file server is a UNIX or Linux
> system),
> then any typical Source Code Version control system will work.  Something
> like
> Subversion over Apache/DAV (mod_svn_dav).  Note: using Subversion over
> Apache/DAV is dirt cheap -- it is open source, so there is no cost for the
> software, esp. if you already have the UNIX/Linux server in place.
>
> It *is* possible to use a Source Code Version control system with *binary*
> files, you just don't get things like diffs and each 'version' is a
> complete
> copy of the binary file (rather than a set of changed lines).
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Lesley
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
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> --
> Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
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>
>
> Lesley Schneider
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> http://www.hthconsulting.com
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>
>
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