By Kip Gregory
If you’ve ever felt frustrated by how excruciatingly slow the built-in search tools are in Windows or Outlook, I’m happy to report your wait is over. And while I rarely use labels like “killer app” and “game changer,” they’re exactly how I’d describe the software that fixes the problem—tools that will exponentially improve your efficiency in accessing the information you need that is hiding in your computer.
Imagine being able to search and sort through every file on your hard drive or office network in the blink of an eye. And I’m not talking about just file names and types (Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, etc.) but the actual content of each file or email message (including the content of any files attached to that message). That, in a nutshell, is what desktop search software can do for you.
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Imagine being able to search and sort through every file on your hard drive or office network in the blink of an eye. |
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Maybe the only thing you can remember is a word or phrase you put in a proposal, or a name that appeared in a PDF article you downloaded, or a line from an email a client sent you months ago. That’s all you need. Type that information in and today’s desktop search tools will instantly tell you which files on your system match what you’re looking for.
Here they are
Currently, the best-known program out there is probably Google Desktop but I prefer two other products: X1 Enterprise Client and Copernic Desktop Search. I use X1 on my computers at work because it does a fabulous job with complex searches, and Copernic on our family PC where we store a ton of digital photos that it can cycle through lightning quick.
All three programs are free for individual use and work essentially the same way, building a searchable index of the contents of the drives and folders you select. Depending on how much you choose to catalog when you first set the program up, you’ll either want to go to lunch or home for the night while the software builds its initial set of index files.
A big advantage X1 and Copernic offer is the ability to save searches for repeated use. That means if I want to quickly view a list of emails I’ve sent to Maggie Leyes, my editor here at Advisor Today, I just click on the saved search labeled “Maggie” to display them. I can go even farther than that by zeroing in on a specific message—for example, to find just those emails containing the word “Furl.” With each letter I type, the programs reduce the results list to display only those messages that contain my string of characters.
If your firm’s firewall or IT guidelines won’t let you install these tools on your office PC, use one on your home computer so you’ll appreciate firsthand the time and money they can save. Then lobby your IT support desk to install them on the company system.
Whichever program you use, I promise these tools will deliver a significant, immediate pickup in your personal productivity. Truly, you have to see them in action to understand how good—and fast—they are. Get one, install it and use it. You’ll be glad you did.
Kip Gregory, principal of The Gregory Group and author of Winning Clients in a Wired World, is a consultant, trainer and speaker on marketing, sales and technology issues for the financial services industry. Contact him at 202-364-6913 or through his website at www.kipgregory.com.
April 2007
Making Connections
What You Don’t Say
Enhancing Your Practice
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