DocumentWallet: intial impressions.
May 18, 2007
DocumentWallet is produced by GGT enterprises based in San Diego. I downloaded the trial yesterday and have been playing with it since.
My intial impression? It’s a belter. I think I have found in DW something I have been looking for for a long time. These are some brief thoughts:-
1. The UI is simple and effective. It’s a classic three pane affair much like you’d see in Mail. On the left hand side is a column which sets out your main document collections: the main hierarchy of files. To the right sits a main navigation pane showing details of particular documents, below that is a preview pane.
Easy.
2. Setting up collections or folders of particular documents is as easy as creating new Mail folder. Not only that you can create smart collections based on the meta data you have entered for each document.
So once you have your documents in DW moving around them is beyond easy. But how easy is it to get your documents in there in first place?
Answer: about as simple as you could hope for.I tried it today and I ended up laughing at how easy it was. It’s not often software makes me smile, but DW did.
Let me explain:-
Last year I was acting for a Claimant in a fraud claim. When it came to disclosure from the Defendant I was confronted with 40 lever arch files of documents. Having a small office I decided to employ a contractor to scan the disclosure into pdfs. My hope was I would have a few DVDs and with just those I would navigate all those documents with nimble ease. Ha ha ha, I am such a fool.
When the contractor was done he gave me a bunchh of DVDs, which turned out to be basically useless.
The DVDs did not contain 40 pdf files, that is one for each folder, but many hundreds of files. The contractor had used a scanner with a 50 sheet maximum feed capacity. Each time a new batch of 50 pages was scanned a new file was created. Even worse the file naming protocol was inconsistent and it was impossible to tell how each pdf related to the other, without printing them out and checking each against the Defendant’s list of documents. Next to useless – no utter crapola is probably a better description.
The upshot was that I had to have all the files printed off and checked against the list of documents in order to recreate the hard copy originals. I ended up 40 lever arch files.
Anyway, I have another case pending against the same Defendant. So I thought I would see if DW could help me tidy up the files. And? Well, after an afternoon of learning how to use DW and experimenting with those files , totalling 4 gigabytes of pdfs, they are now in perfect order. That is a real testament to the power and simplicity of DW. How did DW allow me to do this?
1. When you import a bunch of files you can choose to import all as one file or as seperate files. Hence you can merge many seperate pdfs. For example I merged 398 pages of bank statements stored in 8 separate pdfs with one click of a mouse.
2. Once you create a file you can add to it. So when I found a further 200 pages of bank statements a little later on in the afternoon I added them to the 398 pages I mentioned above with no problems at all. So you can tootle along adding files, and as you spot stuff that needs to be merged with existing documents it’s simple. That feature is great for anyone wanting to keep an open file of, say, correspondence. You can simply open your existing file and scan in your new materials.
3 . As you import (whether by way of an scan or existing file) you are confronted with a dialogue box which asks you for data such as title, date etc. The data entry fields can be modified to suit your own needs. For example I have changed the default fields to “relevance”, “issues”, “source” and “tag” (more of the last one next). Data entry using this system is aided by auto-fill of fields fields. This can make the whole data entry process extremely rapid.
4. My initial instinct was to create a folder called “Defendant’s Disclosure” and drag and drop all of the files into it. However, I added the “tag” field which I used that to identify the documents as “Disclosure”. I then created a smart collection to hold anything tagged as the same. Simple. Smart collections can be made up from other fields, such as title, description etc much like you would an iTunes playlist. It’s so easy it’s almost a joke.
So my initial impressions have turned into a mini-essay. However, DW is that good. To be totally honest, if I never use DW again it will have been worth $30 just for tidying up 4 gigs of mess.
If I could add anything? I would like to be able to dump selected information from the document information pane to a printer. That way I could use DW to draw up lists of documents. Hey, but that’s not a complaint.
I am over the moon with DW. It sits alongside IGTD, Quicksilver, and Circus Ponies Notebook as simple cost effective and smart software that helps me. I have seen more sophisticated document management software, but what do I want that for? The simpler the better for me. I need documents to be accessible and useful to my case. I do not want document management for document management’s sake. But don’t take that as meaning DW is not sophisticated, it is, it just does not cloak its sophistication with complication.
Give the trial a go, you have nothing to lose but the clutter and mess of too much paperwork.
