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#1
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Applications in a legal setting?
I work in a law office as a secretary. Part of my job is filing clippings
from law journals, etc., into files having to do with different categories such as Food Stamps, Social Security, etc. Apart from being generally organized, there's no way of knowing what sort of clippings we have on a particular topic without going to an overstuffed file drawer and pulling all the folders to take back to the office. What I would like to do is create a database, or index, of every clipping we have, detailing keywords for filing, the location of the clipping, and cross-referencing them with other items they may have in common or are cross-filed with. Has anyone ever done anything like this? Is this even feasible? Easy to do? I'd like to include such information as: where and when the article originally appeared, the author, any cases quoted in the article for precedence, etc. If anyone can be of assistance, please email me at Thanks! |
#2
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On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 13:05:09 -0800, "Pynkbyrd"
wrote: I work in a law office as a secretary. Part of my job is filing clippings from law journals, etc., into files having to do with different categories such as Food Stamps, Social Security, etc. Apart from being generally organized, there's no way of knowing what sort of clippings we have on a particular topic without going to an overstuffed file drawer and pulling all the folders to take back to the office. What I would like to do is create a database, or index, of every clipping we have, detailing keywords for filing, the location of the clipping, and cross-referencing them with other items they may have in common or are cross-filed with. Has anyone ever done anything like this? Is this even feasible? Easy to do? I'd like to include such information as: where and when the article originally appeared, the author, any cases quoted in the article for precedence, etc. It can certainly be done - if you want, you can even scan graphical images of the clippings. But it's a LOT of work. The data entry is bad enough, but the intellectual work of determining which keywords to use (and being consistant in doing so) is a major task. You can certainly keep track of file locations, and use Queries to do a lot of the cross-referencing (i.e. if there are two clippings which both are linked to the "Food Stamps" keyword, and also by the "Atlanta" keyword, you can create a report showing both clippings). I'd suggest investigating it further, but don't underestimate the amount of work this will take - nor should you underestimate the amount of work that it will save, in the long run. If anyone can be of assistance, please email me at Done... but it's generally considered polite to come back to the newsgroups for your answer. Private EMail support is for paying clients; most of us who answer here are volunteers donating time, often from our consulting businesses. John W. Vinson[MVP] |
#3
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FEASIBLE? YES
EASY? NO DONE BEFORE? TWICE BY ME, at LEAST IT WOULD BE AROUND 40,000 MAN HOURS AT $280 AN HOUR -----Original Message----- I work in a law office as a secretary. Part of my job is filing clippings from law journals, etc., into files having to do with different categories such as Food Stamps, Social Security, etc. Apart from being generally organized, there's no way of knowing what sort of clippings we have on a particular topic without going to an overstuffed file drawer and pulling all the folders to take back to the office. What I would like to do is create a database, or index, of every clipping we have, detailing keywords for filing, the location of the clipping, and cross-referencing them with other items they may have in common or are cross-filed with. Has anyone ever done anything like this? Is this even feasible? Easy to do? I'd like to include such information as: where and when the article originally appeared, the author, any cases quoted in the article for precedence, etc. If anyone can be of assistance, please email me at Thanks! . |
#4
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Hi Pynkbyrd,
Relational databases such as Access are designed to allow immensely flexible querying and reporting of rigidly structured data, and it takes care and skill to make them do a really good job on loosely structured mostly textual data such as yours. You may find your needs are better met by a product that's designed from the start to do full-text indexing of loosely structured data, such as Bekon Idealist (which I use for my cuttings index, recipes, and lots more), InfoSelect or AskSam. On Tue, 1 Mar 2005 13:05:09 -0800, "Pynkbyrd" wrote: I work in a law office as a secretary. Part of my job is filing clippings from law journals, etc., into files having to do with different categories such as Food Stamps, Social Security, etc. Apart from being generally organized, there's no way of knowing what sort of clippings we have on a particular topic without going to an overstuffed file drawer and pulling all the folders to take back to the office. What I would like to do is create a database, or index, of every clipping we have, detailing keywords for filing, the location of the clipping, and cross-referencing them with other items they may have in common or are cross-filed with. Has anyone ever done anything like this? Is this even feasible? Easy to do? I'd like to include such information as: where and when the article originally appeared, the author, any cases quoted in the article for precedence, etc. If anyone can be of assistance, please email me at Thanks! -- John Nurick [Microsoft Access MVP] Please respond in the newgroup and not by email. |
#5
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You must be smoking crack.
wrote in message ... FEASIBLE? YES EASY? NO DONE BEFORE? TWICE BY ME, at LEAST IT WOULD BE AROUND 40,000 MAN HOURS AT $280 AN HOUR -----Original Message----- I work in a law office as a secretary. Part of my job is filing clippings from law journals, etc., into files having to do with different categories such as Food Stamps, Social Security, etc. Apart from being generally organized, there's no way of knowing what sort of clippings we have on a particular topic without going to an overstuffed file drawer and pulling all the folders to take back to the office. What I would like to do is create a database, or index, of every clipping we have, detailing keywords for filing, the location of the clipping, and cross-referencing them with other items they may have in common or are cross-filed with. Has anyone ever done anything like this? Is this even feasible? Easy to do? I'd like to include such information as: where and when the article originally appeared, the author, any cases quoted in the article for precedence, etc. If anyone can be of assistance, please email me at Thanks! . |
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