You've probably heard a good deal about data mining -- the database industry's latest buzzword. So what about it? Finding the needle in the haystack can be very useful. In this case, the needle is that single piece of intelligence your business needs and the haystack is the large data warehouse of files, folders, disk drives, servers, specifications, white papers, definitions, documentation, and records built up over a long period of time often by many people.

How do you keep your notes, data, contact information? More importantly, how do you remember where it is stored after one, two or five years? Tired of having to start over with new tools each time your Windows version changes flavor. Tired of having to alphabetized your records and make a million folders for all the miscellaneous topics and data that do not necessarily fit somewhere. Do you want to keep information from unlimited sources and be able to access it ALL with just one tool? Do you want to instantly retrieve your information?

CONVENTIONAL DATA STORAGE

Conventional data storage is saving data by its address. This is sort of similar to saving Bills in the folder marked "bills" and receipts in the folder marked "receipts". This is cumbersome. Do you save information on home repairs under Home or under Tax Deductions. Is search much better than deciding where to put the data? At the very least, you end up searching each folder name for a probable match. Once you found the right folder, one still needs look at each and every receipt before finding the correct one unless the bills were sub-divided into date and company. The alphabetic and topic filing process is very time consuming and totally unnecessary with better retrieval methods. Ever find that you have a folder called Images, one called pictures, another called my pictures, another under my data call my-pictures?

CONTENT-ADDRESSABLE DATA

The computer industry has a faster access method for data called content-addressable data. It's a simple but very powerful concept. You look for content not where it's stored. Data may be accessed independent of the order in which it was originally created. One looks for a qualifying set of data like Joe and El Segundo to find Joe's address in El Segundo. What one looks for, indeed, not be especially organized in any way. Why? Because what you're finding is independent of structure. Does this mean I can store data any place and put anything in it, yet still be able to retrieve it by content alone? Yes and No. Obviously, Ferret32 needs to know the file name to search. Additionally, the data needs to be text. Text data, however, can be a text spreadsheet. Microsoft Excel or Aston-Tate Dbase create these spreadsheet when these programs "save as" comma delimited mode (.csv). The plain text format conversion can be made from Microsoft Word when this program Saves as Text or TEXT with Line Breaks. But what if your not looking at the correct file? We'll this is always possible, hence it would be desirable to have quick determination that a "no-match" occurred. Ferret32 will search in just seconds. You will soon know if no match occurred In this case, you simply try the next logical file. But what is the next logical file? This is an important question. If one had a great secretary, the secretary would remember all the important stuff. A proper program should be able to remember your favorite files. This is precisely why Ferret32 has 40 programmable Hot keys that are programmed toto the selected file name by a simple Drag and drop.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXT

Text is universally understood. One does not need special programs to view and understand plain text. Even if Bill Gates comes out with three hundred versions of Windows 2xxxx, you can rest assured that text formats will endure. You can send the text in email to Mac users. But best, text allows for the simple data exchange between a number of different sources. Records or data may be created by many different sources while accessed and manipulated by other programs such as Ferret32. In other words, data you may wish to save need not be typed by you!

LEVERAGING DATA

There are many pre-existing data sources like: company records, company part lists, Internet web pages, downloadable "White papers", downloadable bookmarks files, Netscape Bookmarks created on your computer as you surf, email sent to you or that you send, optically converted text as a result of scanning a Fax or document and hundreds of other sources. Some data can be created with programs. Managing the quick access to data is fundamental to improved productivity. In the office environment, we have the need to do this all the time. We need that phone number, need to find an old Email from a client, need to check inventory, need to forward a extracted record to a colleague, quickly form a Web search inquiry to multiple Web search sites without having to remember where to access those web sites or how to form a "and-ed" search, which certainly varies site to site. Another task that is tremendously tedious is wading through three years of bookmarks trying to find a specific one.

WHAT TO DO WITH FERET32?

Ferret32 is designed to accelerate the task of searching. You have an improved tool ideally suited to finding "stuff". But since there are no other tools that do what Ferret32 does, chance are good that you have never used a program like this before. Hence how and what it can do for you is largely unknown. It would be terrific if Ferret32 came bundled with all the data files you would ever need and that these files were already pre-assigned to buttons. You would own all data that you'll ever need to search. Unfortunately, there are few people who wish to give their data away. Additionally, what you need to find is continually changing by circumstance.

Some useful tools within Ferret32 help generate files, including searchable directories of all your hard drives. You can the search for files the way you search the Internet, with multiple key words.

WHAT ELSE CAN FERRET32 DO TO HELP ME FIND IMPORTANT DATA?

The single most important task in searching for data is having data to search. Note taking, saving and making records, making pointers to key data files, remembering where the key files are. . . these are all things Ferret32 can help with. The data we own is precious, why not have a great tool to maintain it? The full functionality of this tool may be a bit intimidating to a first time user. Its a bit like Microsoft Word in as much as both programs have many features all of which may not be used at first. There can be little doubt that rich features sets provide greater utility for those that learn to use them. Since these is no other tool exactly like Ferret32, one could not compare it to another tool. Ferret32 is not just a search engine but a way of using more of your computers features from an organizing hub.

LEARNING TO USE FERRET32 for IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY

The Software Bychoice Web site is a resource of applications and examples of computer skills that augment productivity and address the issue: "Where do I get data that will make me more productive?"
The following topics are addressed that will help you get started.

BUILT IN SEARCH BUTTONS AUGMENT FERRET32's IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY

TOPICS

• Why NETSCAPE is an excellent Internet tool ­ How to Use it
• Multi-Tasking with Ferret32 in the Back-ground
• Cut and Paste
• Using Ferret32 with MS EXCEL
• Multi-Threaded Web Search