"Clipping" web pages or PDFs for your research file

[Dave Baker]

Back in the day, I had a file cabinet full of items that I had copied from pension periodicals, cases, rulings, etc. and then stuck into manila folders labeled by topic, then in alphabetic order in the file cabinets.

What are you using today as the electronic equivalent, for web pages, emails, PDF documents, etc.?

Evernote? OneNote? Another system?

[Andy the Actuary]

Very sophisticated. I used windows folders.

Oh, sure it easy to locate documents related to 415. But, what about a document regarding cross-testing and top-heavy plans? Do I put this document in the "cross-testing", "top-heavy," or both files? Probably depends upon how my tea leaves were arranged that morning.

What makes it all come together is I have several search tools that assist in locating the document when I can't remember which of the 500 windows folders I put it in.

[BG5150]

I use BenefitsLink and ask you guys....

[Kevin C]

The web based reference product we use is quick and easy enough to navigate that I don't save much for future use any more. If I find some obscure helpful item on the web, I'll bookmark it If it is something really important, I still put a paper copy in my desk drawer.

I save a .pdf of the session handouts for conferences I attend and every Q&A session handout I can find. I also save the recordings of the sessions, if available. Newsletters typically arrive by e-mail and I archive them by sender.

With all the technology improvements, research is much easier and much faster than it was 15-20 years ago.

[Dave Baker]

Very sophisticated. I used windows folders.

Oh, sure it easy to locate documents related to 415. But, what about a document regarding cross-testing and top-heavy plans? Do I put this document in the "cross-testing", "top-heavy," or both files? Probably depends upon how my tea leaves were arranged that morning.

What makes it all come together is I have several search tools that assist in locating the document when I can't remember which of the 500 windows folders I put it in.

Andy,

Maybe a solution is to put the 415-related document into the 415 folder but then use Windows (right-click on the document's icon) to make a "shortcut" to the document, and then put the shortcut into the cross-testing folder (etc.).

Also, what search tools are you using for locating documents in Windows folders?

[Dave Baker]

The web based reference product we use is quick and easy enough to navigate that I don't save much for future use any more. If I find some obscure helpful item on the web, I'll bookmark it If it is something really important, I still put a paper copy in my desk drawer.

I save a .pdf of the session handouts for conferences I attend and every Q&A session handout I can find. I also save the recordings of the sessions, if available. Newsletters typically arrive by e-mail and I archive them by sender.

With all the technology improvements, research is much easier and much faster than it was 15-20 years ago.

Kevin,

What's your web-based reference product?

Also, do you have a tool for searching the .pdf files on your hard drive?

[Kevin C]

We use IntelliConnect. It's a CCH (Wolters Kluwer) product. Other companies have similar products.

I keep the .pdf files in directories by year and use the Acrobat Pro search feature for searches within a file. I don't have anything to search within multiple .pdf files at the same time.

[Dave Baker]

Thanks, Kevin! I did some poking around the web and discovered that Adobe Reader (the free version) does allow the searching of multiple PDFs at once, if they're in the same directory (or subdirectories thereof). It's working for me, though it's not lightning-fast. I never knew this before.

After opening my Windows version of Adobe Reader, I select Edit, then Advanced Search, then "All PDF Documents In", then a directory in the drop-down list (e.g. My Documents).

Cool!