When I got my first computer over a decade ago (yes, I’m a millennial), I thought I was the most tech savvy person in the entire home—no, the universe. Sadly, I was wrong, and it’s a good thing I came to this realization. Because if I didn’t, I would still be stuck with the same old backward thinking ways that kept me from searching for smarter tools to make my computing experience more enjoyable and efficient.
So what made me come to this realization?
The answer is it was a lost file.
During my video editing days I wanted to become a ‘music video maker’ extraordinaire. I made countless music videos using picture and video clips I found on the Internet, and I had a relatively good system—or so I thought—for managing and storing the files. I would usually create a main folder with a name that is specific to the videos I was making. Then I would add subfolders to hold any other relevant content that dealt solely with the main video. Long story short, eventually I had accumulated so many folders that I lost track of what was in what. I had a general idea of what’s inside each individual folder, but I couldn’t track down exactly what I needed at any given time.
Fast forward a few years, and I now know that a music video maker is actually a producer or director, and I’ve also picked up a few things when it comes finding things on a computer.
One of the tools I recently tested out that blew my mind away was Rummage. If you’re looking for software that makes it easy for you to organize and retrieve your files at any given time, then this is it. Rummage basically lets you automatically tag files with metadata descriptions without you having to do anything more than usual. Think of Rummage as a personal Google search engine designed specifically to index your files and information.
Rather than making folders and then adding endless numbers of subfolders, people can easily leverage Rummage to add descriptive tags to their files, and from the control panel search for the tags to easily access these files. The files themselves can be stored locally or synced with Dropbox … it’s just a matter of whether or not Rummage has indexed the file. The program also scans the actual documents to search for pertinent information regarding the files to enable people to quickly search for documents using various keywords.
There is a lot more to Rummage than just a simple indexing tool, but all the features and functionalities it possesses are easy to comprehend and utilize. It just takes a little bit of patience to learn. However, the learning curve is justifiable once users figure out what a fantastic tool Rummage is.
Usability: 4 out of 5
User Interface: 4 out of 5
Functionality: 4 out of 5
Overall Software Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.