File storage questions

I am trying to understand something so that I can prevent a great deal of confusion. I guess this question could be asked of many of the “personal information manager” software programs. If I drag a file, say a word document, into eaglefiler, as I understand it, the program makes a copy of the file into the library folder created. The program will also attach existing openmeta tags on the import. Is the expectation now that I delete the original file? If I forget that the file was added to eaglefiler and see it on the desktop, open and edit the file, my guess (and I’ve tried this) is that the changes are not seen in eaglefiler (makes sense I guess). The idea of moving all added files to a single folder, without any hierarchy seems strange to me. I realize that the PIM and spotlight should make it easy to find a file, but again, if you do a spotlight search and open the file directly while eaglefiler is running, I believe that can cause issues as well. I believer some PIMs (devonthink?) can also index files in place of importing them. yep and leap do that although they are more search improvements than note taking software. As far as I can tell, eaglefiler, devonthink, together, yojimbo and evernote all copy the file and leave the original in place. Evernote puts it into a proprietary database which I do not like.

Also, together and yojimbo don’t seem to use openmeta tags. Although it’s been a little inconsistent, devonthink and eaglefiler seem to accept each other’s tags.

I’m trying to scan a whole bunch of papers and am trying to tag and index them as well as provide a place for web clippings, notes, photos, etc.

Thoughts as to how not to screw this up. Also, even if I think to open and edit a file though eaglefiler, my wife may not, especially if it’s sitting out on the desktop.

Yes, I think that’s what most people would do. As you use EagleFiler more, you’ll probably find yourself creating documents directly in EagleFiler (either using the capture key, service, or stationery) so that it’s less common to have a copy that needs to be deleted.

EagleFiler lets you have a folder hierarchy.

No, that’s perfectly OK. You can edit files in your EagleFiler library using other applications.