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how can I do this in excel?

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TaoPhoenix:

I think you're right as it begins to scale.

So maybe there's a two step process.

My method can get him going, and then his company team can investigate which longer term CMS they want to use.

Ath:
that the server is secure and I cannot run my own stuff on it
-kalos (March 23, 2015, 04:33 PM)
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Since when is that an excuse to not use the right tool for the job?

Plenty of CMS's can be run on your local system, only to upload the files to a remote (optionally very tightly secured) web server. It's even a plus not having anything but the web-content on a web server.

tomos:
he's given you a template file - all you need is to test it with one linked file to see if it works in practice.
-tomos (March 23, 2015, 05:32 PM)
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^when you've done that^ you can worry about whether you need an app to list files (the "directory reader")
-tomos (March 23, 2015, 05:49 PM)
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Tomos, the process I designed is meant to tie right in to a dir reader because it produces the complete index list of folders all at once - so he will need it pretty quickly. Part of the point is the dir reader "can't lie" vs typing them in by hand. So for example if there are client names, and he enters them by hand, and one of them is something like Schaefeirmann, whoever is doing data entry by hand will get that wrong 3 times out of 10, whereas the dir reader produces a "cold facts" dump where it cannot be wrong with random spelling errors. That's part of the system I designed.-TaoPhoenix (March 23, 2015, 08:39 PM)
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^ I'm actually very interested in the process you describe. My point was that he try it with one or two ('manually') linked files first to see if it works - a proof of concept - then he could look at setting up the more complex system.

@kalos, it seems to me it would be a good idea if you showed your manager a few of the replies here - or the whole of the two threads. They might reconsider.

Vurbal:
What are the business requirements please? I might be able to help.
-IainB (March 23, 2015, 08:36 AM)
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Exactly!

Particularly in light of the other threads which apparently relate back to this same project, this already sounds less like an Excel problem than a process issue. Specifically, it appears to be a content and/or document management problem, which would be much easier solved by addressing the entire process of document creation, access, modification, storage, metadata, and possibly even version control - all of which points to at least a document management system, if not a more full featured CMS.

I imagine you can kludge together what you're looking for using Excel. You can also steer a car with your feet. That doesn't make it a good idea.  :D

edit: I should probably mention, I have some experience with document management from the IT side. Setting it up really is so much easier than solving your Excel problem. It would also address the metadata question you posed on another thread.

kalos:
how exactly that html tag works?

is it the equivalent for 'search in the same directory' for hyperlinks of local files?

how actually the xls 'knows' its web folder and that html tag links the hyperlinks to the same folder?

I don't get the mechanism

can anyone explain me please

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