Hi, yes I know this is an old topic, but my 2 cents isn't worth a whole new one.

I just had to add this really low tech approach to the txt file note approach.  You keep them all in one folder and refer to other notes (works with txt and rtf or whatever) and refer to other notes by using square brackets
like this [projects.txt] as long as there's only one listed per line, then just have this script in a running autohotkey file from the same folder:


;right mouse double click---------autohotkey to launch simple filename (cursor should be on line )
~RButton::

   If (A_PriorHotKey = A_ThisHotKey and A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 500)
{
winactivate   
;Sleep 500   ; wait for right-click menu, fine tune for your PC
   send {esc}{Home}{Home}+{End}
;sleep 100

send ^c ;selects the entire line and copies it
ClipWait, .40        ; wait for the script to catch up.
winactivate
sleep 100
send {home}
linestring = %clipboard%
sleep 500

;find the position of the character "[", call it leftmark
bit1 = [
StringGetPos, leftmark, linestring, %bit1%
leftmark := leftmark + 2

;find the position of the character "]", call it rightmark
bit2 = ]
StringGetPos, rightmark, linestring, %bit2%
rightmark := rightmark + 1



stringlength := rightmark - leftmark


thefilename := SubStr(linestring, leftmark , stringlength)

 
IfExist, %thefilename%
{
run %thefilename%
}
IfNotExist, %thefilename%
{
MsgBox, 260,, the File "%thefilename%" does not exist. Create the file?
IfMsgBox Yes
{
    FileAppend, %thefilename%, %thefilename%
    SplashTextOn, 320, 100, file created
    Sleep, 400
    SplashTextOff
    run %thefilename%
}
else
    Exit
}
   }
Return


you can even make a new file by just writing the filename in your current document inside the brackets, then right double-click and voila! there's your new file.

Sorry, no tree structure, and any of the parts of this that I wrote (I stole the right double click part from someone) are probably sloppy from a real programmers perspective, but maybe it'll be useful for someone.. :-)

Thanks, but if I did that wouldn't it limit my search to those two folders for every search?  (I think that's what you're saying). 

What I'd like to be able to do is a) search all folders when I put in any "regular" word, and b) also search //only// those two by adding some indicator in front of what I want to search.  I may however be missing something that would be obvious to others (I don't have any actual programming knowledge).

Would you mind elaborating please?
Thanks again,
-Dave