Digital ArcHound is a new add-in for Windows Home Server that allows you to scan, archive and retrive important paper-based documents and records. It works with your existing scanner, to save your documents to PDF, (via a free PDF creator included in that package) which are then saved on to the home server under particular home management categories.
Additionally you’re able to add keywords and comments to each document to allow easy searching and retrieval at a later date.
The add-in is currently in beta, and will be released for sale later in the year. Here’s the current/future feature list:
1.3.2 - Release Date - Sept. 6, 2007
Release Features
- Archive your Records by Category, Company, Person, Record Type
- Capture any document using Print to Digital ArcHound
- Scan any document to Digital ArcHound
Up to 4 folders can be monitored for your new digital documents - Save, Search and Retrieval
- Reorder your digitized documents the way you want to store them
- Use drag-n-drop to add new scans to existing digitized documents
New Features Requested
- XPS Based Document Management and Viewer Support
- Archived Document Search via WHS website
- Add Watermarks to PDFs
- Encrypt PDFs
- Password Protect PDFs
More Info and Download: Digital ArcHound
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the whole idea of the Console was for administration of the Server by the Administrator.
Isn’t this going against the whole design ethos of only accessing the Server via the Shares folders in the normal course of events.
Colin
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:12 pm
One of my next spare time projects at home (but who really has spare time?) is to scan to pdf a lot of documents I’ve got, such as receipts for expensive electronics, some manuals, old paperwork, etc. It’s nice to see someone who’s a lot smarter than me thinking along the same lines and coming up with a much easier solution that I had planned to implement.
I will say, though, that I agree with Colin about this add-in going against the model of using the Console for administration only. This would probably be better as a stand-alone application, or as an application run on a client machine with an add-in component to maintain a database of the scanned documents on the WHS side. I just can’t see opening up the Console to scan a paper document to pdf format.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Actually, appears it’s just the descriptions that are lacking:
A quote from the Company:
Digital ArcHound works very similarly to how you have
described. There is a Client application that runs on the home
workstations (up to 10). They communicate with an server application on
the Windows Home Server to store, search and retrieve the archives. The
archives are like any other shared file, e.g. music, video, etc. The
Server shows the status of the resource utilization on the Digital
ArcHound tab.
Sounds a nice application
Colin
October 31st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
This sounds like an excellent app.
I currently download all the manuals for all major appliances and electronics and keep them on my pc. Most of my bills are canada post e-bills (pdf’s). This will be a nice addition to a WHS (come on HP and release already!).
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
What is the benefit of using this vs just storing PDF and other files on the WHS categorized by different subirectories and being able to search using Google desktop or similar search engine?
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Speed, automation, simplicity, navigation, laziness - take your choice