[Design] Document Management -- Universal In Box

[Tim Randolph]

On Sunday, November 3, 2002, at 05:59 PM, Ray Ryan wrote:
<snip>
>
> One quick thought: let it be possible for Chandler to monitor a 
> specified directory or directories, a kind of file system Chandler 
> Inbox. Every now and then items that are added to this folder are 
> copied or moved into Chandler...whatever that means. (See P.S. for 
> spewage.)

<snip>
>
> P.S. Perhaps Chandler moves items from the InBox folder wherever it is 
> that it sticks e-mail attachments? Perhaps they get replaced with a 
> URL style reference to the document that was dropped in the folder, 
> something that when double-clicked reveals the item in Chandler? Or 
> just has Chandler open the original? (I suppose I'd have to trust 
> Chandler quite a lot to let it do this kind of thing!)
>
I really like the idea of a Universal In-Box.  Everyday  I have some 
combination of URLs, images and other files, a snippet from a PDF doc I 
am reading on the web or some other bit that I want to put aside to 
process later.  If I could have all this in one traditional inbox view 
I would be delighted.  (If I could add my voice mail to this mix I 
would be in heaven.)

Veering ever so slightly from the what to the how, it is seems that 
Chandler needs to be open and extensible in this regard.  There is no 
way to predefine what sources users will want where or even what those 
sources might be.

--Tim