What you’re looking for is found with DevonThink. This application is an unstructured database, which means that you aren’t forced to use a pre-defined set of fields to corral your data– you can drop in PDFs, images, etc.

So, think of it this way: you take a bunch of photos of a home inventory, drop them all in, and add names, descriptions, and meta-tags that give you the information you need; you scan a bunch of receipts and, using DevonThink’s linkage with your scanner, they automatically appear as text-searchable PDFs in your database. You scan (or download) the manuals for the appliances and other things you own, and drop them in as well.

DevonThink is great as the one-stop database for collecting a large amount of vastly different kinds of data. There are other applications that lean in this direction (like Yojimbo) but don’t offer as much flexibility, or have other limitations. Still these might be a better fit, depending on the kinds of data you want to manage.

Where these sorts of applications fail (and where something like Bento is so helpful) is when you have a large number of records that are nearly or exactly the same kinds of data. For example, I have a database in Bento where I keep a record of the content for a document that I create weekly: the order of worship for our church. I need to be able to cross-reference multiple records, and see when the last time we sang that hymn or said this prayer was, but also to work within the individual record extensively. DevonThink (and the others) don’t offer as much function in this sort of more traditional (and structured) database.

If it would be helpful to you, I would be happy to offer you some informed suggestions on how to wrangle the data you’re trying to manage. Feel free to contact me: www. edeubanks.com.