I thought it would be easy to find but it is turning out to be an impossible task. I have several GB of technical documents. Most are PDFs but there are some DOCs, drawings and possibly a couple of other formats. Windows Vista and Windows 7 won't read PDF metadata. Apple is limited (I don't currently have an Apple machine anyway).

I'm looking for software that will scan the designated directories, read the metadata and build a library - similar to what music and movie software does. I want to be able to search that library based on one or more criteria - similar to how you might search for an artist, genre, lyric, etc. I don't think I need to search text within the files but I would not complain if that feature was available.

Some products/documents apply to multiple systems. If I were to create an extensive folder structure I would wind up with many copies of the same document and it would be harder to update. It could also lead to rev.b in one folder and rev.h in another.

Many of the documents are no longer available on-line. I don't always have internet access.

Free is better but I don't mind spending a few dollars. I'm looking for a single user, not enterprise, solution.

Any recommendations? Thanks!!

Here's a list of some software that might help, courtesy of Cnet...

http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.htm...=downloads