: How can a writer efficiently manage many text snippets? I have a large amount (a couple thousand) of rather small text files with short notes or stories. I use them to generate ideas on topics

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Windows will already do this for you if you just turn on the search contents option.

-Open any folder

-Go to Tools / Folder Options

-Select the Search Tab

-Check the radio button for Always search file names and contents.

The search will take longer than normal and the results aren't going to be really beautiful, but it'll give you what you want.

If you're not using Windows, you can still do this - just do a google search for "Search in Text files linux/mac" and you'll get a bunch of answers.

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The Literary Machine (http://www.literarymachine.com/) is exactly about storing, finding, and connecting lots of small texts (and more). I never used it much, but the concept was very nice, so it is not really a recommendation, but a research hint. It is local, not server, Windows, I presume. The current version is free (see the download page) but a little old.

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I haven't used it for exactly this kind of thing, but I'd recommend Confluence. It's a wiki software that does full-text searching of everything in it (even attached files). I use it primarily for storing a large collection of PDFs. It's fast, and it's intended to be installed on a server. The for the cheapest license is very affordable for the functionality you get.

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I use Evernote and MS One Note for all of my writing work. You can make separate/unlimited notebooks for everything, save web pages and items from the web. You are also able to search all your text in both. You are able to make audio files in both that you are also able to search. In Evernote, you are able to create tags for all of your work that makes it easier to search and catalogue everything also. Both of these programs are great for writers and they both work on all platforms and there are both free and premium versions. OneNote is part of Office 365, but there is also a web version which is free. They are laid out differently, it just depends on which one you like best. I use them both for different things, especially when I am doing research on the web - I use EverNote when I am using Google/Android and OneNote when I am using Explorer/Edge.
You are able to access your files/Notebooks from anywhere/device/platform.

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