I know you. You're in my address book. I've sent you many e-mails. There are Word documents where I talk about you and an Excel spreadsheet that includes your name. You are listed on my Web page. You work at a company I want to know more about. And several people who work with you are also in my address book, various documents, and spreadsheets.

Now, if only I could find all this stuff!

WHILE I KNOW these relationships exist, my computer doesn't. At least it didn't know until I installed OnePlace, a personal information manager/personal portal created by Enfish and sold by FranklinCovey, the planner and 7 Habits people. The heart of OnePlace--which Enfish itself sells under the Onespace name--is the Enfish Dex technology, which cross-references all the content, titles, dates, subject lines, and contact names from all your files and documents. It can also index your networked drives.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Enfish also provides enterprise level applications to law firms such as Pillsbury Winthrop. To learn more about how Pillsbury Winthrop is using Enfish Professional for Workgroups click here.]

Once the index is created--an ongoing process that takes place while your computer is idle--you can use OnePlace to search on a word, phrase, contact name, or any other text. The program will return a list of contacts, appointments, tasks, document names, text in documents, spreadsheet names and text, e-mail you've received, e-mail you've sent, Web pages you have saved, and so on--all containing your search terms.

YOU CAN ALSO USE OnePlace as a replacement for Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program, if you are so inclined. Working inside OnePlace, you can click a contact name, for example, and see not only the contact information but also a list of documents, appointments, tasks, e-mails, companies, and Internet news all related to that person or their company.

OnePlace has been under development for more than six years. I've always liked the concept of a program that tells me how all my information is related--but the execution of previous versions has left a lot to be desired. And I have shied away from recommending them.

The new version is the first I think is worthy of serious consideration, albeit with the proviso that this is a program you're likely to either love, hate, or be totally bewildered by.

I THINK I KNOW what you're thinking: Can't I search from the desktop in Windows or in Outlook and find all this information? You probably could eventually. But the process would be slow and painful, and you'd have to do it as a half-dozen individual searches. So while this is something you could do, I doubt it's something you would do. And because OnePlace is working from an index it's created, the search results appear quite quickly.

OnePlace turns your computer's hard drive and networked drives into a single information environment with a network of relationships that brings the information together in new and useful ways. Not bad for a $69.95 program, huh?

You may have seen the Enfish product reviewed before. OnePlace is the most current version, and FranklinCovey brings the product a new market and presence in the company's stores, retail catalog, and Web site. You can download a free OnePlace trial there.

ONEPLACE/ONESPACE IS A PROGRAM I have always wanted to succeed. Yet it still has some shortcomings, mostly related to how difficult a task creating a universal desktop search engine and personal portal has turned out to be.

For example, it is easy to miss important features the first time you use OnePlace, because the program is still busy creating the index and doesn't yet have much to show you. The personal Web portal features are interesting, but they aren't the core of the product and sometimes get in the way.

And there's the whole gestalt of the program, which I've already said is about as likely to confuse as it is to please. OnePlace is not hard to learn, but much of the functionality doesn't really become apparent until you've used it for a few days. But if you are willing to invest the time, the program can help bring order to the very disorderly world that is your computer's hard drive.

David Coursey is a former executive editor at AnchorDesk where this article first appeared.