Richard wrote: I have done things like this in the past and it is very straightforward with e.g. PDF::API2 (one of my favorite Perl modules) or even just ghostscript. Somebody else mentioned databases... properly done this could be quite handy. But the existing directory hierarchy (multi-level) really is more amenable to the actual needs than any database system (which unfortunately tend to "flatten" the structure). Flattening the structure is useful for some things, but only if you then "blow it back up" into a hierarchy. For example I could imagine a directory of 3rd-party-DEC-compatible stuff that softlinks back into the manufacturer's directories. This is NOT a flat structure... "A maze of twisty passages all alike" is a better analogy! Tim.