By no means I am an expert, but responding to let you know that Sesame can handle document management system very well. I know because I have one and that handles various documents, .pdf, doc, docx, jpg, xls, etc., for all my more than three thousands active clients. I also have document management system in my personal organizer system.

In my system, Documents is a subform in tableview, meaning it is a subdatabase. A document can be opened up using Asynchshell ( ) command on element entry event in one of the tableview elements.  Sesame does not have the field that could display pdf file but it will be displayed in pdf reader or Adobe Acrobat or any other program associated with pdf file in your pc. The same is applicable to other documents file such as doc or xls. The document can be scanned in directly (I use TwainSave program) or picked up from email or anywhere in your file manager of PC. Description that you enter will be used to locate it by search parameters and unique filename is generated by the programming. My documents are in the cloud and they automatically synch to network pc at home or office. The documents are available to me also on the road using Teamviewer with my cellphone or tablet. 

Since you are testing the program, I thought it is not inappropriate to point out the awesome power of Sesame that a non-programmer like me can harness!! Once you will start using the program and put a few codes here and there, you will start feeling confident and see what more you can do with Sesame. Your greatest asset while learning will be this forum. Just place a query here and you will be surprised that how many people are out there, eager to help you. Good Luck.

Here's attachment 2. The preview mode on my screen looks like this:

Tree view versus button view menus?

Yes, the default menu changed between versions 2.0 and 2.5. You can, however, switch between them and use whichever you prefer. The button menu is simpler and initially easier to use. The tree menu is more complex and powerful. There are entries in the file sesame.ini that control much of the user interface:

https://www.lantica.com/support/kb/article/000217

Since you are making Document database, you probably will have to work with scanner for atleast some of the documents. Following thread will get you thinking...

http://lantica.com/Forum4/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1302811064/5#5

Sesame can store the document internally (by translation in base-64),  but I strongly recommend that you simply store the path to the document. Storing it internally is very space consumming and doesn't really have any benefit other than making it easier to move the application from one computer to another, which can otherwise be easily programmed.

Quote:

Mark, just wondering how that is done? Do we need to use converter and encoder?  I have been using  storing the path method and avoid having a bloated application. But still wondering, how is it stored internally? I am wondering if anyone of the users is using the base-64 internal storage method?