Paperless at home

[cjsmith]

I'm one of those people who mulls over an idea for a long time and then (as far as others can tell) makes a sudden big decision.

My current idea is going paperless at home.

Comments

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

The biggest problem I have with being paperless at home is filling out forms. For years, I've wanted a software that could take a scanned image, or pdf, identify the fields that need to be filled out, and provide me with an electronic document that I can fill out and print.

Acrobat has the ability to fill out forms electronically, but the form fields have to be defined by hand. Ick!

[dcart.livejournal.com]

I used to work for a software company that made a product like that, but the technology was a long, long way from being consumer grade affordable.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

I tried that once a few years ago, but at the time the technology wasn't really there yet. Storage was too expensive. I may try that again at some point in the near future. With disk space being so cheap these days, it's relatively easy to keep some sort of mirrored drive system up at home.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If I need to print it either way, I wouldn't mind printing it before filling it out and then scanning it again afterward.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Storage has indeed become less expensive.

The first step for me will have to be throwing away a big pile of stuff I really don't need to keep. I'm just not going to spend months of my life scanning things in.

After that, maybe the storage requirements will be down to the level where I can just grab a couple of external hard drives and keep it all mirrored.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to do that too! Got my eye on this (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1853708,00.asp), since I need a printer too. (Been putting off buying the printer since I'll realistically never recover the cost of just printing things out in the nearest net cafe, but I've decided it's a quality-of-life issue and cheap at the price.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, color! I can imagine that the convenience of printing at home would be worth it. Me, I don't print at home much (I have a hand-me-down laser printer I cannot turn on if the lights in the room are also on) and it's awkward.

The scanner I linked is pricey. I certainly don't know if it's the best one for my needs. I've never purchased a scanner. (Heck, I've almost never purchased anything electronic. I get hand-me-downs, and grateful I am for them!) I suspect its value-add is character recognition; it produces, according to them, "searchable" PDF files.

Good thing!

[irascignavojo.livejournal.com]

I've done that with a Lexmark X6170, which works as colour printer, fax, copier and, most importantly, a scanner which takes and processes up to 50 pages at a time.

Scans get sent to my computer, to either the Adobe Acrobat or Abbyy Fine Reader and saved as either pdf or rtf/doc automatically.

For non OCR-able document scans get a software which lets you file it with tags and a short description, so you'll still be able to find it easily with full text search. I've used ELO by Leitz, which is good, and recently switched to "ad acta" but there are lots of other progs which will let you do that.

I'd never switch back to a paper-crammed home again. With just one weekly newspaper and some regular computer and business mags plus some gazillions of books there (by 5 bookcrossers) is enough paper in the house anyway.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I create .bmp documents and fill them out that way. It's not an elegant solution but since I can no longer hand-write anything, it's better than nothing.

Re: Good thing!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow! Did the Lexmark come with OCR as part of the package? How well does it work?

Did it take you a long time to switch over, or to get used to being paperless?

The tags and description sound like a very good idea. I would want to be able to search for any document.

[drdaly.livejournal.com]

I've got a Fujitsu ScanSnap, and I highly recommend them.

Like you, I had many bankers boxes' worth of papers dating back through junior high and earlier. While I'm not completely paper-free (and there is probably one box worth of physical papers I'd ultimately keep even after they are scanned), I'm at least 50% there.

The two problems I've found are:

1) Keeping up with current influx - it is stunning how much paperwork two adults and one child can receive in the mail in one year. I've trained myself to open everything right away, toss the detrius in the recycle bin, toss the ID-laden spam into the box to be shredded, and carefully stack everything else in the inbox to be resolved and moved to the outbox.

What I haven't done yet is train myself to regularly scan the outbox. I do it in batches every so often, but I've gotten a bit behind...

2) Going back in time - I've got a big house, and what's left of the old stuff is fairly out of sight (and out of mind). I spent a bunch of time in 2002 sorting, tossing, scanning, and then tossing lots of my very oldest stuff, but haven't had a similar block of time since. But after finally helping Dad empty the old homestead last summer, I am determined that *this* is the year I will finish clearing my junk and old paperwork. I do not want to leave behind a similar project for my daughter to have to deal with.

Meanwhile, the scanner itself is *wonderful* I can put in 20-25 sheets at a time, and it can do single pass full duplex color scanning. You can set its sensitivity to auto detect color vs b/w, orientation, and blank pages. And like the best of appliances, it *just works*.

I've found that I have to think in advance a bit as to the order in which I place sheets of paper and naming conventions. I've got one batch of files named with timestamps where I just indescriminately shoved stacks of papers into the machine, and I'm still not done cleaning them out; it takes a long time to sort them with Acrobat afterwards.

Of course, it's *virtual* cleaning rather than physical cleaning, so I guess it's a matter of picking your poison.

Bottom line - you *can* go virtual, and the ScanSnap is a great tool towards that end, but it's a fair amount of work to maintain. But I do like how clean my study looks most of the time. :-)

P.S. I made my sister get one about a year ago; she's an accountant with several rooms full of old tax documents she's obligated to keep for her clients; in her spare time she's scanned and subsequently shredded at least six bankers boxes' worth so far...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation and the personal experience!

Keeping up with current influx

I am amazed at how much better I keep up with incoming mail now that there is a shredder AND a mixed-paper-recycle bag sitting right next to the mail drawer. Makes a huge difference.

What I haven't done yet is train myself to regularly scan the outbox. I do it in batches every so often...

Yeah, I would probably get behind on that part too. I get behind on filing the contents of the outbox now, so I don't think I'd necessarily magically improve. But scanning it in batches means that instead of a bajillion file drawers and a pile of To Be Filed papers, I'd have only the pile of To Be Scanned. That's probably a big improvement.

Going back in time - I've got a big house, and what's left of the old stuff is fairly out of sight (and out of mind).

BIG nod of understanding from over here. My oldest stuff is in boxes in the garage. My newest stuff takes up NINE FILE DRAWERS in the office. (When closed, of course, even those drawers are not very intrusive.) And I stapled every multipage statement. Catching up would be a heckuva chore.

And like the best of appliances, it *just works*.

Excellent. That's what I'd heard in reviews, and I'm very glad to hear from someone who has had that same experience.

I've found that I have to think in advance a bit as to the order in which I place sheets of paper and naming conventions.

Good point. I have no idea how I'd organize that, and I suspect it would be worth thinking about it a bunch before scanning anything.

Care to share any tips on how you organize your files?

Do you worry about file formats becoming, someday, completely incompatible?

I made my sister get one about a year ago

I can imagine it would be WONDERFUL for small businesses, particularly accountants!

[firecat]

The main reason I haven't signed up for paperless billing with most of my utilities, etc., is that I don't have a file set up with all the passwords for that stuff, in case something happens to me and someone else has to take over paying for all of it. I'd probably want to set up a separate email account for it because I wouldn't want said somebody to be reading all the rest of my email too, scanning for bill notices.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, man. Good reminder: I'm very behind on updating my "In The Event Of My Death" password-and-other-basic-info file. I should ask Rob, too, since he does the utilities - paperless - for our house.