I am still working on my paperless office experiment. I’ve had an huge influx of consulting requests in the past 60 days, so I haven’t dedicated as much time to this as I had originally planned. Here is a quick update on what I’ve found so far.
Optical Character Recognition
One of the most important parts of being able to search for your documents later is recognizing it as text. A generic scanning process simply recognizes the pixels and doesn’t actually turn them into words. (A simple test to see if a PDF is storing data as pixels or text is to try to copy and paste a paragraph into a text editor.) I’ve found that for a proper workflow I need to make sure that the character recognition happens automatically as part of the scanning process.
Scan Snap Scanner
I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap and so far I’ve been impressed. It isn’t perfect and occasionally it misfeeds, but overall it has been a welcome addition to my tool set. I don’t have my document repository setup yet, but already it has made it easier to deal with documents that need faxed or emailed. The ability to scan both sides of a document at the same time is a significant advantage.
DEVONThink Pro Office
I’m still playing with the trial version of DEVONThink Pro Office. I had a personal edition, but the Pro Office version interfaces with the ScanSnap and will do OCR conversion automatically. I liked the idea behind DEVONThink, but I’m still more comfortable keeping my files in a hierarchy in the filesystem instead of in a database. DEVONThink offers some ways to help make this easier, but I’m not completely sold on it yet. I am still experimenting with it. I may like it better once I understand it more.
So there is a quick update. I’m still hoping to have my paperless office up and running by the end of the year. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
As always, please let me know if you have any suggestions that might help me out.
Paperless?! Make sure you back up your files.
It’ll be interesting to see your final set up. Good luck!
I went to have a look at the scanner you talk about in the article, and I noticed it is not a flatbed scanner. While it seems very useful for loose paper, how do you deal with, say, an image in a book?
It seems you would need two different scanners, one for books and the other for loose paper documents. I’m an interior designer and I couldn’t do without a flatbed, because I often use references from magazines and books.
This thing puzzles me a little..
For the rest, nice blog, been following it in a while :)
@StockKevin – Some of the original posts talk about backup options.
@Michael – At this point I’m trying to replace my filing cabinet. It is almost entirely loose sheets of paper. I still have my Canon flatbed scanner, but I haven’t needed it since purchasing the ScanSnap.
Hi Mark,
I’m working on the same project – bought two Scansnaps, one for work, one for home and have been cheerfully scanning/shredding away. I have set my hard drive up for nightly online backup with mozypro. ( http://www.mozypro.com )
I’ll have to check out the DEVONThink, been playing with Rack-2-file trial that came with the last Scansnap. Currently, I have replicated my paper filing heirarchy digitally and just move the scanned document from the scansnap desktop into the right folder.
I’m investigating either setting up an FTP link from a home machine to my office or some type of online file storage to allow some privacy and access from my office.
I have to say I am really appreciating the ability to pull up my digital documents IMMEDIATELY versus pulling paper files manually.
Keep up the great work – I really enjoy your writing!
@Barbara – I’ve been trying Mozy, but I keep getting a “ConnectionError1”. So far I’m not very impressed. I’m glad to hear it is working for you. I did a search for “Rack 2 File”, but couldn’t find anything on Google. I’d like to check it out.
Mark – try calling their tech support – they’re fantastic. I’ve got a home account and a professional account. We’re backing up 7-10GB night without a hitch, with a nice confirmation email arriving every morning. They store 30 days and we’ve already pulled a restore without a struggle. Their support department was excellent when I struggled with upgrading my original account.
I see that you are having problems with accepting not being able to keep a hiarchy. Our software, KIXZO, does allow for that. Also you comment that Devon is hard to understand. Our software has easy to understand “rooms”. The program works with any twain compatible scanner. Checks us out.
@John Byrne – It looks like KIXZO is a windows solution from my brief look at your site. Is that true or is it cross platform and I missed it?
Also DevonThink does a great job of letting you keep things in folders and creating a hierarchy. It will even let you sync to a folder and replicate the hierarchy in your DevonThink Database. The problem is that this sync doesn’t seem to be two way. If you change something in your file system it will show up in DeveonThink, but not the other way around.
@Barbara – I’m not on the pro version so I don’t think I can call tech support. I’m also using a mac and they are still testing the Beta version and isn’t offered on the pro side. The tech support on the non-pro side doesn’t seem particularly good as they all keep emailing me back asking me to try the same thing over and over again and then saying “It looks like we’ve solved your problem” right after I email them to say it still isn’t working.
Hopefully they will get the problem fixed soon and I can actually try it out. So far I haven’t been able to backup more than about 20 megs at a time before it times out.
Mark- Kixzo is a windows solution. and I see what you mean that it goes one way.
Mark, here’s the link to Rack2File http://www.ipaperlessoffice.com/ratdesoforma.html
I found out this company was purchased by Fujitsu. I still have yet to actually invest attention in it. I liked the thought of perfectly arranged digital notebooks (you’ll see in the video) but in the very few minutes I have played, it seems like more work than it’s worth. It is a pain to open, close digital documents when I’m trying to chase down an item in multiple months of statements so being able to “turn a page” versus, find, open, close, etc. appealed to me. I really used to like the ability to drop a page/pdf file onto another in visioneer’s old program and have it merge into one document….. wish Fujitsu/Abbyy did that. Next time I find a few moments to give Rack2File an honest workout, I’ll report back.
Another alternative to document management is Mindmanager. I’ve built reference trees and the application allows me to “drop” actual files from windows explorer on to a tree to create a hotlink. It’s one way to avoid having to create a file hierarchy. http://www.mindmanager.com
Finally – I bought RecentX ( http://www.conceptworld.com/) as a tool to tame my ever increasing “file this somewhere/someday” directory. It performs a rapid search through file names, folders, websites but does not do content. I’m not sure which approach will ultimately be my solution: Well-organized File Hierchary or One enormous drive with incredible search tools!
FWIW, I have also been trying to run Mozy on the Mac, and having similar problems.
@historydoll – Mozy assures me that the problem is only affecting a few people. Evidently you and I both fall into that category. They said they are working on an update, but so far they seem to be confused as to the source of the problem and keep asking me to do silly changes on my computer that will obviously have no effect on the problem.
Thanks for the info. I have yet to receive any kind of reply from them, unfortunately. I basically told them I was sick of wasting time fussing with it and I wanted my money back and my data erased, but to date they have not responded.
What about Paperport Pro. I’ve been using it for years.