Macmillan Holdings, LLC How to archive your paper by scanning it into your computer. Jeffrey Productivity I absolutely love this podcast. I'm all for the paperless society for many reasons, and promote and teach it to others as much as possible. I like the idea of putting the date before your document name, it makes things so much more organized and easier to search when you need to view the file at a later time. Microsoft has come out with new software called XPS, and works fantastic to view "paper pages" on your moniter. It even has a pretty cool print funtion that allows you to "print", for example a confirmation page after paying a bill on-line right to whatever file you choose. Instead of printing it through your printer onto paper. All in all this is a great way to stay organized, and as an added benefit, a great way to be green, reducing the amount of paper you need to use. http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15756#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15756#Comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:50:42 GMT Matt K Productivity I took on this scan and shred way of life last year. A simple flatbed scanner is all that is need for going forward were you scan documents as the come in. Fitjitsu make a multi-sheet scanner to scans both sides at the same time. Friend has one and works great. The HP with document feeders have issues(jams) with double sided scan(borrowed one to get all my old documents in). Do your research on the scanners. I just save files based on date and use folders for sorting ->bill->phone ->bank->mybank. I would suggest buying software like adobe acrobat pro for the features of full scan automation (avoiding scanners capture interface, automatic page orientation, de-skewing, and best of all OCR [Optical Character Recognition].). This simplifies the whole thing making it more likely you keep going with scanned docs lifestyle. The OCR makes everything searchable via indexing like google desktop or spotlight. The headache is scanning in the old documents. Plan on wasting about a month of weekends getting everything in. Otherwise there is great satisfaction in the shredding portion of the task and I fight my kids over who get to feed the paper eating beast. Now I have so much free office space at home to fill with more useful things! http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15359#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15359#Comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:05:10 GMT Michael Productivity Rebecca, I have a Brother MFC-series and it works pretty well. I also use the ScanSoft PaperPort software, but an older version. One tip I found useful: name your files when possible with dates in this format: "yyyy.mm.dd filename", as in "2009.01.12 Visa statement" -- that way, when you sort the files by name they will come up chronologically. Just my 2 cents...and thanks so much for the article! http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15346#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15346#Comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:56:12 GMT Leslie Nicole Productivity I'd thought I'd follow up that I've now eliminated 2 boxes of papers in one day. A couple of tips: I found that a lot of what I had saved in folders was info easily found online like user manuals for equipment and information that I had saved many years ago before internet was as established. And I really didn't need all the articles I had saved on obsolete software! However, I did decide to hang on to collections of evergreen articles on subjects important to me, like Typography. I'm going to put them in a 3 ring binder. http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15284#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15284#Comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:17:27 GMT Leslie Nicole Productivity Timely tip for me right now. I'm setting up a new home studio/office. I've moved several times in the last 10 years and I have boxes of things I've saved for even double that time. As I write, I have around 8 boxes spread around that I'm trying to go through and file. Just prior to listening to this episode this morning, I was thinking "what on earth am I going to do with all this stuff!" I'm now prepared to have a trash can on one side and my scanner on the other and tame this beast. If I can add one tip, being a graphic artist/photographer, I know the power of using an image database software to be able to manage your PDF and image files (as well as other docs). Never miss an episode. I love this podcast!! Leslie http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15279#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15279#Comments Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:53:59 GMT Rebecca Productivity Can anyone recommend a scanner ideal for this type of archiving. A device where you can load in several sheets of paper at a time. http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15243#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15243#Comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:23:37 GMT Chris D Productivity IRS Procedure 97-22 can be found on pages 9-11 of http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb97-13.pdf http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15239#Comments http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx?commentid=15239#Comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:05:33 GMT Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:50:42 GMT http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com/scanning-and-archiving-your-papers.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us