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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: bmilcs on Mon, 02 April 2018, 19:22:03

Title: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: bmilcs on Mon, 02 April 2018, 19:22:03
My accordion style file holder just reached it's maximum capacity and for haha's, I went and researched document scanning & going paperless.

A few hours later, I pulled the trigger on a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i. I plan on scanning all my mail: bills, letters, photos & important documents.

The scanner arrives tomorrow, and I'm gitty with anticipation. I don't have a real file naming scheme planned and that's worrisome.

Does anyone have any words of advice for a paperless newb?

I'm going to try out the stock Snapscan software, but will most likely progress to Paperport

For folder structure, I was planning on going something like:

Bills
-> Company
--> Date

Family
-> Birth Certificates
-> School
--> Kids Assignments
--> Kids Report Cards

Insurance
-> Car
-> Auto

Etc.

I'd love to hear back for those of you with my tier of OCD.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: metalliqaz on Mon, 02 April 2018, 19:27:10
I would like to, I hate storing so much paper.

I have a scanner, and I think it even has a document feeder, but I don't think it would work for most of my mail, because of the folds
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: fanpeople on Mon, 02 April 2018, 19:28:39
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: emenelopee on Mon, 02 April 2018, 19:37:47
Take a photo and email it to yourself. One day you may be able to find it again after searching your inbox, hopefully not too blurry.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: ErgoMacros on Mon, 02 April 2018, 19:55:06
re:
   Bills
   -> Company
   --> Date


I'd use:
Taxes_2017
->Bills
  -> Company
  --> foo-1.doc
->Charity
  ->someone.doc
->Taxes_and_estimated_paid
  ->National
    -->files
  ->State
    -->files


I essentially never look at old bills, just those tax related, and some of those never. (Mortgage? Got a 1099 for that.)
All the other bills I'd drop in the same folder, sort by date and page through them if I even needed to fine it again.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: SpAmRaY on Mon, 02 April 2018, 21:31:50
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: fanpeople on Mon, 02 April 2018, 21:37:26
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Wait... MINE TOO!
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: SpAmRaY on Mon, 02 April 2018, 21:39:25
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Wait... MINE TOO!
Does your boss also delete all the important emails you send him then ask a minimum of 6 months later to send it to him again?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 02 April 2018, 21:43:01
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Wait... MINE TOO!
Does your boss also delete all the important emails you send him then ask a minimum of 6 months later to send it to him again?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk



and then hakerz stealz everyone's 401k..
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: SpAmRaY on Mon, 02 April 2018, 21:45:28
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Wait... MINE TOO!
Does your boss also delete all the important emails you send him then ask a minimum of 6 months later to send it to him again?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk



and then hakerz stealz everyone's 401k..
Nah the markets doing a good enough job already....so much lost the last few weeks.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: tp4tissue on Mon, 02 April 2018, 21:52:46

and then hakerz stealz everyone's 401k..

Nah the markets doing a good enough job already....so much lost the last few weeks.





Funds manager::  Look how gud I buyz index funds. !!
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: fanpeople on Mon, 02 April 2018, 22:04:05
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Wait... MINE TOO!
Does your boss also delete all the important emails you send him then ask a minimum of 6 months later to send it to him again?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

No but i am pretty sure the various people i deal with secretly know that my inbox is full because of a fear that someone will ask me to resend something. They then wait for me to delete those emails out of necesity 8 months later and then ask for a copy.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: bmilcs on Tue, 03 April 2018, 05:28:42
Hey guys. I really want to thank you for your input hahaha.

You've really helped =)
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: Blaise170 on Tue, 03 April 2018, 08:25:34
I've been considering a document scanner as well, but I'm not sure it's worth the risks of storing online. I'd be using my Google Drive since I have unlimited storage and I (generally) trust Google's security, but if someone did access my drive it could cause a lot of problems for me.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: bmilcs on Tue, 03 April 2018, 08:37:21
I've been considering a document scanner as well, but I'm not sure it's worth the risks of storing online. I'd be using my Google Drive since I have unlimited storage and I (generally) trust Google's security, but if someone did access my drive it could cause a lot of problems for me.

Maybe you should quit the mafia. They generally frown on that kind of activity.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: Blaise170 on Tue, 03 April 2018, 09:14:55
Uh, what?
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: bmilcs on Tue, 03 April 2018, 10:17:51
worth the risks of storing online.

if someone did access my drive it could cause a lot of problems for me.

Guilty conscience?

Jokes, people. Only jokes.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: Blaise170 on Tue, 03 April 2018, 10:29:17
Oh. No I mean storing my records such as medical history online.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: rowdy on Tue, 03 April 2018, 21:51:31
Scan everything directly into a folder named scanned documents. Dont check the document once scanned, immediatly shred the paper copy. Just use the auto assigned name, if you need to find anything just open the documents one at a time until you find what you are looking for.

Expert level archiving.
How did you know what our company policy is?? :confused:

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Wait... MINE TOO!
Does your boss also delete all the important emails you send him then ask a minimum of 6 months later to send it to him again?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I have been asked to recover a lost email after someone deleted the email, then emptied the trash, then compacted trash, then defragged the hard drive.

Fortunately I setup a duplicate email account for selected users a long time ago, and it was simply a case of grepping the files (one email per file) to find the "lost" email.

This is a true story, unfortunately.

As far as going paperless, I still prefer paper bills, then I can staple the receipt to each one and put it in my filing cabinet.  I have a lot (many thousands) of personal documents that I started scanning, but there are just too many and it is taking waaay too long.

For (paper) filing, I have a few folders for each address, and each folder contains various utility bills.  Financial statements tend to be grouped in folders by year.

Files for old addresses or old years get archived in archive boxes and put into the shed.

I have too many boxes of old files.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: ThoughtArtist on Fri, 06 April 2018, 18:32:16
That sounds convenient for ID thieves as well.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: Blaise170 on Mon, 09 April 2018, 07:55:25
That sounds convenient for ID thieves as well.

In case I wasn't very clear, this is exactly what I mean.
Title: Re: Anyone else gone paperless? (document scanners)
Post by: MrMen on Thu, 03 May 2018, 11:22:06
Personally, I don’t really trust companies and I absolutely don’t trust anyone accessing my cloud storage.

You could encrypt all your files inside an image for a bit more security...