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Paperless Home: Need document management software

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jeromg:
Hi dc'ers,

I'd like to try implement something close to a paperless office, what I'd like to do is:
1. Scan all paper documents received at home (bank statements, letters,...)
2. Use OCR if applicable (maybe, I'm not sure whether it's a good thing to do at the moment)
3. Store the scanned document in the right format (multi-page TIFF, multi-page PDF, other?)
4. Use a clever document storage (filesystem with nice/clean directory structure, dedicated database/revision management system,...)

Interesting user story: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/11/02/personal_document_management.html

Possible software I've seen so far:
PDFFactory : http://www.fineprint.com/products/pdffactory/index.html ($49.95 or $99.95 for the pro version)
ABBY Fineprint Reader Pro: http://www.abbyy.com/finereader8/?param=44890 (~$160)
Perforce (see article by Jason Hunter referenced above) : http://www.perforce.com/ (free version available, limited to 2 clients)

Any comments on this? Has anyone set up a similar system?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers  /jerome

edbro:
There are plenty of good options out there. For a single solution, Paperport should do it all.

Personally, I use a simple scanner and a comprehensive folder structure. I bought Fineprint and pdfactory just recently as they are discounted for DonationCoder members. Another great program is Scan2PDF (Freeware). That will allow you to scan in documents, including combining pages.  I like to save magazine articles this way instead of keeping stacks of magzines laying around. Easier to find that way too.

Mostly, nowadays I can get most of my paperwork digitally off the web. All my financial paperwork comes digital now. I feel it is safer that way as I'm less of a threat for identity theft.

Along the same lines, the Scrapbook extension for Firefox is great. I save and categorize articles from the web using Scrapbook. An alternative is to print web articles to PDF using pdfactory.

Because I usually save in PDF format, I have rarely needed an OCR capability.

NigelH:
The current version of Paperport is 11 and is really powerfull, but it is expensive (+$150)
http://www.nuance.com/paperport/


You can find older versions (such as V9) online for much less.
http://www.ibuildcomputer.com/cgi-bin/szc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_partnum=SFT-PPDL9&p_vlt=L
Review
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,109694-page,1/article.html

brotherS:
I'd like to try implement something close to a paperless office, what I'd like to do is:
1. Scan all paper documents received at home (bank statements, letters,...)
2. Use OCR if applicable (maybe, I'm not sure whether it's a good thing to do at the moment)
3. Store the scanned document in the right format (multi-page TIFF, multi-page PDF, other?)
4. Use a clever document storage (filesystem with nice/clean directory structure, dedicated database/revision management system,...)
-jeromg (January 13, 2007, 09:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
I'm using something in that direction:
1. scan to PDF with my CanoScan scanner (automatically OCRs it, so I can search within the created documents)
2. give good names to the documents, like "invoice XYZ Inc. Samsung HD 2005-12-12.pdf"
3. put them into distinct folders
4. use Locate to find a document later very, very quickly: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1385.0


Interesting user story: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2006/11/02/personal_document_management.html
-jeromg (January 13, 2007, 09:29 AM)
--- End quote ---
Looks good, will read it later!

brett:
We use a program called 'Paper Valet' at work
http://www.chocksettsoftware.com/products.asp

It performs beautifully, with some 4600 pieces of paper scanned in over the last 12 months.
Its quick and easy, and straight to a folder structure.
Includes a PDF viewer, and search.

but it appears to of been abandoned now :(

There is a free and Pro version still on the website, but the author has not been heard from for nearly 12 months.
We use the Pro version that allows renaming of Headers and scan to PDF.

Overall, for ease of use and simplicity 8/10

Brett

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