(c) 2008 Stephanie Bryant. [email protected] The Paperless Home Office Ditching the File...

(c) 2008 Stephanie Bryant. [email protected]

The Paperless Home Office

Ditching the File Cabinet


“MYTH”• The Myth of the Paperless Office by Abigail

Sellen and Richard Harper• Companies going “paperless” without clear

direction or culture change.

• Reading long documents, reviewing, and collaboration.

• Legal burdens.


Paperless Home Office• Capture

• Archive

• Retrieval


The Process• Make decisions on-the-fly.

• The daily toss.

• Weekly scanning. – Scan, confirm, shred.

• Frequent Backups.

• Easy Retrieval.


Must-Have Tools!• A Scanner

– Preferably one which can scan to a USB drive or media card.

– With a sheet feeder.

• A Shredder• An External Hard Drive• Adobe Acrobat Pro.• Backup software and Search Software


Capture• What to Keep in Hard Copy?

– Licenses and OSHA– Medical/Veterinary– Hard drive recovery procedures– Big-ticket returnable/warranty purchases


Electronic Copies• Taxes

• User Guides

• Receipts for Business

• Invoices to Clients

• Statements and Bills


Don’t Keep:• User guides/Quick Starts

• Maps and directions

• Lists

• Grocery receipts

• Coupons

• Ads

• Magazines/Newspapers


Archive• Store documents by:

– Date (YYYY / MM)– In Email (no need to sort)– Type (Receipts/YYYY/MM)– Project (Workbook/)– Client (WebWorks/)


Hybrid Archives• Type AND Date (Receipts/YYYY/MM)• Client AND Type (Webworks/Contracts)• Etc.

• Everything has a meaningful filename!– “Costco-HardDrive.pdf” not “Costco.pdf”

unless you only go there once or twice a year.


Retrieval• Mac: Spotlight

• Windows: Google Desktop or Windows Desktop Search

• Linux: locate and updatedb


Collaborate and Review• CMS tools

• Word Markup

• Compare Documents

This is where to use paper!


Reading Long Documents• We do read online!

• Adobe PDFs

• eInk devices (Kindle, Sony)

• Audiobooks

• Other eBooks (phones, PDAs)


First Steps• Take out your wallet or purse.

• Throw away anything you don’t need.

• Scan/Shred the rest.

• Go forward, not back.

• Tackle the backlog in 10 minute increments over the next few weeks.


Questions/HelpStephanie Bryant

Mortaine Publications, Inc.

http://www.mortaine.com

605-413-4531

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

(c) 2008 Stephanie Bryant. [email protected] The Paperless Home Office Ditching the File...

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