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Ask Slashdot: How To Go Paperless At Home?

Posted by timothy on from the zippo-would-like-to-help dept.

THE_WELL_HUNG_OYSTER writes "Over the years, I've had numerous scanners equipped with automatic document feeders — and all of them jam or grab multiple pages at a time (thereby missing pages). Like you, I've got years of tax returns and legal documents to scan, but with these kinds of barriers, it would take months to scan everything. Enterprise-grade machines cost 5 figures. How do Slashdotters become paper-free?"

7 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Evernote by xanadu113 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Try using Evernote and scan as you go, keeping up on all current items. Do extra ones when you have the time.

    --
    -Myke
    1. Re:Evernote by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Informative

      Plus, most companies are quite happy to deliver electronically, since it saves them money. Check with your delivery companies, they might even offer a discount if you go paperless.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Re:Fujitsu ScanSnap or similar by Alan+Shutko · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is the simple answer. This scanner actually works, unlike other ones I've tried. Multifunction printers with scanners, or flatbeds with a document feeder are all much slower and much more prone to jamming. The Scansnap rarely jams but when it does, it tells you and lets you fix it. It hardly ever grabs multiple pages at once, but when it does, it can notice it (mine has an ultrasonic sensor) and will let you fix it immediately.

    I've scanned some 10k sheets with mine (not pages, as a double-sided document counts as 1 sheet but two pages). It works extremely well.

  3. Re:Fujitsu ScanSnap or similar by lhaeh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yup, the Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500M is amazing. Never jams, great OCR software, VERY fast.

    Check out the great reviews on Amazon

    You can just toss in receipts and odd sized documents, handles them all fine.

  4. Re:Can you go paperless? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf

    Page 16.

    Basic gist: can go paperless as long as the digital images are indexed, legible and retrievable.

  5. Re:Fujitsu ScanSnap or similar by jrkotrla · · Score: 5, Informative

    As an owner and avid fan of the ScanSnap S1500, I tell you: "Read the manual" (or at least the help files)

    You can configure as you like, but on mine I press the blue magic button and I have a PDF file stored on my HDD in a folder I have preselected. This PDF is named according to the naming convention I have selected, and is later OCR'd when my computer is idle, as I have selected. No other selection boxes pop up and I don't have to click on anything at all on my computer. Just the one blue button.

    That's why the Scansnap is magic

    --
    In God we trust,
    everyone else we firewall!!
  6. Re:Outsource it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Why scan them all?"

    More than once I've needed a receipt a year or two later because something needed to be fixed under warranty. Oh, I found the original receipt! I think. Two years later, it's blank, the thermal print faded to nothing.

    THAT is why I scan.