If you’re reading this book for the first time, you may not already have a paperless office strategy—in which case, feel free to skip this chapter for now. But I suggest returning to it in a year or two, by which time you may benefit from its recommendations. If you already have a paperless office strategy, read on to learn the best way to proceed.
Because hardware, software, and online services change regularly, there may be better alternatives to some of the tools and workflow you now employ. And, once you have some experience converting paper documents to digital form, you may realize you’re not getting the optimal efficiency, accuracy, or file sizes with your scanning setup—or that your organizational scheme isn’t quite cutting it. All those things are worth reexamining periodically.
I want to begin with a brief “state of the union” look at what has changed in the last couple of years (as I write this in mid-2014), and then say a few words about Factors to Reevaluate as you reconsider your paperless office strategy, both now and in the future.
Since this book’s initial publication, a number of things have changed that might affect the way you approach the paperless office. Here are some of the things that continue to change over time.
The desktop and portable scanners you could buy a few years ago were pretty good, but the latest crop is even better. For example, Fujitsu’s ScanSnap iX500 is faster than its predecessor, with less tendency to misfeed—and with new capabilities, such as using Wi-Fi to scan directly to an iOS device. Doxie has a couple of newer models too, including one with Wi-Fi that can scan directly to cloud-based services without an intermediate computer. And several multifunction (print/scan/fax/copy) devices have appeared that, in contrast to earlier models, work well as document scanners.
When the first edition of this book was published, Apple had only one product with a high-resolution Retina display: the iPhone 4. Since then, newer iPhone models, multiple versions of the iPad, and most MacBook Pro models have been upgraded with Retina displays; it’s surely only a matter of time until all Apple devices have them. (Most of Apple’s competitors are also moving to ultra-high-resolution displays, often known by the term HiDPI.)
For people switching away from paper, this is fantastic news, because it means documents that you view on screen can be just as crisp and readable as those on paper.
iPads not only have better displays these days; they also have better cameras. Whereas the camera on the iPad 2 had a resolution too low to be usable for OCR, all newer models (including the iPad mini) have rear-facing cameras that produce excellent results when “scanning” paper. That, in turn, ties into the next item: better software.
In the first edition of this book, I listed more than 20 Mac apps that can perform OCR, as well as several iOS apps. I’m happy to say that today, there are even more choices in both categories. And on iOS, the quality and features of scanning apps have been steadily improving, to the point that they offer results nearly as impressive as what you can achieve with a Mac or PC.
Another interesting trend is software that can optionally send scanned images to human beings for verification and correction of the recognized text, especially for handwritten documents. NeatVerify and Shoeboxed, both discussed later in Outsource Scanning, are examples.
Cloud services for file storage, syncing, and backup have become more numerous, more powerful, and (on average) less expensive. If you want to keep copies of your scanned documents online—whether for your own convenience or to facilitate sharing them—it’s easier than ever to do so. There are also more options for syncing cloud-based files with mobile devices.
However, when Apple replaced MobileMe with iCloud, users lost a popular online storage system (iDisk) and, in its place, got a confusing and frustrating system (Documents in the Cloud), which isn’t a great fit for storing searchable PDFs because it ties every document to a specific app. (I have reason to hope that Documents in the Cloud will be easier to use in future versions of OS X and iOS, however.)
Whatever the virtues of cloud storage, the flip side is an increasing concern about the privacy of the information sent over the Internet. Although anyone may have reason to worry about privacy, some people have a legal obligation to be especially careful.
In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has provisions governing the security and privacy of medical data. Similar regulations cover other professions in which the confidentiality of client data is crucial. I’ve heard it said that HIPAA rules out any sort of Internet storage or backup, but that is not the case. You just have to carefully follow the rules (for which, peruse this handy 117-page PDF guide).
One of the main stipulations is that all data must be encrypted at the source (that is, on your computer) in such a way that no unauthorized person can decrypt it. Some cloud providers use such an arrangement by default, some offer it as an option, and others don’t do it at all. To take CrashPlan as an example, its default password setting would not be HIPAA-compliant, but you have the option to use a private password or custom key, either of which does meet the standard.
You must also observe requirements about longevity of data storage, traceability of changes, disaster recovery planning, and a number of other issues. Ensuring HIPAA compliance with cloud storage and backups is not trivial, but it’s absolutely possible. If you’re bound by HIPAA or similar rules, be sure to check with your cloud provider to confirm that it offers the necessary features and that your account has been configured in a HIPAA-compliant manner.
Not all the news is good, however. When Adobe upgraded its flagship PDF tool, Acrobat Pro, from version 9 to X (10), it removed the capability to drive many of its features via AppleScript. Using what I still think was a fairly clever hack, I was able to work around that problem and produce a script that caused Acrobat X Pro to automatically perform OCR on all newly scanned documents.
Unfortunately, when Acrobat XI Pro appeared, my hack stopped working. For reasons I can’t even imagine, Adobe seems to be actively closing any loophole that could enable users to work more efficiently by driving Acrobat Pro’s actions externally. Even though Acrobat Pro still supports JavaScript-based automation, the commands needed to perform OCR aren’t accessible to JavaScript. Despite my valiant efforts, I was unable to come up with a reliable way to automate OCR with Acrobat XI Pro.
Although Adobe’s behavior disappoints and mystifies me, it may be all for the best, because extensive testing has shown me that Acrobat Pro’s OCR accuracy is poor compared to several other tools that are cheaper and far easier to use. Therefore, I’m now actively recommending against using Acrobat Pro for OCR if you can avoid it.
The mere fact that technology evolves does not, by itself, mean you need to change anything about your paperless office system. If everything you set up previously continues to work perfectly now, it’s entirely reasonable to leave well enough alone. However, you may be happier or more efficient if you make a few strategic changes. Here are some key questions you might ask yourself:
If none of these things seems to apply, you’re in great shape. But make a note to come back to this chapter in a year or so to see if your strategy could use an upgrade then.