Document Locator by ColumbiaSoft

Document Locator is an integrated paperless office system that uses the Windows file system.

This system looks like it is targeted to larger organizations.

The use of the Windows files system and using non - proprietary file structures is a big plus. It looks like this system uses PDF files extensively.

I could not find a reference to a price.

DOKMEE - Document Management Software

DOKMEE is given away free. You pay for support and maintenance. You download the system, and run it for up to 25 days. After that period, you decide whether you want to pay for support and maintenance. You can either pay for one year at a time or go month to month. Clearly, you are paying for something. The annual contract runs $39 per month per user. The mont-to-month contract runs $49 per month.

I have not seen many reviews of DOKMEE, but the ones that I have seen are favorable.

The price for support is certainly reasonable. One should remember that prices are subject to change. DOKMEE may always stay reasonably priced or the price could go thru the roof. That is the software publisher's option.

If you want to try out DOKMEE go to http://dokmee.net/Dokmee_download.html. If you try DOKMEE out, please return to this blog to post a comment.

eDrawer Paperless Office Solution

eDrawer, http://www.edrawer.com/ , is an integrated paperless office solution. The base price is around $1,500.

Any comments about this product would be appreciated. I can't tell what file format they use to store the documents in.

There customer base is substantial and diverse.

One of the testimonials indicated that the customer, an attorney, should have purchased more "file rooms". This raises the question whether the $1,500 covers enough storage for the typicall business.

eFileCabinet - Paperless Office System

Any comments about eFileCabinet's paperless office solution would be appreciated. This product is relatively heavily promoted on Google.

This system captures scanned and electronic documents. The documents are saved in a non-proprietary format. There is no comment on the Website what file format eFileCabinet uses. I strongly recommend the use of a non-proprietary system. You don't want to be held hostage to a proprietary system. I prefer Acrobat PDF.

At this time, the "starting" price is quoted at $1,700 http://www.efilecabinet.com/?q=node/23 . For an integrated system, this is reasonable. You might want to inquire whether eFileCabinet charges after the first year.

eFax Corporate - Paperless Office

An often overlooked component of a paperless office is the fax. Why would you want to print out a Word document and walk it over to a fax machine? With a paperless office you should be able to fax from your computer system or computer network.

Any exeriences with eFax Corporate (http://www.efaxcorporate.com)? I used to use Winfax, but my new computer only has a DSL connection.

With Winfax, I used to "print" to Winfax. Then the fax would be faxed through the modem. The setup and cover pages were easy to work with.

With eFax Corporate the steps look like:

1. Send an email with an attachment to eFax Corporate.
2. eFax Corporate would then transmit the fax to the recipient.

The cost of eFax Corporate depends on the level of activity. There is a setup fee and a monthly charge. At the present time, it looks like the cost of outbound faxes is $0.10 per page.

An alternative to eFax Corporate might be found at http://www.ntfaxfaq.com/

Acrobat Bookmarks

Acrobat bookmarks can save lots of time. Bookmarks let you return quickly to specific location in an Acrobat PDF file. Acrobat bookmarks can only be created using Acrobat Professional or Acrobat Standard. You will not be able to create bookmarks with the free Adobe Reader.

To create an Acrobat PDF bookmark:

1. Place the cursor on the text or image that you want bookmarked.
2. Press Ctrl - B (hold down the Ctrl key and press the "b" key). This will create a bookmark with a generic description.
3. Change the generic bookmark description to something that means something to you.
4. Save the Acrobat PDF file by pressing Ctrl - S.

Remember, this only works with Acrobat Professional or Acrobat Standard.

Document Retention

How are you handling document retention for your paperless office? We are using File Butler, http://www.denvertax.com/document-retention/. It is a program that we developed for in-house use.

With File Butler, when a file is created we also include the deletion date. When the deletion date arrives, File Butler moves the obsolete files to a quarantine folder.

This has saved lots of time and disk space.

When I talk to businesses about their paperless office, the document retention issue rarely comes up. This will eventually be a disaster if a business does not address document retention.

Dual Monitors

Using dual monitors is a great addition to the paperless office. I have been using dual monitors for about 1 year. According to stats I have heard, using dual monitors makes the user 20% to 25% more efficient. I can't verify the statistics, but dual monitors was a fast payback for me.

One of the problems with using dual monitors is moving a program (actually window) from one screen to the next. The window needs to be in a "normal" size before it can be moved to a different monitor. Since I usually work with maximized screens that means that I need to click on the button on the upper right corner of the screen to "normalize" it or "restore down".

One of our customers told us about a program called Ultramon that adds another button on a window next to the Minimize, Restore Down (normalize) and Maximize buttons. He loves the program. If you have experience with Ultramon, please post a comment to let us know what you think about it. Ultramon is available at <http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/>. The price is $40 for 1 machine, but the price drops for multiple machines.

Use your paperless office to get a tax write-off for saki!

It is my understanding (maybe incorrect) that you can write off purchase of saki after 5pm if you have a paperless office.

This give a new meaning to "its 5:00 somewhere"!

There is a catch to this. This is Japanese tax law. The deduction is only good in Japan.

Sorry.

Paperless Filing For Email

One of our customers asked for an easy way to file his clients' emails. Emails may be important documents. They should be filed in the paperless office system if they are important.

I recommended printing each email to the PDF Writer printer to create PDF files for each email. Those emails should be sent to the computer's folder or directory that is designated for the specific client.

Our customer really liked that suggestions.

I will go further by recommending a filename format for the email. The format should be " .pdf". Thus, an email from client ABC01 on 10/8/05 that I want to delete on 10-15-2012 would look like "ABC01 2005-10-08a del-10-15-2012.pdf". A second email that day from that client would be given a filename of "ABC01 2005-10-08b del-10-15-2012.pdf". The "del-10-15-2012" is to designate to filebutler when this file should be automatically deleted.

So you think I should put the subject of the email in the filename? You can if you want, but we use X1 search to find stuff on our computers. Why waste the time to put in a subject?