Scanning Home Office Files

Let's face it, we're all surrounded by paper. From our bills to information we print from web sites to keep as a quick reference, we are addicted to paper. There's a way to control that paper flow, and in the process give yourself some very nice benefits: Go paperless.

Scanning technology, or Document Imaging, has been primarily reserved for medium to large companies. Their main intent to was either relieve the cost of storing large amounts of historical paper data, or increase access to their important paper-based data. Changes in technology, and Microsoft's inclusion of some basic imaging features, have made the home office, or just plain home, able to take serious advantage of this space-saving, time-saving technology. So how does one get started? Simple, purchase a document scanner, or use what you already have.

Chances are, if you have a home office, you have an "all-in-one" type printer. This device is designed to print, fax and copy. Guess what, if it faxes, it probably has some scanning functionality. So what does that mean? When sending a fax, the paper is translated into lines of data that can be sent across a phone line as a series of on/off signals representing data that is either black or white. Actually, the data is compressed first, then that representation is sent across the line, but all you need to know is that the fax machine uses the exact same technology used when scanning office documents. This is distinctly different than scanning photographs. Color scanning is slower and requires large amounts of memory and storage space. Black-and-white scanning, on the other hand, creates files that are very small, typically between 30-50Kb for a letter-size page. Roughly 13,000 "images" can be stored on the size of a CD. If you have a recent PC, you have enough storage space to store ALL your monthly bills, tax documents, mortgage papers, etc. for the rest of your life. The great benefit to this is, when you have your files scanned this way, it's easy to make a CD of your files, and store it in your safe-deposit box at your bank, or upload them to a secure provider, insuring that you will not lose your critical data.