This is Day 11 in a 12 Post series: 12 Days Of Paperless Gifts. If you know someone who could use some help going paperless, or if you’d like to drop some hints, this series is for you. Don’t worry, the regular DocumentSnap tips will still be flowing.
At a high level, going paperless isn’t complicated. Use a scanner, create a high-level folder system on your computer, make sure everything is backed up, and go.
However, just because something is simple does not mean it is always easy. Fortunately, you can be more efficient by using some productivity software that takes some of the heavy lifting out of going paperless. Here are a few of my favorites.
Hazel
- Who is it for?: Mac users who want to automate as much as possible on their computer, including naming and filing electronic documents. I hear there is a pretty good Hazel webinar too.
- Where can I buy it?
Noodlesoft
File Juggler
- Who is it for?: Windows users who want a Hazel-like tool. It gives you the ability to automate as much as possible, including naming and filing electronic documents.
- Where can I buy it?
File Juggler
TextExpander
- Who is it for?: Mac users who want to dramatically speed up entering recurring bits of text (for example, filenames for electronic documents). This is the first tool that I install on a new Mac.
- Where can I buy it?
Smile
Breevy
- Who is it for?: Windows users who want to dramatically speed up entering recurring bits of text (for example, filenames for electronic documents), or TextExpander users who want to be able to sync their snippets to a Windows machine.
- Where can I buy it?
16 Software
PDFPen
- Who is it for?: Mac users who want be able to edit PDFs, add signatures, perform OCR, and do pretty much everything else with a PDF without Acrobat’s crazy price tag.
- Where can I buy it?
Smile Software
Nitro Pro
- Who is it for?: Windows users who want be able to edit PDFs, add signatures, perform OCR, and do pretty much everything else with a PDF without Acrobat’s crazy price tag.
- Where can I buy it?
Nitro