Tag: Archiving

PDFs and Metadata

You might remember I was thinking about archiving data a few months ago. Up to now, I only stopped at scanning out the docs in PDF (trying to keep quite current with the inbound flow of paper) so that I could have easier access to the documents, and also getting rid of the high amount of useless paper around home.

The experiment up to now seems to be working out decently well. In the sense that the amount of paper around the house started to fall down, and at the same time I’ve been able to archive most of my stuff in a decent way by just using proper paths. Unfortunately, now stuff starts to get complex as well.

What I’d be needing now is some method to arbitrarily tag PDF files (the archive is all in PDF; while Stuart noted that TIFF would also be a decent way to store the data, there is one problem there in the sense that sometimes TIFF files don’t appear correctly on OS X. And since I mix operating systems I needed something that worked on both). And obviously an easy way to get the data out searching for those tags is also needed.

I have been told that XMP from Adobe should do what I need, I remembered the technology name and I’m pretty sure that yes, the way it was designed allows for what I’m looking for; obviously the problem is whether there’s a software that allows me to write down the type of metadata that I need; I’m not really too keen on writing my own, right now.

There is also the other problem of finding the data; I remember from some years ago Beagle could be used to do some on-disk search for documents. I also remember, though, that it was tremendously heavy, eating up lots of CPU and RAM, and just partly because of Mono, the rest was Beagle itself quite easily. Does anybody know whether it has improved? Or can suggest an alternative software to do something similar? I tried merging Tracker, but it doesn’t seem like it’s interested in indexing anything on my system, I have no idea why…

In theory, I’d like something that, searching for “H3G July 2009” would find me the correct PDF with the cellphone bill for the month of July 2009, and searching for “Amazon Office 2007” would find me the invoice for Office 2007 from Amazon UK. I’m fine with writing my own description to the files to get the right one.

If somebody has suggestions, they are definitely welcome. Thanks!

I dream the paperless office

And I know pretty well it’s something almost impossible to have; yet I’d like to have it because I’m succumbing in a ocean of paper right now. And paperwork as well.

While I have the Sony Reader to avoid having to deal with tons of dead tree books (although I do have quite a bit still, lots of which are still being consulted), I didn’t try before to clean up my archive of receipts, packaging slips, and stuff like that.

Time has come now since I have to keep some fuller, cleaner archive of invoices sent and received for my new activity as a self-employed “consultant”; I decided to scan and archive away (in a plastic box in my garage, that is) the whole of the job papers I had from before, as well as all my medical records, and the remaining parts of the archive. The idea was that by starting anew I could actually start keeping some time of accountability of what I receive, and spend, both for job and for pleasure. Together with the fact that is less stuff to bring around with me, this makes two things that would get me nearer toward actually moving out of home.

Sunday and Monday I spent about eight hours a day scanning and organising documents, trashing all the stuff I’m not interested in keeping an original of (that is stuff I’m glad I can archive, but that even if I lost is not that important), and putting away in the plastic box the important stuff (job and medical records, receipts for stuff that is already in warranty, etc.). I think I got through around 400 pages, on a flatbed scanner, without document feeder, assigning a name to each, and switching scans between 150 and 300 dpi, colour, grayscale and lineart scans.

I guess I’ll try to keep my archive more updated from now on by scanning everything as it arrives instead of waiting for it to pile up for twelve years (yes I got some receipts dating back to twelve years ago, like my first computer, a Pentium 133) and then trying to crunch it away in a few days. My wrist is aching like it never did before, for the sheer amount of sheets put on and removed from the scanner (I sincerely hope it’s not going to give up on me, it would be a bad thing).

Now I’m looking for a way to archive this stuff in a quick and searchable way, file-based structures don’t work that well, tagging the stuff would work better, but I have no idea what to use for that. If anybody has a free software based solution for archiving, that can be queried by the network too is a bonus, that it works on Mac OS X with Spotlight is a huge bonus, I’d be glad to hear it.

I’m also going to try out some software for accountability; I’ve heard good words of gnucash but never tried it before so I’m merging it right now; for now I don’t have enough invoices to send out that would give me reason to start writing my own software, but if there is something out there customisable enough I’d be glad to bite the bullet and get to use it. Spending my free time to work on software I need to work is not my ideal way to solve the problem.

Up to now I only worked very low profile, without having to invoice or keep records; luckily I have an accountant that can tell me what to do, but there are personal matters, including personal debts, credit cards and other expenses I finally want to take a good look at, so that I can extinguish them as soon as possible, and then start putting some away to pay for a car and a places to move to. Not easy to do I guess, but that’s what I hope to be able to do.