Thanks Todd,
(and the flood of others who responded whilst I was composing this)
I have an organizational system I am developing. I have worked on/with it for a solid couple of days, gone back and fixed a few things and rearranged a bunch of folders. The software I am using does the scanning to PDF and I use Acrobat Pro regularly. Rather than buying the software module that does OCR (optical character recognition) I am experimenting with scanning pages I want to 'read' to Acrobat Pro first and then importing it into the system.
I am also dealing, as most of us do, with a wide variety of stuff and there are three of us. My wife has a small business that generates lots of paper, forms, correspondence and reports. These come in or go out on paper, email as well as being composed and filed somewhere on the computer. Then my student daughter has filing cabinets drawers full of reports, projects, essays most of which are somewhere in her computer. Let me rephrase that. She would fill the drawers if she would take the heaps on her bedroom floor...
Then there are the family finances, bank statements, etc.
And then all the handwritten notes, the drawings,the cutting lists, the notes on the paint used for a job and so on. When I get a tool I try and get the PDF version of the manuals. As we know most of the files have such people-friendly names such as xp123_v7_sep06.pdf. These pdfs are being renamed and are going in too.
I plan on putting all these - and more - into the system and chucking MOST of the original paper.
On the current sampling I estimate I can just dump about 20% of the pieces of paper and files right away as they are no longer needed or relevant. That's just a spring clean. Of what is left I can scan and hold about 70% to 80% for about 6 months and then dump the paper. If I am sensible I can put expiry dates on some files - but unless they are really big (in computer file size) it may not be worth it. 5% is not appropriate for scanning. The other 15% to be scanned is medium term (2 years) and long term (life), things like certificates and perpetual documents. The choice is moldy disintegrating 40 year old letters from my mother tied up with ribbon or letters I can read and smile over as the mood takes me. (Nostalgia isn't what it used to be!)
I also discovered that my need for paper is dropping. We have 4 printers in the house and not so long ago considered buying paper by the case lot. I replaced an old laser printer with one that duplexes (prints both sides). It cost very little more and cut down paper usage by about 25%. Then we got more into doing things online and printing to PDF. I've not yet tried it but a friend with the same printer now has blank paper in one tray and "used-on-one-side" paper in the other. For drafts or stuff that is not going out of the door they reuse the blank sides. Sometimes I bring home paper from the office we can reuse. Times are changing and I am working on adapting appropriately.
The bank allows me to download a pdf which I plan on putting straight into the system. I have not yet imported the Festool catalog - but is next but two on my list. I'd like to see if I can look up the sanding disks I need using the search function. What I am saying here is my incoming (paper) mail is dropping significantly and emailed bills and correspondence are going up. And have you noticed the bill that used to be a single sheet on paper is now three pages long as a pdf?
I had looked around for a while for a solution we could afford. It had to be multi-user as there are times when we are all working at the same time. It had to be economic. I am not paying thousands to save hundreds. It had to be easy/relevant for all of us to use. As some important things are handwritten I needed to have a system that could still handle things 'elegantly'. If I want to I can type up my mothers letters so I can search for the name of a long lost relative. I can also scan in the receipt from the paint company showing the mix I used for the basement walls in 2004.
Last month I ordered 30 replacement windows and storm shutters. I sent (emailed) the company an annotated PDF with pictures of each wall of the house and the specs for each window. It is filed in the system along with their quote and a scan of the contract. All I need for the moment is the paper contract.
I have not had time to beat up the systems indexing fully, but I know I don't have to dig through thousands of emails looking for the attachment when I need it. (between the three of us we can average 50 emails or more a day.
My memory is not what it was and as I do work around the house these heaps of pieces of important paper get moved, damaged and as I can't remember where ... they become lost. Sorry, they are not lost. It's me who does not know their location.
So coming back to it. I THINK I have found a solution to my challenges at a reasonable cost. I KNOW I will need to change my ways at some point and for various reason the time is now. I am UNCERTAIN as to the best way of approaching some of the "workshop" aspects as these items/documents include things like plans, cutting lists, paint orders, tool warranties, service items, handwritten notes, contracts, manuals, catalogs, etc. etc. And yes, like any other system it will only work if it is kept up. (That's the hard part!)
Captain Kirk boldly went, but he wasn't paying the bills or feeding each piece of paper into the scanner/shredder. I know others have traveled there before me. The question is if they are on this board and if they can contribute.
Update to responses ...
I can find single user solutions and am starting to use OneNote for other things (but this and some other software packages are not multi-user solutions, which is what we need). I am using a spare PC with Windows XP acting as a server. It is running multi-user versions of both this document management software and Quickbooks Pro. I also run Quicken (which has some capabilities in this area and where some of this started) and the MS Office Suite. Thanks for the suggestions though.
The software I am trying out is impressing me (my day job is in IT). I have to deal every day with software that I am sure the salespeople never used themselves for "real". I also get to advise people on setting things up to be able to work more efficiently and effectively in our normal business environment. The workshop scenario for document management is 'outside' my norm and I am not afraid to ask for advice myself. Measure twice, get someone else to check it, cut once.
SteveD