Paperless – Automate Scanned Articles Into Evernote

A catch word that has popped up more and more in the last couple of years is going ‘Paperless’. Obviously, the less of a need to use paper has a positive impact on the environment and to be honest paper generally equals unnecessary clutter right? So how do we minimize the use of paper.

Photo courtesy of: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rvoegtli

For both the above reasons, I am slowing adopting the concept of going paperless. With  with so much going on in our daily lives and our mental search engines often overflowing and failing to find important pieces of paper when we them,  why not store them electronically and let technology do the work for you. If you have read any of my previous posts you probably know by now that I’m a big user and supporter of Evernote and have been using the note taking service for close to five years. During that time I have tried to push the Evernote functionality to its limits to help make the service work for me, so at the end of the day I have less work to do.

An area that I wasn’t able to master for quite some time until recently is how to scan a document or photos into Evernote directly, without the need of an extra step of having to create a new note and then attaching the scanned material manually. This was especially difficult while working on my family tree and trying to capture all of the documents and put them into Evernote was quite time consuming.

Having searched on Google and read articles on the Evernote web site about how to scan documents into Evernote, the solution that was most apparent was to purchase a Fujitsu ScanSnap compatible scanner which has built in functionality to push scanned documents straight into Evernote.  Ultimately this looked to be the simplest way of being able to do what I had been trying to accomplish and was very close to making the purchase but after further searching I found a web site named Wappwolf. From reading about the site I found that Wappwolf is an automation service for Dropbox users to automate the use of moving files in and out of Dropbox and to cut down on manual work.  Considering I have a Dropbox account and one of services that I could automatically moving of files to is Evernote, I had a lightblub moment and figured that this might actually allow me to do what I have been trying to do with my scanned documents. After having tried it, I can happily say it works like a charm.

Living in the Cloud

Over the last few years the word cloud has been used less in reference to those fluffy white masses in the sky and more in the context of storing information and files on a online server hidden away somewhere halfway across the world. At first I was hesitate about using cloud services but overtime I became open to the idea and I practical live in the cloud now.

So what does living in the cloud mean for me?

It means using online storage to store files and to sync files between your computer and the cloud, it means storing your favourite music online and having the ability to play the music online, and it means having the ability to take notes quickly and easily and store them so that they are easy accessible.

Why use a cloud rather than saving files on a computer or hard drive?

Bluetooth Keyboard with Blackberry Playbook

In the age of computing, I’ve found that things are a lot more complicated now, than say 15 to 20 years ago. When I was at high school and would need to use the computer I would jump on the PC we had in the family house and use it to write up my school and university assignments.

These days there are so many technological options to use as a tool to write with. I now understand why lots of writers still refuse to use technology and go back to use good old fashion pen and paper, but since I like my technology I was keen on using some of the digital toys that I had at home.

Bluetooth Keyboard

NEC MobilePro P300

Over the weekend I decided to wipe the dust off some of my old gadgets and have a bit of play around.

I found my trusty old PDA that I purchased at a sale around 10 years ago. I purchased it because I thought it might come in handy at the time as I had numerous meetings a day to take notes at and need help to stay on top of things.

NEC MobilePro P300

Apad iRobot 7” Android Tablet Review

Having recently visited a local computer markets, I fell about a vendor who was selling iRobot 7" Android tablets as well as variety of larger ones, both in terms of size and specifications. For $100 I couldn't help myself and ended up purchasing one.

For $100 I didn't have high expectations and didn't really expect it to perform las well as the more expensive brand name tablets such as Toshiba, Motorola and Samsung.

In The Box

• 7" Apad iRobot Android 2.2 tablet
• AC Adapter
• USB / Ethernet Adapter
• MID User Guide (English Version)

Getting Started

After completely charging the tablet for the first time, I hit the power button, the tablet booted up with the usual Android icon splash screens. Once tablet had booted up, I was presented with the usual Android homepage displaying Google Android 2.2 installed nicknamed Froyo. The tablet came with a number of pre-installed applications. These applications are outlined below.

OTA Download & Aerize Card Loader - No Longer Worry About Application Storage!

For those of you that know me, I often like to tinger with gadgets and mobile software. For me I like to utilise every aspect of them.

I recently upgraded my Blackberry Bold 9000 to a Blackberry Torch 9800. I think both phones are great, but one of the issues I had with the 9000 was the lack of space to install my apps.

I don't have this issue with my Torch, well not yet anyway. But I have found a bit of a solution.

 

Recently I found a small application called Aerize Card Loader. Basically if there is a cod file stored in the root directory of your SD card, then the Aerize Card Loader can install the application on your SD Card instead of in the limited application storage on your Blackberry (will come in handy on older BB with limited application storage). While it doesn't work for every application, I found it works well for some of the smaller utilities that might be used on different occasions.

More information about Aerize Card Loader can be found at Mobihand - Aerize Card Loader

Evernote

For those that like to get things done (GTD) I found Evernote to be the perfect option. The solution provides me with an application on notebook at home, I use the web application at work and while on the move I use the Blackberry evernote application.

Having Evernote at my fingers tips all the time allows me to clear my head at any point of time and jot down a few notes and then categorise them under tags and then work through my notes and complete anything in my to do list tag. I found splitting my to to do lists into ‘Work’ at ‘Home’ and ‘Anywhere’. Its also worth having a shopping category when on the move so that you keep notes if you are pricing items or even to trigger a reminder what you need to buy when you are out and about.

Something worth looking at if you are constantly busy.