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Scan, OCR and shred. I have a scan pile and a shred pile. I collect documents in front of my scanner. Once a month I'll shred the previous month's documents in
by js2 8y ago
Scan, OCR and shred. I have a scan pile and a shred pile. I collect documents in front of my scanner. Once a month I'll shred the previous month's documents in the shred pile, scan the current documents, and put them in the shred pile to be shredded next month.
I do this because sometimes it's easier just having the hard-copy around, but if I haven't used it in a month, it's rare I still need the hard-copy.
- presbyopic 8y agoThere is a 2 billion dollar start up product lurking at your desk.
- graeme 8y agoDo you name them, or just put them en masse by date? And what ocr software do you use?
- atwebb 8y agoCloud vendors have OCR built in now, Amazon announced a newer product at Ignite called Textract and the Rekognition service has some capabilities there. GCP Vision and Azure have options as well. Getting the mass scan/photo is the annoying part. Some scanners also have OCR built in, or you can look at pytesseract.
- criddell 8y agoI do something similar. I scan to pdf then store those in Evernote and Evernote does the OCR.
- js2 8y agoInitially they are just named with the date they are scanned. Once a quarter or so I'll organize the ones I care about and the rest stay in an "unorganized" folder. I use DEVONthink Pro Office which embeds Abbyy for OCR, along with a Fuji SnapScan.
- SomeHacker44 8y agoI use JS1’s exact process, software and hardware. That is just too eerie. I however only shred once I have a full banker’s box, which I take to a commercial shredder for a big toss for $100, once or twice a year.
- ericd 8y agoWhy a commercial shredder rather than a $100 crosscut (Amazon Basics makes some pretty good ones)? I actually find the shredder pretty fun to use.
- jdietrich 8y agoMost inexpensive shredders have a very low duty cycle, so they'll cut out or overheat if you shred continuously for more than a couple of minutes. That's fine if you shred a couple of documents at a time, but it's infuriating if you have a big box of documents that need to be shredded. Heavy-duty shredders capable of continuous use are bulky and heavy, which is a significant issue if you live in a small apartment.
- kkarakk 8y agojust burn em in a trashcan
- smileypete 8y agoI use a cylinder of wire mesh on something heatproof, in the garden. Better than a cheap shredder by miles, and some nice heat that makes it pleasant in wintertime. :)
- igravious 8y agoDomestic burning of household waste is illegal where I live, I would have thought it would be illegal most places in the Western world by now. Burn paper = CO2; shred paper = more paper.