Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with document

Going Paperless and need a Document Imaging Service

Merlin144 — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:20:04 -0800

What document imaging company do you recommend that is user-friendly, cheap, and secure? I need a service that will scan and OCR approximately 1000 pages of personal records. I can do the OCR'ing if that significantly affects the price.

I am considering using Pixily.com, however their prices are ridiculous. If I get one of their monthly plans and send in an extra envelope each month, it would amount to 0.29/page for one-sided documents. Ouch!

I'm looking for a service in which I can trust their security procedures because these are personal docs including taxes, bank statements, investement reports, etc.

HR-Filter: How does the temp agency you work for store its secure documents?

griphus — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:56:46 -0800

Document Imagine/HR-Filter: How does your large company store its secure documents? Okay, so I work on the admin end of a temp agency (i.e. not as a temp.) I'm in charge of document imaging. Rather, I'm in charge of creating a document imaging infrastructure. My boss said I can purchase any software I need so that we may retain the documents the temps fill in when they register. We have a lot of registered temps/day (>100) but this is a small non-profit with a limited budget, so software over a couple of thousand is out of the question. Bonuses for software companies w/ discounts for non-profits. Getting a consultant for this or speaking to a lawyer regarding any of these matters is also out of the question.

So, what system do you recommend for retention of Federal (I-9/W4) and HIPAA documents? By the rules, it has to be secure and able to track all reads and writes of/to the scanned documents.

I don't really need indexing software because we don't have an industrial scanner and because all incoming files are checked by hand.

Finally, if you have a company in NYC that has such a system set up, I would have no problem showing up to your offices for a tour. In fact, I'll take you out to lunch or something for the privilege. (Mods, please delete this request if it is against the rules)

Need suggestions on libraries or products for displaying rich documents (Word, PDF, etc) in web pages

Woo! — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:04:22 -0800

Scribd alternatives? Need suggestions on libraries or products for displaying rich documents (Word, PDF, etc) in web pages, like Scribd, but one that I can host. Scribd is pretty cool, but it requires that you upload and host the document on their servers. This is likely a non-starter for the company I work for. Does anyone have suggestions for presenting rich documents in a web page in a consistent manner, but one that I can run internally. Does not have to be free or open source. Thanks!

Document Management for Small Company

bananafish — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:10:08 -0800

Document Management Software? I work in a small (less than 10 ppl) company. We all save documents to a common drive. Of late, this has become a problem because we have multiple people working on different versions of the same document. So for Example person A may save a document to the common drive and also send copies of the document to persons B and C to review. B and C will make their edits save the edited documents to the common drive. It's gotten to the point where no one can locate the latest version of a document or find the copy of the document they were working on. When it's time to present a document, no one knows which document is the latest version. We've tried saving documents with initials and the date, but that hasn't worked. Any software or system recommendations to solve this problem would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Alfresco or no alfresco

london302 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:48:53 -0800

I want advice on setting up a basic, password protected, document management system to host pdf documents and pdf forms. I am inundated with terms like Joomla, Drupal, Alfresco each one with its pros and cons [similar questions on askmefi havent helped much] I am looking for a quick implementation of a server based system which people from the organisation and outside (who have access via username and password) can download them for their use.

What we need it for: We have to submit reports monthly for the projects we do and currently we manage this via an informal mailiing list but everybody else in our industry has not migrated to 'document portals' and the ability for the clients to have all documents in one place is the most requested feature.

'Must Have' features:
1. Different levels of access depending on the level of user
2. Company logo and branding to give it a professional feel
3. A left pane with a folder tree and when a folder is clicked it brings up a list of documents with a short description of the document and a link to download.

'Nice to Have' features:
1. Ability to upload documents via email
2. Ability to fill and submit pdf forms
3. Advance printing features
4. Email users when a new document is uploaded.

The options I have been offered are:
- commercial document management systems hosted for a monthly fee
- joomla hosted on a third party server
-alfresco hosted on a third party server

Usage:

1. We do not expect for the total amount of data held on the server to be more than a few gigabytes.

2. Total number of users (including all categories) will not be more than 10 and at maximum can rise to 50 if we really really push it.

I am told that Alfresco is the all singing dancing platform for something like this but takes a higher level of skill to deploy than joomla which is not really a document management system but can function like a basic one.

I am looking for advice on the above or any other ideas. Thanks

Taking my documents from sleepy to snazzy

doctor.dan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 04:11:41 -0800

I'm looking for a way to snazz up my documents (and in particular my thesis) so it looks a lot less like the canned default Word/Pages themes. Any suggestions on some nice looking (free to cheap) fonts and document layouts I can use anywhere from short report and research proposals to my full-blown thesis? Being lazy and not too artistic, I've always stuck with the default themes in Word (or more recently Pages also). I've been getting bored by them as of late and am looking to give my documents a unique and clean look. I'm not very good at design so be gentle. Any suggestions, or your personal design stories, would be awesome.

Any specific font suggestions would be great as well, Paladino Linotype and Corbel just ain't doing it for me anymore.

How to make Quick Parts more intelligent in MS Word?

Ridge — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:58:19 -0800

I want to automate a Word document for some sales drones. I'd love it if I could check for when a Quick Part field ends with an "s", and if so insert just an apostrophe as opposed to apostrophe then "s". But how? Here's the sitch: Sales need a template they can use that's been automated to within an inch of its life. So I've used Quick Parts for a field called [Company] like so:

If [Company]'s requirements...

They can edit one instance of the [Company] field and it auto-updates across the whole document. Which works great, right up until said [Company] name ends with an "s", eg:

If Ridge Services's requirements...

They send out a lot of these documents, and I don't trust them to reliably check every one for instances of "Ridge Services's" and correct them all (even though Word helpfully lets you know via its spelling error red underline).

So, is there any way to check what letter [Company] ends with, and if it ends with any letter other than "s", insert an apostrophe and then "s", but if [Company] ends with an "s", just insert an apostrophe?

And if so, how?

Oh, and it has to work across MS Word 2007 PC, and MS Word 2008 Mac. Ya know, just to complicate things...

PPS: I hate Word

Word Document Transfer Advice Needed!

goalyeehah — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:27:46 -0800

How do I transfer a word document to a jpg, gif, or pdf file? I need to send document online to an organization that will only accept these files.

Web based document sharing

dukes909 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:39:02 -0800

Non-profit group looking for a web based document storage / file sharing system to allow remote offices to share (mainly download) relevant organization documents. Does not have to have check in/check out capabilities. Will need to be able to password protect access so that general public does not have access. Could also use web portal capabilities and wiki like features - a lite CMS, but not required. Have looked at things like Drupal (too complicated to get set up), Alfresco (wayy too expensive!), OWL (couldn't get demo to work). Prefer to host on our own Linux based webserver, and have tech resources for installs etc, but not extensive coding.

Document mis-management?

Anonymous — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:42:37 -0800

How can I convince a document management vendor to stop embracing 100 DPI / JPG as a universal format for scanned documents? I work with a document management vendor that optimizes their entire program around 100 DPI / color JPG images.

We're talking about a whole variety of documents, most of which are written / printed text and would be handled nicely at 200/300 DPI B&W (TIFF) format. Perhaps 5% of the documents involved are pictures.

I understand why they use 100 DPI / JPG: it's a universal setting where any image is easily viewable within the application. Honestly I get the impression that they didn't want to deal with scaling early on, but for the most part it's just their "universal format of choice." If you print the images, attempt to fax them, etc, you run into major problems with quality.

They've worked around these issues by designing complex algorithms that automatically apply gamma correction, etc when printing. I'm impressed with what they've done, but I'd like to see the possibility of OCR down the road.

To add insult to injury, you can use their program to scan black and white TIFFs, but when you print them out, they have enormous margins on them that render them unreadable. If you export first, and then print (I realize the goal is paperlessness in the long run) they look beautiful (no margins).

I want to explain to them that in a sense their system is a "black hole" encouraging people to abandon any hope of OCR in the future. We'd really like to be able to fax these documents electronically, but electronic fax servers create this dithered mess out of the various shades of gray picked up from the white background.

How can I handle this? Am I out of line? I have talked to other vendors that consider this heresy, so I'm pretty sure I'm on the right side.

Parting ways is not an option at the moment.

What is the best free online document management for academic use?

Outis — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:54:20 -0800

What is the best free online document management solution with the intended use by a few individuals for academic purposes? A few of my friends and I trade academic papers via USB drives right now, but we'd like to move to an online solution. More precisely, a private (user:password) CMS driven solution run on a personal webhost.

In some ways something like a private version of Scribd is what we're looking for. We want it to be able to search all the PDF files (they're already OCR) that we upload from within the site, if possible.

Automated organization is a must, and simple upload also. Currently I've got three gigabytes of just text PDFs and don't want to spend much time uploading them. They're already organized systematically according to file name.

Leaving comments on them and such is hoped for and it will eventually have a wiki to share updated information. Also, it has to be open-source/freeware.

Thanks for the assistance.

How can a writing workshop share their work online?

patnasty — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:32:24 -0800

What would be the best web-based file hosting service to use as a shared "Documents" folder for the various members of my writing workshop? I'm looking for a cheap (or even free!) way to set up a communal web storage folder so that the members of my writing workshop and I can make the latest drafts of our work available to one another in between workshop meetings.

Here are the tricky bits:

Many of my workshop-mates are fairly technophobic. If the login/uploading process is at all difficult-looking, they won't use it. Also, it would be probably be best that it not require the downloading of any sort of desktop client, unless the installation and configuration thereof would be simple enough for an 80 year old grandmother who was raised in a remote region of the Brazilian rainforest, by monkeys.

Finally, we'll be using several different document types. Some will be using regular docs, some will be using the screenwriting program Final Draft's proprietary format, and some will be using the format used by the open source screnwriting program, Celtx. It would probably be asking too much for the hosting service to automatically convert these various formats into PDF or something, so I'm pretty much resigned to having to go on and do some converting on my own... but it would be nice if, once I convert the document to PDF or HTML, for people to be able to just click on a document to read it.

Oh, and it'd be best if I could set up sub-folders for the various members of the group, so our stuff isn't all mixed up together.

So... any suggestions?

Quick and easy solution for reformatting Word documents from manual formatting to Styles?

Jacqueline — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:14:07 -0800

Quick and easy solution for reformatting Word documents from inconsistent manual formatting to Styles? I am helping someone combine 5 Word documents into 1 book with consistent formatting, a Table of Contents, chapter-specific headers and footers, page numbering, etc. If it matters (for text formatting) the documents are all in French. There are 300+ pages.

Problem: The original source documents were all manually formatted (inconsistently!) and thus each one seems to have 100+ different Styles, with only a few (or sometimes one) instance of each Style. The original document authors also did other fun things like use tabs or spaces to position text instead of tab stops or indentation.

Right now it appears as if I will have to go through the document page-by-page, reformatting the text into a consistent set of Styles. Or wipe out all formatting and start from a clean slate. Is there a quicker, easier way to do this or are we just screwed?

If we are screwed, do you think that wiping out all the formatting and applying Styles to the unformatted text (using the original documents' appearance as a guide for different sections, header levels, etc.) would be the fastest way?

I am using Word 2007 and she is using 2003, are there any 2007 formatting features I should avoid because they won't be backwards-compatible?

(Also, I am relatively new to working with Styles in Word so any other large document design/formatting tips you'd like to share would be much appreciated! :))

Please let me know, thanks!

How to write a compelling pitch for a reality show?

Elle Vator — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:38:37 -0800

Dear Hivemind: Where can I find examples of treatments for Reality TV shows? I have experience writing treatments for film, so I'm already on the right track in terms of describing character or writing synopses... but I'm a bit at a loss as to what points must be hit, in what proportion and in what sequence in a Reality TV Treatment. I've worked in reality before and I'm fascinated by the genre, so I know what goes into a show similar to this. That said, I also know that I've never written a treatment for this format and I could really use some guidance.

Here's how I'm picturing it:
-logline
-expansion on logline (short paragraph)
-nuts and bolts stuff (length of season, length of episode, basic production premise, audience/market brief... too much? not enough?)
-background of the concept (establishing main characters and reasons why the show is being made and will be awesome)
-more detailed breakdown (consisting of...?)
-> season synopsis
-> episode breakdown
-> overall result of the first season and possibilities for subsequent seasons
-team bios
...all about ten pages of well-spaced text (with the first page created as a stand-alone one-sheet) before we add pictures.

I know I'm on the right track, kinda/sorta... but my uncertainty is having a negative effect on my creative process. Me? I'm a writer who's been given a great opportunity and a fascinating concept which I've been consulting on for a while. I'd rather not go boldly in the wrong direction on this, if you know what I mean! I think what I need is to see is some sample documents and/or get pointed to a book or article that breaks it down how the document is formatted in a general way.

Tips? Answers? Illumination of any sort? I'd really appreciate it. :)

Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer bought in USA? How to use in U.K?

omaralarifi — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:03:48 -0800

Just returned from fabulous 2 week holiday in New York. I Brought back Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer from Staples costing $230. Unfortunately, I cannot use it in U.K., unless I plug voltage converter/transformer products. Has anyone else bought this set over there with more success? Any advice \ information appreciated. Please specify me What exact voltage converter product to buy & where to buy it from USA online store. Thanks. I checked again the Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer power information:
Power Requirements

Rated voltage: 120 VAC
Rated frequency: 50 – 60 Hz
Rated current: 0.8 Amp

Power Consumption

Approx. 26 W ISO 10561
Approx. 5.5 W (Sleep Mode)
Approx. 0.3 W (Power Off Mode)
ENERGY STAR® compliant

This is why I cannot understand it blowing.

Resources for programming highly formatted documents?

Pontifex — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:51:58 -0800

Is there a solution for producing highly formatted documents programmatically, that is an alternative to ReportLab? ReportLab is a python library for creating highly formatted PDF documents.

It seems to be one of the only Open Source libraries / programs that can be manipulated programmatically to produce highly formatted documents.

I've already tried the macro interface to OOo and found it lacking (to put it lightly).

Are there other open source, or low cost solutions, that I can use to programmatically create a highly formatted document? Think writing letters, creating resumes, etc; When I say "highly formatted".

In relation to this question.

Thanks for your help.

--Pontifex

Printing for long-term use

sandpine — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:06:31 -0800

I'm looking for paper to use in a laser printer that will hold up well over time. I have a number of documents that I would like to print and keep in a binder.

My concern is how the documents will degrade over time. I understand that either the paper or toner will breakdown over time and make the document useless/unreadable.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

SandPine

Revision/version control software for stuff that isn't source code...

Chunder — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:40:18 -0800

Is there such a thing as version/revision control software for printed documents? Software developers have version control for their source code, but what about people who write sales brochures? I work in a large multinational corporation, the marketing department of which generates a large volume of outward-facing literature - brochures, applications, etc. These are written in-house, artworked by an agency into pdf, and then reviewed/amended/signed-off prior to being printed and distributed; changes to any given item are frequent and reasonably regular (usually 6 monthly), and may need to be amended and reviewed by a number of people (usually 4-6).

Unfortunately, the relevant department has no concept of the re-use of identical elements across documents (e.g. common paragraphs, tables, etc.) - every document is completely independent of the others, no matter how much copy text is duplicated; they manage version control completely manually; they are inconsistent in handling updates to one document, and frequently do not apply them across other similar documents; and lastly, they operate in a non-collaborative manner regarding review and sign-off - so any changes suggested by one person aren't seen by the others until all of the changes have been re-applied to the document, incurring extra artworking costs and time delays.

I'm absolutely certain that there is some software out there somewhere that - in effect - does source-code version control for printed literature, and will help to resolve all of the issues that we have... but I have no idea what I'm looking for! Every search I do just returns source code versioning.

Does anyone out there work for a publishing house, or a document production agency, or something, who use software such as this to control all of these aspects of printed literature lifecycle? Something that gives collaborative review of documents; something that links "paragraphs" between documents (so one change updates multiple documents, or at least identifies them for you); something that helps to control which version of a document was available at any particular time, irrespective of the subsequent changes...
I'm coming at this from a business analysis background (it's not my job any more, it's just a habit I can't shake!), and it really frustrates me that a core part of such a large business is totally dependent upon inefficient and inaccurate manual processes... but is my only solution to roll up my sleeves and learn to code something suitable?

Software to power an academic resource-sharing site?

killdevil — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:51:22 -0800

My new grad school class (of about 140, if it matters) needs an easy way to post and share categorized notes, study guides, and sundry other files and documents with one another. What simple, easy-to-use open-source Web knowledgebase and/or document-management software might work well for this purpose?

New Examples of Collaborative Document Editing?

Jeff Howard — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:30:56 -0800

I'm looking for examples of collaborative document editing. I've read through most of the older threads on this topic, but many of the examples seem to have gone out of business. Are there any newer examples out there? It would be good to have a document "owner" that integrates comments and changes from many contributors, so I'm thinking that a wiki might not be ideal. The ability to compare revisions is a must-have and it'd be nice to have it show not only text changes but image changes. Doesn't have to be hosted, or even online, though if it is, that's probably better. If it matters, this is in a scientific context, writing articles on botany and zoology.

lost document

fogonlittlecatfeet — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:05:59 -0800

Need help recovering lost document on PC i got an email this morning from a distraught friend - i am about as computer savvy as a nudibranch so I thought I would ask the hive mind for some help.

email is as follows -
i am horribly depressed. i lost a document on my computer. i have searched EVERYWHERE for it and it is not coming up. I know I was saving it along the way. but the problem was, the whole time i was saving it in those retarded TEMP files with names like 4PTYU7L8 you know.

here is my question... since i have searched high and low for the file and have not been lucky.... can anyone tell me is there any sort of fancy search on a PC where you type in WORDS and it will search your computer? not names of files...but words within those files? Like if I searched for words IN the document I lost...can the computer find it?

you know what is retarded....i have searched high and low in those temp files and computers save the stupidest shit!!! little icons and encrypted crap you cant read...it even had empty folders.

so even if i was retarded enough NOT to save it....dont you think it would have saved some sort of footprint from the file somewhere?!?! if it still has stupid links from 2005 it should be able to save something i did today!

Any Suggestions?

Document management with SharePoint

I_Love_Bananas — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:20:48 -0800

SharePoint filter: Examples of how to use SharePoint's Records Center site type for corporate document management? I'm trying to wrap my brain around the ins and outs of configuring a SharePoint Records Center for our smallish (250+) employee insurance company.

We don't have anyone in IT dedicated to site design for SharePoint so I'm sort of on my own and trying to read as much as I can.

Our records retention policy is almost finished, and we are working on specifying how long to keep the various types of company records to comply with regulations etc. I really think SharePoint could give us the records management structure we need and I want to do it right.

I have found a lot of process documentation and "how to follow steps in the system" type of articles, but what I really need are examples to help me understand the difference between, say, record types vs. content types, lists vs. libraries; and especially how to set things up right on the front end so that I can create subsites that carry over the all the features I want into the various subsites.

I think I get it, but to really click for me I need to see examples.

One form to rule them all...

freudenschade — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:57:21 -0800

Creating a form template for colleagues to use at work that needs to meet the following criteria: 1. Allow text fields and drop-down selection boxes. 2. Allow users to add additional text in should they see fit (i.e. doesn't disallow all input outside of form fields). 3. Will allow rows (the form will be arranged like a table) to be duplicated/copied & pasted, including the form fields contained within those rows. 4. Is formatted nicely enough to be passed along to a client and read clearly. 5. Is openable/usable by your average user who doesn't have access to super expensive/specialized software. What program/functions should I be using to create such a document?

I tried Word 2003, but it seems that using form fields requires you to "lock" the document, allowing no editing after the form structure is saved as a template. I had some success with Word 2007 (and its updated form functions), but everyone else in my office uses Office 2003, and even Microsoft's fix that supposedly allows 2003 users to open/edit/save 2007 files still won't allow for opening of DOTX (Word 2007 template) files. Acrobat seems out of the question because PDFs also only allow editing/input within form fields.

Is there something I'm missing in Word 2003 that would make it work for me? Other options? Help, please.

Going paperless; need a scanner!

killdevil — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:12:02 -0800

I would like to go completely paperless. In order to accomplish this, I'll need an excellent bulk-feed scanner to turn all of my received bills and other important pieces of paper into searchable PDFs. Which scanners should I consider? I am also interested in hearing anecdotes from those of you in the listening audience who have attempted something like this. Did it work? Was the transition painful? Did you become more efficient in your life and work thereby?

Help me mail my stuff securely!

catburger — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:59:43 -0800

I need to mail a passport and possibly other important, hard-to-replace legal documents from one Canadian address to another. Deadline is within the coming week. What is the most secure way to do this? If you have personal experience with this, please describe how long it took, cost, risks, etc. Thanks very much in advance.