One of the more inefficient habits that I can’t seem to break myself of is stubbornly maintaining a paper trail in a digital world. I print confirmations of online purchases, email correspondence, even documents sent to me electronically.
I can’t explain it. If pressed I readily admit that it’s unnecessary and less secure, and yet I’d probably print out our email conversation, just to have it on file. However, as portable electronics become more popular and cloud-based applications get more integrated into our day-to-day, printers will surely go the way of fax machines.
Here are some ways to wean yourself gently, so that when your granddaughter looks puzzled when you ask her to print something it won’t be such a shock.
Even I have to admit that printing emails is rather silly. Internet-based email providers like Gmail and Yahoo give users a huge amount of storage space. Emails are accessible anywhere you have internet access, and aren’t susceptible to loss from fire, theft, or random acts of accidental shredding.
You can instantly sort into as simple or complex of a filing system as you choose to create using tabs and folders. Even after you’ve sorted emails away, finding one again is far simpler than tracking down a paper version. Search for a specific sender, messages with a certain word in the subject, or even all emails referencing a certain word or topic in the message itself.
I will admit that I’ve printed pages from websites or pieces of text from online articles, primarily to save myself the headache of bookmarking a page that may be unavailable later or searching the internet for it when I need it in a few months. Instead, consider creating a free account at Instapaper (www.instapaper.com/). Save web pages to read later when you’re offline, on your phone, or from any number of portable electronic devices.
For years I’ve held on to the quaint notion that I will use my photo printer to create my own scrapbooks, wall art, and greeting cards. The reality is that if I dedicate the time to making a project, the end result is typically a bit blurry, not exactly what I envision, and far more time consuming than taking the digital image to a professional photo printer. With the cost of ink, it’s also probably more expensive after my first several efforts are inevitably trashed. Services like Snapfish and Shutterfly will even ship printed photos and projects to my door, making it easier to give up the dream that I’ll ever master how to properly feed photo paper and configure the settings to achieve a great looking printed image at home.
Among the main things I print, this still leaves anything that requires a signature or is some sort of legal contract or document. I’ve discovered that even this can be dealt with printer-free by taking a picture of your signature and attaching it to word documents or PDFs. Since I’m too cheap to spring for a full version of Adobe to modify PDF documents, I use the free application PDF-XChange Viewer (www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer) to modify PDFs. I can add text, highlights, or images to PDF documents I receive, or create with a scanner. Import the image of your signature into the Stamps Palette, and then you can use the stamps tool to electronically sign wherever you need to on the PDF document. Save the modified document as a PDF and poof! No more printing and filing.
Mac users have it even easier with the Preview program integrated into OS X Lion. Simply sign a piece of paper and choose “Annotate” in the toolbar. Select “Signature” from the drop-down menu. Hold the signed paper in front of your iSight or Facetime camera and click the option for Preview to take a photo. It will detect the signature and you can then add it to the document or PDF. Future documents can be “signed” in the same manner using saved signature images.
If you’re still hesitant to pull the plug on your trusty dot-matrix, email us at nerdchick@callnerds.com for help easing yourself into a paperless future.
Andrea Eldridge is CEO and co-founder of Nerds On Call, an on-site computer and electronics repair service for homes and businesses. Andrea established the company with her husband, Ryan, from a spare room in their home in Redding, California in March 2004. They have since expanded to locations throughout California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Maryland, and most recently South Dakota.
Nerds On Call provides repair and trouble-shooting for PCs and Macs, home and office networks, printers, iPods® and MP3 players, handheld devices and cell phones, home theaters and game systems. If it has an on/off button, Nerds On Call can probably fix it.
Andrea is the celebrated columnist of Nerd Chick Adventures, which speaks to the novice computer user and runs weekly in the Redding Record Searchlight. She regularly appears as a guest tech correspondent on ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS on shows such as Good Day Sacramento, Good Morning Arizona and MORE Good Day Portland, offering viewers easy tips on technology, Internet lifestyle, and gadgets. For more on Andrea Eldridge, fee free to contact her through our contact form.
