Trying to maintain organized living when it comes to having a home office can be a tricky task. There can be so much paper work, documents, books and other things that seem to get in the way, get misplaced or get overlooked completely. Having a digital filing system in place, like Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management, can help take the hassle and clutter out of the home office. Whether you are about to renovate a room and change it into your office or already have one in place, either way you can benefit from starting to use a digital filing system.
Gone are the days when you cannot track that one paper or document you really need. Nothing can be more frustrating than needing an important item at an exact moment and being unable to track it down. You need the data from a sheet of paper, or someone is on the phone and needs some figures right then and there. The only problem is, that particular sheet of paper doesn’t seem to be anywhere to be found.
Ironically, old alphabetical filing systems didn’t really enable you to locate the paper any easier. For instance, if you had a slip of paper for your car expenses it should filed alphabetically under car, right? It also could be under “A” for auto repairs, “F” for Ford repairs or even just “R” for repairs – that is, if it is even in the right spot, at all.
This can especially be true and even more confusing if you have anyone else working with you in your home office. How can you be sure you are both using the same methodology in your filing system? A digital filing system can help do away with all the troubles and stresses that arise from having a disorganized home office.
Using a digital filing system will help you to have organized living and declutter your life, your home office and your home in general. Imagine the time you will save by being able to track papers, documents or books with your filing system. You can index more than paper files, too. Anything that you can put a number onto, you can add to your digital filing software.
So, that includes items such as CDs or even photos. Or maybe your home office is for your business of selling collectibles online. When an item sells, you need to be able to locate it quickly so you can ship it off to your customer. You might be keeping your inventory at home, stored somewhere such as the attic and even in a rented storage somewhere off your property. How can you find that item, aside from just hoping you recall where it is from memory? The answer is to use Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management to get organized and maintain organized living in your home office and work space to be more productive.
You will so love the software that you will want to expand its use to many things other than paper, such as books, CDs, DVDs, collections, storage boxes, etc! In addition, Paper Tiger Online will soon be able to connect Digital Tiger to Google Docs which will allow you to search for both your paper files and other physical items that you’ve indexed into Paper Tiger and your digital files that you’ve scanned, uploaded or created in Google Docs! Yes, we recommend Google Docs for your electronic files because it is the least expensive digital cloud storage that you’ll find anywhere. You’ll be able to search for both physical items and scanned or digital files from one search. This will make your time management and productivity even easier to maintain!
Whether it is your home, home office, work space or personal gathering of collectible memorabilia, getting organized will reduce stress in your life and help you be more productive. An effective filing system method, like Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management can help get your life in order, for both personal and professional. The problem often is, once you have a disorganized system, it can be difficult to get out from under it. Many people claim to have a “method to their madness” or that the filing system they have in place, with random papers stacked on every flat surface of a room, “works for them.” Truth be told, though, this probably isn’t true and they waste a lot of time searching to find what they need.
It takes more effort to deal with clutter and spending time trying to find documents and other physical items than it would if you had a system in place. Besides, if someone else had to work with that same system, he or she may not be as able to adjust to the madness. Also consider the stress having this type of home or office causes. Even if it is subconscious, people who live with clutter in their home or office life are reported to feel stressed out, depressed and generally overwhelmed all of the time.
So, let’s take an office filing cabinet system as an example. It’s already obvious the loose paper strewn around the room does not represent what a proper or useful filing system looks like. It is easier to start off organized, but even if you have already started to live in or work in a world of paper chaos, you can still change things and turn it around. Keep in mind, though, if possible, starting off being organized from the beginning will always make your life easier, as well as make it simpler to get an organizational system into place and then maintained.
Even if the office example has a fine set of filing cabinets with all the papers put where they are supposed to be, this can be a non-functional system. If you have filed papers under “auto” records but someone else is looking for “car” records or even “vehicle” records, it almost doesn’t matter how pretty the system in place is. When you use a document management software program, you can use keywords so that any one of these terms could be typed in to search for the location of a document. In a matter of speaking, it keeps everyone who has access to the filing cabinets and the filing system software on the same page.
If it can be numbered or indexed, it can become part of a filing system. This very same program you use to get your papers in your home or office in order can be used in your home to keep your storage shed in order as part of your effort to get organized. Imagine a life free of clutter and finally making sense when it comes to how things are organized. So, you keep tools in the garage, basement, the backyard shed and an offsite storage rental unit. Because of that, how will you have any idea of where to find what? By using a filing system like what is mentioned here, that’s how!
No more lost items! Doesn’t that sound good? All you do is take the time to enter the item names and keywords relating to the items you are organizing; indexing them into Paper Tiger’s database, whether it be paper, books, CDs, DVDs, collectors’ items or tools, or anything else you can put a number onto. Then when you need an item, you can conduct a quick Google-like search in the software database and find any of your belongings at the time you need them instead of having a time-consuming search from room to room. Implement Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management and see for yourself how quickly you can get organized!
In this webinar, Anne McGurty, productivity expert of Strategize and Organize, presented an overview in how to manage your digital and paper filing, giving statistics and showing problems that people have in finding their information, whether it be digital files or paper/physical items. Anne describes how Digital Tiger, powered by Google Docs, will work and, using just one search to Find Anything In Your Office In 5 Seconds or Less…Guaranteed!
We also showed screencasts for connecting Paper Tiger Online to Google Docs thereby activating Digital Tiger, in addition to scanning with the ScanSnap 1500M, how quick and easy it is to scan and upload to Google Docs.
As information, Anne is a professional speaker, productivity expert, and author. If you want to learn more about Anne and her services, please visit her website at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com. She may be in Colorado, but she’s nationally recognized as an expert and works with people throughout the US in person and virtually.
See more information here on Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management
You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.
Q: I am wondering about originals. If I scan a reciept will that be accepted as original or do I need to retain the original also
A: Yes, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been accepting digitized or scanned versions of paper documents since 1997 in lieu of paper documents. Please see our knowledge base article at Does the IRS accept digitized or scanned versions of my documents instead of paper documents? for more information.
Q: I want to make sure I can use Paper Tiger Online because I ordered a Fujitsu scanner in order to do so
A: You can use Paper Tiger Online with or without a scanner, whether it be Fujitsu or other brand of scanner, since Paper Tiger is an indexing system in which you type in information regarding your paper files and other physical items. If you have a Paper Tiger Online account you should be able to use Digital Tiger when it is available. Again, at first the Basic and Pro plans will allow you to activate Digital Tiger to your Google Docs account. You can go ahead and put your documents in Google Docs to be ready for when Digital Tiger is available.
Q: If my Paper Tiger account is not registered through my gmail email address, can I still link it to Google Docs?
A: When Digital Tiger is available, you will be able to connect Paper Tiger Online to your Google account, thereby activating Digital Tiger. This will be available in the Basic and Pro plans at first, and we hope to have available for multi users soon thereafter. It does not matter what email address you have on your Paper Tiger Online account, so it can be different than your Gmail or Google account.
Q: What about other Microsoft products? Do I need to convert to Google Docs?
A: We will only be able to connect to Google apps, since Microsoft does not currently allow an API to allow us to work with their software.
Q: Does this work with my Outlook emails or do I need to use Google email to have it work?
A: At first, Digital Tiger will only work with Google Docs. We will be adding Gmail and Gcalendar in the future. I believe Anne will address later in the presentation about syncing Outlook with Gmail. We do not currently have plans to connect Digital Tiger with Outlook.
Q: Which plan is necessary to get Digital Tiger?
A: Basic or Pro plan will have Digital Tiger available as soon as it is out of Beta testing.
Q: Can I backup the digital documents into my computer or portable hard drives for my records?
A: Yes, you can either create or scan your digital documents onto your hard drive first, then upload the files or folders to Google Docs. Or you can create or scan your digital documents directly in Google Docs, then backup your Google Docs to your local or external hard drive.
Q: Please present how to scan directly to Google Docs.
A: See our blog post regarding How to Get Started With Digital Tiger for a Paper and Digital Filing Solution. The second video in this article shows how to scan directly to Google Docs. Please note that this video shows the Mac version of the Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500M and the feature that this scanner provides.
From the average household to a home based business to the person who is part or sole owner in a business outside of the home, we all generate tons of paper every year, building up in piles and stacks on our desks, in our file cabinet drawers and on top of various surfaces throughout the home or office. Things accidentally get thrown away because they just were not where they needed to be. Or, things get moved by one family or staff member while they are searching for their missing item causing someone else to have to go on their own seek and destroy mission when they need something that had originally been in that pile.
The need to manage paper documents is one that is more than just about organization, however. Paper can be a major problem in many households and offices because there are so many questions about it. What papers can be thrown out and which ones must be saved? How long do you have to save these papers? And worst case scenario, what will happen on the day you find out that you absolutely need one of those papers and you just cannot find it at all? Does ‘going paperless’ mean that you will get rid of all the paper in your life?
There are several different ways to manage and organize those paper documents. You can try to work out your own system, praying that you won’t forget your cross referencing system in the meantime. Or you can implement Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management and get organized in every area of your life — not just paper!
Now there are other products that claim they will get you organized fast and easy, eliminating all of that paper mess in the process. Some of them rely on a scanner. But, what do you do with the papers once you scan them? Do you want to throw them away or shred them? They are organized, technically because everything is neatly scanned in and digitally stored on the disc or hard-drive or in the cloud app, but what happens if you need one of those documents for a tax audit or to file an insurance claim? Is your disc or digital storage space searchable? Would you be able to quickly find what you’ve scanned?
There is also a product that has several pockets and files so that you can hold the papers that you generate for a week, but what happens at the end of the month when you move the old out and bring the new in?
Thankfully, there is a better organizing tool that allows you to file all of your papers and other documents in one easy to manage and easy to update paper filing system. Organization in the home, the office or the home office does not mean just papers all of the time – in fact, you can use this same system for other items, items that are just too big or bulky to be included in the other types of systems that require scanning.
The system does not rely on scanning or trying to consolidate all of your items into a small disc. You can keep some paper files and scan what you don’t need to keep in physical format. You know where things are by conducting a Google-like search based on your input and referencing it in the system database. It is important that your paper files that you keep in hard copy format, and other physical items, be indexed into the filing system, so that anything you want to find later can be retrieved quickly with a simple Google-like search in the database. Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management can help you get organized so that you can find what you need, when you need it – quickly!
And even better, Paper Tiger Online will soon be able to connect Digital Tiger to Google Docs which will allow you to search for both your physical paper that you’ve indexed and your digital files that you’ve scanned, uploaded or created in Google Docs! Yes, we recommend Google Docs for your cloud storage because it is the least expensive digital filing storage that you’ll find anywhere. You’ll be able to search for both physical items and scanned or digital files from one search. This will make your time management and productivity even easier to maintain!
This article by Sherry Borsheim of Simply Productive, and a Paper Tiger Expert, gives us some great tips on organizing vacation planning and packing so that taking a vacation won’t add even more stress to our busy lives!
I remember my very first client and the day we were planning out her hectic family schedule. The kids were young and involved in a lot of after school programs, there was a birthday party to plan and a million other things to get done prior to the end of school year and before the family vacation. Her anxiety and stress levels were high and she just couldn’t see how she was going to accomplish everything prior to leaving on vacation. At this point she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to make all the vacation arrangements or get everyone packed. Taking a family vacation was just too stressful!
First Things First
Together, we began to plan out on paper everything that was on her mind. Getting it onto paper is the first step to reducing stress. Next, we prioritized projects and began making a list of things that could be delegated. There was a lot of complicated logistics and juggling of schedules that needed to happen prior to even thinking of planning the family vacation.
Batch, Prioritize and Schedule Tasks
Once we had everything that was on her mind on paper, we batched and prioritized her tasks. Then we began scheduling everything into her calendar. This would give her a more realistic time-line of when things needed to get done and how long tasks would take. We even customized her planner based on her lifestyle and how she wanted to use it.
The Family Packing List
After a few hours of planning, we took a short break and she mentioned that the family vacation was really stressing her out. She just didn’t see how she would be able to make all the arrangements and get ready in time. I asked her if she had a packing checklist for the family? The tears began to roll down her face. She said that she dreamed of having a packing list because she knew that it would simplify her life. But she didn’t know where to begin and the thought of creating one was just too stressful.
That was the day I realized that the simplest of things can transform a life and reduce stress and anxiety for a person. What comes natural for me, which is organization, isn’t easy and natural for others. So I made her a promise that I would type up a family packing checklist for every member of the household and I’d help her every step of the way to make this family vacation extra special and stress-free! And that is exactly what happened – an outstanding family vacation!
Organizing is a Learnable Skill
One of the most rewarding moments for me when I’m working with my clients is when a highly creative, outgoing person who says they can never be organized, decides to make different choices. They develop new habits that support them and in turn transform their life. Then the positive impact that has on the rest of the family members because they teach the organizational skills to their kids. For me, that’s beauty and order at it’s best!
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“Organizing is what you do before you do something,
so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”
A.A. Milne
“Life is what happens to you while
you’re busy making other plans”
John Lennon
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Did you forget something? You know the story…you all pile into the car, you’re trying to beat the rush hour traffic, you’re frantically making a list in your head and hoping you didn’t forget anything, you head out of town and suddenly you remember you forgot something. It’s too late to turn back, so you tell yourself you’ll just pick it up on the way or when you get to your destination. Who wants to be running around buying necessities and spending extra money when you could be having fun on your vacation?
Make your next vacation more enjoyable and relaxing so those obstacles don’t get in the way of you having fun! Here are a few simple vacation planning tips:
Create a Trip File
Keep all your trip related papers together in a file and when you return from the trip recycle or toss papers you don’t need and file receipts and travel expenses in your financial files. Move towards being paperless and create a document on your computer for each place you visit. List your favorite restaurants, accommodations, and points of interest. Years ago I created a “New York” document and it’s been updated and passed onto many friends over the years and I’ve completely eliminated all my travel reference files!
Create a Pre-Travel Action List
Make a list of all the tasks you want to accomplish prior to the trip either on paper or electronic. Every time you think of something capture it and get it out of your head otherwise it will keep coming up for you as a reminder to do something and increase your stress levels. Look at your list each day and schedule time to accomplish these tasks.
Packing Checklists Reduce Stress
For the past 10 years we vacation at this wonderful place with my family, and every year we pack the same things. Some years forgetting crucial items, while other years packing way too much. So, one day I sat down and wrote out everything we needed to take with us, clothing, food, sporting equipment, games and other necessities. I even made a simple meal plan with healthy meals with minimum effort to prepare. What a huge time-saver and stress reliever this has been over the past 15 years. A little pre-planning can go a long way towards a fun-filled vacation instead of disappointment and disaster.
Create different packing checklists for different types of trips or regular activities. You could have a packing checklist for summer and one for winter vacations. We have a family vacation that we take every summer and all I do is open up that file on my computer, print a copy and begin packing. I even have a small checklist in my gym bag so I don’t forget to pack a key piece of clothing! I’m sure you can relate!
Independent Traveler has a fun interactive packing checklist that you can customize for different types of trips.
Avoid Last Minute Packing
Whenever possible, pack 3-7 days prior to the trip to reduce last minute stress and a late night with little sleep. This is not a relaxing way to start a vacation. Get out your suite case and review your packing checklist and begin packing what you can. This is especially helpful if you have several family members to pack for plus yourself. You may also want to pack a separate overnight bag to carry on the plane for long flights just in case the airline misplaces your luggage you’ll have a change of clothes. Or if you spend a night at a hotel on the way to your destination you don’t have to haul in your entire luggage for one or two nights.
Savvy Travelers Packing Tips
Check the weather forecast at your destination before you begin to pack. Also, store all your travel items in a container, drawer or one location in your home. Passports, other currencies, shoe bags, luggage tags and any other travel items you use from time-to-time. This makes it easy to pack when all the items are together. Keep travel size items stocked and on-hand to avoid last minute trips to the store. Here are some other savvy packing tips:
Have fun and enjoy the peace of mind a little pre-planning and preparation gives you when you are organized!
Travel Supplies Tip for the Frequest Traveller:
If you are a frequent traveller, then it pays to buy a second set of travel cords and accessories. Keep them in a small compact carry case so it’s easy to grab and carry on the plane with you, your purse or in the car.
Check out these cool travel solutions at Magellans.com.
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About the Author
Sherry Borsheim, owner of Simply Productive, has been helping people to work smarter, not harder for years. She specializes in resolving paper, time and information management issues. To learn more about eliminating the paper pile-up and in vastly improving your productivity, contact Simply Productive at 604-233-7076.
Mention the word “filing system” and most people picture an office with filing cabinets. The thing is, with an organizational system for filing, cataloging or managing your life, you can file or index anything that can be cataloged or that you can put a number onto. Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management allows indexing of items to help you get organized, clear the clutter problem and know exactly what you have and where each item is located with a quick search in the filing system database.
Of course, that can still include an office either at home or in the professional world. Things such as hanging files and binders can now be located with greater ease than even alphabetizing. That’s because, though alphabetizing method was as close to an effective filing system as possible before this indexing method, it has its problems. Is someone filing things under “vehicle” or “automobile”? Or, even if it is someone’s name, it is under “Erwin” or “Irwin.” By being able to include keywords in your filing search, you broaden the possibilities for finding what you need using filing system software.
There are many items a person may keep in the home that can be a great collection to have, but a little frustrating to keep organized and be able to find quickly when needed. In fact, it may be downright disorganized. You may have an extensive library of books, but if you can never find the one you are looking for, it starts to lose the enjoyment factor. Maybe you want to find a medical book to reference but aren’t sure where it is. You could want to reread a classic work of fiction before seeing the new theatrical adaptation of it, but can’t even recall if you have it at home, put it in the attic or lent it to someone.
The point is, having an organizational system for all your filing and document management needs will help keep your things in order. The same holds true for keeping track of items like CDs, DVDs, video games and even old vinyl records, just to name a few of the possibilities. Whatever you have a good number of, you can catalog or index with this system.
Those plastic storage bins may be a handy and useful system to keep your belongings safe and dry, but they can be a real bother when it comes to trying to recall what items are in which bins. Indexing the items that are in the bins into the database of the filing system software and number them to match the assigned item number from the software, and you now know from your list or from searching by a keyword that you’ve input previously into the database, exactly what’s inside and where certain items are. Looking for the bin that may have extra camera lenses could be an all day task, while looking for bin #3 takes just minutes.
The same thing goes for moving boxes. While you may have in the past, managed to have time to scrawl the word kitchen on the side of a moving box, that was about the extent of organization when it came to knowing what was inside the boxes until unpacking. This made it difficult when, in a rush during the first morning at a new place, you need to find the toaster to get the kids breakfast before school. Having a filing system software that allows you the ability to index items input into each moving box, will help you to have a more organized move especially on the unpacking side. You can also use the information that you’ve indexed for each household or office item to indicate where they are placed in the new location.
It is estimated that the average person wastes 150 hours per year looking for lost information. Instead of wasting time searching, implement Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management and get organized. You’ll be surprised how much time you will save when you can find what you need, when you need it!
In this webinar, Anne McGurty, productivity expert of Strategize and Organize, presented an overview in how to manage your digital and paper worlds, giving statistics and showing problems that people have in finding their information, whether it be digital or paper/physical items. Anne demonstrates how to upload files to Google Docs, and how Digital Tiger, powered by Google Docs, will work and, using just one search to Find Anything In Your Office In 5 Seconds or Less…Guaranteed! (Digital Tiger Beta testing to begin soon)
As information, Anne is a professional speaker, productivity expert, and author. If you want to learn more about Anne and her services, please visit her website at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com. She may be in Colorado, but she’s nationally recognized as an expert and works with people throughout the US in person and virtually.
See more information here on Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management
You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.
Q: Need info about scanning receipts and business cards and being able to retrieve them by various categories.
A: When you scan your receipts and business cards to Google Docs, your documents are OCR’d. See our knowledge base article regarding What is OCR?
Q: Will there be an efficient way to import file names from existing file structures to facilitate including them in Paper Tiger?
A: You can upload existing folders to Google Docs. See our knowledge base article entitled, “Uploading Files to Google Docs”
Q: All of our electronic files are stored on our network. We have HIPPA considerations for our files. I’m concerned about security of files in a cloud environment. How secure are these files?
A: Google Docs is secure, but I haven’t seen HIPPA information in their security information. Your digital data would be housed at Google Docs not at Digital Tiger. Digital Tiger will only search your Google Docs along with your physical items that you’ve indexed in Paper Tiger.
Digital Tiger will only connect to Google Docs, so Digital Tiger does not actually store your data. All data will be housed on Google’s secure servers. Below is additional information from Google’s website regarding security and privacy:
“Information security is a top priority at Google, and we employ dedicated teams with experts in their fields to handle these important areas. Your files are, by default, set to private, but you can choose to publish them to the Web or invite collaborators or viewers. Your files will not appear in Google Web Search results, but published files may appear in other search engines.
If you are working in a Google Apps domain, your files are, by default, set to your domain’s default setting. This setting might not be private, but you can make your docs private when you create or upload a doc or file. Additionally, to help keep your data private, it’s important to have a strong password, to not share that password with others, and to understand the sharing options in Google Docs.”
Below is a concluding statement issued by Google in their Google Apps security whitepaper which is found at http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=60762 in case you need more information:
“Google is committed to keeping the information stored on its computer systems safe and secure. Each of the ten components of Google’s multi-layered security strategy is endorsed and defended throughout the organization. Google Apps provides controls at each level of data storage, access, and transfer. Millions of organizations, including Google, run their businesses on Google Apps, and Google invests in that
trust every day. With Google Apps, users can rest assured that Google values the privacy, confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their data.”
We also have information on our support portal regarding Security
Q: Is the keyword searched for in the digital and paper files or do you have to search each separately?
A: When you have the digital search turned on in Paper Tiger, you will be able to search both digital and paper/physical items with one search.
Q: On Digital Tiger, do you have “key words” to help find the document
A: With Paper Tiger Online, you would type in keywords to be able to search on those keywords to find the paper file or physical item in the future. With Digital Tiger, for any digital file that you convert to Google Docs, Digital Tiger will find based on the searched word in the file name or within the contents of the document. For any digital file that you have uploaded to Google Drive, but have NOT converted to Google Docs, Digital Tiger will find based on the searched word in the file name only.
Q: How does the Paper Tiger work with the physical docs in an archive?
A: When you have your paper files indexed in Paper Tiger, you can conduct a Transfer – Move function to move the files from their original Location in the database to another Location, such as Archives. Then you can move the physical files and place the new tab with new Item Number assigned by Paper Tiger Archives Location on the Archives hanging file folder tabs. Your Paper Tiger Archives Location will then match your physical Archives files.
Q: Which documents do I need (for legal reasons) to keep physical copies? I’d like to be able to just scan everything else and keep it all online (on hard drive, Google Docs, and Carbonite backup). I work from home in a small office area, and I’m drowning in paper.
A: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been accepting digitized or scanned versions of paper documents since 1997 in lieu of paper documents. See additional information in our knowledge base article entitled “Does the IRS accept digitized or scanned versions of my documents instead of paper documents?” For other types of legal reasons, you would need to contact your lawyer or accountant.
Q: Will this work with ScanSnap system?
A: We recommend the Fujitsu Scanner 1500 (or 1500M for Mac users). We have tested several scanners and this is by far the best scanner that we have encountered.
It seems that pretty much everyone has stepped into the computer age, and there is not a business in the world that does not rely on computers for a lot of their work. Even organizations that are steeped in thousands of years of tradition, such as churches, are not immune to this, and you will find that most churches are finding ways to use computers to their advantage. Churches are using Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management to set up their filing systems so that everyone on the church staff can find the files they need quickly.
You would probably be quite surprised to see just how much paperwork an average church has, and how many filing cabinets are filled to overflowing. The church is a business like any other, and it is necessary to be as efficient as possible so that time and money is not wasted. Most people don’t think of churches as businesses, but church staff must manage the money received just like any other business to be able to maintain the buildings and pay staff.
Church fundraisers are not the only way that churches acquire money, and everything they do must be accounted for. This means that they have to record information from all business transactions, which means a lot of paperwork. Don’t forget about all of the paperwork for weddings, funerals and other special services performed at churches. All of this information must be saved for future reference if needed, so again, there are more papers to be filed.
Then think about all the sermons and other service notes, and books that are referenced, and CD or DVD recordings. How are these maintained to be able to retrieve again when needed?
When church administrators make the switch from paper filing or document management software, they are doing their secretaries a huge favor. No longer will they have rely on memory or guess how someone else filed something or search through mounds of papers to find a particular file. After indexing everything into the software database, all it takes is a few clicks to conduct a Google-like search in the database and you’ll know exactly where the needed item is located. Not only does this make finding things easier, it also makes it so one can declutter the office.
If you work in a church office that is overflowing with paperwork, implement document management software to help you get organized. Even if your church is considering going to a paperless filing system, there are some things that can’t be scanned, as mentioned previously, i.e., books, CD and DVD recordings. In addition, things such as drama team props and costumes, children’s church items, youth group projects — basically anything that you can put a number onto, you can index so that your staff can find what is needed quickly.
It will make everyone’s work a lot easier, and if you are the person who usually takes care of keeping track of where everything is, it will definitely make your life easier, saving you time and energy.
See other information at Organizing Church Documents The Easy Way for tips on labeling and categorizing.
If your church is planning on scanning even some of the paper that flows through the church, try Google Docs. Unlike many digital filing systems, Google Docs is more cost effective in digital storage, and with Paper Tiger-Digital Tiger Filing System Software for document management, you’ll be able to search for both physical items and scanned or digital files from one search. This will make your time management and productivity even easier to maintain!
“I’ve spent the past week re-reading Sherry’s book Conquer Your Chaos and cleaning out the last dregs of debris in my office and emails. The filing system here was in such disrepair when I first started three years ago that I made six attempts to deal with it before finally calling Sherry Borsheim for help.
Between her skills at moving us through the unmovable and the ease of implementing the Paper Tiger filing system, we are now finally able to literally find pretty much anything within five minutes – not five seconds yet, as we had a LOT of paper to put into the system. However, just this week, twice I produced critical documents in no time at all, whereas before, we would have been searching for hours.
Thanks, Sherry and thanks Paper Tiger!
Bev
Executive Coordinator / Museum of Vancouver
www.museumofvancouver.ca
This article has some great suggestions for steps to get organized and create a system for yourself that will keep you organized. Notice that one of the suggestions is to implement a document management system in your office. Paper Tiger-Digital Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management. Digital Tiger promises to help clear your desk without clearing out your wallet! You may not be able to go completely paperless, but you can sure de-clutter your desk to create a more productive environment.
Ahhh, the enlightening feeling of a clear and focused mind. Everything on your “to do list” is done, time to relax on the couch, and slip in to that Zen state. Chances are this isn’t you because most people spend more time trying to organize their lives than actually making progress. Keeping organized is a daunting process that requires discipline and, most importantly, knowledge of what to do.
Once you start figuring out how to plan, and differentiate your daily tasks, you will become more proficient at accomplishing your goals. Whether you are looking to better achieve the items on your to-do list, or you are trying to better organize the electronic clutter at work, you should understand organization is a learning process. Some people are inherently detail oriented; others learn their disorganization is negatively impacting aspects of their lives. This is the way life works, but for those of you looking to better improve your organization to save time and be more productive, here are few tips and tools.
1. Create a List That Works For You
Whether you work better on a Google Calendar or you are more of a physical calendar person, determine what works best for you and go with it. Create separate lists for work and personal. Carry both of these lists in portable form, around with you wherever you go (Whether it is mobile device or a hipster PDA, planner or day-timer type calendar). Keep these items in terms of priority with short term first and long term next. Once you begin achieving items on your list, you will learn how to breeze through your goals or obligations.
2. Document Management Software
Document management software allows you to organize your work files by indexing and assigning tags or keywords to each document you file. This software is incredibly powerful because it allows instant retrieval of documents by storing your files in one place. Digitizing your documents can also save space, according to Eco-officiency, “Current estimates show that 50–70% of space in an office is still dedicated to filing and storage of documentation. The real clincher is studies showing that over 45% of the files in those cabinets are duplicated information, and 80% is never accessed again.” Save yourself the hassles of cost-heavy activities and implement a document management system in your office.
3. Hipster PDA
The hipster PDA is for everyone out there like me. The person who loves mobile apps, but knows there is nothing that drives you to a call to action like a physical piece of paper. I make my hipster PDA every weekend, and it guides me through personal, work, diet, fitness and social “to do’s.” Hipster PDA planner pages are available to help you put everything you need on to an index card.
4. Eliminate Clutter
Organize your computer’s folders, itemize your Google docs, and clean your desk. Spend a weekend to get “uber” organized. This will serve as a base for your productivity as you move forward on your goals. You will find that eliminating clutter enlightens your mind. Hopefully making you feel more at peace with your current situation, and allow you to function more effectively.
5. Gcal
Google calendar may be the best way to organize and compile upcoming events on the web. Because it’s made by Google and hosted remotely, Gcal is accessible from any computer or phone. The recurring feature is great for consistent weekly events and allows for multiple different themes and skins. Gcal also has added functionality with your other personal accounts, having the ability to sync Facebook events and link them with your Mac’s iCal App.
Whether you are using a bit of tips and tricks to get yourself on the fast track to time savings or productivity apps to get organized; you will find that as you progress into a mode of functionality, things will happen faster and you will approach each “to do” differently. Good luck! Stay healthy, focused and productive.
Matt Krautstrunk is an expert writer on point of sale systems based in San Diego, California. He writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as restaurant pos systems at Resource Nation.
Has this ever happened to you: you hire an excellent worker, commit time, effort and organizational resources into instruction, just to find out that your employee finds another job opportunity after less than 12 months?
Is there any surefire ways that it is possible for you to be proactive and minimize employee turnover? A lot of supervisors think that they understand precisely what their staff need. You may well be amazed to realize that it is not always what you believe.
Business success in addition to earnings are really important. But try not to let the bottom line deter you from focusing on employee satisfaction, which often will mitigate turn over.
Running a profitable business takes a lot of effort and work hours. However each and every time one of your employees leaves, the money and time which you have committed to the employee’s coaching costs you not merely monetarily, but in lost productivity.
Try these suggestions to reduce turn over and boost your employee’s job satisfaction:
In this tight economy, salary is usually a determining factor as to whether an employee makes a decision to stay or leave your company therefore make sure that you offer a realistic and competitive salary. Keep from paying your employees a lower salary than what is appropriate for the kind of work that they do. Paying employees at a salary amount that is unrealistically low for the work which they do is one of the best ways to ensure that they are using their spare time trying to find some other job.
To produce a highly functioning employee, it is important to offer the employee clear and focused feedback on their work and to provide useful criticism. Work with your staff on helping them to perform their jobs better.
Does a small bonus once a task is completed, or perhaps near the end of the fiscal year make sense for the company? It’s an option, but don’t think that this is the sole method to show employee appreciation. Bonuses, even a small one can be a significant part of an overall retention strategy.
Highlighting employees with some kind of award like “Employee of the Month” , or sending an email to the community recognizing an employees exceptional work can go a long way towards lowering turnover and increasing overall job satisfaction.
Employees would like to know that you actually value them and that they are recognized for their efforts.
Work / life balance is high on the list of employee retention strategies for any business. If it fits with your organization strategy, think about providing a work-at-home schedule for part of the work week, or a versatile work schedule that enables your employees to arrive into the office later in the morning, but work later in the day. Encouraging employees to balance their work and home life are essential to employee retention.
Making sure that the work gets done is essential, so it is easy to look the other way when your employees are working 60 hour weeks on a 40 hour paycheck. But don’t forget, an overworked employee is not productive. Employees who are over-worked and exhausted frequently have increased time off, which includes increased sick time which not just decreases work productivity, but influences your company’s bottom line.
Employee appreciation comes in so many forms. Make sure that your employees recognize that you are mindful of the job that they perform every day for you, and that you value them. This can do wonderful things for not only employee fulfillment, but employee retention.
How to Clear Your Desk Without Clearing Out Your Wallet!
Why we choose Google Docs to help you go paperless.
This is an interview with James D. Grady, President and CEO of The Monticello Corporation. In this interview Jim tells us why Monticello waited to bring out its new Digital Tiger product, what things needed to be in place and at what cost to customers and why the company choose Google Docs as its storage engine. Digital Tiger, powered by Google Docs, is designed to allow its customers to better manage their digital files, digital paper management and document management (PDFs, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). Listen and/or read the full interview below.
Digital Tiger, powered by Google!
Beta testing to begin soon.
Hi, I’m Janet Baker with The Monticello Corporation, makers of Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management. I have the pleasure today to interview my boss, President and CEO, James Grady. Better known to us here in the office as Jim. Jim, thank you for taking time out with us today to allow me to introduce you to our audience.
JIM: Hi, Janet. I’m glad to be here and glad to answer some questions about Digital Tiger.
JANET: I’m going to jump right in and ask you what is Digital Tiger?
JIM: We started out many years ago, launched Paper Tiger in the market 1998 and since that time have added tens of thousands of customers all over the world using our indexing system for physical paper including physical items that you might store in a storage bin and so forth, but mainly focused on helping people organize their physical hanging files and that’s where we started many years ago. And what has become obvious over the last 5-7 years that more and more people have gotten comfortable with .pdf files and comfortable with the internet and comfortable with the larger hard drives, is that you could take your paper and now digitize at least some or all of your paper in the office which would give you portability, it reduces the office space required for file cabinets and allows you to have better access in many ways than paper. So after looking at this for a long time and really trying to consider what our customers might want, we really started working on this idea of Digital Tiger and we have taken a lot of different directions with it and thought about it really hard about how we might approach the problem and help people in an economical and simple way manage the physical files in their office in a different way using .pdf, so that is when we came up with Digital Tiger. What we have really come down to now is that Digital Tiger is going to be powered by the Google engine. We looked at all different options out there from everything that you can possibly power the back end of this with and we really settled on Google and that is what we came down to. So let me just tell you a little about what Digital Tiger does. Digital Tiger does all the customary functions of online document management storage, and it does it in a very economical and simple way. Really here’s the kind of things we went after when we did Digital Tiger. We wanted it to be cheap, we wanted it to be stable, we wanted it to have multiple scanner support, We wanted it to be shareable so you can share the files with people in the office easily, We wanted it to be scalable so you could add digital storage to the system in an economical way, we wanted you to have one place to put all of your files. We wanted you to be able to manipulate those files in that same place. In other words, have the ability to actually work on your Word files or work on your Excel files or work on your .pdf’s or your presentations, which is what Google Docs does and then we wanted you to be able to back that up in a different way so rather than just being tied into Google which is a fantastic company and very profitable and should be around a long time, we wanted you to be able to back that up on a different place and that’s what you have with Google. And then really we wanted you to be able to have the future of what Google can provide with their Eco System. The Google system really provides tremendous value today and it’s just getting better all of the time especially with the tie-in now with the Android phones. So that’s kind of what Digital Tiger is and what we were going after when we actually developed it.
JANET: Wow! That’s a lot of information in one aspect of everything so you’ve covered the whole scope of it without breaking the bank.
JIM: Right, and that was our whole intention is that it is really designed for people who want to simply get their paper files into a stable, reliable, inexpensive storage system that they can easily search their files, they can share, they can manipulate their files all in one place, and that is what we were really going after.
JANET: What is the difference between Digital Tiger and other online document management systems?
JIM: It’s very confusing when you start looking at the document management, paper management, digital paper management, online storage bucket systems out there. It becomes a mishmash in your head in trying to figure out the differences are and what you really need and what would suit the purposes for doing what we call digital paper management which is what most people really want to do. It becomes very confusing, so the main difference from what we’re offering and what’s out there is if you start getting into document management, which it’s very hard to tell what the differences even are now between document management and digital management or digital content management, but if you start getting into it, you find out the cost is very high. Per month/per year, very high and you start really analyzing what they give you, what is it that you need, you find out that a lot of it or most of it, you can get with Google. So when we designed Digital Tiger, we really went after that. Simple. Inexpensive. It allows you to do things that I mentioned. And there are other systems out there that do content management. There’s Dropbox and SugarSync and there’s a whole host of products like that, but they really can’t do what you need to at least today for managing .pdf files, making them indexable, searchable and that’s not really designed for that. They’re really designed for a different purpose and it’s not designed for actually doing what most people consider digital paper management. They are not good tools for that. So that’s kind of the difference between what we see out there now and a lot of our customers, knowing that all of these systems are available, have not done anything yet. They’re waiting until they get the right tool at the right price and that’s what we think we have now.
JANET: Why did you and your management team choose Google as the engine and storage system for Digital Tiger?
JIM: We did an exhaustive, exhaustive search on this and actually developed part of this on our own first before we decided to actually go with Google and the more we developed, and the more we looked at it, and the more we looked around, the more we decided that really there’s going to be two major players in this online document management systems that allow you to, and when I say online, Google will soon be able to actually allow you to look at your files locally as well and sync to the cloud. So you’ll have the benefits of both worlds – a local file storage and you’ll have it synced to the cloud so when you need it in the cloud. So there will be two players. There will be Google and Microsoft. Microsoft is coming out with their version of this shortly. It’s in beta right now. And so with the Google system is open, it’s inexpensive, you can manage all of your file types there and basically manipulate your files using a form of Word or Excel or Powerpoint or whatever you need to do. It actually indexes your files for you, makes them searchable in .pdf, for now at least for the first 10 pages or you can index them locally and put them up there. So it is just an all-around great system. You have your calendar, your contacts, you have your music, you have your photos, you have your news reader, and you have everything in one place and you are able to share your storage so when you buy storage, you are able to share it across the host of all the applications using Google. And they’re just becoming more and more every day. And then that’s before you actually get into the more mobile aspects of Google. So that’s why we chose Google as our engine and as the back end for what we’re doing and tying Paper Tiger into a digital system and we’re very excited about it.
JANET: So tell me what problems will people encounter when converting their paper-based information to digital?
JIM: So there are really two major types of .pdf files. You have a digital .pdf which means you actually have it in .pdf form like from your bank and documents that you see in .pdf form, your credit cards, etc. and you can take those straight into your Google engine and they don’t need converting to be searchable because; they are searchable. The other way is taking physical paper, which is what we deal with a lot and having customers that have banks and banks and banks of file cabinets, and they’ve decided to take some, part, all of their paper information and put it into a searchable .pdf and that becomes mechanical and somewhat cumbersome depending on what kind of equipment that you have. So some people take a printer that can be a scanner and they try to do it that way, which is fine. It’s a little slower and it can be little bit cumbersome or they can take a high-speed scanner, which the price has dropped on those dramatically and some of the software that’s built in actually converts the files very quickly, and does not jam the paper, and converts those into a searchable .pdf. And many of them now, amazingly so, because Google has such a presence; they have tens of millions of users with Google Docs. They actually convert those files into a searchable .pdf and load them directly into Google Docs in one step. So it’s just an amazing tool. You can save the information right into Google Docs, and soon you’ll be able to save them locally and they will go into Google Docs or you can save it into the cloud directly. And so they are all starting to interface into Google Docs and so again another benefit. But some of the problems people have is getting their information converted and getting it done in a speed that makes it plausible and then when they get it in there, it’s how they organize it. Again Google is an amazing tool for this. They use a system, not of folders, so you don’t wind up with a hierarchy of one folder has some files, but you want to share it with two different folders, but you can’t. They use what they call collections, so you’re able to take your file and show it in different Collections within your Google world and that makes it useful so when you have an example where you need a file that multiple people need to see and multiple environments and multiple Collections or Folders in there, so you can do that easily with Google, so it’s not an idea of folder system but a collection system and they use this also for Gmail. So it’s just amazing, amazing tool and it eliminates a lot of the problems that people have up front. So that’s some of the things I have seen as I was working through with this problem.
JANET: What equipment does one need to actually do the job?
JIM: If you’re going to convert physical paper into digital format, you want the right scanner. It’s very important. There are a number of them out there, and some are better than others, but you really want the right equipment. And that equipment has to have the right software that does those things I mentioned about imaging and then also converting the image and also being able to upload the image. And it’s also better if the software is designed and written by the scanner manufacturer because they know the equipment very well. And then you’re going to want to have the right tool for storage and you’re going to want to have the right tool if you’re doing paper management, in our case, Paper Tiger Online. You want to have the right tool for that so that if you’re doing paper and digital together, that the system will work together. And that’s what we have tried to build. Then on the back-side, if you’re going to convert your own files, fine, but if not, you might want to look at having a service do it for you. Then one other recommendation is, because most people know the security issues, and they are aware that anyone can get into trouble with this, and our recommendation is to have your information backed up to a totally separate system either locally on your hard-drive or to a third party that allows you to recover in case there were any problems in anybody’s cloud storage. So that is kind of what I think you need to do the job.
JANET: In your opinion, what is the future of digital filing and/or document management? What is the future for paper-based information?
JIM: Well, let me start with paper-based. We think that the world has existed on paper for a long, long time. There are millions of file cabinets in the world, and paper is not going away. Paper still continues to come and we think that indexing paper using a method similar to Paper Tiger is a great way to do that. Some people want to digitize all of their information and they are willing to get rid of their paper altogether. So for them, that’s fine, they can do that. Using this system, they can easily digitize all their information, put it up in the cloud, store it locally if they want, back it up, and have their information available to them. Some people want to have all their information in the cloud or stored in .pdf format, but they want the hard copy in case something goes wrong or in case they need it or in case they get audited or need some other way to get at it. The other thing is that some people might use a hybrid, where they have some information in paper and some information in digital form depending on what the paper is…if it’s a bound document or original signature or something they want to keep in it’s current form. So indexing is great for that. You can use this information, you can use the world of paper versus digital in any way that suits your purposes if you’ve got the right tools. Both of them have a place. What we’ve attempted to do with Digital Tiger and Paper Tiger is make it so that you can search one place for everything, and that’s what we’re trying bring to the market. So as far as we know, it’s really one of the best total systems out there and certainly the best low-cost way to get their information up there. So let me answer the question of the future. You will be able to put your hands on your information, whatever form that takes, virtually anywhere you are on any device, whether it be a tablet or phone, an Android phone, iPhone, whatever, you’ll be able to look at it, get the information you need quickly and easily. You’ll be able to share that information and collaborate that information. So that’s all the digital side, and we are already starting to see that, and that’s what Google brings to the table naturally. There are no extra things required. And then the paper-based information will be the things that you keep potentially back at your office that you need to get your hands on there. That’s kind of the future as we see it evolving and everybody is seeing that with the devices coming out.
JANET: Right. So can you tell me why should I put my information in the cloud? Can I keep my information on my local computer as well, either laptop or desktop?
JIM: Well I’ve probably already answered this as I’ve talked but the answer is yes, you can keep it locally. Google is working on the local sync as we speak today. They had it, they’re changing it to a new format that’s more robust and it is imminent that it will be out. A lot of people want that. They want to be able to see it locally or manipulate locally or offline, and that is certainly coming. The reason you keep stuff in the cloud is because it is ubiquitous. You can find it anywhere and it is backed up and very, very securely, very redundantly on a multitude of servers. Google has servers world-wide and they are fully redundant. So if one goes down, you still have access to your information. They have 99.9% plus uptime. So they are virtually down never. So it’s a great way to store your information, it’s a great way to collaborate on your information with other co-workers, and it’s a great way to share information with other people. It’s a one-place to keep your information.
JANET: What is the future for Digital Tiger development? And I know one question that I get asked a lot, will Digital Tiger work with Google’s mobile or Android apps?
JIM: The answer is, we’re not sure about Digital Tiger and where we will go with it. We can only see so far, and what we can see right now, based on our surveys of our customers, is that people the things we talked about, inexpensive, very robust, really oriented toward the future, meaning the developments are really rapid place to store their digital information. They want that to work seamlessly with how they store their paper-based information so there is one search, you find everything in my world. One of the things we will most likely add is the ability to search not only your digital files, not only your paper files, but also your email, so that you’ll even be able to pull that, and we may even look at going into other things, photos and so forth, because there are cases where people have all that information and they’d like to find it across all their Google apps which includes photos and their bookmarks and their calendar and so forth. We’re not there on the first development, but we can certainly see that coming. Then the mobile apps, all of this same functionality would be available to you on mobile, at least for Android and maybe for the IOS or Apple platform.
JANET: Wonderful. I think you’ve already answered the question as far as how secure our data is at Google, but what can you offer for additional backups?
JIM: Everybody gets concerned about their data in the cloud and want to make sure it’s secure and safe and backed up and so forth. The reality is, for almost everyone, your data is much safer in the cloud than it is on any local computer that you may have. So if you take some precaution in the sense of, in our opinion, get a back up of that data in the cloud locally, pull it down locally or put it to a third party. There are services out there that we recommend and that you have a full redundancy of the systems. So the chances of data loss then are even further out the statistical curve, so your chances are that you’re going to keep your data in those cases. So that’s what we see. I think the cloud is very safe at this point and not without mishap, but in general a very secure way to store your data, especially if you’re dealing with someone as robust as the big players out there.
JANET: So what if we need help getting our system setup and/or my data converted. What can Monticello do to help me?
JIM: Our commitment was this, on the Digital Tiger, when we brought it out, what we were trying to do is to offer one-stop shop for people that don’t have the time, they didn’t want to break the bank, they were worried about putting their data with unknown company that they don’t know if they’re going out of business tomorrow. In this case, the data is stored with Google, your data is all at Google. So that’s a reasonably good bet. They don’t have time to do the research all the systems that are out there and keep up with all that stuff. They want to make sure their data is backed up. They want to make sure they have someone to call; someone to keep them abreast of what’s going on in the market. As Google brings out new features, they want the company to interpret that for them and tell them this is how they can use it; here’s how you can use it; here’s how it will help you, because there is a lot of new stuff coming from Google. So that’s what we’re really trying to do with Digital Tiger, and that’s why we locked into Google as our engine and our back end, because what we can provide is help on understanding what to do and how to do it. As you have turnover in your organization, we can help the new people understand how this works. We can help you get your data converted; bringing it into Google. We can help you with training of the staff. We can also help you think about how you want to set up your data. So kind of an overall planning of this is how we are going to use it, this is how we should divide it, this is how we should put it up there and this is our workflow. Again, all of this we tried to make this very, very inexpensive on a yearly/monthly basis, so that people could have a partner in this at a very reasonable price point. And the price point for Google storage is just exceptionally low. In many cases, 1/48th of the cost of some of the systems out there. Almost 1/50th of the cost, not half (1/2), but 1/50th so you can afford to put your stuff, all your things, your digital files into Google, and then have Monticello, the makers of Paper Tiger and Digital Tiger as your partner in getting all your data converted and getting it in there and having us to help support you and back you up. So that’s really what we can do at this point to help people actually make the conversion or start the conversion over to the digital world and/or organize their paper information at the same time, so they have one place for everything.
JANET: Jim, you keep saying paper, but I know from experience that we also index more than just paper. Can you touch just a little bit on what else can possibly be indexed with Paper Tiger with Digital Tiger combined.
JIM: On paper files alone, there’s three parts of the life-cycle. There’s actionable files that are in the proximity of your desk usually. There are reference files, which are usually located in filing cabinets in your office. Then there are archived files, which are usually located off-site or in a storage room. So we index all of that and we can move paper through it’s life-cycle, and we will be able to do that with digital too in this case with Digital Tiger now. But what a lot of people end up with are other physical items, and those can take the form of storage bins that have things in them for personal use or for business. It can take the form of books, or can take the form of any physical item that you want to index. Any modern warehouse today, a computer has indexed everything in it and knows exactly where those things. So you can use Paper Tiger, which is kind of a misnomer, and maybe should be ‘Physical Tiger’, but you can use Paper Tiger to index virtually anything. Our customers do; and we see them all the time responding to surveys about all the different things that you can index with Paper Tiger. We actually have a blog post about it that one of our Paper Tiger Experts, Stephanie Calahan, wrote up that’s really well done that talks about 17 or 18 different things that people are organizing with Paper Tiger. So it’s not just about paper. It’s really about anything physical and it really saves a tremendous amount of time when you go looking for those items to find them index on your computer.
JANET: Sure. That blog post that you’re referring to written by Stephanie for us is actually now a webpage on our website, which can be found on our Why Paper Tiger tab, and over to the left, you’ll see Not Just For Filing Paper.
JIM: Right, www.thepapertiger.com
JANET: Absolutely. Well thanks Jim. We appreciate your time today. Awesome information. We look forward to everything Digital Tiger will offer everyone. So thanks again!
JIM: You’re welcome and we look forward to answering questions from everybody. This is a journey we’re all actually embarking on this digital world. The cloud has become very topical now, so this is going to be very interesting, but I think there will be a lot of productivity gains and cost reduction and cost savings for business owners out there and I think it’s ready for primetime. It’s going to be an amazing tool for helping people get organized and streamline their business and reduce the cost.
In this webinar, Anne McGurty, productivity expert of Strategize and Organize, conducted basic getting started with Paper Tiger Online functions, such as describing what is a Database, creating a Database, creating a Location, creating Items, printing labels for your items.
Then Anne continued by demonstrating the following, in addition to answering questions asked during the webinar, to help you use Paper Tiger more effectively to get organized and be more productive:
-How to organize things other than paper files
-Filing items from her inbox
-Searching items, then editing
-How to use the Transfer function to Move an Item, with an explanation of why and how to use Confirmation
-How to use the Cleanout Report and benefits of this report (this is one of Anne’s favorites)
-How to Toss an item when it is no longer valid
-Using the Confirmation function when transferring or tossing an item and why the confirmation function is helpful
As information, Anne is a professional speaker, productivity expert, and author. If you want to learn more about Anne and her services, please visit her website at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com. She may be in Colorado, but she’s nationally recognized as an expert and works with people throughout the US in person and virtually.
See more information here on Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management
You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.
Q: Referring to labels, can we get the document in a Word format so that I can change font options?
A: Currently, Paper Tiger Online will only extract labels in .pdf format, so it wouldn’t be possible to change the font. However, see this knowledge base article for instructions to create your own labels using MS Word Mail Merge: http://support.thepapertiger.com/entries/20900682-Create-Your-Own-Labels-Using-Mail-Merge
Q: Can you touch on using the alphabetical method & your thoughts on using it. We have several files that we don’t want to index. How do you use Paper Tiger A – Z file system?
A: Filing alphabetically is not the concept behind Paper Tiger. You don’t necessarily need to forget about alphabetizing, however the concept behind Paper Tiger is to file numerically rather than alphabetically and search from keywords that you’ve input versus the one or two words that might be input on the hanging file folder tab when filing alphabetically. If this is frightening or too much of a paradigm shift for you, but you still want to index your filing system, see the following blog posts for how to use Paper Tiger for alphabetical filing.
Q: Did I hear you say that if you want to move from a PC version to web version, the files will be transferred for you?
A: Yes, you can send your Paper Tiger desktop database to our tech support team and they will import the database for you into your Paper Tiger Online account. Prior to sending your database, make sure all pending items have been confirmed by clicking the Confirm box, and empty the Trash. Then export your database to .CSV file by following the instructions below for all databases if you have more than one database. To export a Paper Tiger CSV file from Paper Tiger 4:
1. Open Paper Tiger and the appropriate database.
2. From the File menu, select Export.
3. Check the Select All box.
4. Click the Browse button to select the preferred directory so that you will know where the file will be saved to and type in a file name for the CSV file, click the Save or Open button
5. Then attach the .CSV file to your email that you’re sending to our tech support team at support@thepapertiger.com
Q: How do categories work in Paper Tiger Online?
A: You do not need to add a Category for every item. You can add a Category in the instances when you might want a virtual view of files that are related even though they may be in different file drawers. See our knowledge base article at How do I use Categories in Paper Tiger? for more information.
Q: I have a Paper Tiger account and have created several databases. But when I search, it appears that I can only search one database at a time. Is that correct?
A: Yes, Paper Tiger does not search across databases. Having different databases is only advantageous if you want to keep different filing systems separate and do not want to search for all files in all databases at one time. For example, if you have an Office database and a Home database, you do not want items to pop up from your Office database when conducting a search for an item in your Home database.
Q: I use Paper Tiger for the business that I manage. It is a large dental practice. My doctors want me to be “paperless” and scan in all invoices, statements, etc. When will I be able to do this and organize via Paper Tiger? I have used this system for three years and don’t want to abandon it
A: We hope to have a digital filing solution soon, but do not have a definite date yet.
Q: I would like your views on filing DVD’s and computer software.
A: Of course, you can index DVD’s and computer software, and basically anything that you can put a number onto. Simply index your DVD’s and computer software, and print out labels from Paper Tiger to affix onto each DVD and computer software CD or you can number the CD itself or the edge of the jewel case or storage sleeve.
See our Not Just For Filing Papers webpage for other great ideas.
Q: Once created, can a database be accessed from any computer?
A: Yes, Paper Tiger Online works on any computer with an Internet access including Mac, so you will be able to log into your Paper Tiger Online account from anywhere.
Q: What is the best process for moving from a traditional file system to Paper Tiger?
A: See our blog post Customize Your Filing System with Paper Tiger’s Indexing Method
This article by Denise Landers, founder and CEO of Key Organization Systems Inc. and Paper Tiger Expert, will help encourage and empower you to become more productive by setting goals and implementing better time management! Denise also recommends Paper Tiger Filing System Software and Document Management to help with your filing system to actually be able to find what you need, when you need it.
by Denise Landers
Ever wonder what separates the very best performers in any field from their competitors? Lots of people would point to genetics, education, or maybe just a bit of luck, and these all certainly play a part. But usually, those parts aren’t as big as you might think…
That’s because, when you dig a little bit deeper, you find that top salespeople, executives, and entrepreneurs all have one thing in common: they set goals and are very intentional about their time when it comes to reaching them. By keeping calendars, lists, and other organizational tools up-to-date, they avoid that feeling of having the day or week “just slip away…”
There’s no reason you can’t do the same. The trick is simply to become more focused and not let yourself become distracted by problems, issues, or even opportunities that would keep you from reaching your long-term goals. Here are a few quick tips to get you started:
When you still find yourself getting distracted throughout the day so that your focus is interrupted, take one week to try a technique used by many productivity experts: the time log.
If you have ever been to even one serious time management seminar, you’ve already heard the advice to keep a time log (a record of how you’ve spent your day down to the minute) as a first step to getting control your calendar… and you’ve heard the dozens of groans around you from the men and women who have heard this tip before and ignored it.
The fact of the matter is, people don’t like keeping time logs. Not only are they tedious, but they would seem to get in the way of the one thing these busy professionals are really trying to accomplish – having fewer tasks on their plate, and more time to do them in. And so, a lot of time management professionals don’t even bother with them anymore, or at least don’t hold out big hopes that attendees will give them a try.
That’s too bad, however, since one thing that tends to get forgotten about time logs is that they work. Here are three reasons productivity experts love time logs, and why you should try using one for at least a week:
These aren’t complicated pieces of advice, of course, but if you can follow them, it’s only a matter of time before productivity becomes a habit – one that will make other people wonder how you got the genetics, education, and luck to become one of the best in your field.
For more details on managing projects and time management techniques, read our article on Project Management.
Contact Denise Landers
Author of Destination Organization
Call Denise at (281) 397-0015
productivity@keyorganization.com
Have you ever tried to “get organized” only to be frustrated after a day, or a week, or a month? Destination: Organization recognizes that reaching your organizing goals is a journey, not a one-time event, as you develop processes to cope with daily demands that constantly change.
In this webinar, Anne McGurty, productivity expert of Strategize and Organize, conducted basic getting started with Paper Tiger Online functions, such as describing what is a Database , creating a Database, creating a Location, creating Items, printing labels for your items.
Then Anne continued by demonstrating the following, in addition to answering questions asked during the webinar:
-How to organize things other than paper files
-Filing items from her inbox
-Searching items, then editing
-How to Transfer to Move an Item, with an explanation of why and how to use Confirmation
-How to use the Cleanout Report and benefits
-How to Toss an item when it is no longer valid
-Using the Confirmation function when transferring or tossing an item
As information, Anne is a professional speaker, productivity expert, and author. If you want to learn more about Anne and her services, please visit her website at www.StrategizeAndOrganize.com. She may be in Colorado, but she’s nationally recognized as an expert and works with people throughout the US in person and virtually.
You can contact Anne at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com or by phone at 303 881-0174.
See more information here on Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management
Q: Does this work for non-paper things also?
A: Yes, absolutely. In this webinar, Anne demonstrated how to index your bank safe deposit box and a linen closet. Anne also suggested that you would be able to index moving boxes.
Q: Would this work with plastic totes also?
A: Yes, this would work for plastic totes, as well as a CD or DVD collection, craft supplies, books and any other item that you can put a number onto. For other ideas, see our Not Just for Filing Papers webpage.
Q: I am new to the position and have to do a major overhaul of the current filing structure (within Paper Tiger). What’s the easiest way to manage moving files around?
A: Anne suggested printing the Cleanout Report and going through each to decide if you want to Toss, Transfer or leave the file as is. Then perform the actions based on your decisions both physically and in Paper Tiger database.
Q: I purchased my version of Paper Tiger sometime in 2010. This version looks different than mine. Are there updates to keep up with the latest and greatest? If so, how do I obtain?
A: The version of Paper Tiger used in today’s webinar is Paper Tiger Online, which is our web-based version and it does not look exactly like the desktop version. If you have the desktop version, you will notice slight differences.
If you want to make sure that you have the latest build in the desktop version 4, you can go to Help at the top menu and drag down to Check for Updates. Then select your current build and Paper Tiger will let you know if there are later builds than what you currently have. Our latest build if 4.1.28. (Note: if you do not know your current build, you can find out by clicking Help at the top menu, then drag down to About Paper Tiger)
You can switch to the online version if you wish by purchasing a Pro account or one of the multi-user plans, then send us your database so that we can import it for you.
Below are the knowledge base links to show you how the multi-user plans look and work, i.e., inviting users and setting their permissions:
-Paper Tiger Multi-User Concept: http://support.thepapertiger.com/entries/248406-paper-tiger-multi-user-concepts
-How Do Permissions Work: http://support.thepapertiger.com/entries/247588-how-do-permissions-work
-Inviting a User to Your Account: http://support.thepapertiger.com/entries/246912-inviting-a-user-to-your-multi-user-account
-How to Set User Permissions: http://support.thepapertiger.com/entries/247601-how-to-set-user-permissions
-Collision Detection: http://support.thepapertiger.com/entries/248306-collision-detection
Q: Is there a difference in the online vs desktop applications?
A: The basic difference between the two versions is that with Paper Tiger desktop version:
- it is a one computer software program, meaning you can only access from one computer since it is a licensed downloadable software
- needs to be installed, is a Windows only software. Can only be used on Macs if installed on a virtual Windows program such as Parallels
- database is housed on that one computer, database secure only if the computer is secure
- customer responsible for backing up their database
-upgrades would need to be purchased when next version is available
Our developers tried to make Paper Tiger Online as close to the desktop version as possible, so that the look and feel wouldn’t be too much of a difference for our current users that wanted an online version.
In addition, the most prevalent features we have added to Paper Tiger Online are:
-accessible from any computer with an Internet connection, including Macs and devices such as iPad, iPhone, etc. (not tied to one computer and no installation)
-Because Paper Tiger Online is accessible from any computer with an Internet access, clients can find or file from anywhere.
-search result highlights the searched word
-ability to choose multiple items to either toss or edit the Action Date
-ability to create a new item in a selected item number
-dashboard shows a running log of changes/activity the user had made to their database
-we will be able to provide enhancements to the online version as they become available that are not possible with the current desktop version
-we automatically backup the databases every night on our secure servers hosted by Amazon Web Services
Q: If we have desktop version, can we upgrade to online version. What is the cost?
A: Yes, You can switch to the online version if you wish by purchasing a Pro account or one of the multi-user plans, which will be able to import your desktop version database. You can view current prices on our Pricing webpage.
