Hi, I just downloaded EagleFiler (trial mode). I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around how to best use it. This is my first exposure to any “filing” software so I haven’t yet built up any mental map on how this ought to work.
Goals
My goal is to go paperless in my office both for personal data as well as for business data (I am self employed).
Software/Hardware
I have a brother scanner and use Nuance Paperport software on Windows to scan in my files to a NFS-shared disk. Paperport can OCR. This disk is also accessible from my Mac.
My Mac has PDFPenPro so I can do OCR if necessary.
Lastly, I have EagleFiler on the Mac.
Current Workflow
Currently what I do is as follows:
- Scan document on Windows as PDF (usually 300dpi, sometimes 600dpi)
- Save doc to NFS directory (all scans in one directory)
- Filename usually has date (year + month) in YYYYMM format plus a dash and some more data
** example: 201601-nicor-gas-bill.pdf - Open NFS dir on Mac
- Copy or move file from scan folder to final location
** For personal and business data, I have a nested hierarchy of folders. I generally do not go any deeper than 4 or 5 levels. Finding files days/months/years later is fairly simple since I can just navigate the folder structure. This fails me when I have a file that could reasonably/logically end up in 2 or 3 different places; my mood at the time will dictate where the file goes.
I’m at a loss to figure out how to use EagleFiler. I tried searching youtube for a video tutorial and came up dry. I have also searched the forums here and found a few good threads (“How do you use EagleFiler?”). However, the existing threads all assume some level of knowledge and comfort with EagleFiler. I don’t have that.
So, I’m wondering if anyone has any pointers to blog posts, videos, forum posts, etc. that can take a newbie like me through the paces on how to get some comfort with this program. I know that I can create some libraries and just experiment for a day, but I’m lazy (as any programmer should be). If I can short circuit the learning process, I’d love to hear how.
Thanks for any pointers!