Lifehacker posted [_How I Went Completely Paperless in Two Days_](http://lifehacker.com/5973033/how-i-turned-three-years-of-paper-into-a-highly-organized-searchable-document-database-in-two-days?post=55895072) Summary: Doxie scanner + EyeFi + Evernote ---- A good paperless strategy involves: * **Easy scanning process** to move docs to your computer as effortlessly as possible * **Easy tagging process** to make it easy to find all those documents when you need them later. * **Future-proof storage and tagging**. You don't want your archive to be rendered useless by business/technology cycles. ---- Lifehacker's article solves the first two problems and fails the third. A third-party (Evernote) is relied on to provide features (tagging) which your computer is (in theory) perfectly capable of providing on its own. Will Evernote still be in business in 5 years? 10? ---- Evernote's tagging abilities really should be built into native file systems. Windows 7 includes [some nice tagging ability](http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/tag-your-files-for-easier-searches-in-windows-7/4024) but note the crucial, bizarre limitation: _"While you can add Tags to many different types of files, you can’t add them to all file types."_ PDF files and text files are among the excluded file types. [Some Mac users](http://www.macworld.com/article/1160568/tags2.html) use third-party utilities or "put tags into the Spotlight Comments field via Finder." ---- Even if filesystems eventually allow full tagging capability, incompatibilities between OSs are likely to limit the future-proofity of archives. A better solution would be a self-contained HTML file that contains links to files along with a list of their tags, and can be used within a browser or accessed via the OS's full-text search tool. ---- Even a plain-text tag database would be incredibly future-proof. E.g. on Windows command line, `dir /b > files.txt` and then edit the list like so: 2012-08 bank statement.pdf #finances #taxes 2012-08 dvr receipt.jpg #electronics #purchases #microcenter 2012-09 jamie prescription.pdf #medical #taxes #jamie Although a better method for initial processing would need to be found. ---- Best solution so far: a poor-man's tagging file system. Just add `#tags` right into the filename. Works on both Windows and Mac OS. See: ---- In the last year and a half, I've switched over from Windows to Mac on my personal computers. I had it in the back of my mind that I was going to be doing this, which combined with unfamiliarity and uncertainty about Mac OS, pushed me towards finding some kind of "cross-platform tagging" that would work across both platforms. Call it a kind of hedge bet in case Mac OS didn't work out. Now that I'm fully on board with Mac OS, however, I just use the native file tagging and don't bother with the hashtags in the file names. ---- My current paperless setup: * [Fuji ScanSnap S1300i][1]. The OCR in the included scanning software does a great job, which means my PDFs are fully searchable from the moment they're scanned * [Hazel][2] for automatically filing incoming scans. I set up rules to search for specific strings and dates within the scanned PDFs and use those to rename, tag and move them into a special "Paper Documents" folder. * An [Amazon Basics shredder][3]. This thing is not very quiet but it is aggressive and does the job quickly. I keep it in the basement and either recycle the cuttings or compost them. [1]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008HBFADQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008HBFADQ&linkCode=as2&tag=thloya-20&linkId=Z5RGDU52PYBCMQ55 [2]: http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php [3]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QAQFFS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005QAQFFS&linkCode=as2&tag=thloya-20&linkId=I2YN6N66T3UMS44G