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diff --git a/content/posts/notes-on-sorting-paperwork.md b/content/posts/notes-on-sorting-paperwork.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7265fc5 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/notes-on-sorting-paperwork.md @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +--- +title: "Notes on Sorting Paperwork" +date: 2020-06-23T15:29:00 +tags: ["Formats", "Guides", "Minimalism", "Snippets", "Software", "Windows"] +--- + +# Intention + +The purpose of this whole project ties in with digitally having copies of things. This makes searching and sorting much, much easier. + +The only physical paperwork I keep are certain important documents (like birth certificates, physical driving licence, etc). + +# Hardware + +I'm using a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 as my scanner of choice, it was recommended by the Paperless project and it folds away neatly when not in use. + +I initially intended on this hardware being used wirelessly, which I'm sure it is capable of; but for the once a month or so I go through my paperwork I doubt it's worth the hassle setting it up. + +# Software (or the lack of) + +*Preface:* I'm doing all of this on Windows. I've attempted to get this working nicely on Linux, but my results scanning with `sane` were terrible, even when tweaking input it was slower, with worse quality, wouldn't feed multiple sheets and had to be manually initiated from the command line for every scan. + +So, on with the software. The only real software that's required is the [ScanSnap Manager from Fujitsu](http://scansnap.fujitsu.com/global/dl/). It's a little bulky but for it's girth it will (attempt to) auto-rotate and OCR the document with pretty high rate of success. Only around 5-10% of documents require any manual intervention in my experience. + +One point worth noting is the ScanSnap software will add two autorun entries to your system startup. They can be removed with the following commands: +``` +reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "ScanSnap WIA Service Checker" /f +reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "ScanSnap OnlineUpdate Watcher" /f +``` + +In the past, I used [Paperless](https://github.com/the-paperless-project/paperless) to automatically OCR and pseudo-sort my documents, but this had a high failure rate (~75% of documents couldn't be parsed), was quite _heavy-weight_ software and was complete overkill for what I needed. + +Nowadays, I just scan the files to a single PDF document and organise away in a folder structure. Files are generally sorted well enough that I don't need to ever manually search for file contents as I always have an idea of what I need. Worst case scenario I believe you can grep strings from OCR'd pdf files anyway. + +# Naming + +When it comes to naming my files, I follow a few rules to help keep things organised: + +- Include a brief summary in the filename (e.g. insurance-renewal-invitation) +- Always use lower case characters +- Replace spaces with hyphens +- Use ISO dates where possible, or if you receive a biannual statement, name it 2019a and 2019b +- For cars, reference the registration number + +# Duplicates + +If you've read my [notes on sorting pictures]() post you'll know that I try to remove duplicates, however with paperwork I don't bother de-duplicate the files for a few reasons: + +- Time/bandwidth taken to download files during duplicate search +- Scans vs identical scans vs digital copies will never be identical +- OCR isn't perfect and will produce different results base on the above +- My files are generally sorted well enough that I'd be getting duplicate filenames. + +# File manipulation + +Once scanned, I rename all my files to their titles are applicable (see above), then I manually check each one for blank, rotated and out of order pages. I upload these to my server and then manually sort any files that require attention using `qpdf`. Below are some basic commands to work with documents: + +## Deleting +``` +qpdf input.pdf --pages input.pdf 1-9,26 -- outputfile.pdf +``` + +## Splitting +``` +qpdf input.pdf --pages input.pdf 1-2,4 -- outputfile1.pdf +qpdf input.pdf --pages input.pdf 3,5-6 -- outputfile2.pdf +``` + +## Rotating +``` +qpdf in out.pdf --rotate=180:1,4 +``` + +## Decrypting +``` +qpdf --password=yourpassword --decrypt input.pdf outputfile.pdf +``` + +## OCR +For files that I didn't scan myself, sometimes they will require manual OCR'ing. For this I use [OCRmyPDF](https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF): +``` +ocrmypdf -l eng input.pdf output_ocr.pdf +``` + +## Lower case filenames +``` +mmv '*' '#l1' +``` + +# Folder Structure + +Lastly, and the key to keeping things easy to work with, my folder structure looks something like this: + +``` +. +|-- computing +| `-- provider +|-- finances +| `-- bank-name +| |-- correspondance +| `-- statements +|-- household +| |-- appliances +| | `-- appliance +| |-- council +| |-- insurance +| | `-- year provider +| |-- purchase +| |-- recycling +| |-- renovation +| |-- utilities +| | `-- sorted by provider +| `-- voting +|-- personal +| |-- business-cards +| |-- certifications +| |-- driving-licence +| |-- gym +| |-- travel +| | `-- year location +| `-- workplace +| |-- contracts +| |-- interviews +| |-- p60 +| |-- pension +| |-- tax +| `-- wages +`-- transport + |-- insurance + | `-- year registration + |-- mot + | `-- year registration + |-- purchases + |-- repairs + | `-- registration + |-- roadside-assistance + | `-- year provider + `-- road-tax +``` + +This is all kept backed up on cloud storage, as you'd expect. So finally, at the end of all this, we have sorted, digital-only paperwork, backed up online.
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