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My MacBook Air and iPad are well-oiled machines. I've finally got my Inbox down to a manageable number (my new goal is always less than 50 items in the Inbox and NEVER any item older than 30 days). I've unsubscribed to dozens of companies that send me unwanted solicitations. (But TigerDirect still won't play by the rules – you hear me, TG! I've unsubscribed three times now so stop it!) My Scan These Items box gets tackled once a week, converting magazine articles, financial statements, and much more to be stored in my Dropbox account so I can access these things from anywhere. I've got just about all my magazine subscriptions converted to digital (including WIRED, but I love my print copy and won't give it up). And about 95% of my bills are now coming in electronically so 95% of what arrives in my mailbox every afternoon is junkmail. I've been feeling like an Efficiency Ninja.
But after reading David Spark's newest book, Paperless, I realize that while I might be an Efficiency Ninja (an e-Ninja– Haawaaaaaa Yah!), I'm no where close to being a Master. Thankfully, I have access to the training of Master e-Ninja Sparks.
Paperless is a new e-book from Sparks that has one key goal – to get you organized by eliminating all the paper clutter in your life. It was created using Apple's new iBooks Author application, so it's designed for iPad owners (although there is a PDF version of the book available). Sparks has managed to take advantage of all of the special features the app has to offer iPad readers, including a unique method for accessing chapters and embedded videos.
And it's the videos that really sell the iBook. Over 30 screencast videos have been embedded in the iBook (narrated by Sparks), and the entire book is almost 1Gbyte in size! The book took about 20 minutes to download, but having the embedded videos play without stutter and, if you like, in full-screen mode, makes following along with Sparks' tutorials so much easier than referencing a YouTube video or needing a second computer open while you read. Like all iPad apps, the iBook takes full advantage of gestures so flipping pages is easy enough as is viewing the many images associated with each figure in the book with a single tap.
Take a look at the screenshot below and you'll see how easy it is to jump between chapters and view thumbnails of pages. You can tap one of the dots along the bottom edge to jump immediately to the beginning of a specific chapter (there are seven chapters in Paperless). The strip along the bottom allows you to swipe left or right to view thumbnails of pages and a single tap on a page opens it up into full-screen view.
The book was written to be read in landscape mode, but just know that if you turn the iPad to read in portrait mode, the special features like videos and figures are accessed by tapping a link in the text. Notice below that the Screencast 3.1 appears embedded in the page. If you tap the Play button, the video plays right there. You can tap the Expand button on the video to expand the screencast to fill the entire screen.
Figures are handled similarly. The screenshot below shows Gallery 3.1, but here the figure isn't limited to a single image like a print book or most ebooks. Here, multiple images can be associated with a figure, so a single tap of your finger on one of the thumbnails displays the selected image. Tapping the primary image enlarges it to fill the screen and swipes can then be used to move back and forth between additional images.
The entire iBook is well-written and professionally formatted. Unlike some self-published books that look kludged together, Sparks has included a mix of high-quality clipart and photos into the text and the iBooks Author application gives a writer the ability to position these images in a polished manner. Look at the screenshot below and you can see how Sparks has mixed a screencast, a screen clip of a search menu, and a small piece of clipart and still made the page look nice and not cluttered or crammed together.
As I mentioned, the book consists of seven chapters:
Chapter 1: Why Paperless – A short and sweet personal story that explains how and why the book was written.
Chapter 2: Paperless Overview – An overview of the author's three-step procedure for making the paperless office a reality.
Chapter 3: Capture – Step 1, covered in substantial detail, provides discussions on formats for capturing documents, hardware used (a number of scanners are reviewed), software overviews for the various scanners, scanning with your iPhone and iPad (not difficult at all, it turns out), and a solid explanation of OCR (optical character recognition) and why it is so important to some users and not so much to others. Screencasts show you exactly how to perform specific tasks using the software that the author recommends and uses himself.
Chapter 4: Process – Step 2, after you've got your documents scanned using any (or all) methods covered in Chapter 3. This chapter was the most valuable to me. The author shows you how he names his files, how he organizes them, and he covers (once again with detailed screencasts) how to use some very powerful software to automate much of the organizing process. I am 100% sold on Hazel, and you will be too once you read this book. Oh, and I've never really understood the Automator (in Mac OS) tool in great detail... but now I own the Automator. The author does a slam-dunk job of showing you how to use it, configure it, and put it to work on your scans.
Chapter 5: Use – Step 3, accessing all your scanned documents. Once again, I thought I had this part already figured out, but the author still managed to teach me some new tricks. He covers working with PDFs (annotation, saving, locking, merging, etc.), document access on the iPad, signing digital documents, and much more.
Chapter 6: My Workflow – This is a short summary of exactly how the author handles his paperwork. He tells you exactly how he does it all, the steps he performs and the order in which he tackles various tasks. Throughout the book he offers many suggestions in a take-it-or-leave-it manner, but here he gives you his process... and it was impressive enough to convince me to purchase a small number of apps he reviews in the book to further my e-Ninja skills.
Appendix: Here you'll find some additional websites related to going the paperless route, as well as some solid recommendations on pursuing an Automator black belt. (Seriously... I am blown away by the power of the Automator tool and how it works. It's a Mac thing, so sorry Windows users.) You'll also find a very frank discussion on cloud storage services, with the author telling you exactly what he likes and dislikes about using the cloud for digital storage. Wrapping up the Appendix are some links to additional books by David Sparks, and you may be happy to know (as I am) that this is the first book in the MacSparky Field Guide series – the author has informed me that he's got some additional power topics to cover in future books, so I'll be keeping my eyes open and will let you know when they arrive.
Oh, and speaking of Windows users... although the book is geared towards Mac and iPad users (and some iPhone users), Windows users will find all the techniques useful, but you may have to do some research and digging to find suitable applications that provide the features mentioned in the Mac versions of the software recommended by Sparks.
I really cannot recommend this book enough – I read it in two days and then went back and re-read it again, just to highlight all the stuff I want (and NEED) to implement. Needless to say, there's hardly a page in the book not highlighted or with a comment of my own added. I have a strong feeling I'll be reading over it one more time as I make a couple tweaks to my own Process step.
If you're where I was not too long ago, staring at piles of magazines, financial statements, bills, letters, contracts, recipes, etc., and you've been wanting to get things under control and get organized, you will not regret this purchase. The 117-page book is currently available for $10 from the iBooks Store for iPad users or you can purchase a PDF of the book (also $10) and the videos can be downloaded as separate zip file – 900 megabytes! (People must really like the book, too, because it's got 182 reviews... 180 of those are 5-star and the other two are 4-star!)
Tomorrow: Efficiency Ninja Part 2: Bills, Bills, Bills... Bye, Bye, Bye
I emailed David some questions about Paperless – I'd like to thank him for taking the time to provide some great additional content that you can read below. You should also bookmark David's great website/blog, Macsparky.com. I can't tell you how many times I've found a trick or tip or software recommendation that made my life just a little bit easier.
GeekDad: Naysayers have been preaching for years that the 100% paperless office is a myth, but I think you may very well offer up the proof that it is possible. If I've read the book right, it seems like you're operating at maybe 97% with things like birth and marriage certificates, deeds and titles, and a few other items with seals or gold stamps spoiling the party. Does 97% sound about right?
David Sparks: 97% is about right. I've got a small document safe at home and there isn't much in it. The trick is having a good document scanner at the ready so you can capture documents quickly, before they pile up. I get an endorphin when I hear my shredder power up.
GeekDad: You're an attorney. I'm married to one. I know just how much paperwork there is in that career. Did your interest in a paperless lifestyle first develop from a work standpoint... or from a home/personal one?
David Sparks: Absolutely. Mother nature must be really pissed at us lawyers. My profession plays a big role in planetary deforestation. Paperless is more than just eco-friendly for lawyers. Having instant access to key documents gives you an advantage.
GeekDad: One question I had (and maybe something you can add to a future update) after reading the book concerns the legal issues related to receipts. Should a photo or a scan of a receipt be accepted as a valid form of purchase? What are your recommendations for scanning receipts and keeping the originals?
__David Sparks:__Legally, it really depends. Every jurisdiction is different. One thing I've noticed is that the receipt/paper ink combination many retailers use any more is terrible. I bought my wife a pair of cordless headphones for Christmas last year. I got them on black Friday and by Christmas, the receipt ink had vanished. Luckily, I scanned it because six months later they gave up the ghost and I needed to return them. I used a print out and the retailer accepted it without question.
GeekDad: You've totally convinced me to start using the Automator tool more and to purchase Hazel. How much time would you estimate these tools save you in a given week or month when it comes to renaming and sorting your scanned files? Have you discovered any new applications that didn't make it into the book that you would recommend to readers?
David Sparks: I spent a lot of time with turds to find the gems that made the cut for the book. Automator is one of the Mac's unsung heroes. I'd recommend spending more time with it. You'd be surprised how useful it is.
GeekDad: You really took advantage of the embedded video capabilities in iBooks Author for creating Paperless – almost 1GB of content! I know there are limits to the size of the iBooks file, so are there any particular topics or methods that you left out or that you cover on your blog that readers would also find useful?
David Sparks: I didn't cover complimentary software for the PC. I also didn't explain the workflow for splitting large PDFs or shrinking PDF files. I've fixed all of those things though in the upcoming 1.2 update that should be out by the end of August. If you bought it in the iBookstore, you can just re-download it and get all the new content. I love digital publishing.
GeekDad: I use my scanner quite a bit to save favorite articles from magazines so I can toss the magazine. So far, digital versions of magazines won't let me clip out or save to PDF a particular article – I have to keep the entire digital magazine or lose it all. Any suggestions on possible workarounds for this missing feature? Have you encountered any similar issue where you wanted something in digital form but are unable to get it?
David Sparks: With a few exceptions, magazine publishers need to really think about the future and how to deliver their content or get crushed by someone else that does. For non-digital magazines, I tear out interesting articles and feed them to my scanner. With digital magazines, I'll either keep the whole thing or screenshots of selected pages. Neither solution is very good.
GeekDad: I'm always on the lookout to increase the usefulness of my iPad, and I believe Dropbox and GoodReader have pretty much given the tablet superpowers. But I have a feeling you're probably aware of a few I'm missing. Are there any other apps on your iPad that you feel are indispensable to those wanting to live a paperless lifestyle?
David Sparks: iBooks is actually very good for PDF reference materials, like the above-mentioned scanned magazine articles. There is an ongoing arms race between PDF applications. In addition to GoodReader, PDFpen for iPad now brings iCloud synchronization (that works with PDFpen on the Mac) to the table and PDF Expert just added some very nice presenting tools. I'd also give Evernote a serious look. They have really upped their game on their iOS apps in the last few months.
GeekDad: You mention in the book that this is just the first in the MacSparky Field Guide series. Any hints on what other titles you might be considering adding to the series?
David Sparks: I've already got several new titles in the works. All of them will take full advantage of the iBooks Author format. I love this medium for sharing information. I hope all of the titles to be useful and entertaining. I want the MacSparky Field Guides to be the Pixar movies of tech writing. They will have great technology but also (hopefully) tell a good story.
GeekDad: Paperless is the first iBook purchase I've made that was written using the iBooks Author application. What are your thoughts on the application? Any drawbacks or limitations that you ran into while writing? Any features or capabilities that have convinced you to continue using the application?
David Sparks: Having written books for a traditional publisher and all the limitations that come with conventional publishing, I am thrilled with iBooks Author. I love the ability to drop in a screencast, picture gallery, or movie where it makes sense. I love the control it gives me over the layout, content, and voice of the book. I'm hooked. The limitation is the market. You need an iPad to read one of these books. However, there are a lot of iPads out there and I can also sell a PDF version for non-iPad owners, which I do.
GeekDad: Any last thoughts or comments for readers of Paperless who might be looking for more advice? Have you made any new discoveries for making a paperless life even easier to implement?
David Sparks: I'm always learning new technology tricks. The big eye-opener for me with Paperless is how much better optical character recognition is since the last time I looked at it closely. Modern computers and OCR software are faster and more efficient than ever. Now I run OCR on just about everything. This gives Hazel (one of my favorite utility apps) the ability to look in the file and name, sort, and file the document based on what it says. So, for instance, I can scan in a gas company bill and Hazel, using OCR data, does everything else for me. No user interaction whatsoever. I love that.
