For the past few months I have exploring the best way to go paperless. Currently, the biggest source of paper that is not recycled within a short period of time after receiving it is bills. I have always paid my bills and them file them away. Rarely, do I go back and reference these pieces of paper but I always like to have that option available. That is why I can not justify investing any significant amount of money in a paperless system. I already own a scanner and storage devices so I would like to use what I have.

The other obstacle I have come up against is the need to share information with my wife. She is competent on her computer skills but does not care to experiment with technology like I do. As most married men would say, my goal is to keep her happy without spending a lot of money. A task few men will probably ever master.

After reading a number of blog entries the Fujitsu ScanSnap is very well received by those that have ventured into the paperless world. It looks like a great product but I see no reason to purchase an additional scanner to fulfill my paperless desires.

I also came across software called 42 tags that seeks to assist those seeking a paperless world. One of the great features I like about this software is that the files are stored in a non-propriety format. I have seen many organizations reluctant to try new software due to legacy data issues. Therefore, I knew this was a must have feature in my paperless system. After trying this software I found that without an Optical Character Reader (OCR) and the inability to view pdfs within the software 42 tags just would not work for me.

I had seen Evernote mentioned on Lifehacker as a note-taking tool but not as a paperless solution. After viewing the Evernote informational video I knew this was something I need to try. The OCR feature is what first sold me. The ability to input and retrieve data via various devices are also great features. I also like the ability 'clip' information from web pages. In fact I have quit bookmarking pages and instead clip them to Evernote. I have found it much easier to find a page that I was looking for.

At this time, I have not taken the leap to move all my paper into Evernote. Security is my greatest concern. The premium version of Evernote provides security via SSL so I will have to give that a try. As I stated earlier, my journey into the paperless world is one that I am not taking alone. Therefore, the ability to easily share secure data will also be a concern.

I will post more as my travels into a paperless world continues.

At the same time as working on developing this website I have been building another site (shawneetrace.com) for the homeowner association to which I belong. The shawneetrace.com website is a rebirth of a previous website that was done by one of the association members. The former site was developed with FrontPage and certainly met the needs of the organization. However, since I will be taking over the webmaster duties I was looking for another web development tool.

While I did take a web development course in college my skills are a bit rusty. Not only that but the progression of web development since I took that course has changed dramatically. Therefore, I was looking for a web development tool that was inexpensive and easy to use. I knew that open source was the way to go. Based on my research I decided that an open source content management system (CMS)was what I wanted. Although, I have to admit at the time I did not completely understand what a CMS was just that it made building web sites easier.  Joomla and Drupal are the two dominate open source content management systems. In my opinion, Joomla seems to have a larger user and development community so it was the tool I chose.

Many web hosts provide website software that can easily be installed via your control panel. This makes it easier to ensure the files are in the correct folder and any database associated with the software is easily setup. In my case, Dreamhost is my host provider. I have a separate domain registered that I use to test differnt ideas on. Setting up Joomla through my control panel on Dreamhost was very easy. The web host for shawneetrace.com is GoDaddy. It was also easy to setup Joomla via the GoDaddy control panel but I prefer Dreamhost.

According to the Joomla website "Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications." It took me a couple of days to understand the basics of Joomla and how it is organized. Now I feel that I could easily build basic webpages. More importantly I now have a greater understanding of just some of the potential of a CMS. In the case of shawneetrace.com one of the past issues was the means by which content was updated. Previously all content was sent to the webmaster to be added to the website. One of the benefits of a CMS is that it allows different users to update different sections of the site. More importantly, the users don't have to understand web development to add content. In our case the treasurer could update a financial information page or the secretary could easily post the minutes from a meeting. Empowering people to add the content own their terms reduces the number of people required to get content updated.

One other important element I learned in developing these last few web pages is the importance of graphics. This is true not only within indivual posts but within a website itself. Almost all professional websites have some type of logo or image at the top. A well developed website with images may provide the basic content need to does not present itself in a professional manner. It is kind of like mowing your lawn without doing any edging. Mowing will provide the basic look you want but edging says I have a lot of pride in the presentation I present.