When it comes to home computer document management Nuance’s Paperport is it. Perhaps there are alternatives, so far I haven’t seen one. I use PaperPort 11, but a newer version, Paperport 12, is available.

Paperport is a tool for handling a variety of documents in different formats and sizes. It often comes bundled with scanners – and is designed from the ground up to work with them.

In use Paperport acts like an overlay on top of Windows’ folder structure. You view document thumbnails laid out on the screen. Usually Paperport’s display shows the first page of multiple-page documents, but unlike Windows, you can scroll through the pages without opening the thumbnail.

You can store documents in several formats – Paperport recognises all the common ones. But changing formats and using Paperport documents is straightforward.

Paperport automatically generates a row of application icons along the bottom of its display based on the programs installed on your computer. On my computer the icons include the main Microsoft Office applications along with Ominpage, Photoshop, Acrobat, FTP and others.

When you move a document thumbnail on one of these icons, the application opens allowing you to word on the document. For example, moving a PDF to the Outlook icon allows you to email the document and moving, say, a Tiff document to the Omnipage icon cranks up its optical character recognition engine.

These days it makes sense to store most electronic documents as PDFs – the format is the widely accepted standard. Paperport comes with a built-in PDF conversion utility which does the job smoothly and efficiently – generally there’s little need for human intervention.

If you’ve a huge amount of documents to scan, it’s possible to let Paperport automatically improve images. It can straighten them and adjust colour and contrast, sharpen and remove red-eye from photographs. Even though I’ve scanned a stored more than 1,000 documents I’ve avoided this automation because it can introduce errors. Instead I tweak images manually as I enter them.

The bad stuff: I’ve found the program a little buggy at times – it can crash and burn without warning. Yet it never loses a huge amount of work when this happens. In addition, there’s an annoying registration reminder application loaded on to your computer – which can cause problems with Windows. It takes a while to learn how to get the best out of the application.

Another gripe is poor support – the Nuance web site has few answers to the problems I saw and there’s not a vibrant and vocal community of users to call on when in need of help.

Overall: As far as I know, there’s not low-level alternative to Paperport, so if you need home document management this is it. The application does what I need, is a productivity booster and is a powerful tool despite its annoyances.

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Stumped for a career direction?

Try asking yourself these ten self-assessment questions. If you run into difficulties ask friends and family for an honest appraisal of these factors.

There’s no magic formula, the answers won’t reveal your working future, but they will help you clarify matters and give you the insights you’ll need to choose a degree programme that plays to your strengths.

What are my favourite subjects?

It may sound like an obvious starting point, but you’d be surprised at the number of people who sign up for courses that don’t interest them.

Don’t spend the rest of your life, or at least the next few years, slaving over something that you find boring.

You’ll get a lot more out of higher education and your subsequent career if you work in an area you enjoy. If you think medicine sounds interesting then go for it, if it sends you to sleep, avoid it.

What are my academic achievements?

Take a look at your high school career. What subjects were you best at? To some extent your exam results will answer this question, but results might not accurately reflect your long-term performance.

Where did you consistently get good marks? You may have won a prize, come top or near the top of the class. You may have used your skills to tutor younger or weaker students in a subject area. Was there a subject where your friends asked you for homework help or recognised you as an expert?

What else turns me on?

What really excites your interest? What do you choose to do when you don’t have to do anything? Is there something that you love to do, perhaps it is a hobby or other leisure activity that you look forward to? In many cases these activities can form the basis of a career.

For example, if you love animals, think of veterinary science; if you enjoy spending time with computers then consider a career in information technology. Some connections are less obvious, if you enjoy tinkering with a car you may be suited to work as a computer engineer.

Am I creative?

You may like to express yourself through words, art, music or other artistic format. But there’s more to creativity than creative arts: businesses need creative thinking and the best scientists, engineers and mathematicians generally have a strong creative streak. It’s important to answer this question honestly.

It’s hard to accept a lack of creativity but this is not necessary a weakness; in some disciplines creativity is regarded with suspicion, think what the term “creative accountant” means.

Do I have good communications skills?

How good are you at expressing all those brilliant thoughts that pass through your head? Can you put them down on paper or speak about them in a way that makes things easy to understand or do you struggle? Could you stand in front of a group of people and explain a complex idea? How about a hall filled with hundreds of people?

Communications isn’t a one-way street, it’s just as important to listen to others and to use feedback.

How do I rate my people skills?

Although people skills are closely related to communication skills, there are differences. If you’re a good communicator you can relay or receive ideas, if you have good people skills you can pick up on feelings or mood. You also need to understand what motivates people and why they act in certain ways. Dealing with conflict is important. Knowing when to ask a subordinate to do a task is as important as knowing how to explain the mechanics of the task.

Is money important to me?

The best things in life are free, but cash can buy an awful lot of second-best things.

Ask yourself if  material rewards motivate you or if other things are more important. For example, you may want a career where you can help to make the world better, brighter or safer. Of course, with student loan debts and sky-high housing costs, you may feel you don’t have much choice but to take the money and run. If you’re not motivated by money, you’ll have a lot more interesting career option.

Do I need structure?

School life is highly structured, with timetabled lessons, strict hierarchies and so on, but university and the adult world of work isn’t always like that. Many people thrive in an unstructured environment and do their best work where there are fewer restrictions. Others are lost without a rule book. This is an area where you may change over time, but ask yourself if you feel safer on a highly structured course or if you’re ready to cut loose.

Am I internally or externally driven?

Some people are self-motivated. They can get up and work hard for long hours without anyone saying anything to them. They will make their own decisions about what to do and how to complete tasks. Other people need external motivating. This can take the form of a highly disciplined workplace in say the armed forces or it can come from colleagues operating in a team.

You’ll need self-motivation to get through university, but the quality is essential if you plan to work for yourself at a later date.

Can I put off my career decision?

There’s a lot of pressure on young people to make hard and fast decisions about their careers before they embark on a university degree. Some people feel comfortable with this; others are not ready to choose at this stage.

The good news is that you don’t have to make a firm commitment yet. Many university departments offer generalised degree programmes within a certain discipline. In most cases you can wait until the end of your first year before selecting a major subject. Other universities offer liberal studies degrees and BA programmes that will keep your employment options open.

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It’s a week since I completed my first GST return using Xero. It took about a day. That’s only slightly less than it used to take with Quickbooks. Yet considering I’m using an unfamiliar system, it represents real progress.

Xero isn’t hard to learn. My problems are more to do with accounting than with the software – I wonder if I will ever really understand double entry book-keeping.

Setting up Xero is easy. Importing bank account data is a breeze. Reconciling accounts is fast. And Xero learns about my accounts as I enter data, so it will get faster.

And that’s what I was hoping.

Xero isn’t cheap compared with packaged accounting software. However at NZ$50 a month, I’m in front if I save just one hour. I’m well on target for that. Which means I’m likely to make the full commitment and switch over by the time my next GST return is due.

Bank permission form

One hiccup was the bank permission form I needed to download, sign and then send, before Westpac would allow Xero automatic access to my account information. Finding an envelope wasn’t easy in a paperless office. Thankfully Xero uses Freepost so I didn’t need to search for a stamp. But I still managed to leave the letter sitting on my desk for a few days before posting.

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While this isn’t about paperless journalism, it is relevant to my paperless journalism project.

Last Monday I went to see Pavement at the Auckland Town Hall. Although the sound was shaky at first, it was an excellent night out.

The night was almost spoilt by the quaintly old-fashioned internet ticketing system used for events at Auckland Town Hall.

I ordered tickets on-line through the Edge web site. It’s not the world’s best e-commerce system, but that’s not my gripe.

A few days later I found an undelivered parcel card from a courier in my letter box. The card was timed and dated – a time when I was definitely at home. In fact another courier package delivered by the same company arrived 30 minutes before the time on the card.

Stupidly I assumed this was just a mix-up and left the matter. A few days later the Pavement tickets hadn’t arrived. When I called, the Edge told me they had been couriered. The courier company told me to pick up the tickets from its depot – a ninety minute trip across the city.

It was much harder than buying tickets in person at the box office. And that’s just wrong.

And, am I the only person who thinks sending couriers around town with tickets in tiny envelopes is a grossly inefficient use of resources?

Can’t we come up with something better, something more reliable, something paperless?

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I’ve just discovered Rapportive a Gmail add-on which adds information about the person who sent an email. Think of it as a very basic CRM system.

The data replaces the right-hand advertising panel on a Gmail screen – which probably won’t endear Rapportive to Google.

There’s a similarity to Xobni, which works with Microsoft Outlook. But Rapportive is lighter. Xobni runs on your PC, which Rapportive lives in the cloud.

Rapportive pulls its information from social media accounts linked to the person’s email. This means the results are variable. I’ve noticed there is plenty of information and even photographs for some of my contacts, but for many there is nothing at all.

I’ve written before about Xobni and about Gist, which is another, far more complex, variation on the same theme. I prefer Gist to Xobni.

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The New Zealand Herald reports workers who stay after a round of redundancies suffer as much stress and anxiety as the people who lose their jobs.

I doubt this is always true.

Redundancy is never fun. Having your livelihood snatched away, facing a mortgagee sale and wondering where the next meal is coming from is about as stressful as things get.

As someone who has been in both positions, I can speak from experience on this.

Nevertheless, the Auckland-based researchers do have a point. Things are extremely stressful for people left when companies trim their staff numbers. Not least because they’ll have to cope with extra work. And, as the story points out, they’ll be wondering who is next for the chop.

Staff who stay suffer from stress – National – NZ Herald News.

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It’s only short, but  Managing projects through email sucks by Chance Bliss is a timely remind that email is not a miracle cure for all your communications needs.

It doesn’t even come close.

Bliss writes:

There are many ways to sabotage a project, but the one I find the most effective is email. Every email sent to a developer, designer or copywriter is a invitation for distraction which in turn increases mistakes and decreases productivity.

Quite right. If you’ve got a message a phone call, or a personal visit are so much better than email. Both modes of communications more efficient and less open to misinterpretation.

I’m indebted to Jack Vinson who pointed to this at Managing via email fails on his excellent Knowledge Jolt with Jack site.

Jack says:

The struggle for many people and organizations is that they see no other way to work than via email because it has become so deeply ingrained in the way of doing things.

Which is a good reason to try communicating through a more nuanced medium.

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I use Skype to stay in touch with friends and family overseas. I rarely use it for business calls because it is unreliable.

The problem isn’t Skype’s technology, but my broadband connection. My Telecom NZ broadband speed is unpredictable because I’m on a plan which gives me uncapped downloads but for most of the day means I share pooled bandwidth with other users on the same plan. In other words, one minute my connection is 3.5Mbps, the next minute I’ve got only 100kbps or so.

Google’s Gtalk voice over IP service copes with the fluctuating bandwidth better than Skype. I suspect this is because it chews through less data.

In general I find there’s otherwise little to choose between the Skype and Gtalk experience. Skype can give better quality audio, but there are times when it is just appalling. Gtalk never reaches the highs or the lows.

For me Gtalk almost beats Skype. Consistency is a good thing. I also like the way it integrates smoothly with Gmail – which is my main email client, and the Gtalk instant message tool.

However, there’s one big problem. Almost nobody I know uses Gtalk for voice calls although a lot of people use it for messaging. I have dozens of contacts on Skype, but scheduling Skype calls is much harder.

Which means I need to keep both programs installed for the foreseeable future.