Going Paperless : the file naming

In Going Paperless, I described how I went paperless in my home office, by buying a scanner and its software package. The setup produces PDF files, which I save in /store/paperless. Yes, outside of my $HOME, for a few good reasons having nothing to do with the subject of this article.

Within /store/paperless, I have a directory structure like this :

  • inbox (scanned PDF get saved here before I move them to their final location)
  • 2008
    • divers
    • poste
    • swisscom
  • priv
    • assurances
    • finances
    • loisirs
    • santé
    • voitures

When saving a file after the scan and OCR process, I name it $year.$month.$day-subject.pdf. Example : 2008.11.02-pinkrus_moleskine.pdf would be a bill from my purchase of a Moleskine agenda from Pinkrus dated 2nd of November 2008.

OS X Spotlight index all my files by name and content, so a few words into the search box of Spotlight brings me to my documents very quickly.

Once a document is scanned, it goes to paper-recycling or shredder depending on its content.

My next post will describe my backup procedure. Throwing away the paper version might be cool to regain office space, but a serious backup is a must.

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