Paperless Office Solutions Under Linux? 44
sholgate asks: "I've been asked to look into implementing a paperless office under Linux. We receive emails, letters, word documents, PDFs etc and need a way of converting and storing them in a way that provides easy searching and accessing. We've been offered two Windows solutions, one based on Canon ScanFile and the other using Lotus Notes. My office went with Canon back in 1995 and now has a load of unreadable CDs as the original software was DOS based doesn't seem to work under Win98/XP. We now face paying for conversion to the new system plus new license fees. We are primarily Linux/Unix based here so Windows is inconvenient and history has shown that a closed product is not a good solution. I favour having a directory browsing system based on thumbnails (such as nautilus or konqueror) and searching with grep, but I can see the benefits of more complex systems that store a database of search terms etc. Have other Slashdotters thought about paperless offices? What answers did you come up with?"
uhh... (Score:1, Funny)
Google search appliance (Score:4, Interesting)
Hope this helps.
Re:Google search appliance (Score:4, Informative)
Yikes! Having evaluated Google along with many other search vendors and open source search tools for the enterprise, I can say that this would be a bad idea long term. The Google search appliance:
I would recommend trying a combination of an open source search engine like Lucene [apache.org] along with its contributed filters (PDFs and other document types). You can also use open office document filters [openoffice.org] for MS Office docs where necessary.
Re:Google search appliance (Score:1)
Zope (Score:2, Informative)
Zope might be a good start for you :
http://www.zope.org [zope.org]
Nope (Score:4, Funny)
-John
Re:Nope (Score:3, Funny)
The Myth of the Paperless Office (Score:1)
HTDIG (Score:2, Informative)
I've never used a modem in linux, so I have no idea what the telephony capabilities are.
I tend to agree with most of the replies here however. I tried my hardest to save a tree here and there and the other system administrator here prints EVERYTHING out. Until you can fire all the idiots and be left working alone, I'd skip on the "paperless office" idea and spend more time working on projects.
Printer Ink = $$$ (Score:2, Informative)
I have spent more on printer paper and ink than all my computer hardware put together in the last 5 years.
Paperless office is a dream.
Re:Printer Ink = $$$ (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Printer Ink = $$$ (Score:1)
I got here at home a LED-based Okidata (ie. simili laser) that cost me only two ink cartridges (at 35 CAN$ each) in more than five years. And it's not because I don't print very often : my girlfriend (well, now my wife..
So I consider this printer my best computer buy ever!
Paperless Office (Score:1)
Re:Paperless Office (Score:1)
Solutions (Score:2, Informative)
Take a bunch of paper, scan it, index it, file it. Additionally, do the same for non-scanned work (email, doc, pdf,
Windows wise, Doctrieve [doctrieve.com] (now Redmap networks, look for a similar product) is a good solution. Theres a range of products, all providing more or less similar functionality (some more bells here, some less whistles there...) Non-windows wise, theres an opensource one called DocMgr [sourceforge.net] which provides similar functionality, albeit a bit immature.
OCR is really the big issue here with scanned work. I've only dabbled with OCR under linux (using GOCR [sourceforge.net]) with limited success. Bad OCR == bad indexing == useless searching.
I'm currently in the process of writing something similar targeted for the higher-end market. If you're interested in testing or evaulating, drop me an email.
Ignorant company? (Score:2)
The Doctrieve link is not Mozilla friendly:
"To view this site you must be using Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4 or above.
If you do not have a copy of Microsoft® Internet Explorer please use the links below to download a FREE copy.
We look forward to you visiting us at www.doctrieve.com
A software company that is that ignorant about how to make web pages might not be the best business partner.
Re:Ignorant company? (Score:1)
More ignorance: (Score:2)
More ignorance: "With the recent release of the new operating system Windows XP by Microsoft, Redmap Networks support wishes to advise that existing ManageEzy and ManagePoint will not run on the Microsoft Windows XP platform. We are currently striving towards a solution for Windows XP and this is expected to be completed by the 3rd quarter of 2002."
The company looks understaffed and underskilled. They gave themselves a year, and missed that deadline.
Damn (Score:2)
You are a lucky SOB.
You sure it was Lotus Notes they offered? (Score:1, Informative)
Domino does run on Linux (and damned well). In fact, the newest version, 6.0, just went public on Monday of this week. Lotus has a strong history of supporting Unix platforms with their server product, but I'm not sure if Domino.Doc works/is available for the Linux platform.
Domino.Doc is designed to work completely from the web, but the audience I've seen it used for were more the parts of corporations that had long lists of document handling requirements (like legal, HR, trademarking, etc). Might be overkill for your situation.
The key thing here is templates, and a database to store things in. That breaks down when you start getting in to presentations (like PowerPoint), and further breaks down when you get into spreadsheets (because frankly, if you can use a template, then you should just put the spreadsheet into a database somewhere).
I'd give Lotus a look, because they have a good client that runs on both the new Mac OS X, and on Windows platforms. The servers come in a variety of flavors, but Linux is on the list. Surf the Lotus forums at http://domino.lotus.com and see what you turn up.
Content Management System (Score:2)
another poster has mentioned Lotus, but there is a product from IBM called IBM Content Manager [ibm.com] that runs on DB2 and WebSphere (which both run on Linux) and gives you really powerful storage and delivery of your stored content.
Of course, you could always check SourceForge [sf.net] which shows at least a dozen projects with "Content Management" in their descriptions...
Good scanners and outsourced proofreading. (Score:3, Interesting)
I've worked with a state agency which, not suprisingly, handles alot of paperwork. They have a scanning solution which brings in the images, stores them in graphics format (i thibk TIFF), and indexes the document under the case number it is associated with. Meta-info can be added by the people who work with the documents.
Note that if you need to have legal proof of a signature or if your auditiors require you to keep documents for x years, they must be in graphic format --- an OCR'd document in ASCII text won't fly.
If you are looking to automate data-entry, get a high speed commercial scanner (if you have large volume) from a company like Bell & Howell and outsource the OCR activity to another company. Tons of companies (Lockheed Martin does it for most federal agencies) do this. The outsourcers send your documents to a 3rd world country like Ghana for proofreading. OCR is only about 95% accurate, and automated OCR is not reliable enough for anything!
The free Ziff-Davis magazine "Baseline" ran an article about this a couple of months ago, you might want to find their website (or look through the pile of free mags on your desk) and see fi you can find it.
Don't shop for a solution based on platform, "Free"/non-"Free", etc. A "Free" solution will take longer and and your cost driver will be the implementation, not inital licensing cost.
Get whatever provides you with the best solution, period.
Linux has had this from day one (Score:2)
Otherwise, really, that's about all their is to it -- normal Linux / Unix LP print services. Switch to that and you'll never have to replace your toner cartridges again!
:-)
Re:Linux has had this from day one (Score:1)
The same people are more likely to print a Word doc and fax it than send an email...
Re:Linux has had this from day one (Score:1)
RHAT vs MSFT [yahoo.com]
Re:Linux has had this from day one (Score:1)
Re:Linux has had this from day one (Score:1)
Oh, even though we have a web-enabled corporate email system (*not* Exchange) our top execs still--this is gross--use their AOL accounts. Hey, I know AOL owns Netscape who sponsors Mozilla, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
DjVu is better for this than PDF (Score:4, Interesting)
DjVu [djvuzone.org] is an interesting format that was primarily designed for storing scanned formats.
It uses a couple of techniques, such as OCR/pseudo-OCR, and multiple embedded images (JPEG/PNG) within the file for rasterable images. The idea is that, say, a scanned magazine page with text and a photographic image is stored as text, a little bit of outline font information, and a JPEG of the photographic image.
Re:DjVu is better for this than PDF (Score:2)
DjVu may or may not be closed, but it's not exactly a standard, while PDF is. I'd at least keep a copy of every document in PDF format.
PDF is a Tree Killer (Score:1)
but I think PDFs are a pain to view and/or print out.
A better system would allow copy, paste and editing
yet still indicate (by hash code digital signature etc.) whether or not it has been modified.
Notes on Linux, perhaps? (Score:1)
Plus I really like Domino for groupware. It's the only real challenger for MS Exchange out there.
You Dont Need "paperless office" software (Score:2, Insightful)
Paperless Solution (Score:1, Interesting)
It can convert documents automatically to PDF, and stores both the PDF and the native file in a specified direcory in the filesystem.
Only sad thing is it's not open source (but you can modify anything you want to anyway) and it can get expensive depending on the number of users that will be checking in files.
We've been using it here for over a year now and most people love it. Documents are easier to find than before, and we don't loose documents like we used to.
Just wanted to pass this one on.
my situation (Score:1)
2) is my biggest concern however its easily worked around. the database holds first middle last name, home/work phone address balance due and product/s bought
currently all this information is stored on a 5x8 sheet of paper. one for each customer which totals out at over a thousand of these. each month my mom has to copy each one, stuff it in an envelope and mail it. what a waste. i said id make her some database software to lighten the load on her. she claimed her boss would never use it because another similar company was doing all computer based record keeping and lost it all to some bug. i then told my mother the easiest way to do it. you make another box for the cards. put a sign on it called "changes" everytime they change a card they throw it in that box, she then takes the card out and enters/changes information on the database, prints the new card and files it back in the first box. That way a person can do whatever they are comfortable with and at the end of the month my mother cant just run her statements.
no extreme setup fee's or ocr needed. whenever a card shows up in the "changes box" you enter the information into the computer. wether it be a first entry or the third entry
backup -- the database will be backed up nightly as well as on paper too. everytime a change is made you print out a new card and file it.
versatile -- they dont have to learn a damn thing if they dont want to. they can stick with what they know, or learn, whatever they feel is quicker.
me personaly i realize moving to paper isnt easy or even quicker then filling out paper. but when it comes down to it it atleast makes the office look nicer
Canon software & DOS ? (Score:1)