(Archived) Print tags with ID's for the offline documents

[WillemD 0]

Hello,

 

I'm just starting with evernote, i would like to use evernote to digitize my current personal administration.

Is there anyway i can link the online stored notes to the physical documents ?

I would like to tag the physical document so that i can store all my important physical documents in a central place, browse them trough evernote, and then find then find the original quickly trough the aforementioned tag.

 

Is there a workflow to achieve this ? I couldn't find a guid or number or something alike in the web or desktop client.

 

 

[gazumped 11,652]

Evernote doesn't provide you with a barcode or a QR code,  but you could assign an arbitrary ID to each document.  The obvious system (I think) would be to write the ID on the document,  scan it and file the physical document away.  Your ID therefore should include the place you're going to file it - FC1 (filing cabinet 1) or some such - plus extra information for which folder the document is in,  and other information like the date of the scan.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Hello,

 

I'm just starting with evernote, i would like to use evernote to digitize my current personal administration.

Is there anyway i can link the online stored notes to the physical documents ?

I would like to tag the physical document so that i can store all my important physical documents in a central place, browse them trough evernote, and then find then find the original quickly trough the aforementioned tag.

 

Is there a workflow to achieve this ? I couldn't find a guid or number or something alike in the web or desktop client.

 

IMO/IME, I prefer to have two central places to store my important things - that whole not having all my eggs in one basket thing.  So I keep copies on my hard drive & add copies to Evernote.  What I do is when scanning, assign a meaningful file name.  IE my Cox cable bills are YYYYMMDD Cox where YYYYMMDD is the billing date.  I then copy that file to an import folder where the EN Windows desktop sweeps it into EN & assigns the note title to the file name or, in this case, YYYYMMDD Cox.pdf  (Mac doesn't have an import folder function but there is at least one option that board user Veritrope came up with.  Please search the board for more info, should you need it.)  I don't need to assign any tags or do anything else with this note.  If I want to find my Cox bill from May 2009, I simply go to Evernote, all notes & use the following search.  EN then quickly finds the one note I'm looking for out of my 60,000+ notes

 

intitle:Cox 200905*

[WillemD 0]

 

Hello,

 

I'm just starting with evernote, i would like to use evernote to digitize my current personal administration.

Is there anyway i can link the online stored notes to the physical documents ?

I would like to tag the physical document so that i can store all my important physical documents in a central place, browse them trough evernote, and then find then find the original quickly trough the aforementioned tag.

 

Is there a workflow to achieve this ? I couldn't find a guid or number or something alike in the web or desktop client.

 

IMO/IME, I prefer to have two central places to store my important things - that whole not having all my eggs in one basket thing.  So I keep copies on my hard drive & add copies to Evernote.  What I do is when scanning, assign a meaningful file name.  IE my Cox cable bills are YYYYMMDD Cox where YYYYMMDD is the billing date.  I then copy that file to an import folder where the EN Windows desktop sweeps it into EN & assigns the note title to the file name or, in this case, YYYYMMDD Cox.pdf  (Mac doesn't have an import folder function but there is at least one option that board user Veritrope came up with.  Please search the board for more info, should you need it.)  I don't need to assign any tags or do anything else with this note.  If I want to find my Cox bill from May 2009, I simply go to Evernote, all notes & use the following search.  EN then quickly finds the one note I'm looking for out of my 60,000+ notes

 

intitle:Cox 200905*

 

 

Hey BurgersNFries,

 

Thx for your reply.  

Am i understanding you correctly if I say that you mean "you don't need tags" ?

 

I want to be able to quickly locate the psychical document that i previously scanned into evernote. This is important when i need the authentic hard copy of the document ( think contracts, legal papers, etc... )

I was hoping to do this by means of a tag of some sort, If you have a solution without tags for that specific problem i would very much like to hear about it.

 

Gazumped's solutions seems to be a workable all tough i'm not entirely happy with it yet, i'de like to be able to use the tag to look up the document as well.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Hey BurgersNFries,

 

Thx for your reply.  

Am i understanding you correctly if I say that you mean "you don't need tags" ?

 

I want to be able to quickly locate the psychical document that i previously scanned into evernote. This is important when i need the authentic hard copy of the document ( think contracts, legal papers, etc... )

I was hoping to do this by means of a tag of some sort, If you have a solution without tags for that specific problem i would very much like to hear about it.

 

Gazumped's solutions seems to be a workable all tough i'm not entirely happy with it yet, i'de like to be able to use the tag to look up the document as well.

It's not that I never use tags.  But in the case of important docs (as well as a lot of other things), I don't use tags b/c I don't need them b/c I've used a descriptive title for the note.  In my example, I didn't need to use a tag b/c EN's search grammar allows me to find my note (and the scanned document contained in the note).

 

I want to be able to quickly locate the psychical document that i previously scanned into evernote. This is important when i need the authentic hard copy of the document ( think contracts, legal papers, etc... )

I was hoping to do this by means of a tag of some sort, If you have a solution without tags for that specific problem i would very much like to hear about it.

I already gave you an example, above.  Use a descriptive title.  Add keywords to the note, if necessary & then utilize EN's powerful search engine.  IE,

 

"BNF birth certificate" is my birth certificate

"MRB birth certificate" is my husband's

 

I don't need to tag these with anything b/c all the pertinent information is in the title of the note.  Take a look at EN's search grammar here:

 

http://dev.evernote.com/documentation/cloud/chapters/search_grammar.php

[WillemD 0]

 

I want to be able to quickly locate the psychical document that i previously scanned into evernote. This is important when i need the authentic hard copy of the document ( think contracts, legal papers, etc... )

I was hoping to do this by means of a tag of some sort, If you have a solution without tags for that specific problem i would very much like to hear about it.

I already gave you an example, above.  Use a descriptive title.  Add keywords to the note, if necessary & then utilize EN's powerful search engine.  IE,

 

"BNF birth certificate" is my birth certificate

"MRB birth certificate" is my husband's

 

I don't need to tag these with anything b/c all the pertinent information is in the title of the note.  Take a look at EN's search grammar here:

 

http://dev.evernote.com/documentation/cloud/chapters/search_grammar.php

 

 

Thank you again for your elaborate response. I'm not sure how can i use these descriptive titles to locate the physical document in my real world file cabinet. Are you suggesting that i should sort all my physical notes by title i gave them in evernote ?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

Thank you again for your elaborate response. I'm not sure how can i use these descriptive titles to locate the physical document in my real world file cabinet. Are you suggesting that i should sort all my physical notes by title i gave them in evernote ?

By "real world file cabinet", if you mean a physical one, I can't help you there. You would need to have your own organizational scheme. I suppose you could assign numbers/letters to each drawer in your physical cabinet & go from there. I don't see much point in keeping most documents after they are scanned. IRS & insurance all accept scanned documents, so I don't keep things like that after they are scanned.  Of course some things like birth certificates & passports, you do keep. But the physical docs I keep are so few that it would be overkill to try to use EN to help me find them.

If you mean the scan of the document, the document is in the Evernote note.

[Analyst444 182]

WillemD - I thought I would weigh in with some ideas that you might want to consider.

 

The issue you raised is a common one that surfaces for virtually anyone who keeps electronic records about physical documents. It is not unique to Evernote. - - - There are a variety of ways to deal with this issue and each has its pros and cons. I highly recommend that you try some approach on a small scale in attempt to firm up what works best for you.

 

gazumped suggested including an indication of the physical storage unit (for example, FC1 for file cabinet 1) in your document ID. The advantage to that is that it will speed up your search for a physical document. The disadvantage is that if you ever change where you store your physical documents (like split them up), you would need to go back and re-touch ever physical and electronic document and change the ID.

 

BurgerNFries suggested using EN Titles with a format like YYYYMMDD Cox. The advantage to this is that probably minimizes the time it takes you to find the electronic version of a specific type of document (for example, Cox bills). However, what if you have other Cox documents, like contracts, or letters you sent to Cox complimenting them on their service.

 

I suggest that what you do is to first forget about Evernote (or whatever electronic system you are going to use for locating physical documents) and focus on how you are going to arrange your physical documents. The reason I say that it because Evernote's search functions are so good, you will spend a lot more time finding the physical documents than you will searching for their electronic counter parts on Evernote.

 

Here's are 3 starting questions for you and ideas for answering them:

 

(1) What physical documents are you going to want to store and find at a later date? - - - You partially answered that with "think contract, legal documents". So, finish off the list in your mind or on a piece paper. I've got about 6 filing cabinet drawers of physical documents that I started many years ago BE (Before Evernote). I'll bet there aren't 5% of them that I ever look at. - - - BurgerNFires sounds like she's got a great system for scanning documents, but if you're not going to ever reference them, why invest the money for the equipment and software. I find that a large portion of the documents I receive can be found on the Internet if I ever need to reference them. Banks, cable/satellite TV providers, utility companies, and others provide past statements and other information at their web sites. - - - So, spend the time firming up a list of what physical documents you will want to reference in the future. 

 

(2) Will you typically want to find specific, individual physical documents or a "collection" of physical documents which are the same type or have some common attribute? If you almost always will be looking for specific, individual physical documents, then a simple sequential numbering scheme (1, 2, 3, etc.) would likely work well and put the physical documents one after each other in your physical storage area. More common is that a person wants to find all physical documents which have some common attribute. So, when you say, "think contract, legal documents", what are you thinking? Will you be typically searching for all physical contracts, regardless of client, or would you be typically searching for all physical documents (contracts, legal documents, letters, etc.) for a specific client? This is a critical issue. It is also complicated by the fact that you probably have multiple kinds of physical documents and the answer may vary from kind to kind. - - - So, spend some extra time thinking this through. - - - If you conclude that you will be typically looking for a "collection" of physical documents, then you will probably do well to store each "collection" in its own folder or envelop.

 

(3) If you conclude you will be (or already are) organizing your physical documents into "collections", then ask yourself whether sequence of documents within the folder or envelop is important or not. I think there are two common methods for sequence: By date or by type of document.

 

Once you have firmed up your answers to those 3 questions, then you can decide how to use Evernote. If you are going to be searching for specific, individual physical documents, then maybe all you need in their EN electronic version of the document is a document ID number (which you put on the physical document, too). If you are going to be searching by "collection", and perhaps sequence within a collection, then you need to decide what information to put in EN's Note Title, in a Note's Tags, or in the body of the Note to identity storage are, the physical "collection", document type, and/or specific document (ID?) within the "collection".

 

I hope you feel my response is helpful

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

BurgerNFries suggested using EN Titles with a format like YYYYMMDD Cox. The advantage to this is that probably minimizes the time it takes you to find the electronic version of a specific type of document (for example, Cox bills). However, what if you have other Cox documents, like contracts, or letters you sent to Cox complimenting them on their service.

Since I'm not a psychotic person and the average number of letters/contracts per year I have with Cox in the 30+ years of being their customer is less than one, the chances of multiple notes is slim.  However, if there are more, we're talking about one or two at most in any given YYYYMM.  And it would take about three seconds to find the one that is the bill.

 

OTOH, if I were a psychotic person who wrote 3 to 4 letters to Cox every day, then yes, this search would yield 100+ notes for Cox for a specific YYYYMM.  But since I put bills in one notebook & letters in another, in that case, I would isolate my search to the bills notebook. 

 

To take this a step further, it would be fairly easy to refine my search of the letters & contracts.  Contracts would have the word 'contract' in the title & letters would have the word 'letter' in the note title.  If I'm writing 3-4 letters each day, I can refine the search further by either searching on a date or date range (a couple of ways to do that) or subject (keyword).  There are a lot of tools (notebooks, tags, descriptive titles & keywords) you can use with EN's search to quickly refine a search of many notes so that you can quickly find the one or two you may be looking for.  Of my 60,000+ notes, I'd guess less than half have tags.