As work toward creating a paperless office, I'm coming to the conclusion that Acrobat is a necessity. Not the free version but the multiple hundreds of dollars standard version. This isn't a problem for me because my ScanSnap came with Acrobat 7 Standard. I was hoping to find that there was enough capabilities built into OS X or free tools to have something less expensive to recommend. Here are the things that I can't find good ways to do outside of Acrobat: Rearrange Pages - And Acrobat isn't great at this, but I can extract, remove, rearrange, or add pages as needed. In 7 it isn't particularly user friendly, but it is a whole lot easier than any other way I've found to handle … [Read more...] about Is Acrobat a Necessity for a Paperless Office?
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Tuesday’s Tip: Throw Away Those Extra Pens
If you are like most people you probably have a coffee cup or pencil holder full of writing instruments sitting on your desk. If you are like me, a good percentage of those pens and pencils are ones that you don't like and will likely never use. So why are you letting them still clutter up your desk? Go ahead and throw them out or give them away. If you have things on your desk that you never use it just introduces visual "noise" into your work environment and a bunch of pens and pencils that you dislike aren't going to do anything to help you be more productive. My problem is that my pen and pencil holder is full of things that my wife likes and that I hate. I don't like cheap bic … [Read more...] about Tuesday’s Tip: Throw Away Those Extra Pens
Habit List Course Beta
As I mentioned before, I'm testing some email based courses as an added feature here at Productivity501. I have a very limited test going on for the Procrastination Prevention course right now. The second course I'm working on is for the Habit List. I know many people downloaded the Habit List, printed it out and promptly buried it under a pile of other papers. The course helps walk you through the different uses of the Habit List by sending you a very very short email for 10 days. The idea of the course is to help motivate people to actually use the tool simply by keeping it on their mind for a week and a half. I'm going to do a slightly larger test for this course. You can … [Read more...] about Habit List Course Beta
Mozy Backup
I have been looking for a good online backup solution. The idea is that your computer keeps track of any changes you make and automatically uploads them to a secure server. If your hard drive goes bad, it is a simple matter to download all of your data. I am experimenting with a few different services. One of the ones I tried is called Mozy and I finally gave up on it. It is nice in theory, but they just haven't figured out how to make it work on OS X. I've heard some people say they have had good results with the Windows version. Their business model is to give you unlimited backup of a single computer for $4.95 per month. Once you get a complete backup, Mozy just uploads the … [Read more...] about Mozy Backup
Help Me Understand the Subprime Mess
I don't understand the subprime mess. I mean I understand the idea that if you try to loan a bunch of people money who are likely to default (bad credit, poor financial skills, etc.), then you have a high chance of them ... well, defaulting. That part makes sense, but the way it is causing problems for banks doesn't make sense to me. This isn't a standard productivity post, so feel free to skip this one if it doesn't interest you. It is more of a personal question to my readers who more more financially savvy than me. If you find financial markets interesting--and especially if you understand them and care to leave a comment--please read on. So lets skip the whole part of the … [Read more...] about Help Me Understand the Subprime Mess
Using Acrobat to Sign Documents
Acrobat is capable of doing two types of signatures. Technically the best way is using a digital signature. Not only can the signature show that you signed it, but it can also prove that the document wasn't changed after you signed it. If you deal with a lot of people who use digital signatures, this is a great way to go. Personally when I sign something it is usually to fax or mail. While I like the digital signature idea I just don't interact with enough people who could actually use it. Originally I was signing documents in Acrobat by creating my own digital signature and then attaching an image to the signature. Acrobat will use the image anywhere you place the digital … [Read more...] about Using Acrobat to Sign Documents
Looking For Procrastinators
I am experimenting with a simple 10 email course designed to help break habitual procrastination. If you are interested in previewing the course and providing feedback, please send a a note to [email protected] and ask to try the Procrastination Prevention Course. At this point, I would ask that you only try it if you are willing to provide some feed back at then end and let me know what you liked and what you didn't. I'm looking for about 10 people to try it out. Edit: Well that didn't take long. :) I have everyone I need for testing. If you are interested but were not able to be part of the testing phase, keep an eye out for the official release in the near future. … [Read more...] about Looking For Procrastinators
One Laptop Per Child
The one laptop per child project really sounds like a great idea. Design a computer that can be mass produced for around $100 each, give them to millions of kids in developing countries, viola! instant smart kids. While there is a lot of value in learning how to use a computer while you are young, most of the true educational value won't come through the hardware itself. This type of mindset is very common when it comes to technology. People like to focus on the hardware instead of the software. Focusing on what a piece of equipment is theoretically capable of is a lot more exciting than focusing on how you can actually use it today. In the US educational system, there are many … [Read more...] about One Laptop Per Child
Initial Thoughts on OS X Leopard
I recently upgraded my laptop and it came with Leopard. Overall, it looks like it will be a nice operating system, but there are still some rough edges. Here are a few random initial thoughts. Stability - It doesn't seem as stable as 10.4 was. This will probably change over time, but I've had several odd issues that required a reboot to fix. For example, I couldn't get to the System Preferences until I rebooted. Another time I couldn't run the laptop with the case closed while hooked to an external monitor until I fiddled with the display settings, even though it had worked correctly 30 minutes before. If you are considering upgrading your existing machine, I would recommend waiting … [Read more...] about Initial Thoughts on OS X Leopard
Papers – Paperless Office for Academics
A helpful reader pointed me to Papers. It is a well thought out program for managing academic papers on OS X. I've looked it over briefly and it looks pretty impressive. It integrates with PubMed and other online repositories allowing you to search and download PDFs while autopopulating all the metadata fields. Papers also allows you to take notes as you read articles and keep them with the PDF. It seems to be setup for working with existing PDFs, so there doesn't seem to be an built in OCR capabilities. If you are looking for a way to organize your research Papers is worth checking out. … [Read more...] about Papers – Paperless Office for Academics