No matter WHAT do, I seem to get overwhelmed by paper. It comes in every crack and crevice (sort of like the letter from Hogwarts to Harry Potter in Book I).
While I admit to having some stacks still lurking, I thought I would share a few of my favorite easy to use technologies that are helping me tame to paper overload. I have actually had all these parts in pieces in my home office for a while and just recently sat down to figure out how to make them all work together.
Key Ingredients:
A computer. In this case I am using an Intel vPro™ desktop running Windows 7.
HP Officejet Pro 8500 A909g Series WiFi multifunction printer
Western Digital My Book World Edition 1 TB Network Attached Storage WDH1NC10000N
These three devices are connected to a Cisco Linksys E1000 WiFi Router although this will work with any WiFi network. The PC and the My Book are connected directly via Ethernet and the Printer is in my husband’s office down the hall connected via Wi-Fi.
Follow the manufacturers directions for attaching each device to your network. Once the devices are connected this is where the magic begins.
Starting with the My Book, launch WD Discovery (which you should have installed as part of setting up the drive) and “Map Network Drive.” You may have done this step already.
Say YES to automatically map the drives and the wizard will walk you through assigning drive letters. Feel free to go into Configure and customize the drive folders, etc. but for the purposes of this example, we are just using the defaults.
This will result in 2 network folders that you can now access via clicking on Computer in Explorer.
I suggest creating a folder structure for the types of paperwork you are planning on scanning and storing. Make a note of the drives actually name and the folders you are wanting to use.
Example:
\\MyBookWorld\Public\Scans\Receipts
\\MyBookWorld\Public\Scans\Taxes
\\MyBookWorld\Public\Scans\Correspondence
\\MyBookWorld\Public\Scans\Bills
Next, go to your Windows Start menu and navigate to Devices and Printers. Find your Printer, right click and select Properties. Click the Hardware tab and toward the bottom you will see a URL. In this case it’s http://192.168.1.111/ (ignore the information after the colon, in this case :3910). By double clicking on the URL, it will be highlighted and you can copy it to your clipboard by right-clicking and selecting copy.
Open your Internet Browser and type or paste in the URL.
Your printer will graciously present you with the following webpage:
The option we are most interested is the Scan to Network Folder Setup option under Digital Filing. (I highly recommend configuring your Scan to E-mail Setup as well. The setup wizard is easy to follow.)
Once you Click Scan to Network Folder Setup you will click the 
button. Fill out all of the fields using the pathnames you defined above (i.e. \\MyBookWorld\Public\Scans\Receipts), including whatever password you configured for your My Book.
Once you have saved your settings, you will now be able to go to your printer and the locations you set up will be available on the printer’s scan menu.
Do a test scan and Voila! You are on your way to digitizing your filing!
If my explanations are missing something, please do not hesitate to post a comment and I will get you an answer!
Happy decluttering…
~Maven
