Now that I'm back from my world tour and am beginning to settle down to address the piles of snail mail, email, junk mail and phone messages that are scattered throughout the office, I've decided to make some major improvements in my organizational life.

Have you ever found yourself lost in a clutter of paperwork that seems to be insurmountable? When you try to find a document that you thought was right in front of you, do you start to pull out your hair? Well then this article is for you.

Wouldn't it be nice to take the majority of paperwork on your desk and archive it for permanent reference on your computer? Fujitsu's Scansnap S510 home office/ small business scanner allows users to easily protect, preserve and share their printed documents. With a 50 sheet document feeder and a color scanning speed of up to 18 pages per minute it can scan both sides of a document simultaneously.

Hang on, that's only the beginning. With the push of a single button this well designed scanner can save your documents to searchable pdf files or import them directly into Microsoft Word and allow you to edit them, even though your original was not in a digital format. The package includes a copy of Adobe Acrobat 8.0 standard (a $299.00 value). In addition, the included ABBYY FineReader® optical recognition software (OCR) makes simple work of converting text from scanned images into editable documents as well as Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint files. It even has an option to recognize and automatically delete blank pages.

Although this unit is not designed for reproducing high quality photos, it is unbeatable for scanning business documents. Once you complete the scanning process the OCR process can be completed at any time, even when you're not at the computer. The beauty of this is that once the process is complete, you can search for any scanned document based on words found within the document's content. While you're at it, consider scanning your important personal documents and storing a copy on a USB drive. Make sure to keep your in a safe place such as your safe deposit box, so that they are available for emergency access.

I frequently use the unit to scan paper documents and email them to colleagues and clients. You can even protect your scanned email attachments with a password.

Another great feature allows users to organize their business cards by scanning them directly into the included CardMinder^TM database application. CardMinder captures information written in 8 languages from scanned business card images and stores this information in an easily accessible format.

Setup is a snap (no pun intended). Install the software, plug in the USB connector and power supply and off you go. It won't automatically clean your desk but it's the next best thing.

Street price - under $400. after $50. rebate - well worth it.

Now let's address the clutter inside of your PC. Did you know that your hard disk scatters fragmented pieces of information throughout the drive platter? Every time you add or delete a file you increase the mess. In time, this slows down your computer and can cause a variety of problems that may show up in your data or in your applications

A good defragmentation program can head off problems before they occur. At the same time a regular cleaning can increase performance as well as reliability and make your system boot faster. Even your antivirus scans and backups will take less time.

Recently I began using Diskeeper 2008 and the results have been impressive, even on a new machine with very little software installed. You may remember a past article where I quoted a technician who said "Your hard disk will die!" An ounce of prevention is worth a whole lot of time spent on tech support and recovery. Diskeeper software comes in three versions:

$29.95 for the home user - 1 machine (recommended for basic users only)

$49.95 professional - 1 machine - which includes Frag Shield^TM 2.0, a program that prevents critical system files from becoming fragmented.

$99.95 pro premier - 1 machine - this version includes the companies IFAAST technology which sequences files on your computer based on usage. Diskeeper claims that this can improve performance by 10-80% more than standard defragmentation.

The products all offer an "install it and let it go" mode which automatically defragments your disk in the background without any noticeable degradation on system resources. A free 30 day trial is available at www.diskeeper.com.

When is a good backup program not enough? Previously in Sharing Ideas I addressed the need for backing up your hard disk on a regular basis. This often neglected practice can help you avoid critical data loss and severe heart ache. Did you know that a vast percentage of recoveries fail? According to a lead technician that I recently spoke with at EMC, the creators of Retrospect backup software, a backup can be corrupt without yielding error messages warning of a potential problem. This can happen for a variety of reasons including corrupt data on the original drive, hardware and software problems, etc.

There are two important things to consider when creating a backup. One is making sure that your data files are duplicated and the other is backing up your system files so that the computer can be recovered without the need to individually reload each application along with related updates.

Theoretically, programs that do both functions may not always allow for complete recovery and it's amazing how many people are shocked to find out that their recovery didn't work. The EMC technician suggested that in addition to creating a regular backup of data an image copy of the drive should also be done on a recurring basis.

An image copy makes an exact image of the drive and is less likely to suffer from partial corruption, if the original files are in good working order. Popular image copy programs include Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image.

I recently tried to recover my laptop from an external backup and learned the hard way that the backup was corrupt. An additional backup that I kept offsite was also unable to recover my files. Based on this experience I strongly recommend that you keep all of your data files on a separate internal or external disk from your system files. This will allow you to easily back up your data separately from your operating system.

It is a good idea to spot check your backup files on a regular basis. Periodically rename a data folder to foldername.old and restore the directory from your backup. If your data appears to be fine, you have a high probability that your data recovery will work. If your system files get corrupted by spyware, etc. you can always reinstall the operating system and then access your files from the data drive.

Nothing can guarantee that your files will never become corrupted, but by: utilizing a defrag program; and segregating your data; and implementing an onsite and offsite backup plan you can adjust the odds in your favor. Since your data folder may be relatively small, consider making a copy on a USB drive and then place it in the vault for safe keeping. As an absolute alternative you can always try a data recovery service such as www.ontrack.com, however be prepared to pay dearly for your lack of disaster planning.

If you have interesting tools or techniques that you would like to share, I'd really like to hear about them.  Please contact me c/o:

David Larner
9420 Reseda Blvd. Suite 610
Northridge, Calif. 91324
(818) 986-7200

or email Speaker@pacbell.net

For booking information phone Michael MacFarlane, Walters International Speakers Bureau (818) 335-8069

To be continued.

If you have interesting tools or techniques that you would like to share, I'd really like to hear about it.