Ask HN: What do you use for your personal document hell?

50 点作者 sidarok超过 3 年前

My SO uses iPhone and I use Android, I think we'll both soon go mad with all the pictures of the documents sent to post that we have to take a digital action for.Contracts, Appliance Invoices, insurance, Kids' documents, Receipts, Fines, government documents, bills, tickets, passes etc. Are basically taking ages to find, even if we were wise to take a picture would take ages to refind.I have both OneDrive and Dropbox, the UX is horrible for these simple searches. I know that Shoebox exists, but paying at least 18$ a month for wanting to store my documents on my phone in a neat way looks to much of a demand for me. (and that has a limitation). I'm not even asking for a fancy OCR.Is there an app out there for this? What do you use?

21 条评论

tacostakohashi超过 3 年前

I use (two levels of) directories, and filenames:appliances/fridge/2018-01-03-purchase-receipt.pdfappliances/oven/2019-11-18-repair-invoice.pdfmedical/insurance/2022-02-03-insurance-card.pdfautomotive/registration/2022-09-10-registration.pdfautomotive/tickets/2019-09-10-parking.pdfphone/t-mobile/2020-01-14.pdfphone/pixel5a/2021-03-14.pdfWith two directory levels, you should be able to organize it so that all the top level directories fit on one screen of ls output / file explorer or whatever you want to use, as well as each second level.I always prefix the filenames with YYYY-MM-DD, and I add a suffix with any extra keywords that might be helpful or to disambiguate several things from the same day, but in many cases it's obvious if the directory is just full of one bill per month or whatever, in which case I just do the YYYY-MM-DD.ext filename.The system is largely optimized for having a place/filename to store things without too much thought, rather than retrieval since 90+% of things you store never actually need to look at again, and I don't mind clicking around for a few minutes for the rare occurrence when I do need something.If you put this structure in google drive or similar you'll get OCR + keyword searches on the filenames for free, but you can also just sync it to any local filesystem to use "manually", or upgrade to the next latest and greatest cloud storage or whatever.

评论 #30238089 未加载

评论 #30237740 未加载

darnir超过 3 年前

Paperless-ng (<a href="https://github.com/jonaswinkler/paperless-ng" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jonaswinkler/paperless-ng</a>) is the way to go. I have an instance of it running on a RPI 4 and a network attached scanner. New documents that I need stored are either immediately scanned using the app on my phone (And its free software, get it from FDroid) or via the actual scanner which obviously gives better quality.Paperless then OCRs the documents and stores the original and a PDF/A version for long term archival. It learns from my tagging and classification and auto classifies them in the future.The web interface is also pretty slick and allows you to do full text search on all your documents really fast.Tagging and categories is also a more superior form of organisation than simple folders.

评论 #30241874 未加载

simonblack超过 3 年前

There's a reason a lot of us still use computers for documents rather than swamp our phones with documents.I separate documents that are concerned with income, expenses and taxes into financial-year folders, further subdivided into a tree-structure of named folders.<pre><code> 2022/bills_statements/centrepoint801/801_water_211026.pdf 2022/bills_statements/centrepoint801/amart_tv_unit_210816.pdf 2022/bills_statements/centrepoint801/cpoint801_ergon_210731.pdf </code></pre> I have separate tree-structured folders for documents concerned with (say) real-estate properties, medical (separate tree-structures for me and for my wife), legal documents, motor vehicles, etc, etc, etc.<pre><code> medical/jack/jack_respiratory_2019-/bretz_referral_200213.pdf medical/jack/jack_respiratory_2019-/jack_bretz_info_consent_191030.pdf medical/jack/jack_respiratory_2019-/jack_patient_details_bretz_191030.pdf medical/jack/jack_respiratory_2019-/jack_191125_bretz.pdf real_estate_ours/marquis/marquis_504_market_appraisal_TS_220203.pdf real_estate_ours/kamerunga_6/steel-line_garage_door_user_manual.pdf real_estate_ours/york/obrien_real_estate_commision_york_131004.pdf </code></pre> By making the filenames and the folder-names descriptive, and running a file-name indexing utility twice every day I can find a document quite quickly.I store most documents as .PDF files, photos as .PNG images. I include a date if relevant using a 6-digit YEAR-MONTH-DAY format which will normally automatically order documents by date when useful.<pre><code> 2020/antonas/clovelly_even/20cre190731.pdf 2020/antonas/clovelly_even/20cre190830.pdf 2020/antonas/clovelly_even/20cre190930.pdf 2020/antonas/clovelly_even/20cre191031.pdf </code></pre> It should go without saying that all documents are automatically backed-up into several separate locations at least once daily.Incoming 'paper' documents are scanned too and stored along with similar computer-generated documents.

g8oz超过 3 年前

The Johnny decimal system is a handy way to organize these type of life admin documents. Can be used with any service since it's just a concept.

评论 #30247531 未加载

评论 #30240273 未加载

softwarebeware超过 3 年前

No nah nope. You don’t need an app for this. You need the classic hierarchical file system and good folder and file names. I put it all in a VeraCrypt volume so it’s secure if the device is lost or stolen.

评论 #30240301 未加载

Andaith超过 3 年前

I'm in the process of setting up paperless-ng.<a href="https://github.com/jonaswinkler/paperless-ng" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jonaswinkler/paperless-ng</a>

评论 #30239060 未加载

评论 #30240761 未加载

评论 #30238547 未加载

dhruvkar超过 3 年前

This is basically what I've done.1. Buy a Fujitsu ScanSnap.2. Buy a wall mounted folder rack (something like this: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Klickpick-Office-Organizer-Multipurpose-Newspapers/dp/B07B3SJ25R" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Klickpick-Office-Organizer-Multipurpo...</a>) and mount it near the scanner.3. All paper, put in the folder when it comes in.4. Once a week, scan everything in the folders. Scanner turns paper into OCR'd PDF.5. Set the scanner to scan to a Dropbox folder.6. I name my files YYYY.MM.DD_Organization_DocTitle. The rest can be searched for since it's OCR'd.

evanlivingston超过 3 年前

I use a printer, a filing cabinet, hanging folders and manila file folders. I could never dream of doing anything else.

评论 #30237523 未加载

评论 #30238050 未加载

mackatsol超过 3 年前

Scan everything to searchable pdf, store it in a simple folder structure.. and use Mac or iOS spotlight to search for things. To make it a little less work for some things I have Hazel (Mac file automation app) watch my downloads folder for pdfs. If the contents match a set of unique things, like my electricity account, provider name, number and so on.. then the file gets renamed and moved to the correct folder. I download the pdf version after paying the bill, so there’s never any confusion. I used to have Hazel rename and move to desktop and I’d file manually once paid. As for folder structures and file names, I use 2022/Hydro/2022-01-26 Hydro bill.pdf Everything lives in sync.com (similar to Dropbox etc, but better security) and accessible on all my devices.

donglebix超过 3 年前

We've tried keeping our hundreds of docs organised to no avail but what has worked for us for some time now is to describe that document as well as possible in the title :Eg: Ju brazilian Birth cert translation + original 2019.pdfThen we just have Everything running in the back ground and search for whatever we need using that as it indexes all your files in real time and is very lightweight.Everything is lighting quick when it comes to filtering a list of file names so we usually find what we need in a couple of seconds... Super easy to pull up too as they offer a global short cut key. Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E in our case...<a href="https://www.voidtools.com/en-au/support/everything/" rel="nofollow">https://www.voidtools.com/en-au/support/everything/</a>

MrWiffles超过 3 年前

I don’t know if there’s an Android version, but I use “Scanner Pro” by Readdle on my iPhone to scan physical documents, then use airdrop to move them to my Mac where I later file them under ~/Docs/ORGNAME/YYYY-MM-DD with some description of what it is by at the end of the file name.Looking at the settings just now, there’s an auto-upload option in there I haven’t taken advantage of yet, that allows for popular sync services as well as WebDAV. Which means I could configure this to auto upload docs to my NAS. I need to get on that…Anyway, that app is pretty great in my experience. I think it even does OCR when converting to PDF automatically.

somenewaccount1超过 3 年前

I often want to build a camera app that makes sub-foldering easy. Such that when you open the app, a folder icon is there and quickly allows you to set the folder for pictures your about to take. It would have a timer option too, so you can save 'the next 4 hours are so-and-so's party.But primarily, the icon brings up a quick menu of favorite folders, more folders, or new folder.Do you think that would that be of use to you?

评论 #30240771 未加载

deanmoriarty超过 3 年前

I use Google Drive for everything in a simple folder hierarchy with meaningful folder and file names. I keep everything there once scanned: medical, financial, taxes, housing, legal, … The folder structure makes it very easy to browse when search doesn’t work. The iOS app works great.Backup every couple months with Takeout in case I get locked out.

Froedlich超过 3 年前

I put document scans in a directory and name them something relevant, like "2021 state tax return". Only takes a few seconds to find anything I need.I have both on-site and off-site backups; I have no desire to put personal information of that sort on anyone's web server.

Irongirl1超过 3 年前

I have this article by a Czech coder named Vas3k: <a href="https://vas3k.com/blog/nocode/" rel="nofollow">https://vas3k.com/blog/nocode/</a>I saved it for another reason, but in it he solves for "X". Maybe it will help you.

评论 #30238022 未加载

GrifMD超过 3 年前

I personally store everything in I cloud following a similar directory structure as tacostakohashi (elsewhere in the thread), though it seems like Google Drive might work for y'all as your split across iOS and Android.

runjake超过 3 年前

I just scan everything into a folder on iCloud Drive with SwiftScan (which also does OCR) and use macOS and iOS Spotlight to find stuff.Seems to work pretty well. I have to refer to receipts in it all the time.

评论 #30262918 未加载

stormbeard超过 3 年前

My photographed documents go on Google Photos and I can just use the image search. I pay for it and don’t really care if Google sees it all- I get what I need.

评论 #30238173 未加载

mikebos超过 3 年前

Mac only solution but I just use DEVONthink and their mobile app. Works like a charm.

dddw超过 3 年前

Mainly a reference folder on a webshare. But was considering paperless-ng lately

Funkhauser超过 3 年前

Evernote