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27May/11Off

Paper fights back + Planetary

Week 3 of Paperlessness with iPad is over. I continue to rely on AwesomeNote as my virtual filing system / scrapbook and to do list. Notes Plus continues as my preferred handwritten note taking tool. I also make some use of email and calendaring.

Citrix on the iPad has turned out to be less useable than I had hoped, mainly because of the incompatibility between the iPad touch UI and the Windows UI which is being controlled. If Apple was to enable Bluetooth mouse support I think this could be a different story.

As the title of this post suggests, paper has been fighting back! I have been handed all sorts of printouts in and from meetings, and by workmates passing work to me. In some cases, this is just the sensible thing to do. Ie when I have taken on work resulting from a meeting where the attendees marked up copies of documents, it just makes sense to take those notes to work from. I think until everyone is working from a compatble paperless device, this will just be the way it is.

I am not signaling surrender or failure by any means! I have greatly reduced my own paper usage and consumption, and am much more aware of the volumes of paper in use around the office, which is a good thing.

The exercise has also forced me to be serious in my dedication to effective use of the iPad as a paper alternative - a habit formed which I hope to perpetuate.

Planetary

Planetary is a fun, artistic, intuitive, visually appealing and free app, which acts as a visual interface to your iTunes library. The best way to understand it is to try it out.

Until next time - fight the paperless fight!

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17May/11Off

2 Weeks Paperless (with some minor exceptions)

I'm now two weeks into my paperless experiment. On the work front it's going great - just today I attended a three hour workshop where I viewed a multiple-page excel spreadsheet (via DocsToGo), and a large PowerPoint deck (via Keynote) on my iPad, instead of the multiple-page paper print outs used by the other attendees.

With multi-tasking I was able to quickly, switch over to Notes Plus for taking handwritten notes with a stylus. I'll file the notes later in AwesomeNote for easy retrieval when required.

All in all, I am finding the experiment to be very successful. While I've had to break the habit of reaching for the print button, I now feel a little like a recovering addict who has kicked his paper addiction... And it feels good.

Confessions? Ok, I forgot and pulled out a pen to scribble a note on a napkin yesterday (I then remembered and typed the note into my iPad). I also printed something for a colleague, on request (which sort of fits within my guidelines - I don't want to be a pedantic Pratt).

At home, shopping lists are on the iPhone, planning is on the iPad. All pretty good.

@Home confessions:
1. I am not planning to use any Apple device to replace toilet paper, yet.
2. Wrapping paper, birthday cards... Still use them
3. Ok, I still get snail mail of various varieties... I may switch bank statements to electronic form, but some people just want to send me paper... Sigh.

Still, I think I'm becoming living proof that the paperless offices notasfar fetched as it might seem, when a device as useful and accessible as the iPad (with the all important 10 hours battery life) is available.

Till next time ... :-)

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10May/11Off

Update on Paperlessness – Paperless Newspaper

This is now week 2 of my Paperless month with the iPad. Things are working out very well at work, and the combination of AwesomeNote as an electronic binder, along with Notes Plus for handwritten notes, is working out very well.

Below you can see some screen images from Notify, a Notes Plus competitor. Notify does have at least one feature I'd like to see in Notes Plus, which is a variable zoom drawing window. For general look and feel and usability, however, I still prefer Notes Plus for day to day use.

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I also wanted to mention here a Paperless newspaper reader, PressReader, introduced to me by a work colleague. For those who like to access their full daily paper, without the paper, PressReader does a fantastic job of providing access to thousands of international titles at a fee of US$0.99 per edition, or an "all you can eat" fee of around US$30 per month.

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3May/11Off

Good Looking Paperless Organising with AwesomeNote

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The Main AwesomeNote Page

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AwesomeNote Note with Text and an Embedded Image

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3May/11Off

Day 1 Paperless @ Work

Today was my first paperless workday (Monday being a public holiday here in Brisbane for labour day).

The apps that got the most use today were:
- AwesomeNote for ToDo lists (and for reviewing older notes stored in a categorized / dated format)
- NotesPlus for general handwritten note taking.
- iOS Email client for sending myself documents.
- iPad Camera, for turning paper offered to me by other people into digital form.

I definitely found the lack of hardcopy annoying at times, especially when I wanted to work through lists in emails - I usually print them and then scratch out completed items. I had planned to replicate this using a PDF markup app, but then found my client-provided desktop provided no way for me to save-as or print-to PDF. I'll have to keep working on that one.

Apart from grabbing the free afternoon newspaper (and then putting it back when I remembered!!), I think all up it was a pretty successful first day of paperlessness.*

*note: I'm starting my paperless month from today, May 3 through to June 3. (I think I'm going to have an issue on Mothers' Day - I have to wrap presents and give a card!!

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2May/11Off

STM ‘skinny’ case & PhatPad for text entry

While I wait for my Portenzo case to turn up, I decided I needed a case so I could use the iPad without worrying about scratches. While the Apple cover is cute and clever, it offers no protection for the back of the device. I had a bit of a look online but couldnt really find anything suitable. 

On the day the iPad got delivered I discovered the 'stm skinny - for iPad 2' in JB Hi Fi in Brisbane CBD. 

stm skinny

the stm skinny

I snapped up the case straight away. It offers full front and back protection for the device, as well as the same auto on/off feature as the Apple cover. 

Truth be told, if I had discovered this case first I might have given the Portenzo case a miss. Anyway, what's done is done, and I'm sure I'll get plenty of use from both cases (That is, when the Portenzo case eventually arrives). 

As a side note, the text for this entire post (ie excluding formatting and hyperlinks) was written using handwriting text entry mode in the PhatPad app. This is a mode I used to use extensively on my Windows Tablet PC with Window's system wide inking and text recognition (Hello Apple...feature request for iOS). PhatPad does a great job of emulating that feature. To me, this is a much faster, more natural, and less intrusive way to take notes during a business meeting, while still providing the advantage of having the result as fully editable text notes. 

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PhatPad handwriting text entry

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