Scanning Station

As a result of my recent retirement and things learnt in a webinar this week I am getting serious about scanning.

Filing is not my forte; I have been a little lax lately as I knew retirement was approaching and that I  soon would have lots of time to sort out papers. The result is a safety hazard on my study floor ie a couple of boxes of papers for filing.  When I receive a paper document or photograph I usually add any data I can glean to my database and toss the resource into a cardboard box for filing in my genealogy folders.

I had intended putting all of this in order, filing it and, at some later date, scanning the contents of all my folders. I now realise that that would mean double handling of the unfiled docs. So I made a decision to scan all of those docs before I filed them away. With this decision made I had to think about scanning. I need to make it easy for myself to do this task or my good intentions will fly out the window.

My Flip-Pal Mobile scanner is good for scanning when I am out and about or for things I need to email in a hurry but it doesn't scan in tiff format. The need to scan in tiff was reinforced in the webinar this week. That means that I should use my desktop scanner which, although it is a few years old, does a sterling job. Since moving to Windows Vista I have had numerous problems with the scanner and laptop crashing. I bit the bullet and downloaded new drivers for the scanner this week but that didn't help the situation.

Then I remembered my netbook that sits on a shelf when I am not travelling. This tech toy runs Windows XP. I wondered if it would have the guts to deal with large scanning jobs. I downloaded the drivers, plugged in the scanner, did two scans (after which the Vista laptop crashes), held my breath and kept on scanning for a couple of hours. I tried again the next day and it worked like a dream.

Hey presto, I now have a permanent scanning station set up in my study so there is no excuse for not scanning documents when they arrive.

I already have a filing system set up for soft copies of documents on an external drive (backed up to another external drive). So all I have to do is save the new scans into a folder "Genealogy scans to be sorted", rename them, plug the hard drive into the netbook and transfer them into their appropriate folders.

And while the scanner groans as it scans huge tiff files I can paly on my shiny new toy.

Top 10 End-of-Decade Netbooks

It is over two years snce I acquired my first ASUS netbook. I have since replaced it with a later model and would like to upgrade again.

A netbook is one of my essential genealogical tools on which I carry my database in a copy of TMG. It fits snugly in my large handbag when I travel. As well as providing me with a means of keeping in touch via internet and email it allows ready access to my genealaogy database. I also use my smartphone for internet, email and reading RSS feeds but find that the netbook's larger screen size makes for easier access to familydata.

Listed in this article are the top ten netbooks nominated by APC. If you travel and don't have a netbook now is the time to rectify that situation.

Top 10 End-of-Decade Netbooks

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Netbooks

I got my hands on an ASUS Eee PC last year in the first week they were available in Australia. I took it on a trip to Canada and loved it. It was lightweight and fitted in my handbag, I was able to use it to connect to wireless networks in hotels and airports and keep in contact with family and the world by email and Skype. I won't be carrying a brick of a laptop on travels any more.

I upgraded a few months ago to an Eee PC 900 that runs Windows. This netbook has also had a trip to the US and Canada.

But what of genealogy? A month ago I installed my genealogy software, The Master Genealogist, onto the Eee PC and it is working a treat. I am about to set off on a trip to the country and will be able to take my database with me on the Netbook. As protection I have emailed the latest backup of my project to myself at Gmail so that, if I have a problem on the road, I can retrieve my data.

Previously, when travelling, I had The Pocket Genealogist software on my PDA but I found the tiny screen size meant lots of scrolling. Now I need only one program and one device and I don't have to bother about synching data.

Since the EeePC was developed many other netbooks have come on the market; ACER, HP and Dell now all have similar machines. These inexpensive computers are perfect for genealogists on the move.