I’ve had papers all over my house for a long time. My file cabinets were overflowing and I had piles of paper everywhere. I had papers in my bedroom, the kitchen, Butler pantry, dining room, family room, living room and even the stairs! It was time to do something about it and I did.

I got a document scanner that is so easy to use and fast that I have been scanning hundreds of pages every day. I started with one pile and got through it so fast that I did another pile. I’ve been scanning another pile or two every day and while I still have a lot more to do, in just two weeks my house is much cleaner.

I got the Canon 220P scanner. This is the best scanner for home or office. The scanner is made for office use, but for people who can afford the cost (MSRP $2,195), the unique features available only on this scanner make it ideal for use at home.

Without going into too much detail here, this scanner is fast (26 pages per minute) and extremely easy to use. Because it’s so easy to use with its on-screen buttons, it makes scanning even faster. For those who like pretty high-tech looking gadgets, the 8.5 inch color screen is very pretty and makes this scanner look good anywhere in your house. Additionally, it has a very small footprint, taking up as much room as a small fax machine and less than a DVD player.

You can easily create many labeled on-screen buttons in different colors to provide simple one touch scanning that you can use on the 8.5 inch color touch screen. The on-screen buttons make scanning much faster because you can press one button on the scanner to scan papers in color, grayscale or black-and-white in different resolutions and for either one-sided or two-sided papers.

Without using one touch on-screen buttons, I would have to first go to my computer to access the scanner software and choose the desired resolution and color to scan the paper. The on-screen buttons allow me to scan any paper in different ways without going to my computer each time I scan. The on-screen buttons make scanning extremely easy and a considerable time saver.

The Canon 220P scanner will also scan two-sided documents in one pass because it has two scanners. Additionally, it is inexpensive to use and maintenance is a snap. There is only one inexpensive roller to replace. The roller lasts for 30,000 scans and is as easy and quick to replace as a battery.

Read more about the Canon ScanFront 220P at their website.

Another advantage of cleaning up my house is that I can now easily find scanned documents and the papers that are important to me are now safe and backed up online. You can now automatically back up your papers and files online for free. There is absolutely no catch, except that free accounts are limited to 2 GB storage. This is more than enough storage to backup all of your documents and even a lot of pictures. Open a FREE online backup account which even includes e-mail support!

Probably the most important software is software that can save you time. I have two all-time favorites for software to save your time. One of those is Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance. Why is Dragon Naturally Speaking my best pick?

Dragon was the first company (in the late 1970′s) to start producing dictation software.  Back then, it was called DragonDictate.  I became interested in Dragon around 1990 and a friend of mine purchased DragonDictate a couple of years later. Therefore, Dragon has the head start on the technology.

I’ve been using Dragon Naturally Speaking for several years now. I use it to dictate e-mails, legal papers, medical records, my entire website at HURT911.org which has almost 600 pages. PhilsBest.com is entirely written by dictating with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Dragon will type at up to 160 words per minute, just by dictating.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is unbelievably accurate right out-of-the-box with only several minutes of training.  While using it, you can correct errors and it just gets better and better. Don’t forget to periodically let Dragon understand your errors by going to Tools, Accuracy Center, Run the Acoustic and Language Model Optimizer.

Of course, Dragon can save you an enormous amount of time at home, but at work it can save even more. At work, I used to have a secretary type everything. The problem is I would have to proofread it. Proofreading, took more time than dictating. Even worse, after being corrected, I would have to proofread it again. With Dragon, I don’t need a secretary. I just dictate and proofread while I’m dictating. Of course, I also save a fortune by not having to pay a secretary.

Besides saving time, another big benefit is the stress it takes off my wrists. I used to have serious carpal tunnel pain. The pain disappeared after I began using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

A lot of people are writing on the Internet that Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, has a built-in speech engine which is “almost” as accurate as Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  I have two comments about this.  First of all, Dragon NaturallySpeaking got its start in the late 1970s, many many years before Microsoft and has a long jump on engineering experience in that area.  Secondly, all the comments I have seen use the word “almost” as good as Dragon.  I don’t want to use dictation software that is “almost” as good.  I want it to be even better.  In fact, I wanted a better headset than the analog headset that comes with Dragon so I purchased a USB headset to make Dragon even more accurate.  Dragon is so inexpensive, it’s not worth wasting your time with any other software.

This brings me to the headset.  The headset I use is the Parrott Talk Pro USB-100. I found out about this headset when I called tech support at Dragon NaturallySpeaking and asked them which headset they use.  This headset is an enormous improvement and well worth the extra expense.  Using a USB headset is important to improve the accuracy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking because it bypasses your computer’s sound card.  An analog headset will utilize your sound card and most computers have been an expensive soundcard, which will produce poor results with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.  The most important thing you can do to make Dragon more accurate is to get a USB headset.