Paper or Electronic Document

I have just a little inquiry or question to ask regarding using paper or electronic documents. Basically who uses what these days?

One of the reasons for starting my consulting business was to help with the reduction of paper use, (I can hear the laughter from the people that know me).

But seriously, who uses what these days? For an old timer like me, when it comes to doing material take-offs, or just a plain old drawing review I really prefer paper. Of course, after I’m done with my review, or task, I will scan my document and the notes I’ve made regarding my material take-off, or problems that I see with a drawing / design.

Most of the work I do now is in some type of electronic format. Anyone that knows me or my business knows I obviously work with some type of CAD program. Even if I do a hand sketch, I will scan the document for record and resend to my customers for verification, (I now leave the printing up to them). When it comes to sending out, or receiving documents, I rarely mail, or have anything physically sent to me, since most people now use email. Scan to PDF, TIFF, or JPEG to me has become the normal work flow. Because of this, I’ve noticed that my printer rarely gets used. At least 80% of the time my MFP is used for “Scanning”.

Even with using other software besides Autodesk products, it has become easier to save, convert, or simply cut & paste to another electronic document. So now the other thing that I’ve noticed is that I haven’t been spending money on ink. So, since I’m not spending money on ink, and since I seem to be scanning, or cutting and pasting to create documents I guess I must be doing what I set out to do, which is to “reduce the use of paper”.

Are there any other people out there that noticed they have indirectly become green?