I’ve always been a fan of laser-based multi-function printers, they provide copying, scanning, printing and faxing – a must for the smaller home office – typically dubbed SOHO (Small Office Home Office).
Designed with a curvy-yet-chunky physique, the 4824FN sports a mono laser printer combined with an A4 flatbed scanner and a 30 page Automatic Document Feeder (ADF).
The paper tray can hold up to 250 sheets at a time. A second 250 sheet tray can be fitted as an optional extra, increasing the height of the device.
As with most multi-function devices, the device’s control panel extends across almost the whole width. Its mono LCD display holds 2 lines of 16 characters. The navigation disk allows for easy menu access and the panel has the standard numeric keypad for faxing. On the far right of the panel are large start and stop buttons. The Samsun also has a nice “ID Scan” button, which allows you to scan one side of an ID card, turn it over and scan the reverse, before printing boths sides on a single sheet.
The SCX-4824FN has a fairly standard port configuration, featuring USB and ethernet for PC connectivity, as well as an RJ11 socket for the fax line, and a socket for an optional handset.
Samsung has a history of writing good TWAIN drivers and the SCX-4824FN is no exception. The device works happily with Home Document Manager, and produces good quality scans.
The only gripe I can think of is that the drum and toner cartridges come in two sizes, offering either 2000 or 5000 pages, but the starter cartridge that ships with it provides only 700. It’s no secret that printer manufacturers make a lot of money on consumables – but if you print as infrequently as I do, you might find that replacing your printer to be more cost-effective than replacing your toner.
All in all, I like this device – it’s a solid addition to any small or home office. 4 out of 5.
February 5, 2010 Comments Off
We’ve just released an update for Home Document Manager which introduces the concept of scanning profiles. This change should make scanning a whole lot easier.
We’ve removed the “Single Page” and “Multi page” scanning options, and replaced them with a single button with a dropdown menu. In here, we have added some pre-configured scanning profiles for the most common scan types.
Most typical documents should be scanned using the “Black & White Document” profile. This will scan the document to a black and white (binary) image at 300dpi. This is usually a high enough resolution to get good results with the OCR, but also offers a very compact file for archiving.
We also scanning to grayscale and color at 300dpi, as well as a hi-res color scan at 600dpi. Most documents do not need such profiles if we’re only interested in archiving the information.
The predefined profiles will not show you any further scanning dialogs, they will simply commence scanning. If you want to tweak the scan or use different settings, use the “Custom” profile, this will launch the familiar scanning settings interface.
We’ve also made a few other minor tweaks, like ensuring that tags and folders are always alphanumerically ordered.
As usual, no action is required on your part, Home Document Manager will update itself when an Internet connection is present.
February 1, 2010 Comments Off
We’ve just released a really nifty update. As of approximately 7 and a half minutes ago, Home Document Manager supports tagging as a way of organizing your documents. As any of you who use Gmail, Evernote, Zoho etc will know – folders are good, tags are great, but folders + tags is the business! Any of you familiar with GTD’s action tags or Covey Roles will already be familiar with the power of tags.
What is a tag?
A tag can be anything you want it to be. You can create tags corresponding to your project, your workflow, or how you like to organise your tasks. Tags are hierarchical, and completely free form. The important difference between Tags and folder is that tags are not mutually exclusive. A document can be in only 1 folder, but can have any number of tags. The image on the left is just an example of how you could organise your tags.
You can browse your documents with each tag in much the same way as you do with folders. Just click on the tag.
When documents appear in the document list, any tags they have will be displayed underneath their icons (shown left). Using tags is a great way add a little GTD to your paperwork. It certainly saves having papers sitting round with post-it notes stuck on them.
This is very much the beginning of Home Document Manager’s affair with tagging. There are a lot of other tag-oriented features on the roadmap. It’s an important new feature, so your feedback is really valuable.
As usual, no action is required on your part to receive this update. Home Document Manager will update itself whenever an Internet connection is present.
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