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#275340 - 11/16/04 03:05 PM Technology Wishlist
zaibatsu Offline
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Posts: 6,153
I am making a software and hardware technology wish list. Doesn't mean that I'll get anything, but I want to make the list for professionals and adminstrative staff. I need the name and the benefit derived from each entry. What technology do you have that you just could not do without?

Here is my list so far:

1. 007 Jet Pack (hey, a guy can dream.)
2. Voice recognition software
3. Imaging software that can retrieve documents with text searches.
4. Scanning/imaging software that can convert the scanned image to a Word document.
5. Software that allows me to make phone calls from my computer (I want to be able to pick up the receiver and talk--not one of those microphones or headsets connected to the computer).
6. Software that allows faxes from the computer.

Anyone else have any software or hardware ideas and what value it adds to an office.
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eBanking / Technology
#275341 - 11/16/04 07:34 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
8675309 Offline
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Posts: 1,115
Where the wind comes sweeping ...
#4 is extremely affordable. I just got the hp scanjet 4670 for $179 and it rocks. The software you need for scanning is included and it does have the OCR (optical character recognition) feature you are looking for plus a good graphics program. However, if you have more than a few pages, you will want a manual-feed scanner. This is my 4th scanner and it is greatly improved over what I've had.

I bought my husband #2 and it takes several hours to set up so he never did it. (urg) If I remember right, it is only $200 or so. A lot of attorneys use this, so you might ask for product recommendations. I'm pretty sure this program also allows you to record a verbal message and email it to anyone who has a computer with speakers.

On my wish list is Adobe Acrobat so I can create PDFs to protect documents before emailing. Think it is $700. Your staff may put flat screens on their wish lists if they don't already have them. The price has really come down and it is so nice to have the desk space.

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#275342 - 11/16/04 08:03 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
zaibatsu Offline
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Thanks for the advice. We have the flat screens.
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#275343 - 11/16/04 11:32 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Richard Insley Offline
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Richard Insley
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Posts: 10,179
Toano, VA
Quote:

On my wish list is Adobe Acrobat so I can create PDFs to protect documents before emailing. Think it is $700.



Acrobat is much cheaper than $700. Hit this site and search for prices that begin at about $200. Acrobat is a great tool. You can print anything into a pdf document, including email messages, web pages, Excel spreadsheets, graphics, Powerpoint slideshows, and word processor documents.
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#275344 - 11/16/04 11:35 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Richard Insley Offline
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Toano, VA
Add a PDA that uses the Palm OS. Compliance management software is on the way in '05!
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...gone fishing.

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#275345 - 11/17/04 02:56 AM Re: Technology Wishlist
8675309 Offline
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Posts: 1,115
Where the wind comes sweeping ...
Richard - you rock!

Adobe Acrobat is on the way. You were right, it was only $216! I have been paying a graphic design firm to convert all of my ads to pdf at $25 a pop. (They were the ones who told me it was $700 by the way!) I fell really stupid but appreciative none the less! : )

Thank you so much!

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#275346 - 11/17/04 06:19 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
John Burnett Offline
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John Burnett
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Cape Cod
Take a look at ScanSoft's PDF Converter Professional 2. I bought it retail at $90 and it converts to PDF virtually anything you can print, and includes hyperlinks from Word documents. It also allows you to convert a PDF into a Word document with minimal fuss. I tried it on a Federal Register document and the columnar text came across beautifully.

The PDF documents created with this program are Acrobat-compatible.
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#275347 - 11/17/04 09:01 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Dave M_TCA Offline
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Dave M_TCA
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Wherever my most benevolent em...
#6 is already built in to Windows if you have the fax set up as a printer. Of course, you need a phone line to connect to, but it's very doable.
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All opinions expressed are mine and not those of my employer and are not to be taken as legal advice.

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#275348 - 11/18/04 03:51 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
zaibatsu Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 6,153
Quote:

#6 is already built in to Windows if you have the fax set up as a printer. Of course, you need a phone line to connect to, but it's very doable.




Thanks to everyone who contributed. Don't hesitate to put more wishes on here as you think of them.
_________________________
Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city

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#275349 - 11/19/04 07:54 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
mkruhm Offline
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mkruhm
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 29
If we can add things that aren't available, I'd like a device that allows me to read people's thoughts. Then, I can tell whether that loan officer is telling me the truth or what they think will keep them out of trouble! (Me: "Do you pull a flood cert on loans secured by improved property?" Loan Officer:"Ummm, sure?")
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#275350 - 11/19/04 09:10 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Wore Out Offline
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Wore Out
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 543
Kentucky
How about a fully networkable set of web cams for security surveillance that will allow authorized users to access visual (and sound for that matter) data from any desktop? Oooo, it will also hold 1 year worth of video/audio files in a compressed format...top notch security!
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#275351 - 11/19/04 09:31 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Greg Offline
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Joined: May 2004
Posts: 833
Michigan
Quote:

How about a fully networkable set of web cams for security surveillance that will allow authorized users to access visual (and sound for that matter) data from any desktop?




I priced a system for one of our branches - the first one is expensive because of the software etc.; however, after the first one the price isn't that much more than VHS! I was pricing with 6 months of storage but I included a redundant system with automated dual storage. About 15K for the set up and then another 5K per branch to convert.

It's on my wish list for next year!
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#275352 - 11/19/04 09:34 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Wore Out Offline
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Wore Out
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Kentucky
Can you PM me with who you have gotten quotes from? I'm working with our IT Manager on trying to get this going by the time we build our new main office operations center.
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#275353 - 11/23/04 02:29 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
zaibatsu Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 6,153
AND NOW FOR TODAY'S SITE... Portable file printing

Computers don't like surprises. Neither do printers. That's why we have PDF (Portable Document Format). PDF reconciles differences in software formats. This makes it possible to send documents to someone else and still have them appear and print as they were intended. Fonts, margins, graphics and other formatting stay the same.

Adobe Systems pioneered PDF, and it's still a good thing. However, you may not have Adobe software to convert documents.

What do you do?

WonderSoft has a solution called Virtual PDF Printer, and it's free to download. It creates PDF documents from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, Photoshop and other Windows applications.

Let's say you have the NASCAR schedule on an Excel spreadsheet. Your brother in another state wants to print a copy. Simply open your document, select File>>Print to the Virtual PDF Printer, and click OK. Voila! You've created a PDF file that opens in the provided Adobe Reader.

To send the NASCAR schedule, open the new PDF file, click File>>E-mail and enter your brother's e-mail address. When your brother opens it in the provided Adobe Reader, he can save, print or e-mail it to his heart's content!

TO VISIT THIS SITE, GO HERE:
http://www.go2pdf.com
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Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city

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#275354 - 11/23/04 05:48 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Richard Insley Offline
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Richard Insley
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 10,179
Toano, VA
Quote:

WonderSoft has a solution called Virtual PDF Printer, and it's free to download.



But only for 15 days. After that it costs $90 to continue using. The real thing only costs $100 more - why not go first class?
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#275355 - 11/23/04 06:09 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Andy_Z Offline
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Someone is reading Kim Komando again.
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My opinions are not necessarily my employers.
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#275356 - 11/23/04 07:22 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
zaibatsu Offline
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 6,153
Quote:

Someone is reading Kim Komando again.




Do you have to give away all my secrets?
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Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city

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#275357 - 11/24/04 01:39 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Andy_Z Offline
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I'm just a Komando fan too. Especially when KLBJ comes in good.
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AndyZ CRCM
My opinions are not necessarily my employers.
R+R-R=R+R
Rules and Regs minus Relationships equals Resentment and Rebellion. John Maxwell

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#275358 - 11/24/04 05:38 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
CRL Offline
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CRL
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 579
[quoteOn my wish list is Adobe Acrobat so I can create PDFs to protect documents before emailing.




Can you tell me how PDF files protect documents? I'm working on a policy about the security issues of emailing nonpublic customer information (i.e the borrower scans their paycheck stub) and emails it in a PDF attachment. PDF files aren't any more secure than any other attachment to an email, is that right? Can anyone tell me what they're doing about this issue?

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#275359 - 11/24/04 07:03 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Andy_Z Offline
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They can be password protected. It has stronger security features than the password access features in Office documents. From the Help screen:

Security options
The following security options are located in the Standard Security dialog box (see Adding passwords and setting security options), or in the Acrobat Distiller Security dialog box (see Creating Adobe PDF files from PostScript files):

Compatibility
Set the type of encryption for opening a password-protected document. If you select Acrobat 3.0 and Later, a low encryption level (40-bit RC4) is used. If you select either Acrobat 5.0 and Later or Acrobat 6.0 and Later, a high encryption level (128-bit RC4) is used, but users of Acrobat 3.0-4.x cannot open PDF documents set with high encryption. The Acrobat 6.0 and Later option lets you enable plaintext metadata, which is not available in earlier versions of Acrobat. (See Viewing document metadata.) Users of Acrobat 5.0 and earlier cannot open documents with Acrobat 6.0 and Later security.

Document Open Password
Select the Require a Password to Open the Document option and specify a Document Open Password to prevent users from opening the document unless they type the password you specify. Passwords are case-sensitive.


Permissions Password
Select the Require a Password to Restrict Printing and Editing of the Document and its Security Settings option and specify a Permissions Password to restrict users from printing and editing. yada yada yada
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AndyZ CRCM
My opinions are not necessarily my employers.
R+R-R=R+R
Rules and Regs minus Relationships equals Resentment and Rebellion. John Maxwell

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#275360 - 11/24/04 07:15 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Anonymous
Unregistered

Another feature of Adobe that is important is the ability to digitally sign documents to provide non-repudiation of source and integrity of content. Acrobat has the capability of generating a digital certificate to be used by the program to digitally sign documents. You may also use a certificate generated by a 3rd party certificate authority like Verisign, Thawte, etc – but you have to pay for those.

Unless you also send the public key of the internally generated certificate, the recipient of the digitally self-signed .pdf will be notified that the certificate used to sign the document may be invalid.

Watch out for: The process of applying a password and digitally signing the document will encrypt the file itself. Some firewalls, virus scanners, and hybrid appliances, while performing stateful packet inspection/scanning will reject data that it can’t read.

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#275361 - 11/25/04 03:15 AM Re: Technology Wishlist
Rocky P Offline
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Posts: 7,650
Florida
As long as this is a wish-list - if you have a lot of files/reports/projects around and sometimes have multiple places to put them (or multiple people accessing them) a bar code scanner. Once identified, you can trace it and know exactly where it is. If the program is on a server, those with appropriate access could find the files.
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#275362 - 11/29/04 04:12 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Wild Jimbo Offline
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 14
Parts Unknown
If you just need the ability to create a pdf and are not concerned with editing them once created you can use CutePDF Writer. It's free. http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

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#275363 - 11/29/04 06:07 PM Re: Technology Wishlist
Dave M_TCA Offline
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 685
Wherever my most benevolent em...
Primo PDF is another free program for creation, no editing afterwards. http://www.primopdf.com
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All opinions expressed are mine and not those of my employer and are not to be taken as legal advice.

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