Home Office/Small Business Questions: Fax/PDF solutions

[Oski]

Hello:

I have some office management issues regarding documents.

1. Is there a program that will allow me to convert MSWORD files into PDF files? (This would allow me to e-mail documents in a protected format).

2. Is there a program that will allow me to convert received PDF files into word text?

3. Fax managment: I send about 250 pages of faxes per month; I receive about 500.

a) What are some budget solutions for this typical amount of activity? (** I was thinking that I could save money by converting files into PDF's and just e-mailing them.)

b) I have to purchase a printer; should I get one of those 4-in-one products, or are they mostly gimmicks?

Any help appreciated, I thank you in advance.

[elus2]

1. google for "pdfcreator"

2. yes but the ones i've used totally butcher the formatting. your best bet would be just copy and paste the text onto word and apply the formatting again.

3.

a) i'd stick to email. why spend the extra money for another piece of equipment to maintain.

b) what kind of printing volume are you looking at on a monthly basis and what's your budget?

[Oski]

[ QUOTE ]
1. google for "pdfcreator"

2. yes but the ones i've used totally butcher the formatting. your best bet would be just copy and paste the text onto word and apply the formatting again.

3.

a) i'd stick to email. why spend the extra money for another piece of equipment to maintain.

b) what kind of printing volume are you looking at on a monthly basis and what's your budget?

[/ QUOTE ]

Okay:

Let me restate: I am looking to be as paperless as possible. Do you have any experience with pdfcreator, or is getting the 99.99 per year Adobe deal better?

I guess if I make pdf's with electronic sigs., I won't have to fax out.

However, I will still need to receive faxes. Efax seems expensive for just receiving faxes; does anyone have experience (or can recommend) a cheap fax reception service?

*** If the above set up works, I will only need a printer for about 500 sheets per month. I am willng to spend up to $500 on a printer, but I am sure $250 will get me a satisfactory inkjet printer.

- Thanks for the reply so far.

[BradleyT]

I have an HP 3050 all in one and really like it. It was on sale for $250 at Office Depot around christmas time. It's a monochrome laserjet.

[elus2]

pdfcreator is fine if you're just doing a straight conversion from office documents or webpages to pdf. if you need to merge multiple pdf's together then you may want to take a look at pdftk - pdf toolkit which uses the command line to apply changes to pdfs.

if you're not that comfortable using the command line to edit your files then adobe acrobat is great for its user interface and the license isn't that expensive.

With such low volume you should be OK with most of the inkjet printers for sale at your local computer store.

For faxes I don't know, we use a multipurpose fax/printer/scanner solution at the office here but we also handle thousands of pages per machine per month.

[Freakin]

I'm pretty sure there are AIO devices now that can feed, scan, PDFify, and email documents. It seems like this would be the best solution for you.

I don't know what they are called or anything else about them.

[elus2]

We use a toshiba estudio machine for that Freakin. It's bulky/expensive. I'd like to know if there lightweight portable ones though that allow usb connections to a desktop

[Sniper]

Oski, what are you receiving by Fax, that couldn't be emailed?

Is it just a question of the people you are receiving faxes from being in the dark ages?

[Oski]

[ QUOTE ]
Oski, what are you receiving by Fax, that couldn't be emailed?

Is it just a question of the people you are receiving faxes from being in the dark ages?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. The legal profession is perpetually in the dark ages. I try to have opposing counsel sign a stipulation for e-mail (pdf) service at the outset of all cases. Rarely do they accept (paranoia).

So ... I'm stuck with getting faxed and mailed papers.

I like some of these suggestions so far.