Let's get it started

I meant to write about this awhile ago, but alas, too many other things became a priority (see this post for a scathing remark about performance).

If you're a newbie, like me, here's a great article written by David Masters discussing how to easily move to a paperless office. I LOVE the idea given in number one to insert the date at the front of the file. Where I'm working, our filing system is so "skiwampus" that it's hard to tell what came first (don't even get me started on the correspondence).

Masters also notes that you should print to PDF. I agree, and can't emphasize enough the benefit of this. I use templates for nearly every document I create. Some templates, such as letters, have an automatic date adjustment or other feature, which adjusts with each new document created. While you can rename the document, and preserve some attributes, when you reopen the file on another day, the features adjust accordingly. Therefore, it's very difficult to determine when the original document was actually created. While I realize there are other methods like using Properties, the big concern is how do you prove the document was created at that time? Do you say, "Look Judge, the computer says I created this document on January 1, 2008," and try to appeal to the Judge's sincerety? Ever heard of the Competence rule? Good luck. (P.S., don't even get me started on the vulnerability of such methods).