Do This Instead of Printing (you'll save time and money)

"Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo (or whatever email service you use) will keep it [SAFE] for future reference."
I think the definition of [SAFE] has been hijacked!

Thanks for the tip about saving WORD documents as PDF. (NOTE: you can also use the PRINT to PDF in WORD also).
I do not use WORD, but I do use EXCEL and the saving to PDF is in EXCEL 2016. Nice tip and it saves me from emailing EXCEL spreadsheets with the tabs that I do not want my customers to see.

I make frequent use of the Snipping Tool to save stuff. And to the people that still want to print to paper, for whatever reason- think about the security of your hard copies! There is just as much chance your paper will be seen one day, as the things I have on my hard drive.

Get a LASER printer and save big on ink!

OK, I'm going to try some of these ideas as I often print your colums for future reference. Right now I have a 3" binder stuffed to the gills going back to 2016. Enjoy the snickers....

Yup. The morally and socially deranged tech industry doesn't have enough info on me I'm going to send them my personal documents!

I do this when I need to be sure that something is documented for a certain date. It may be an email I received at work, from an attorney, etc. This verifies the date (somewhat) and also gives me several back-ups.

Saving documents and photos within your email account sounds practical. Some such accounts have a storage maximum space which can fill rapidly if you begin saving a lot of stuff.

Hey Bob, I've been doing this for many years. I save or print copies of statements as PDFs then save them in a folder on my computer which then gets backed up online. People that save paper copies run the risk of losing them in a disaster unless you want to pay for paper copy storage in a facility such as Iron Mountain. How many folks and businesses have lost paper documents, not to mention photos and other things, in tornados, fires, hurricanes, etc? If a statement, receipt, etc., comes via email, I save it in a folder in Gmail or Yahoo. I got rid of several file drawers worth of paper by scanning them in to a file on my computer (or just getting rid of them by shredding if they were no longer releavant). I figure folks who insist on keeping paper copies of everything are dinosaurs who probably still have a flip phone and maybe get around by horse and buggy. btw, I happen to be a senior citizen!

While I still keep paper files of important documents, I also scan them in so that they are findable in the future. This has been enormously valuable when I need to find a sales contract or receipt or manual or warranty for a many-years-old item.

I find it very amusing when a banking or medical or legal or similar establishment demands that I fax them a document (or they insist on faxing me some document). I'll ask if I can email them a scanned copy (or they can email me a copy) and they will often refuse. Either they are only set up for faxes (which these days is incredibly primitive) or there are arcane legal restrictions which only accept faxes (especially faxes with signatures) as "originals".

So in that case I use a service like Fax2mail, which lets me attach a document to an email and convert it to an outgoing fax, or conversely accept faxes going to a dedicated phone number and convert it to an email which is then forwarded to me. That makes the other institution happy, even though it is functionally equivalent to directly scanning and emailing (albeit with some slight extra effort). I got rid of my fax machine about ten years ago.

A tangible 'hard" copy cannot be lost in the event of a mechanical malfunction - which can, and does, often happen.
Same reason I prefer a real book to a digital one.
A hard copy is ALWAYS more reliable!

@MikeInColorado >> Your senior citizenry certainly has not taught you NOT call others names. You may wish to teach yourself how NOT to "flame" others (re: internet).

I too like PDFill tools but recent versions nagged me to pay to upgrade or buy more software. On closing, the program opened the maker's web page in my browser. That's why I reverted to the slightly old version 13 (the installation file can still be found on old version sites).

Great topic! I would like to copy off my emails inbox and outbox periodically to an external drive and then later be able to do a search of the headers which would show in plain language. But all the storage programs I've looked at then show the headers in an unintelligible format which preclude anything except a 'lucky dip' hunt with attendant frustration. So paper copies are the net result - a 'no frills' search would be so much quicker! And no 'translation into PDF files' needed. There must be a simple transfer and storage methodology out there somewhere. Help!!

@DesM >> Have you tried using a 'local' program, such as Mozilla Thunderbird (TB) or Microsoft/Office/Outlook (OL is not to be confused w/a 'web-based' outlook.com account)? You can set up individual 'accounts' within TB (or OL) for each of your web-based email accounts (gmail/yahoo/hotmail/etc.) But you have to figure out the means to go fetch all of your emails (inbox/sent/etc.) from each one. This will require you to find (and enter) the POP3/SMTP (or IMAP, if available) servers of your web-based email account(s) along w/your log-in credentials. Finally, once you have confirmed those web-based accounts are cooperating with the local TB/OL/etc.; you can then go to the local program settings and do some synchronization between the web-based and the local programs, along with your portable device(s). You can even set the individual accounts you created in the local program to periodically archive the emails (locally to a 2nd HDD) and also remove them from the web-based servers for safe keeping (and archiving) locally.
Unfortunately, the best way for you to properly view the locally fetched emails will still have to be via the local TB/OL program you have installed. If you are familiar with firefox, you may warm up to Thunderbird quickly

@RandiO: I think a senior citizen calling others dinosaurs is probably acceptable. I'm sure he was doing it light-heartedly and not aiming it at any one person. This over-sensitivity has to stop.

Regarding saving documents digitally, I'm all for it. My files used to be a mess, but are now much more organized in my email accounts. If the receipt/file/whatever is really important I download it to my phone and my backup hard drive for safe keeping.

To get control over my paper hoarding, I use the free version of Nitro Reader PDF to print as it lets me append pages to my PDF files when I need to. I have folders for each category and back up the files to a separate flashdrive. I've found this has cut down tremendously on the amount of paper I'm keeping and only print when I absolutely have to do so. Also, it's much easier to search. I have an AskBob folder for your articles I want to save. You've taught me a lot over the years, Thank you!

I didn't read all the comments, but many stores and businesses ask if you want your receipt emailed. Say "YES".

I am gradually learning how to use OneNote as my filing cabinet. Organization is key, but mistakes are easily corrected. Clipping things from the internet or files is simple.

It is taking me a godawful time to learn to use it, but it gives one searchable place to store things accessible to all devices.

Nice article. I manage a woodworking shop (e.g. drawings) going complete paperless. Shop workers have access to drawings on computers across the shop and they could print it if they need it but they find watching PDF more convenient as they can zoom in and comment on that!

I have an all-in-one printer/scanner/coppier that I only use to scan incoming paperwork to pdfs, save all under project/year/date-house-room/ folder and auto back it up to Google drive.

Buletprooth, already saved me once when computer failed.

My office has a desk, chair, laptop and a nice large canvas on a wall. No files with paperwork you may find in other woodworking shops!

Said that, I learned something new from this article - PDFill tool. I used various online services to merge and rotate PDF pages, will give this tool a try

Thanks!