7 Reasons to Consider Storybook Creation Instead of Photo Book Making

1. Online Preservation and Archival of your Stories.
If it is not the same story that is told every year at grandma's house too often and too quickly we forgot the "around the table or campfire" reminiscing stories that happen at random times. The importance of capturing the story behind the photo and having the ability to go into as much depth as possible allows you to truly hand down your heritage, document present time which will in turn begin to create future memories and stories for your family.

2. Off site protected storage of your precious photos.
It seems it always happens unexpectedly that your computer's hard drive crashes, and with it goes your photos and documents. Storing your photos in a secured and password protected online account will also protect you from losing your photos from any unfortunate natural disasters or unforeseen house fires, floods, storm damage, etc... We all believe these things won't happen to us, however, I am speaking from experience; you don't want to learn this the hard way.

3. Remove Clutter and Minimize on Storage
Next vacation; bring the kitchen sink with you because you will need more storage space if you are a traditional scrapper. No more bins, paper, ribbons, bows, extra space, loose scissors, markers, tape glue, brads, buttons, clippers, cutters, storage closets, the list goes on... One very important fact about digital Storybooking is you won't have to worry about little fingers grabbing something and putting it into their mouth or accidentally cutting something that's not supposed to be cut. You won't have to worry about finding extra space to work on your storybooks.

4. Save Money and Time:
Since you won't need to invest in all the things mentioned above you not only save money but you gas and time from having to go the store and search the aisles to buy all of that stuff! You could be half done with your storybook by then! It will also create space in your home. Working online you won't have to worry about cutting your photos, buying extra artwork, organizing your artwork or paying for printer ink or photo paper. Does it allow you to upload your already purchased artwork? Saving time is easy if you are using an online site. You won't have to pack anything when you are away from home, just log into your account and start storybooking. You don't have to do an elaborate story. Start small and use the photos you already have in a digital format. As you use the free online sites or software you have access to you will learn the features and functions as you go. Do a little each night for 5 nights in a row. Not only will you learn it more quickly you will find your level of excitement and you will find time to nurture it. I call them "baby steps" or your "learning curve". An example of an easy story would be of recapping the last event you attended and why, the last trip you took or a family tradition that you love.

5. Photo Storage and Account Policy:
Look to see if the site or software you are using allows you to remove the photos from their site at no charge and at any time. Check and see if the company will change the features of the photo you are uploading. (Some sites minimize the pixelation of your photo. This is an issue when you want to download them back to your hard drive and use them for a project. Some are now charging you to get your photos back!) Read the fine print. It is worth your time. Find out what they are doing with your photos and how long your account is good for.

6. Features and Functions:
Look for what options your site or software offers. Does it allow you to totally customize the templates that are offered or allow you to type as much as you want? Does it allow you to start a project from scratch? Can you use as many photos and as much digital artwork as you want on each page? What kind and how much digital artwork is offered. Once you get started with your storybook, you are not going to want to be limited by lack of features to make your storybook look unique and fit exactly the way you want it to look. Do they offer other products? Is there a direct mailing option or address book to use? Can you share your projects to another person so they can modify your storybook and update it to look like their own? Do you have a person helping you or do you have to call into a customer support? Are there friendly tutorials to reference or online chat availability?

7. Multiple Copies and sharing via email:
Find out if you can email your project to friends and family or post your project in your blog. You will want to share the work you have done with others at minimal cost and have the option to publish your storybook or not. Find out how long your account is good for and if there is a cost after so many months and what you have to do to keep from losing your projects. You may want to publish multiple projects years from now when your family is larger and you don't want to have to recreate them. Would it be great to tell your friends that you found a place for them to scan in their scrapbooks so they can make duplicate copies of quality for their family members!

Finding the right fit for you is important, you will want to find out what your needs are and make sure you have someone who is passionate to help you through and encourage you to keep going. The service that you are working with should have the same respect for your stories, photos and memories as you. Your stories and memories are important to you your family. It may not seem like it now, but later on it will. Don't wait till later to start storybook creation, you might find it to late. Don't leave your memories up to fate. Take action and start today.

Kelly Hocks
Storybook Coach Storybook Coach, Digital storybooking will help build and strengthen you family bonds and connections through storybook creation and the heritage enriching power of story.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Reasons-to-Consider-Storybook-Creation-Instead-of-Photo-Book-Making&id=4181246

Reverse Phone Scan - Find Contacts

1. Online Preservation and Archival of your Stories.
If it is not the same story that is told every year at grandma's house too often and too quickly we forgot the "around the table or campfire" reminiscing stories that happen at random times. The importance of capturing the story behind the photo and having the ability to go into as much depth as possible allows you to truly hand down your heritage, document present time which will in turn begin to create future memories and stories for your family.

2. Off site protected storage of your precious photos.
It seems it always happens unexpectedly that your computer's hard drive crashes, and with it goes your photos and documents. Storing your photos in a secured and password protected online account will also protect you from losing your photos from any unfortunate natural disasters or unforeseen house fires, floods, storm damage, etc... We all believe these things won't happen to us, however, I am speaking from experience; you don't want to learn this the hard way.

3. Remove Clutter and Minimize on Storage
Next vacation; bring the kitchen sink with you because you will need more storage space if you are a traditional scrapper. No more bins, paper, ribbons, bows, extra space, loose scissors, markers, tape glue, brads, buttons, clippers, cutters, storage closets, the list goes on... One very important fact about digital Storybooking is you won't have to worry about little fingers grabbing something and putting it into their mouth or accidentally cutting something that's not supposed to be cut. You won't have to worry about finding extra space to work on your storybooks.

4. Save Money and Time:
Since you won't need to invest in all the things mentioned above you not only save money but you gas and time from having to go the store and search the aisles to buy all of that stuff! You could be half done with your storybook by then! It will also create space in your home. Working online you won't have to worry about cutting your photos, buying extra artwork, organizing your artwork or paying for printer ink or photo paper. Does it allow you to upload your already purchased artwork? Saving time is easy if you are using an online site. You won't have to pack anything when you are away from home, just log into your account and start storybooking. You don't have to do an elaborate story. Start small and use the photos you already have in a digital format. As you use the free online sites or software you have access to you will learn the features and functions as you go. Do a little each night for 5 nights in a row. Not only will you learn it more quickly you will find your level of excitement and you will find time to nurture it. I call them "baby steps" or your "learning curve". An example of an easy story would be of recapping the last event you attended and why, the last trip you took or a family tradition that you love.

5. Photo Storage and Account Policy:
Look to see if the site or software you are using allows you to remove the photos from their site at no charge and at any time. Check and see if the company will change the features of the photo you are uploading. (Some sites minimize the pixelation of your photo. This is an issue when you want to download them back to your hard drive and use them for a project. Some are now charging you to get your photos back!) Read the fine print. It is worth your time. Find out what they are doing with your photos and how long your account is good for.

6. Features and Functions:
Look for what options your site or software offers. Does it allow you to totally customize the templates that are offered or allow you to type as much as you want? Does it allow you to start a project from scratch? Can you use as many photos and as much digital artwork as you want on each page? What kind and how much digital artwork is offered. Once you get started with your storybook, you are not going to want to be limited by lack of features to make your storybook look unique and fit exactly the way you want it to look. Do they offer other products? Is there a direct mailing option or address book to use? Can you share your projects to another person so they can modify your storybook and update it to look like their own? Do you have a person helping you or do you have to call into a customer support? Are there friendly tutorials to reference or online chat availability?

7. Multiple Copies and sharing via email:
Find out if you can email your project to friends and family or post your project in your blog. You will want to share the work you have done with others at minimal cost and have the option to publish your storybook or not. Find out how long your account is good for and if there is a cost after so many months and what you have to do to keep from losing your projects. You may want to publish multiple projects years from now when your family is larger and you don't want to have to recreate them. Would it be great to tell your friends that you found a place for them to scan in their scrapbooks so they can make duplicate copies of quality for their family members!

Finding the right fit for you is important, you will want to find out what your needs are and make sure you have someone who is passionate to help you through and encourage you to keep going. The service that you are working with should have the same respect for your stories, photos and memories as you. Your stories and memories are important to you your family. It may not seem like it now, but later on it will. Don't wait till later to start storybook creation, you might find it to late. Don't leave your memories up to fate. Take action and start today.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Reasons-to-Consider-Storybook-Creation-Instead-of-Photo-Book-Making&id=4181246

How to Use OCR Scanning For Conversion of Spreadsheets Into Excel Format

There are quite a few ways that you can scan pages into Excel. The method that you choose will depend on a number of factors. The most important factor is the structure or formatting of the pages. Data that is formatted into columns and rows using tabs to separate or delimit the text usually provides the best results with the conversion. Another consideration is the quality of the scanned files. Generally, pages with poor image quality, small font size or spreadsheets with complicated design generate errors that require time consuming correction.

The best way to decide on the right solution is to test or ask for a sample. But the solutions on the following list may help you to decide.

OCR software: The least expensive and fastest option as long as the automatic conversion is accurate. Documents with tabulated data that are delimited with tabs and spaces give the best result. Sheets with errors caused by non-standard columns or rows may be resolved with some manual adjustment.

Zonal Software: The program automatically recognizes and populates characters into database format. The user sets a zone sometimes referred to as a rubber band which reads a specific area of the document. The rubber band area is then captured to a corresponding cell. Zonal indexing is not suitable for all projects. Jobs that have different document types may cause conversion issues. Another disadvantage is that the area to be processed needs to consistent on each image. Otherwise the automated process will not work accurately.

Adobe Acrobat: It is possible to convert a PDF file to Excel. First recognize the PDF with OCR Text Recognition (Choose Document > OCR Text Recognition > Recognize Text). You will then need to save the file as tables into an Excel spreadsheet.

Programming with VBA or Visual Basic: Information not formatted into columns and rows like mailing lists may employ VB scripts to move the data into a CSV -Comma-separated values-format. The CSV file will open into the spreadsheet for easy analysis and viewing. Programming is also a method to solve formatting issues when the information contains fields with specific lengths like zip codes or State abbreviations. A function may also be written to identify stop words instead of using formatting to separate the page into a spreadsheet.

Copy and Paste: Copy and Paste is not the ideal solution. But can save time over retyping the pages. This solution is typically used for small jobs with few errors but the data is not formatted.

Data Entry Service: A valuable alternative for projects where software technology does not work for poor quality images where a lot of time consuming corrections are required. It is more cost effective to manually retype poor quality documents using data entry specialists. The results are highly accurate and cost effective. Especially when the work is performed offshore, so you receive the most favorable rates.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Use-OCR-Scanning-For-Conversion-of-Spreadsheets-Into-Excel-Format&id=3881915

Document Scanning Solutions

The storage of paper files can produce a number of archiving problems. There is the issue of space, as filing cabinets can easily fill up a room or office. Paper can also deteriorate over time and files can get lost if not returned to the same location.

This is where document scanning can help. Modern document scanning equipment can quickly and efficiently make digital copies of files to be safely stored on computers or digital storage devices. Digital file formats can include TIF, JPEG, PDF and many more.

Up to three filing cabinets of information can typically be stored on one CD Rom. The original paper files can then be archived away or disposed of if no longer needed. Scanned documents offer a contemporary storage solution that is easily scalable and extremely efficient.

Modern scanning equipment is highly productive. High speed scanners can deal with over 500,000 pages per day. Scanners can handle black and white or colour originals and a range of document sizes.

The quality of the scan produced is excellent. Data capture and image enhancement software ensures top quality images from sometimes poor originals. Documents that can be scanned include invoices, project files, correspondence, books, magazines and purchase orders.

Document scanning can be carried out at relatively low-cost. By storing documents digitally, organisations can save thousands of pounds per year on document storage space. Manual hours spent searching for documents in filing cabinets can also be eliminated.

Digital files can be easily backed up and stored at another location, where as paper documents are unlikely to be. If these documents are damaged in any way, say by water or light, they cannot be replaced as easily as digital files.

Document scanning solutions can be supplied by external companies with the minimum of fuss. These data capture experts collect documents to be scanned and either return them if required or securely shred them after scanning.

The scanning equipment used by such outsourced document management services can handle high volumes of documents from large archives. Hundreds of thousands of pages can be scanned per day, meaning an organisation can have all of its files digitized in a short space of time.

These data scanning companies typically have quality assurances in place to ensure their clients are guaranteed an effective and secure service. Risk assessment and stringent controls are implemented to ensure files are protected and quality maintained.

So document scanning can provide an effective, space-saving, low-cost storage solution for digitally filing and archiving important documents.

Data Capture Solutions provide an efficient outsourced document scanning service. Combining Kofax Capture with Image Enhancement Software they can provide quality digital scans of many types of documents. With clients including The Home Office and The National Archives, they ensure a quick and secure data capture and scanning service.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Document-Scanning-Solutions&id=6546020

Reverse Phone Scan - Find Contacts by Looking Up Unlisted Phone Numbers

Several years have passed since you were in high school and you feel the need to have a reunion once and for all. However, you only have a limited list of contacts in your address book and there are countless of unnamed phone numbers in it. You are sure that it belongs to some of your colleagues, but you are just not sure who among them owns those phone numbers.

This is just one dilemma which will require you to lookup unlisted phone numbers. If this is not your case, you might have annoying prank callers which call you up in the wee hours of the day, causing you to lose some of that precious sleep you always want to have. No one wants to wake up in the middle of the night just to answer a stupid prank call from someone you do not know and do not care about. Most of the time, these prank callers are quite witty because they do not use their home phone numbers. They fear that they might get discovered.

These problems are just some of the cases why you need to avail of a service which will give you information about unlisted phone numbers. Some of you might be skeptical about this because you did not think it was possible to lookup unlisted phone numbers at any cost. Well, think again. It is possible, and there are various companies which will help you gather information about them.

Some companies offer free services which will give you a reverse phone lookup, but this rarely happens. All you have to do is to enter the phone number in their website and you will be given with contact listings of that person who owns that number. However, you cannot find everything that you need with these free services because their databases are limited. If you really want to have a complete listing of the contact details that you want to find, most companies will give you this services for a considerable fee. The fee which comes with the services is relatively very cheap, and this is considered to be really worth your time and money. These paid services will eventually give you the contact number, the address, occupation and even the neighbor's contact numbers with just one easy step-entering the number that you have in your possession.

People know that services which lookup unlisted phone numbers are very useful in most cases. You do not have to wonder about who in the world owns that unnamed phone number that you have in your address book. You also do not have to wonder who that annoying prank caller is during the wee hours of the day. You can now easily contact your lost friends and probably file a complaint against that prank caller.

A reverse phone lookup services certainly is worthy of your time and money. You do not even have to hire a private investigator and spend millions for just one silly prank caller. Convenient and practical service is all you need to have for this concern.

Want to lookup unlisted phone numbers right NOW? Visit Steve's reverse phone detective review site to see the #1 service online for looking up an unlimited number of phone numbers, at an amazingly low cost.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Reverse-Phone-Scan---Find-Contacts-by-Looking-Up-Unlisted-Phone-Numbers&id=1503498