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I have always wanted to try and make a photo mosaic so I went looking to see what software was around to help with this task. As I typically find on the mac there is a great piece of software available, and it is free!

It is called MacOSaiX and can be find here. Unfortunately it appears to no longer be in development but it works fine on Snow Leopard, so that is no biggie.

It is pretty straight forward to use . You select the image that you want to create then select the source for the photos that will be used to make the mosaic. If you do not have enough photos in your iPhoto collection it is smart enough to go online to find more. Be warned it takes a long time to create, depending on your settings. This example (40X40) took about 3+ hours.

The results can be then be printed to create a fantastic piece of art.

Here is an example I created, click on the image to view larger version

7/10

One of the major needs of a mobile office warrior is the ability to create and edit office documents on the go. The iPhone natively only comes with the ability to view office documents so the search was on for the best app to provide this missing functionality.

The text edit function for Word documents.

The text edit function for Word documents.

QuickOffice Pro was the first major app of this type top be released for the iPhone.  It provides the ability to edit Word and Excel documents. Documents can be created or loaded via WiFi, mounting your iPhone as a hard drive, transfer from Mobile Me or via email. The email function isn’t from your Inbox on the iPhone, you have to forward the mail to a QuickOffice account so that you can access the file. It provides the basic editing function that you would expect from such an app.

6/10

Document To Go, by veteran developer DataViz, was released with only the ability to create and edit Word documents. They have just announced the submission of an update which included the ability to create and edit Excel spreadsheets. The ability to get documents onto the iPhone is limited to the use of a desktop application. The editing functions are similar to what is available on QuickOffice.

7/10

Overall based on a comparison of the Word functions Documents To Go has the better designed user interface. The major concern with this app is the limited option available in accessing documents, I would presume (and hope) that this will be rectified in later versions. Apart from the file access limitations given the lower price (pre release of Excel update) and the better design Documents To Go is the preferred app.

How often have you come across a document that you would like to copy, but no copier is available? Or you have spent an hour brainstoriming on a Whiteboard but the printer finction doesnt work? Well JotNot is the answer. It uses the camera on your iPhone and through some magic it converts the image to a usable copy for future reference.

Here the required document has been selected

And here is the resulting enhance image

It allows you top select the part of the image that you would like to convert then runs a process to deskew  and enhance the image that you want captured.

It has a number of presets (Receipts, Documents Whiteboards etc) for different sources of the document and numerous of options for enhancment. Generally I just use the preset option but one advance option worth playing with is the Background to White, in my experience this makes for a more detailed image of the selected text or drawing.

One feature that it has that I would like other developers to take up is the export to Evernote function. Otherwise the other options are to email, save to camera roll or export via Wifi. Apart from uploading to Mobile Me JotNot has all the export options covered.

While there is a free lite version to play with the pro version is well worth the asking price.

8/10

I like to  visualise procedures and ideas. Working at a large Government department that thinks that IE6 is cutting edge the best tools I have access to are the charting options in Word 2003 or an ancient copy of ABC Flowcharter, hardly conducive to the capturing of a free flowing brainstorming session.

I ventured to the App Store to try and find a Mindmapping tool I can use at work via the iPhone. I played with all of the lite versions available and reviewed the details of those that only had paid versions.

In the end it was between between iBluesky and iThoughts. Both apps have the added advantage of being closely compatible with Novamind. They are very similar in features but in the end it was iThoughts lower pricer, better looking maps, elegant copy/move function and multiple export options that won the day.

The only thing lacking is a picture export of the maps, though the developer is very open to suggestions and hopefully will offer this ability in a later version. In the interim I use the screen shot function of the iPhone to generate images.

Recommended.  7/10

For a long time I have been searching for the ultimate efficiency in the filing and retrieval of documents. Apart from all of the day to day  to document storage needs of the avarage family  I have a number of tax related investments which results in the accumiliation of a large amount of paperwork.

In reality only a small percentage of these documents need to be maintained in paper form so I went searching for the best way to digitise the data. The dual benefit of this approach is that it minimises storage needs while making retrieval much easier.

The following is the system that I have developed;

ScanSnap S1500M

Hardware

The first step is of course to digitise the  document which requires the use of a scanner. I already have a Brother Multi Function Centre which can scan documents but it is very slow and does not do duplex. After researching the available information on the net time and time again The Fujitsu ScanSnaps were mentioned. It would seem the consensus is that these are the preferred devices for the paperless office fanatics. I settled on the ScanSnap S1500M as my preferred device. I sourced mine via Ebay from the US. It was delivered within 2 weeks and I saved about $400 compared to local prices.

Software

Apart from the ScanSnap Manager software I utilise Yep for file tagging and viewing, Hazel for file renaming and filing and ChronoSync for file syncing

Storage

The documents are stored in a directory on my Macbook. This is backed up automatically via Time Machine and periodically to an external drive for archiving. After learning the hardway It pays to have multiple backaps of your important files. I also sync a copy of each file to my Mobile Me account, this means that I can access the documents wherever I am. For accessing the documents via the iPhone I use ezShare as it has a search function (apart from many other extras) that is missing from Apple’s iDisk app.

Process

Generally I scan in batches. I organise my documents into 3 piles – single page, double side pages and multiple page documents. This makes the process of scanning quicker as ScanSnap can be setup to automatically create seperate documents after x number of pages. The first two options allow me to scan multiple documents in one batch and ScanSnap will automatically separate them. I dont usually perfrom OCR but I do have additioanl ScanSnap profiles to handles these occasions. The documents are output as PDFs and saved to a central location.

I then open up Yep to view and tag the documents. I chose Yep partly based on its features and party based on the fact that it does not store the scans in some sort of propriety database. Yep 1.8 is a great app that is purely for the management of PDF files. Currently there is a version 2 in beta. It has more complex in functionality and views a greater range of file types. It has switched to the use of OpenMeta Tagging format that is used by a number of developers at present. There is controversy surrounding the OpenMeta format and it would be prudent to not rely on it alone for the storage and retrieval of your documents. I tag each document by the category (Document, Certificate, Ebook or Manual), purpose (Car, Food, Electricity, Warranty etc or a Person or Investment name) and Supplier (Eg Amazon, Apple, Acme Inc etc). I will also add a year and month if it is document that I will receive periodically, such as a bank statement or If I want to allocate it to a specific period , i.e. 2008 Tax Return.

I utilise the tags that I have allocated against the documents In Yep to rename the and file the documents automatically with Hazel. I use Hazel to rename each file with the date and time (down to the second) the document was created and the tags that have been allocated. For example a document created on 1/7/2009 that related to an Apple purchase would be renamed as;

• 20090701-123015-Receipt, Warranty, Macbook, Apple.pdf.

By renaming this way I can find them via spotlight even of the OpenMeta Tags get corrupted.

Hazel will then move the documents to a final storage location in directories based on the category tag. Any document that doesn’t have a Document, Certificate, Ebook or Manual tag will be stored in the default Receipts directory. Over time I may add more categories but these suit me fine for now. If the number of documents in a folder gets too large I will split them up into financial year directories.

Chronosync then runs once per day and syncs the files to the external drive and Mobile Me.

Conclusion

So far I am up to 500+ documents and find this system great. The time this process takes is probably about the same as the old manual filing system but it is much quicker to retrieve, view and forward the documents as required. The additional benefit is that I estimate I will reduce my current filing needs from 2×4 drawer cabinets to only 1 or 2 drawers in total.