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Home | Computers & Technology | Data Recovery This article explores the use of barcodes in document management. Bar codes that describe a set of documents can be attached to those paper documents. These can then be scanned and converted into electronic information for indexing the documents. Bar-coding paper documents also facilitates their subsequent quick identification during retrieval. This becomes relevant in the case of legal documents and others that need to be preserved in original form and retrieved quickly when needed. In a legal office with thousands of such documents, bar-coding the paper documents can prove to be a huge time-saving strategy. New Kinds of Bar Codes Traditionally, barcodes were linear with vertical lines representing alpha and numeric characters. As more characters were coded, the length of the barcode increased. The length became too wide at about 30 characters, making scanning a difficult proposition. To solve this problem, 2-dimensional barcodes were developed. 2D barcodes use a matrix of small cells arranged both vertically and horizontally, making it possible to accommodate many more characters. Some claims put this at 2,000 characters under the PDF417 coding. 2D barcodes have the disadvantage, however, that they can become more easily unreadable. Whereas whole vertical lines have to become severely damaged for traditional barcodes to become unreadable, damage to a few cells can make a 2D barcode unreliable. Reliability of Bar Codes Generally, bar codes are highly reliable devices that provide a superb degree of accuracy. However, they can become damaged, or the machine used to read them can fail to function properly. As a safeguard against such eventualities, the bar-coded information is generally displayed in human-readable characters along with the barcode. 2D barcodes take up much more space and include much more information. These factors make it impracticable to include a human-readable version of the barcode contents in the space available. To overcome this problem, 2D barcode solutions include some redundancy to make them readable even in the event of partial damage. Use of Barcodes in Document Management Barcodes can be pre-printed on the document as an identifier, facilitating subsequent retrieval. The legal office example hinted at earlier is an example. Barcodes can also be pre-printed on separator pages to indicate the start and end of documents. This becomes useful when documents can be batched, as in a mailroom scenario. Barcodes can also be printed on labels and affixed to documents. 2D barcodes can be used to imprint complete information about a document. These can then be scanned into the electronic copy and read by software for indexing and other purposes. There are bar code generators that can speed up the process. With some input from the operator and from the application, generators can create relevant barcodes to be attached to the document. Combining such facilities and document imaging, management can thus be automated to some extent. Conclusion Document imaging and management software are in high demand, and products and technologies to meet this demand are constantly appearing in the market. Bar coding can attach identifying information to documents and these can then be scanned into the electronic copy, thus facilitating indexing of the documents. Article Source: http://www.articlewheel.com
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