Effective Paper Document Management Requires More Than Rubber Stamps
When documents are printed they are often done so without any branding or layer of protection. In a shared-printer environment, this is even more of a regular happeningwhere they are left in printer trays for others to see or whatever. Information workers, temporary staff, guests and others may be walking by the printer where the document(s) are in full view.
Without a constant policy and simple method of paper document management, paper documents are unprotected and unidentified as to purpose in far too many instances. In most cases, this may not cause a problem. But, when it does, the cost is steep. The price of a “DRAFT” becoming an ORIGINAL can be incalculable.
This happens daily in thousands of companies on an all-to-frequent basis. When documents are printed for any number of reasons, it is often without any form of label or identification to prevent misinterpretation or misunderstanding. Unfortunately, rubber stamps are the most common form of paper document management and compounding the problem is thier use in the margins.
Applying visible marking to documents should be done when the document is created. PDF documents created from Word require additional steps to apply this marking and, if marking is required on specific pages only, the job gets more difficult.
As to the method, the document identification process must be thorough and capable of marking all the documents’ pages with appropriate and/or necessary indicia that is unalterable. The method must also be able to accept user-input to ensure that the marking is wholly appropriate for the document and handle extraordinary situations where truly custom stamps or legends are required.
While a stamp in the margin is better than no stamp at all, it doesn’t make much of an improvement over the old-fashioned rubber stamp. In order to be effective, the method must be automated. And the method must be capable of combining the text and the indicia in such a manner that it cannot be removed. User-friendliness is of paramount importance. If the use of the product requires data entry or command-line use, it is not likely to be used in an effective manner.
Visible watermarks, while good for intra-office work and controlled-print environments, are not the most secure form of document identification. The visible watermark, if in shaded gray, can be almost instantly removed by a contrast setting on any number of copy machines with that setting. Color watermarks are a little more secure method, but still are subject to removal in a similar manner.
Document marking that is embedded in the body/text of a document is the most reliable. This form of marking is where the marking is the same color as the body text which prevents the removal-by-copier scenario. Under this condition there is no marking that can be covered or “contrasted” out of the document. This method provides the most paper document security in a document management program.
StampIt for Word is the standard for automated document marking and is the solution for eliminating the use of rubber stamps for paper document marking. StampIt merges the power of Word with the power of your printer. It’s like having instant, total access to custom made rubber stamps that are fully automated.