With our newly launched facebook page and v2.1 attracting much attention, we make a lot of assumptions that people understand why they would use electronic filing in the home. But we've quickly realised that this isn't necessarily true. So without further ado, here are what we feel to be the three key reasons why:

1. Space Saving
With post (general correspondence, bills, statements etc) still arriving daily to almost every household there will come a point when a decision needs to be made on what to keep and what not to keep because space in the home filing system is at a premium. Naturally, we make the assumption that the newest documents will have the most relevant information on so a cull will begin on older documents, but at what point should the cull begin? By scanning and keeping an electronic copy of each document on your computer would it matter where in your filing system the cull occurred, as long as you had the information you needed and saved space?

2. Easy Access
A common response to the idea of space saving is "I have a loft/garage/shed/some space in a mates flat..." which is a perfectly fair response that can certainly overcome any immediate storage issues . But what happens if you need information from one of the documents that you've put out of the way? Is it readily accessible when you need it? You could be on the phone arranging car insurance in need of accident history to complete the process - you'll have to go in search of the information and call back later - time consuming and cumbersome; You could be talking to your utilities provider - now what was your account number from the previous supplier? Is that really better than having the information you need only a keypress or three away?

3. Peace of Mind
As compelling as the first two points are, for some people, the idea of recording ever bit of paper, every document, receipt etc provides a peace of mind that can't be ignored. We can pretend that bad things don't happen (such as floods, fire etc) or we can do our very best to ensure that any disruption caused by such events is as minimal as it can be. Now no one is saying that file@home can prevent your house from flooding - but, it could prevent you losing valuable information should your original documents be totally destroyed. Thankfully, many of us won't experience such disasters - but the duplication of documents and the information which they contain does afford some comfort in that the information will not be lost forever. It could be considered a modern day equivalent of photocopying documents and placing the original in the firesafe "just in case".


So that's what we believe to be the three key reasons why you would adopt a system such as file@home for home filing; (we'd have to point out here that these aren't mutually exclusive either, our experience shows that people will generally cite two or even all three reasons for their personal decision to use file@home)

Do you have different reasons though? We'd love to hear from you if you do, so please email us or leave a message in the comments.

Labels: file at home, home filing, reasons, why

And so, it's with great pleasure that we'd like to announce that file@home 2.1 r3 is now available from this very web site!

Erm, yep, excuse the overly formal introduction; we're never too sure how to *announce* a new product release - especially when it's the biggest update to file@home since the initial 2.0 software arrived on the scene 10 months ago.

Yes, it's later than planned, but you can't go rushing these things otherwise you have unhappy customers - and nobody really wants that, do they?

So now you're over your shock, what's changed we hear you cry? Well, deep breath, hold it, ok, here we go.....

• Rename Cabinets and Folders

Well, after collating feedback since v2 launched and planning how to implement more controls for 'powerusers', we've finally implemented this change. So now, just like you can with documents, you can edit the description of a Cabinet or Folder. As the pre-defined list was completely UK centric, it will now allow our overseas users to create filing structures more appropriate for their needs.

• Drag and Drop documents to move them

The old way of moving a document was a little bit on the clunky side, so we've replaced the old menu option completely - as in you won't find the option in the menu - what you can do instead is drag the document you wish to move straight to the folder that you wish to move it to

• Upgraded Backup Engine

To ensure that file@home can continue to write backups to newer recordable (optical) media, the backup engine has been upgraded. Backups created with earlier versions of file@home cannot be opened with the new backup engine, so you will need to run a backup from the new version as soon as you can.

IMPORTANT: If you are using file@home on Windows XP, then you need to install this Microsoft update and this Microsoft update to use the new backup engine. If you don't install the updates you will get an error message when the application starts.

• file@home Monitor Startup Routines

The monitor has been completely re-written to utilise all of the nice functionality that we introduced into its big brother e-VU Professional. This makes the monitor behave better, but more importantly, it gets rid of that annoying entry in the Alt+TAB list that was displayed but couldn't be selected

• The Vault

The vault has had a bit of a make over. Initially this started out as just an icon refresh, but after putting in the changes to allow the cabinets and folders to be renamed, we found that the vault was beginning to look quite untidy when lots of folders were highlighted in bold. When we started to file in earnest, we were utterly horrified; so a makeover it was - we think you'll agree that the makeover gives the vault a nice fresh appearance.

• Under the hood

Lots of updates have been going on in places only our code monkeys are allowed. They've been tinkering and tweeking to make sure that file@home will perform to the best of its abilities, all of the time.

So what are you waiting for? Download the latest version today to see first hand what the changes mean for file@home. Oh, and we'd love to get your feedback on the new version (good or bad) so why don't you drop us an email with your thoughts?

Labels: 2.1, backup engine, drag and drop documents, file at home, r3, rename cabinets, rename folders