5 Ways PDF Tools Can Help Remote Workers Save Time

Balancing remote work and personal time outside of screens can be difficult. As someone who's been working from home since 2019, I have always relied on tools and apps to help me save time and make my workdays a bit smoother. In this post, I'll share a few tips on how PDF tools can be a game-changer for remote workers.

#1: Managing Remote Work Schedules Effectively

Remote workers spend an average of 1.5 hours daily on scheduling tasks. This is where PDF tools can help you stay organized and track your deadlines without a hassle.

Best practices:

• Combine different project schedules into one digital PDF document.

• Add notes and deadlines directly onto your schedule PDFs.

• Share updated schedules with your team easily.
  
  

Recommended Tool: Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is great for combining documents, adding notes, and sharing schedules. 

Image: Adobe Acrobat

#2: Handling Large Volumes of Files Quickly

If your work requires you to deal with tons of documents, you need to learn an efficient way to manage your files—remotely. Using PDF tools can significantly cut down this time.

Here's how to do it:

• Merge multiple files into a single PDF, so it's easier to classify and store information.

• Compress large PDFs to save storage space and speed up sharing.

• Convert batches of documents to PDF at once.

Recommended Tool: PDFsam Basic

PDFsam Basic is a free tool that lets you merge, split, and compress PDFs easily. 

#3: Finding and Accessing Information More Efficiently

According to McKinsey, employees spend nearly 20% of their workweek (or 2.5 hours a day!) searching for information. Efficient PDF tools can help you find the right info quickly and save a lot of time.

Here's how to improve your PDF search:

• Use the search function in PDFs to find keywords in seconds

• Bookmark important pages for quick access later

• Create an index in your PDF for instant navigation

Recommended Tool: Foxit PDF Reader

Foxit PDF Reader offers robust search and bookmarking features. 

#4: Reading OCR Files Easily

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) makes scanned documents so much easier to work with. According to AIIM, with OCR, what used to take hours can now be done in minutes, improving productivity by up to 50%.

Tips for reading OCR files:

• Convert scanned docs into searchable PDFs

• Extract text from images and scanned files

• Edit OCR PDFs just like regular docs

Recommended Tool: Google Docs

Google Docs can help you turn scanned documents into editable files. 

Using a PDF Reader with Built-In Chat Functionality

Real-time collaboration tools can increase productivity by 25% by reducing the time spent on back-and-forth emails or team chats.

Best practices for chatting with a PDF document:

• Use a PDF tool with team chat functionality to discuss documents without switching between apps

• Share documents in a link and chat about them instantly

• Asking questions and getting instant responses helps you save time and make decisions faster

Recommended Tool: AskDocs AI

AskDocs AI allows you to upload PDFs and chat with an AI assistant to extract important info. It's like a personal assistant that helps you read and get answers from your documents faster. 

Conclusion

Give these tools a try and make your remote work a little less hectic. When you are working remotely the goal is to be as efficient as possible. And we all know that more efficient time management means more time to relax and enjoy life outside of work!

Related articles:

1. AI-powered Document Analysis - How it Works

2. How to read Business Documents in Seconds - with AskDocs AI

3. How to Search for Information Fast in a PDF file