Long predicted, the paperless office is still a myth. Although paper usage has been reduced in some organizations, it has increased in others. Today's PCs make it easy to churn out documents.

As one technology eliminates paper, another comes along to increase usage. While laptops with multi-gigabyte hard disks and wireless connections replace paper when traveling, the Internet offers tons of interesting Web pages that beg to be printed, if only to be read for just a moment. Perhaps the only thing that could ever bring about a paperless office is if paper costs went through the roof.

More Electronic, More Paper
Each year, a higher percentage of documents are being maintained electronically and not printed. However, the amount of information is doubling every three to four years. Therefore, although the percentage of documents printed goes down, the total number of printed documents goes up. As Keith Davidson of Xplor International so succinctly put it, "the paperless office is as about as realistic as the paperless toilet!" See desktop.