# No more paper statements only electronic **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [August 8, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/no-more-paper-statements-only-electronic/1076 "2022-08-08T00:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 13
**Author:** ![sengsational](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@sengsational](https://community.clark.com/u/sengsational)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://community.clark.com/t/no-more-paper-statements-only-electronic/1076/13 "2022-08-09T20:19:00Z")
> [@ochotona](#): > > You know… computers can search the contents of a PDF file. So if you have 100s of documents, the computer will find the occurence of a single word. If you bought an “Appaloosa” horse in 2003, and it’s in a PDF document (not as a raster image scan in PDF format mind you, but as a real document in PDF format), your kids will find that keyword much faster than by reading paper pages with their eyes. And there’s more complex AI software they can use to mine the “data lake” of your business files, if it’s a big enough enterprise. While PDF format might find the word “Appaloosa”, it also might not. PDF format is **positional** and it might decide to put “App” in one place and “aloosa” in another. The format is great for printing, but that’s as far as it goes. I don’t want to print, and I don’t want to look at a print format. **I want the data!** Then I can put that data, very efficiently, where I need it, and can find it. I can format it any way I want, analyze it with my own software, and not have to dig through 42 pages **^** to find what I want. So as not to derail this thread, I created another one [[Machine readable statements: an investor's right? - #2 by ochotona](https://community.clark.com/t/machine-readable-statements-an-investors-right/1083/2)]. **^** Not an exaggeration. Mine plus my wife’s Fidelity statements are that many pages. IRA’s, HSA’s, Roth’s and taxable, it’s over the top. I don’t want or need 95% of what they print. I want the beginning and ending balances, and transactions that affect the balance. The rest is fluff. --- _[View the full topic](https://community.clark.com/t/no-more-paper-statements-only-electronic/1076)._