3. Go remote
Just because you're out of range of an office's Wi-Fi network doesn't mean you can't print wirelessly. Many printers not only connect to the Wi-Fi network, but are also connected to the internet with their own IP addresses.
Provided you don't require the prints immediately, you can send print jobs to your network-connected printer from anywhere in the world if you're connected to the internet. Then, when you get back to your office, your completed prints will be waiting for you.
If your printer supports remote printing off-network, your manufacturer will enable this feature in the mobile app, similar to Wi-Fi printing. Each manufacturer will have slightly different instructions on configuring the app.
Once the feature is configured, you can use the manufacturer's print app to navigate the internet, go to your cloud storage account or access your emails to print what you need.
I've started to use this feature more when I am working remotely from a coffee shop or checking office emails at lunch, and it has helped me not miss an important document that I otherwise would have forgotten to print.
Not just for printing
If you need the scanning feature from your multifunction office printer, you can also scan on the go. There are portable wireless scanners, like the Epson WorkForce DS-30 ($89, £57, AU$110), if you need a hardware solution.
If you want to cut down on devices to carry while traveling, today's smartphones and tablets come with capable cameras, and there are plenty of third-party scanner apps that allow you to snap a picture of the document you need scanned. Many of these apps will automatically determine the edges of the paper, unskew your photo so it looks like you're taking a scan instead of an off-angled photograph and make crops to trim the background.
If your office has an Adobe subscription, Adobe's Document Cloud service is included in that cost. The cloud-connected mobile app lets you take a photo of your document, save it to the cloud as a PDF, edit it, sign it and password protect it.
Microsoft users should also look at Office Lens, which comes with optical character recognition (OCR) and can convert captured documents into PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint files. There is integration with OneNote, and you can also "scan" receipts and business cards.
And if you're fortunate enough to have a team working with you at the office, they can also use the workgroup multifunction printers to send scans to a shared folder, cloud drive or email address to give you access to physical documents stored at the office that you need while remote.
- Read our picks for the best printers
