Simple document scanner software?

cowman

cowman

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So I've had a problem for years of stacks and stacks of papers laying all over the house and never being able to find the one thing I need or some time now. Decided last year to try the Neatdesk system they advertise on TV all the time- if you haven't seen it, it's a document scanner plus some software that's supposed to automatically scan and recognize all your documents and sort them for you.

Well the good news is it's a really really good document scanner. The bad news is, as I'd feared the software is pretty crummy. It has yet to correctly recognize anything, but since it doesn't categorize anything at all that's not a big deal, the descriptions are just wrong on all the documents. Changing the descriptions requires several clicks, a dialogue box(which changes based on which thing it incorrectly detected the document as), typing, and another click..... too clunky and awkward IMO. Since I organize them into folders in the neat software that's not a huge problem in and of it's self.... but...

Doing things like exporting to pdf, printing, and so on are just kind of clunky and don't work well for my purpose. For example I've been dumping folders out to my network drive and it insists on opening every pdf after I export- so I have 30 some pdf windows that pop up sequentially as it exports leaving my pc unusable for a few minutes.



What I'm thinking is a better system would be if I just created some folders out on my network drive and just stored everything in a normal file directory tree- sorting as I do now. Trouble is I don't have scanner software that does this the way I want it to.

What I want is a simple dialogue box where I specify the directory I want, type in a file name, have a couple of checkboxes for if I want duplex scanning, color, combine multiple pages, etc and then just drop in the document and click scan then be done. I'm usually scanning a bunch of stuff at once so I want a streamlined setup with no BS. Yeah I know I'm being fussy but most of the scanning software I see out there is full of annoying unhelpful wizards and colorful graphics with poor functionality.

Best thing I've found so far is oddly enough the preview application on the mac, but it's not quite what I want either.

Mac or windows doesn't matter- I run both. Would be awesome if it was one application that would run on either platform though.

Anybody know of anything? Anybody know of a command line scanning program a programmer could build a nice interface around?
 
ChemGuy said:
We use a few of these at work. You can setup some favorites and other tricks to put stuff in the right folder easier.

I don't know if its what you need but maybe....

http://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-iX500-Scanner-PA03656-B005/dp/B00ATZ9QMO
Click to expand...
+10 on the Fujitsu.
I bought one for work in 2008 when we switched to electronic medical records. Since we were scanning in years of old documents, and because it became so essential I bought another. In 7 years these workhorses have never failed and only very very rarely have a paper jam.

Then at home I decided I needed one so in order to save some money, I bought a Neat scanner. It sucked. It was extremely slow compared to the Fujitsu and it jammed a lot more. So I bought another Fujitsu for home and I'm glad I did.

They are very fast, very reliable and the software is everything I need.
 
The Fujitsu and Evernote is the best solution! I purchased two, one at home, one at the office. Using Evernote, it's like having a huge filing cabinet in my phone.

Every document (both sides) is OCRed into a PDF and becomes searchable. It's awesome.
 
kgruber said:
Vuescan......without doubt the best.

http://www.hamrick.com/
Click to expand...

I will second this recommendation, although I don't use it as much as I used to because I rely more on scanner apps on my phone. However, VueScan will likely do just about anything that you need, and Ed Hamrick has always been very responsive when I've emailed him in the past.


JKG
 
cowman said:
That looks a lot like what I was thinking of... I'll be giving it a try for my next batch of papers. Thanks!
Click to expand...
I suggest that you take a hard look at Evernote as well. There's a bit of a learning curve but even if you just scan and store your stuff, Evernote's search can help you find things. Organizing stuff into EN notebooks and using EN tags can be an ongoing project to get things in even better shape.

EN has a private-labeled Scansnap that they support. There is also an interface from Xerox-branded scanners, which I think are all Fujitsu as well. There is a Vuescan tutorial on sending scans to EN too. I have not used that software however.

This video, though not great, is an introduction to EN that you may find to be of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jj6Sn0YTv8
 
+1 on ScanSnap.

I've eliminated much of my scanning, by using an APP called camscanner. It scans to PDF by taking a picture of the document with your phone/tablet. Microsoft just released something free called Microsoft Office Lens that is similar. Now, I shoot a PDF of receipts standing at the register and handle "scanning" many docs in real time.
It's also great for shooting copies of all my Aviation docs and log books.
 
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