Pixily Changes Names – Is Now OfficeDrop
February 22, 2010
We’ve written a few times here on DocumentSnap about Pixily, a document management and scanning service that will let you physically send your paper documents and upload them to their service, and then securely manage the scanned files online.
We’ve just gotten word that they have changed their name to OfficeDrop. Why did they change it?
We decided to change our name because we found that customers were having problems spelling and remembering the Pixily name. Additionally, we wanted to find a label that helps potential customers understand what we do. We are obviously very attached to the Pixily brand, so this name change is not something that we took lightly. If you are curious, we will be posting articles on our blog talking about how we came up with OfficeDrop and the process we went through to find a new name.
As of now, not much else is changing other than the name. All web addresses should redirect, but if you run into any problems, email them at support@officedrop.com or phone them at 1-888-674-6493.
What do you think of the new name? Is OfficeDrop better/worse/indifferent than Pixily?
Updated: Acrobat Applescript for ScanSnap OCR
February 16, 2010
As many of you know, in 2008 I posted an Applescript that will use Adobe Acrobat to make PDFs searchable using Acrobat’s OCR capabilities.
In the comments to that post, user nodis pointed out that adding 2 words to one of the lines can make the PDFs quite a bit smaller.
In my testing, I ran a 1.3 MB PDF through the script. Before nodis’ change, the resulting PDF was 1.7 MB. After the change, it was 424K!
Here is the updated script:
To use it:
- Download and uncompress the file and save it to your Desktop, Dock or wherever
- Drag one or more PDFs onto the icon
- Enjoy
Let me know how it works out for you and if you see similar reductions in file size.
How To Create Searchable PDFs With The ScanSnap S300M
February 2, 2010
So you read all this great stuff about how the Fujitsu ScanSnap is awesome and creates searchable PDFs, and you’re on a Mac and want a portable scanner, so you drop the cash on a ScanSnap S300M.
Then you get it home and find out – wait a minute – the S300M doesn’t come with OCR software! If you’ve been there (and I have), hopefully this post will help you out, as I get a lot of questions about this.
Mail-In Rebate
Your local Fujitsu website may provide a mail-in rebate for OCR software if you purchase the S300M. At the time of this writing, the US Fujitsu websites has a mail-in rebate for a free copy of ReadIris OCR software
The rebate is at http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/scanners/rebates.html . Check if your country has something similar.
Acrobat
While the S300M doesn’t come with Adobe Acrobat, if you have a copy of it laying around, or have access to it, you can use the ScanSnap with it. Here is an example of how I use the S300M with Acrobat 8.
Evernote
Evernote Premium allows users to upload PDFs and they will be automatically OCR’ed and made searchable.
DevonThink
If you use a program like Devonthink Pro Office to manage your documents, they will be made searchable.
NeatWorks
NeatWorks is a software that is bundled with the NeatDesk scanner, but it can be purchased on its own. See this post for how to use NeatWorks with the Fujitsu ScanSnap.
These are some ideas for how to make searchable PDFs with the ScanSnap S300M. Do you have any others? Leave a message in the comments.
Great Paperless Workflow Post At Interface Matters
December 23, 2009
Chris Blatnick over at the Interface Matters blog has just done an absolutely epic post about his paper processing workflow.
He has included a diagram in which he mapped out his process, and two great videos in which he explains and demonstrates the whole thing.
So I recognized a problem: too much paper. That was the first step. Now I needed to make an actionable plan to deal with it. That’s where the ScanSnap came in. I started using it to scan papers in when they came in the mail. As soon as I came across something I needed to keep (my monthly bank statement, for instance), I digitized it and stored it on my hard drive and then shredded the document. Ah…a great feeling. I’ve been doing this for several months now and it has been very successful. However, nagging at the back of my mind (even though it was on my Someday/Maybe GTD list) was the massive task of tackling those file cabinets. Over the Thanksgiving break, I finally took the plunge and mapped out my paper processing workflow.
If you are curious about how different people handle their paper (and if you’re not, why are you here? 
), I highly recommend checking out the post and associated videos.
The tools Chris uses are the ScanSnap S1500 and, a personal favorite, Dropbox. He is also a fellow GTD devotee.
His next step will be to send the documents into Lotus Notes. If you don’t already use it, that’s a little hardcore, but if you already in Notes all day like he is, why not.
Great post Chris!
Pixily Provides Storage Online and via USB, DVD, or Hard Drive
November 24, 2009
We have written about Pixily before. They’re a document scanning, digitization, and management service.
They recently did an interesting blog post where they outline some of the other options they have for storing the data you send them.
Normally, when you send services like this your documents, receipts, etc., they are stored online. However, when you have a lot of data (or don’t feel comfortable leaving your information only on a third party service), you can request your data be put on DVD, USB sticks, or even a hard drive.
When you sign up with Pixily document scanning service, we give you options as to where your data can be stored. In addition to online data storage, Pixily provides data storage in the form of DVDs, USB memory sticks, and external hard drives. Options are great, but you may be wondering which one is right for you. Size, price, and storage methods will determine the best storage medium.
The blog post does a good job outlining the options. Here is the pricing:
Anyone out there use these types of services like Pixily? Do you keep everything online, or do you prefer to have the data sent to you too?
Compare Your Documents Online With CompareMyDocs
November 19, 2009
I’m sure you’ve been there… someone sends you a bunch of documents and you need to figure out which one is the latest, or what the changes are between them.
There are a number of tools to do that, but if you just want to do a quick and dirty comparison without messing around with a bunch of software, enter CompareMyDocs.com
CompareMyDocs is a free service (in Beta) that lets you upload .rtf, .doc, or .docx files and do a simple comparison.
The interface is dead simple. Select which files you want to compare, hit Compare, and it will load them up and show you the differences.
It only works with documents that don’t have a lot of formatting like tables etc., but it’s still a cool concept to check out.
If you need to compare documents, how do you do it?
(via Lawyerist)
ABBYY FineReader For ScanSnap Update For Snow Leopard OSX 10.6 Now Available
November 18, 2009
When it rains it pours. When Fujitsu released their ScanSnap Update For Snow Leopard, the missing piece was the OCR provided by FineReader. They said it would be released by ABBYY soon, and as of today, it’s out.
The update is for the ScanSnap S1500M and S510M.
Click Here To Download The FineReader Snow Leopard Update. It’s down at the bottom.
You know the deal.. let us know in the comments how the update worked out for you!
Applescript: Easily convert PDF documents to JPG or PNG
November 3, 2009
There are, of course, a million ways to convert PDF documents to JPG or PNG files. However, sometimes you just want something quick and easy.
A while ago, reader AS pointed me out an Applescript droplet written by Martin Michel over at MacScripter.
AS mentioned that it would be nice to have a version that converts to PNG as well. Being nothing if not nice, I used my almost non-existant Applescript/Python skills to convert Martin’s script to output PNG. All credit for this goes to Martin.. I just did some modifications.
Here’s how to do it:
PDF To JPG
- Go to http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=25350
- Download PDF2JPG
- Unzip it
- Drag a PDF or multiple PDFs onto the icon
- Select the resolution (or accept the default)
- A JPG file will be created for each page in the PDF
PDF to PNG
- Download PDF2PNG from here
- Drag a PDF or multiple PDFs onto the icon
- Select the resolution (or accept the default)
- A PNG file will be created for each page in the PDF
Hope this helps some of you. I know they will come in handy for me. Thanks AS and thanks Martin Michel! Let me know how it works out for you.
Using Mac OSX Preview To Password Protect Your Documents
October 20, 2009
This tip comes from DocumentSnap reader A.S. (thanks!).
If you want to add a password to a PDF document, that functionality is built in to Mac OSX’s Preview application.
For Windows users, you can use a free program like PDFCreator to do something similar.
Here we go:
- Load up your PDF in Preview
- Go to File -> Print
- Click on the PDF icon in the bottom left and choose Save To PDF
- Hit the Security Options button
- You now have options to set a password to open, set a password to be able to copy text (cool) and even set a password to be able to print
- Now when you go to open the PDF, the user gets prompted for the password
Do you use any other methods to password protect or, even better, totally encrypt your PDFs before sending them to someone? Leave your strategies in the comments.
Also, if someone has a clever way to automate this process for a bunch of PDFs at once (using Automator or an Applescript?) that would be great too.
Home Document Manager For Windows Now Supports ScanSnap
September 3, 2009
I’ve been interacting with Tim Haughton (@documentmanager) quite a bit on Twitter lately, and he let me know that one of the most requested features of Home Document Manager has now been implemented – it now works with the Fujitsu ScanSnap.
Uses A Watch Folder
Traditionally, Home Document Manager has worked with TWAIN scanners, which we all know the ScanSnap does not support. The way they did it is using a watch folder. You configure ScanSnap Manager to save the PDF to a folder, and then configure Home Document Manager to watch that folder. Whenever you scan something using the ScanSnap (or, of course, just save the file in that folder), Home Document Manager will import it. You can either use ScanSnap’s OCR or Home Document Manager’s.
HDM has a comprehensive blog post showing how it’s all done.
What Is Home Document Manager?
HDM is a Windows only document management solution. For a Windows program (sorry ) it looks pretty good.
I installed it here and while the software requires .NET, which I did not have, the software installed it for me and I was good to go.
Home Document Manager has a number of functions:
- Import BMP, JPG, TIF, GIF, or PDF files
- Scan directly into Home Document Manager from a TWAIN scanner. If your scanner does not support TWAIN (such as a ScanSnap), scan to a watch folder to automatically import
- OCR them to make them into searchable PDFs. If importing a PDF that is not already searchable, it will OCR it to make it searchable
- Sort and manage your documents in a folder structure of your choosing
- Search within PDFs to find what you’re looking for
- Choose where you want the imported files to be stored
You have a choice of whether you want to delete the source file that you are importing. If you choose to do that, make sure you have a backup of the folder where your HDM information is stored in case something ever becomes corrupted.
All in all, if you are a Windows user, I recommend checking out Home Document Manager. It’s $49 but there is a 60 day/50 document trial so you can see how it works out for you.
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