The ScanSnap has a cool but (in my opinion) underused feature where you can use a highlighter on some text on a piece of paper, and then ScanSnap Manager will extract that text as keywords and embed them in the PDF file.

I wrote about doing this with Hazel on the Mac before, but here is how the keyword process works in video format. It works on both Mac and Windows with 2009-or-later ScanSnaps like the ScanSnap S1500, S1500M, S1300, or S1100.

By the way, I forgot to mention in the video, this works best on black & white documents. If a document is too busy or colorful, the scanner will get confused and won’t be able to isolate the keywords.

View the video below, or click here to watch it on YouTube. If you are able to, I recommend that you watch it with HD turned on.

(Photo by planetofsuccess.com/blog/)

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Related posts:

1. Video: Use And Disable The ScanSnap Quick Menu
2. Video: Use Quick Menu With The Fujitsu ScanSnap
3. How To Install Fujitsu ScanSnap Drivers With No Optical Drive

I’m happy to report that with the Doxie 2.1 software update, the software now has OCR built-in.

How Does It Work?

When you plug in your Doxie Go and import your images, the process is the same as outlined in my reviews.

However, when you hit the Save button, you now have a two new options: Save As PDF w/ OCR (B&W) and Save As PDF w/ OCR (Color)

As you might expect, when you choose one of those options, the Doxie software saves the PDF but applies OCR when it does so.

How Are The Results?

I have only had time to do very limited testing, but so far the results are pretty great.

Here is a sample PDF that I just scanned with the Doxie Go (click the image to download if you want):

Here is the OCR’d text. Not bad at all.

So far, if you are a Doxie Go user, the 2.1 looks to be a great addition. If you’ve tried out the OCR, let me know how it looks for you.

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Related posts:

1. Doxie Go Goes Cordless
2. Doxie Now Available On Amazon
3. If You Want To Get Doxie, Now’s Your Chance

Last week I posted about how you can use the Doxie Go with the iPad’s Camera Connection Kit. Today I am going to go through how to achieve the holy grail: scan with the Doxie Go and have the scans appear on the iPad wirelessly.

For that, I will use Doxie’s iPhone/iPad Sync Kit. The folks at Apparent (makers of Doxie) offered to send me a review copy to test out, which was cool of them.

As it turns out, the Doxie kit is actually the Eye-Fi 4GB Connect X2, which comes in the original box along with instructions for using with the Doxie.

The TL;DR version is that it works really well, though the initial setup is a bit more involved.

The Goal

I want to be able to scan documents and have them save to the iPad without having to plug anything in. The entire process will take place on the Doxie Go and the iPad.

What You’ll Need

• A Doxie Go
• Doxie’s Sync Kit or, I would guess, any Eye-Fi card
• The free Eye-Fi iOS app
• An iOS app that lets you create PDFs. I will be using Save2PDF

Setup

I am not going to go through the step-by-step setup, because Doxie’s instruction page is quite good. Here is the high-level workflow:

First, you plug the SD card into the supplied card reader and plug it into a free USB port on your computer.

Once you do that, you install the Eye-Fi Center software and choose where you want scans to go.

Then you install the free Eye-Fi app on your iPad, and follow the rest of the setup steps.

By default, it will create a private Wi-Fi network that you need to connect to with your iPad in order to receive the scans.

In Doxie’s instructions, they recommend doing a few additional settings so that the Eye-Fi can use your existing network, and then switch to the private network if yours is not available. A helpful touch.

Scanning and Importing

To scan, put the Eye-Fi in the back of the Doxie Go and put your paper in. On the iPad, fire up the Eye-Fi app and within a minute or so (usually much less), your scans will automatically populate in the app.

If you want, you can view, email, and share your scans right from the Eye-Fi app.

You don’t need to do anything else. Your scan is imported as JPG in the Camera Roll.

Doing Something With The Scans

From there, the rest of the workflow is the same as in the previous Doxie Go iPad post. You can leave it as JPG, convert it to PDF, or do whatever you want.

All in all, using the Doxie Go iPhone/iPad Sync Kit is very cool. The initial setup is more involved, but there is something magical about running a piece of paper through the scanner and having it automatically appear on the iPad.

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Related posts:

1. How To Use The Doxie Go Scanner With The iPad Camera Connection Kit
2. ScanSnap Connect Lets You Scan To Your iPad or iPhone
3. iBooks App For iPad and iPhone To Get PDF Capability

In my review, I mainly focused on the scanner itself, how to get documents on to your computer, and only briefly touched on the ability to do the entire scan workflow using a mobile device.

Inspired by a Twitter exchange with the awesome Justin Lancy, I’d like to rectify that with a two part series. Today I’ll be going into detail about how to use the Doxie Go with the iPad’s Camera Connection Kit. In a few days, I’ll have Part 2 using Doxie’s iPhone/iPad Sync Kit.

The Goal

I want to be able to scan some documents, organize them, and act on them, all without using a Mac or Windows PC. The entire process will take place using the Doxie Go and my iPad.

What You’ll Need

• A Doxie Go, obviously
• Apple’s iPad Camera Connection Kit
• An SD Card
• An iOS app that lets you create PDFs. I will be using Save2PDF

Scanning

To start with, put your SD card into the slot at the back of the Doxie.

Then, turn the power on and scan your documents normally. When you put the page into the scanner, the Doxie Go will automatically grab it and start scanning.

When you are done, power down and take the SD card out.

Importing To iPad

Now it is time to import the scans to your iPad. The Doxie Go stores scanned documents as JPG, one file per page. It stores it as if it was a digital camera, so Apple’s Camera Connection Kit can read them.

Plug the SD reader into the bottom of the iPad, and then plug the SD card into the reader.

When you do, the Photos app will start up and you can import the pages that you want.

The pages will then appear in your iPad’s photos.

Converting To PDF

You could stop there if you wanted, and just use the document as a JPG, email it to someone, or sync it back to your computer later when you are able to. However, that is not what we want to do today. We want to take our scanned documents all the way to PDF.

There are many apps to do this, but I will use one called Save2PDF, mainly because I had already purchased it due to this now-useless-thanks-to-iOS5 blog post.

Fire up Save2PDF and tap on Images at the bottom. Hit the plus button, and you can go to the Last Import library and choose the first page that you want to import.

If you are doing a multi-page PDF, tap the plus button again and add the rest of your pages one by one.

If you want to preview your pages, hit the little eye button down at the bottom.

When you are ready to create your PDF, hit the PDF button up at the top-right corner.

Now you’ll get a dialog box with some settings. Here you can rearrange the pages if you want, and I recommend that you change the page settings.

• Tap on Paper Size and set it to the correct paper size (I have US Letter)
• Tap on each page and set image size from 4×6 to Fill page

When you are ready, give the file a name and you can either email it, or hit Save.

From there, you can either save the PDF to the Save2PDF application, or upload it to a cloud service like Dropbox or iCloud.

I have instructions for setting up Dropbox in my earlier Save2PDF post, so head over there if you want to know how to set it up.

If you do save the PDF to the Save2PDF app, you can export it by hitting the weird looking export button.

Doing Something With the PDF

Scanning without a computer is only half the battle. You need to be able to do something with the PDF.

Once you have the PDF where you want it, you can email it, open it in GoodReader or another PDF management application and annotate it, send it to cloud services, and do almost anything with it, without the need for a Mac or Windows machine.

The one thing this workflow won’t do is OCR. I haven’t found a great solution for that yet, so if you have one, please let us know in the comments. If you are an Evernote Premium user, you can open the PDF in Evernote and they will do the OCR for you on the server.

So, that is a workflow using the Doxie Go, the iPad’s Camera Connection Kit and Save2PDF. If you have other software that works better for this, let me know.

Stay tuned for the next post in a few days where I use Doxie’s iPhone/iPad Connection Kit to do all this wirelessly.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Related posts:

1. Doxie Go Goes Cordless
2. Doxie U Review – Mobile Scanner For Teachers And Students
3. Doxie Now Available On Amazon

No matter how compact your scanner, if you need to lug a computer with it, you are not as portable as you could be.

When the Doxie folks let me know that they were coming out with a new scanner that could scan without being plugged in, I was intrigued. They were cool enough to send me a review unit, so here is my review of the Doxie Go.

What’s In The Box?

Right on the front of the box you can see that this thing is made for mobile scanning.

In the box is, of course, the scanner. Also included are a USB cable, a carrying bag, a calibration sheet, a cool little cleaning tool, and a photo sleeve for scanning glossy or sticky photos.

Like the original Doxie, there is no power brick. This scanner is powered entirely by USB. The company says that the scanner can scan 100 pages per charge, but I haven’t tested that myself.

On the back of the scanner there is are SD and USB slots, which we will touch on later.

On the side, there is a USB port for plugging into your computer (again, more on that in a bit).

Size

The Doxie Go is 10.5“ x 1.7” x 2.2" (26.7 cm x 4.35 cm x 5.6 cm). This makes it a bit shorter and narrower than the original Doxie, but a bit taller.

It weighs 14.2 oz (403g), which makes it heavier than the original Doxie, which makes sense since it has to have all the memory stuff in it.

For a size comparison, here is the Doxie Go compared to Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs book:

Speed

The scanner’s listed speed is 8 seconds per page for 300dpi color. By my math, that is 7.5 pages per minute. Quite a bit faster than the original Doxie, but a touch slower than the ScanSnap S1100[2]

When I scanned, I was getting about 7–9 seconds per page, so 8 sounds about right.

Installation & Setup

As with the original Doxie, there is no included CD or DVD. You’ll need to be able to connect to the Internet and download the software to do the initial setup.

To set up the Doxie Go initially, it is a multi-step process:

1. Plug the scanner in to the computer.
2. Let it charge.
3. Unplug, turn on, and calibrate.

The calibration step is similar to the original Doxie, but other scanners like the ScanSnap don’t require it. I am not sure what would happen if you don’t do it, but since the goal of any scanner is to have the best possible image, I recommend doing it.

I guess this is a nitpick, but it is a slight letdown to excitedly unpack the scanner, hook it up, but then have to wait a few hours for the scanner to charge before you can use it. It would be ideal if somehow the Doxie Go was ready to, well, go right out of the box.

Scanning Options

There is a subtle but important mindset shift that you need to perform when you are using the Doxie Go. It is not a desktop scanner!

This scanner is cordless by design, and is designed to be operated without being plugged into your computer. In fact, the Quick Start instructions even explicitly say “Don’t scan with Doxie connected to your computer.”

Every time you plug the Doxie Go in to your computer, it copies the scans and then disconnects the scanner. That’s not a bad thing, but it is a thing. If you are going to use the Doxie Go as your main scanner, you just need to remember: scan first, then plug in.

Speaking of scanning, you have a few options for how your files are saved:

1. Scan to built-in memory: I haven’t been able to find out how much internal memory the Go has, but they say it can store 600 pages.
2. Scan to an SD card or USB drive: Remember those SD and USB slots at the back of the scanner I showed you earlier? You can scan to one of those. If a SD or USB drive is plugged in, the Doxie Go will save your scans to that. No messing around with the setup required.

When the Doxie does its scanning, it saves the files to the storage as JPG files. This, combined with the ability to use an SD or USB card, opens up a bunch of possibilities.

A workflow that pops to mind right off the bat is to scan to an SD card, pop out the card, plug it into the iPad Camera Connection Kit, and you have your scanned documents on your iPad for further processing. You can operate without the need for a computer.

I’m sure you can come up with some other workflows where scanning to a memory card can come in handy.

You have two choices for scan quality: 300dpi or 600dpi. Unless you are scanning something for which you need super high quality, I’d recommend sticking with 300. Otherwise, the file sizes just get huge.

You control the quality of the scan on the scanner itself. You hit the power button and switch between 300dpi and 600dpi, and you can tell which mode you are in by the color of the power button. Clever and simple.

Speaking of simple, you don’t even need to press the button to scan. Just put the page into the scanner, and the Doxie Go will grab it and start scanning.

Software

The only time you deal with the software is when you plug in your scanner. I guess theoretically you could even get away with not installing the software at all, but I don’t know why you would want to do that. Your computer will see the scanner as a camera and treat your documents as pictures.

Importing Documents

When you plug in the Doxie, the software will detect that you have images to import and pop up the import wizard. Pink haters from the last Doxie will be happy to know that the pink appears to be gone.

Once it is imported, the originals will be deleted from the memory and the device will be ejected[3]

Stapling (Combining) Pages

One impact of having the original scans stored as JPG is that each page will be its own file.

Fortunately, the Doxie software makes it easy to combine pages into a single document, or “staple” them in their terminology.

Just highlight the pages that you want to combine and hit the Staple button. If the pages aren’t in the correct order, you can move them around before stapling.

This is obviously going to take a while if you are dealing with big documents, but if you deal with large multi-page documents on a regular basis, you are going to want a duplex scanner with a document feeder anyways.

OCR

At the time of writing this, the Doxie software does not yet support searchable PDFs. This is supposedly coming out in December 2011, so hopefully it will be here in the next few weeks.

Exporting Your Documents

The point of scanning documents is to do something with them, once you have your scanned imported into the Doxie software, you will want to export them. I save all my documents as PDF, so just highlight the file(s) and hit the Save button.

You can also export your documents to other applications on your system. This depends on your operating system and what you have installed on your machine. On mine, it helpfully pre-populated iPhoto, Preview, and Evernote.

Saving To The Cloud

If you want to save your documents directly to a cloud service like Google Docs, you can. Just set up your service and then hit the Cloud button. Here are the available services at the time of writing:

Scan Quality

Since scan quality can be pretty subjective, I have scanned a color page from a magazine and a black and white typed document. They’re linked below in PDF format, as well as the original JPG of the magazine.

• Color Magazine 300dpi (JPG)
• Color Magazine 300dpi (PDF)
• Color Magazine 600dpi (PDF)
• Black & White Document (PDF)

Bottom Line

As I mentioned before, if you are wanting a desktop scanner that is plugged in to your computer and that lets you preview your document after each scan, the Doxie Go is probably not for you. It is not a desktop replacement.

However, if you don’t need a desktop scanner and want a truly portable device, or a device for one-off scans that you can keep stowed away in a drawer or something, the Doxie Go is a good choice. I could definitely see my dad taking one of these around for doing his genealogy.

Availability

You can buy the Doxie Go from Apparent’s website, or on Amazon. If you buy it from Amazon, you’ll be buying me a cheap lunch, so thank you.[4]

What uses can you think of for a cordless scanner?

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Related posts:

1. Doxie U Review – Mobile Scanner For Teachers And Students
2. Doxie Now Available On Amazon
3. Doxie Go Goes Cordless

We’ve covered desktop document scanners and home document scanners, so it is time to complete the trifecta. Mobile document scanners for those that are on the go (or want to save even more money).

If you (or your lucky recipient) wants a scanner that can be put in a bag or that takes up very little space, the mobile scanners that have come out in the last year can be a great category.

Here are some good choices:

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who want extreme mobility.
• How fast is it?: 8 pages per minute, single sided.
• How much paper can it hold?: 1 page.
• How big is it?: 10.74“ x 1.87” x 1.33".
• How much does it weigh?: 1.5 pounds.
• What software does it come with?:
  ScanSnap Organizer 4.1 (Windows)
  ABBYY FineReader For ScanSnap
  CardMinder 4.1 (Windows)
  CardIris 3.6 (Mac)
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon US
  Newegg Canada

Doxie

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who want to be really portable and scan to the cloud.
• How fast is it?: 5 pages per minute
• How much paper can it hold?: 1 sheet
• How big is it?: 11.5“ x 2.0” x 1.6"
• How much does it weigh?: 10.9 oz
• What software does it come with?:
  Doxie Scanning & Sharing Software
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon

Doxie Go

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who want to be able to scan without a computer.
• How fast is it?: 7.5 pages per minute
• How much paper can it hold?: 1 sheet
• How big is it?: 10.5“ x 1.7” x 2.2"
• How much does it weigh?: 14.2 oz
• What software does it come with?:
  Doxie Scanning & Sharing Software
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon

NeatReceipts

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who want to be able to scan and extract receipt information.
• How fast is it?: 3–5 receipts per minute.
• How much paper can it hold?: 1 sheet
• How big is it?: 10.8“ x 1.6” x 1.3"
• How much does it weigh?: 10.6 oz
• What software does it come with?: NeatWorks.
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon Windows
  Amazon Mac

Related posts:

1. Desktop Scanners – 12 Days Of Paperless Gifts
2. Home Scanners – 12 Days Of Paperless Gifts
3. Doxie U Review – Mobile Scanner For Teachers And Students

Since yesterday’s gift was a desktop document scanner, I’ll be you can guess what today’s will be. That’s right, a home document scanner!

I called it a home scanner for lack of a better term. Basically, it is a category in between a full desktop scanner and a true mobile scanner.

If you don’t require the scanning capacity of a large desktop scanner, or want something a little cheaper, this category can make a lot of sense. For example, I have a ScanSnap S1300.

So, whether your criteria is size, portability, or cost, here are a few options:

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who want ease of use and high quality scans.
• How fast is it?: 8 pages per minute, double sided.
• How much paper can it hold?: 10 pages.
• How big is it?: 11.2″ x 3.9″ x 3″.
• How much does it weigh?: 3.1 pounds.
• What software does it come with?:
  ScanSnap Organizer 4.1 (Windows)
  ABBYY FineReader For ScanSnap
  CardMinder 4.1 (Windows)
  CardIris 3.6 (Mac)
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon US
  Newegg Canada

Canon imageFORMULA P-150

• Who is it for?: Mac or Windows users who need TWAIN or ISIS compatibility.
• How fast is it?: 15 pages per minute B&W, 10 pages per minute Color, double sided.
• How much paper can it hold?: 20 pages.
• How big is it?: 11″ x 3.7″ x 1.6″.
• How much does it weigh?: 2.1 pounds.
• What software does it come with?:
  Canon CaptureOnTouch
  Canon CaptureOnTouch Lite
  Nuance PaperPort
  NewSoft Presto! BizCard
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon US
  TigerDirect Canada
  Amazon UK

Related posts:

1. Desktop Scanners – 12 Days Of Paperless Gifts
2. Home Document Manager For Windows Now Supports ScanSnap
3. Top 10 Going Paperless Products Of 2010

If you know someone that needs to go paperless, it all starts with a decent scanner.

All-in-ones are OK, but if your special someone has a lot of paper on a regular basis, they’ll really benefit from a real desktop scanner.

Part of the problem may be that the scanner that came with their all-in-one is just too slow and only scans one side of a page at a time. Trying to tackle a stack of paper becomes more frustrating than getting kids toys out of those accursed packages.

The solution? A proper desktop document scanner. They’re designed to be fast and to rip through a stack of paper faster than your crazy aunt hits the red wine. Here are a few options:

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 & S1500M

• Who is it for?: Windows (S1500) and Mac (S1500M) users who want to go paperless quickly and easily. Individuals and businesses that have a lot of paper to scan.
• How fast is it?: 20 pages per minute, double sided.
• How much paper can it hold?: 50 pages.
• What software does it come with?:
  ScanSnap Organizer 4.0 (S1500)
  Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard (S1500)
  Adobe Acrobat 8 for Mac (S1500M)
  ABBYY FineReader For ScanSnap (Both)
  CardMinder 4.0 (S1500)
  CardIris 3.6 (S1500M)
• Where can I buy it?
  S1500:
  Amazon US, Newegg Canada, Amazon UK
  
  S1500M:
  Amazon US, Newegg Canada, Amazon UK

Epson GT-S50

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who need a TWAIN scanner or need to scan plastic cards.
• How fast is it?: 25 pages per minute, double sided.
• How much paper can it hold?: 75 pages.
• What software does it come with?:
  Nuance PaperPort.
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon

Neatco NeatDesk

• Who is it for?: Windows or Mac users who want to be able to scan and export receipts.
• How fast is it?: 24 pages per minute, double sided.
• How much paper can it hold?: 50 pages.
• What software does it come with?:
  NeatWorks.
• Where can I buy it?
  Amazon For Windows, Amazon For Mac

Related posts:

1. Fujitsu ScanSnap: How Are The S1300 and ScanSnap S1500 Models Different?
2. Top 10 Going Paperless Products Of 2010
3. Fujitsu ScanSnap: How are the S1100 and S1300 Models Different?

Today, the folks over at Doxie have announced their proposed solution to this: the Doxie Go, which will scan documents or photos without needing to be plugged into a computer.

They aren’t the first ones to make something like this of course, but given how I liked the Doxie U, I am looking forward to seeing what they do with this category.

When you scan without the computer, it saves your scan to the scanner’s internal memory, or you can plug in an SD card or a USB drive and save to that instead. They don’t say how much internal memory the Doxie Go has, but they say it can store up to 600 pages or 2400 photos at 300dpi.

To get your documents off the scanner, you either plug it into the USB port of your Mac or Windows computer, or if you are using an SD card, just pop out the card.

There is an optional iPhone/iPad Sync Kit that you can use to sync to an iPhone or iPad, or if you have an iPad Camera Connection Kit, you can use the SD card with that.

Two criticisms that previous Doxies have received are the fact that it did not come with OCR software, and, uh, many people did not like the pink.

It looks like Doxie Go addressses both of those. The included software has received a big overhaul, and now includes OCR functionality.

And, it looks like they have gone to just plain black “ink”.

It looks like the Doxie Go will be retailing for $199 USD, and is available for pre-order now for shipment in late November. If I can pick one up, I’ll do a proper review, but this looks like it could be interesting for people who want real portability.

How about you? Do you have a use for a scanner that doesn’t need to be plugged in?

Related posts:

1. Doxie Now Available On Amazon
2. If You Want To Get Doxie, Now’s Your Chance
3. Doxie U Review – Mobile Scanner For Teachers And Students

It was with some skepticism that I clicked the link that awesome DocumentSnap reader Michael sent me with a demo video for LG’s new scanner mouse (yes, you read that right), the LSM-100.

I have to admit though, after watching the demo, it looks pretty cool. If this thing works half as well as they make it look, I can see it being very useful for a lot of people.

I found this video of LG demoing it at CES:

I haven’t been able to find out for sure if/when the LSM-100 is widely available in North America, though people have been buying it off eBay. Apparently it is available in the UK.

What do you think about this? Would you buy a scanner mouse?

Related posts:

1. How To Make A $20 Book Scanner
2. DocumentSnap NeatDesk Scanner Review
3. Is Your Scanner Supported On Mac OS X Lion?