Tips To Learn How To Go Paperless | DocumentSnap Paperless Blog

Beginning with the ScanSnap S1100 and later with a software update for other ScanSnap models, Fujitsu has provided Evernote integration built into ScanSnap Manager.

This works well, but perceptive ScanSnappers may have noticed something strange: there are two different settings for enabling searchable PDFs (aka Optical Character Recognition, or OCR). Why on earth would they do this?

Well, I can’t answer the why, but I can at least shed some light on what the different settings do, as far as I can figure out.

The OCR Settings

To access your ScanSnap Manager Profiles, right-click on the ScanSnap icon on your Dock (Mac) or System Tray (Windows). Choose Settings or Scan Button Settings, depending on your OS.

Application Tab

On the Application tab, when you have one of the Scan To Evernote applications selected, there is an Application Settings… button.

When you press it, you will see there is a Convert to Searchable PDF checkbox. That is setting #1.

File option Tab

When you go to the File option tab of your ScanSnap Manager profile, you will see there is also a Convert to Searchable PDF checkbox. That is setting #2.

So, What Is The Difference?

Before getting into the difference, I do need to point out one quirk of the way that ScanSnap Manager Evernote profiles work.

When you scan, it will upload your document (or image) to Evernote, but it will also save the PDF in the location specified on the Save tab.[1]

As far as I can tell, here is how it works:

• If you only check the Application tab checkbox, the file that is uploaded to Evernote is searchable, but the file that is saved to the folder specified on the Save tab is not searchable.
• If you do not check the Application tab checkbox but do check the File option tab checkbox, the file that is uploaded is searchable, and the file that is saved to the Save tab is searchable.
• If you check neither checkbox, the PDF that is uploaded to Evernote and the PDF that is saved to the Save tab location are not searchable. At that point, what happends depends on your status as an Evernote Premium customer.

So there you go, mystery solved. Either way, being able to scan to Evernote is a great feature, and I’m glad Fujitsu opened it up to all 2009-and-later ScanSnaps. Thanks to user Leothe3rd from the Evernote forum for the inspiration for this blog post.

This video on redacting sensitive text with PDFPen is part of a series of quick videos on paperless tips and topics. View more in the series here.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the subject for this video was ripped off from an ad that Katie Floyd did on the Mac Power Users podcast.

If you have sensitive text in a PDF that you don’t want someone to see (think account numbers, amounts, names), many people just use an annotation tool to put a rectangle over it.

The problem with this approach is that it is not actually removing the text from the PDF, it is just covering it up. If someone gets the document, they can get at the text “behind” the image.

This video uses PDFPen’s great redact tool to remove all evidence of a piece of text from a PDF. You can even remove all instances of text with one command.

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.

Oh, and apologies to the Boston Bruins fans out there. All in good fun.

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I have written about ways to electronically put your signature on a PDF quite a few times (for example, using PDFPen or in Preview), but they have all been on the Mac. Today it is Windows’ turn.[1]

The latest version of Adobe Reader X has added the ability to drop your signature into a PDF. Previously, you needed the rather-expensive Acrobat X for this. Here is how it works:

Go Into Signature Mode

When you have your PDF loaded, the first thing you want to do is click the Sign button in the upper-right corner of Acrobat Reader.

If you don’t have a Sign button, you are probably using an older version of Reader. Head on over to Adobe’s site and grab Acrobat Reader X.

When you click the Sign button, you will now have three (ok, four, but we will deal with the fourth later) options:

1. Add Text
2. Place Signature
3. Finalize Changes

Add Your Signature

In our case, we want to add our signature, so we will hit Place Signature.

Once you do this, a pop-up window comes up with instructions. Like most of these types of applications, you will need to write your signature on a piece of paper and then scan it in or take a picture of it with a camera or mobile device.

In this example, I used TurboScan on my iPhone to take a picture and then transferred it to my Windows machine.

Once you have your signature file on your computer, select it and hit Accept

Place, Resize, and Finalize

Once your have added your signature, you move the image to where you want it, and then drag the sides to size it.

When everything looks just right, click on Finalize on the right-side of the Window, and it will check with you to make sure that you want to embed your signature in the PDF. Once you click Finalize Changes, it will save a new signed PDF that you can send out.

Send For Signature?

You may have noticed earlier that aside from the three options under Sign Now, there was a fourth option with a Send For Signature button.

All this functionality came about because Adobe acquired EchoSign, an electronic signature company.

If you want to have a more sophisticated signing workflow where the PDF is securely sent to the recipient and the signatures are tracked, you can click that button and try it out. That’s a topic for another blog post though.

All in all, Acrobat Reader X’s signature functionality works well, and it is nice to have this in a free tool that you probably already have.

Do you have another way that you “sign” documents on Windows? Let us know in the comments how it is working for you.

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This video on copying files to Dropbox in Windows 7 is part of a series of quick videos on paperless tips and topics. View more in the series here.

There are two things that you need to know about this video:

1. The tip itself is completely ripped off from this CNET article by Ed Rhee
2. It could really apply to SugarSync, not just Dropbox, or any other folder on your computer.

If you have a Windows folder that you are constantly copying documents to, you can add it to your Send To menu for quick right-click access. This video shows you how.

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 mikes rite)

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This video on file synchronization is part of a series of quick videos on paperless tips and topics. View more in the series here.

You’ve probably heard of sync software like Dropbox or SugarSync, but might not be sure how they work or what exactly they can do for you.

Hopefully, this video will help. I go through some scenarios where sync can help you go paperless, and some things to watch out for.

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 eggy_)

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This video on Evernote keyboard shortcuts is part of a series of quick videos on paperless tips and topics. View more in the series here.

If you use [Evernote][evernote], you owe it to yourself to learn these keyboard shortcuts. They’ll make things go much, much faster. I especially love the search one.

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.

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Following on yesterday’s news that the ScanSnap S1500 now comes with Acrobat X, I thought it would be apropos to post an Acrobat tip.

Over on the Acrobat for Legal Professionals blog, Rick Borstein has what looks like a really useful tutorial for using Acrobat to create a big searchable PDF from an email archive.

Acrobat X includes an email archiving feature (see video for demo) which allows you to convert an entire folder of email into a single, searchable PDF, complete with attachments. I previously wrote about this feature in my post “Creating Email Portfolios for Small EDD Productions”.

Owning neither Windows Acrobat nor Outlook I can’t try this trick myself, but hopefully it will help some of you.

Do you archive email to PDF? How do you do it?

This video on inserting your signature with PDFPen is part of a series of quick videos on paperless tips and topics. View more in the series here.

There are a bunch of ways to add your signature to a document without printing it, but my favorite is using PDFPen by Smile Software. This video shows you how to do it easily.

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.

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This is Day 10 in a 12 Day series: 12 Days Of Paperless Gifts. If you know someone who could use some help going paperless, or if you deserve to treat yourself, this is the place. If you don’t, feel free to ignore this series. Normal DocumentSnap posts will still be coming!

If you know someone who is (mostly) paperless, perhaps they can benefit from some productivity software to take them to the next level.

Unfortunately, these are mostly Mac tools. This is one area (don’t be a hater!) where the Mac has a slight edge on the PC.

Hazel

• Who is it for?: Mac users who want to automate as much as possible on their computer.
• Where can I buy it?
  Noodlesoft

TextExpander

• Who is it for?: Mac users who want to dramatically speed up entering recurring bits of text (for example, filenames for electronic documents).
• Where can I buy it?
  Smile Software

Breevy

• Who is it for?: Windows users who want to dramatically speed up entering recurring bits of text (for example, filenames for electronic documents), or TextExpander users who want to be able to sync their snippets to a Windows machine.
• Where can I buy it?
  16 Software

PDFPen

• Who is it for?: Mac users who want be able to edit PDFs, add signatures, perform OCR, and do pretty much everything else with a PDF without Acrobat’s crazy price tag.
• Where can I buy it?
  Smile Software

In the most recent issue of the DocumentSnap newsletter, I briefly mentioned the newest version of the Productive Macs bundle.

It was very popular with DocumentSnap readers last year (and I bought it too), so I highlighted a few apps that are included this year.

I received an email from awesome DocumentSnap reader (and recent Mac switcher) Jim asking more about the bundle, and whether I am buying it this year.

First, The Bundle

If you are a new Mac user, you may not be familiar with the concept of bundles. They are essentially a bunch of different applications sold together at a heavily reduced price.

Usually there are a few well-known applications, some “meh” ones, and some that no one has ever heard of.

The Productive Macs bundle is (surprise, surprise) focused on productivity applications. I am not going to list or go through them all, you can see the list on their site.

In the newsletter, like last year, I pointed out a few applications that I thought might apply to a paperless workflow. As Jim pointed out, I didn’t do a very good job of describing why they might help, so I will attempt to do so here:

• LaunchBar: This is the biggie. Nearly every well-known Mac-nerd blogger uses and loves LaunchBar. David Sparks and Katie Floyd from Mac Power Users talk about it all the time (and did even before they were a sponsor), and you will find that many, many power-users use it. In a paperless workflow, you can do a ton of stuff with it but moving & naming files, launching applications, opening files with other applications, and generally tying together everything on your Mac is what LaunchBar does.
• Default Folder X: When you are saving your files, this replaces the normal Save dialog box, and makes it much faster to save to favorite folders. It also lets you apply OpenMeta tags for you taggers out there.
• Tags: Tags by CaseApps is more or less the premiere application for working with, applying, and searching on OpenMeta tags. A good one for, again, you taggers out there.

There are other applications that don’t have anything to do with paperless workflows like the much-loved Fantastical and BusyCal that make this bundle a pretty good one. Many people feel, and I agree, that LaunchBar and Fantastical together make this one a no-brainer.

So, Am I Buying It?

The second half of Jim’s question was whether or not I am buying it. To be honest, I am not sure yet. Taking everything I just wrote into account, there are a few factors:

• While LaunchBar is (rightfully) much-loved, I have already started using Alfred, and like it a lot. Since I have already paid for and started unlocking the power of another launcher, I am not sure I have the time or energy to switch.
• For my calendaring, I personally use Google Calendar in the browser and am reasonably happy with it. I don’t currently use iCal, which means that Fantastical and BusyCal don’t do much for me right now, as great as they are.
• I do use OpenMeta tagging, so Default Folder X and Tags are tempting, but I currently use Yep for that.

With all that in mind, I haven’t decided whether I want to drop the $40 for this bundle for me personally. If I do, it would probably be future-proofing myself for a possible LaunchBar switch, for when I do start using iCal, or want to start using OpenMeta tags more effectively.

Do I Recommend You Buy It?

You need to evaluate your own uses, but if you aren’t already wedded to another application launcher and use iCal, I would say yes. As I said before, LaunchBar and Fantastical alone make this bundle worth it.

If you buy it using this link, you’ll be buying me a coffee so thank you for that.

If you use any of the applications in this bundle, I’d love to hear your thoughts about them in the comments.

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