ScanSnap + Evernote = Chocolate + Peanut Butter

ScanSnap + Evernote = Chocolate + Peanut Butter

Recently I’ve been asked quite a bit how to use Evernote with the Fujitsu ScanSnap. It’s a great combination and quite easy. Here’s a video that runs you through the processs. The video shows the Mac version, but Windows will be the same concept.

In a nutshell, here is what you do. In this example I’ll be creating a new ScanSnap Manager Profile, but you can modify an existing one if you want.

  • Right click on ScanSnap Manager and choose Settings. If the options are grayed out, disable Quick Menu for ScanSnap Manager
  • On the Applications tab, hit Add Or Remove
  • Hit Add, click Browse, and find your Evernote application. It will likely be in the Applications folder on the Mac, or C:\Program Files\Evernote on Windows
  • Hit Close
  • In the “Select A Profile” box, choose Add Profile and give it a name like “Scan To Evernote”
  • On the Applications tab, choose Evernote for the Application. Hit Apply.
  • Click on ScanSnap Manager and make sure that your new Profile is selected
  • Scan and enjoy!

Does anyone else use the ScanSnap with Evernote? Do you do it any other way? Let us know in the comments.

About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 51 comments

oldtimer - August 23, 2014 Reply

Any updates for 2014? I have and used ScanSnap for almost 10 years and I am yet to get any useability out of “OCR”.
I have it set and all my PDF files show a block A sometime after scanning (I do not do OCR ‘during’ scan).
So why I cannot search the content of receipts? Most of the time that OCR is somewhat lousy – which is probbly justified by clarity of receipts. But anyhow both ScanSnap and Neatreceipts call recognize the block letters of Lowes logo as Loves.

Is there a reliable commercial software that big boys are using?

    Brooks Duncan - August 24, 2014 Reply

    If you are getting consistently bad results doing OCR, I would take a look at the quality you have your scans set to. Try 300dpi at least (if you aren’t already).

Lili - October 28, 2012 Reply

I have a few handwritten reports I would like to transcribe into word (typed) format. If I would scan these papers would OCR be able to do this for me?

    Brooks Duncan - October 29, 2012 Reply

    Hi Lili,So is your question whether Evernote will search typed Word docs or whether Evernote can take handwritten notes, OCR them, and then let you export that as text?

Randal Phillip - June 22, 2012 Reply

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yacahuma - December 9, 2011 Reply

thank you. I tried using the organizer and was not able to search by keywords. I chat with support and they acknowledge the problem. So I guess, evernote it is. I cant tell when and if, evernote is going to charge me. Is it free?

yacahuma - December 9, 2011 Reply

why is evernote better than the scansnap organizer? I just got my scansnap but dont know which one to use.

Pat1155 - March 19, 2011 Reply

I bought ScanSnap S1300, installed worked fine, Then bought S1100 to take on road, S1100 says drivers not installed, how do I do this ?

    Brooks Duncan - March 31, 2011 Reply

    When you bought the S1100 did you install the software on the disk? I am pretty sure even if you already had software installed from your S1300, you'd need to install the S1100 drivers too.

    If you did and it is still not working, I'd hit up Fujitsu support as there must be something wacky. Here's the link: http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peri…

Tasra - February 4, 2011 Reply

This is fantastic. Now that I've got it set up to scan directly into Evernote, I'm wondering where we should save the file. In the ScanSnap setting tab, you have to select a place to save the document but since Evernote already saves a copy in the data file, it's duplication to have it save another place as well. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Also, wondering if you could direct me to FAQ or tutorial about how/where all the local and online Evernote data gets saved. Right now my Evernote data file on my computer is over 1 GB. As I start scanning and saving everything to Evernote, it's going to start eating up space. Any suggestions on the best practices for that as well?

Thanks!

    Brooks Duncan - February 6, 2011 Reply

    Hi Tasra,

    I don't really have a good suggestion as far as the duplicate file issue is concerned. It is pretty annoying that it also saves it in another folder. You could either automatically or manually clean it out, or instead of doing it this way, you could scan the files to a folder and use another method to import the file into Evernote (The Windows version has it built in, on the Mac you'd need to use Applescript or Hazel or something).

    As far as local storage, I don't believe there is a way to choose not to sync certain information to the computer, so I think you have to just trust the EN client to manage that. There are a few Evernote forum threads like this one that talk about this: http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=5….

Gord - January 26, 2011 Reply

Can you designate which notebook it is going to?

Bill - November 10, 2010 Reply

The Mac link to Evernote works well. One difficulty I have is that the scan goes directly to Evernote without the opportunity to edit, most importantly to delete blank sides of scanned sheets. Once in Evernote it acts like one scannned image and I cannont delete the unwanted page. Any thoughts?

    Brooks Duncan - November 10, 2010 Reply

    Hi Bill, check out this post. It runs through how you can do post-processing (such as removing pages) once something is in Evernote. Maybe it will help? http://www.documentsnap.com/scanning-old-magazine…

cbhershey - June 27, 2010 Reply

My applications tab is grayed out. Any idea how to de-gray it?

    Brooks Duncan - June 27, 2010 Reply

    Hi I can send more detailed instructions when I get to a computer, but try right clicking on the Scansnap icon a d uncheck \”use Quick Menu\”. I think that should do it.

Mike - March 9, 2010 Reply

I have the ScanSnap 1500M.

Mike - March 9, 2010 Reply

Question. I have ScanSnap scanning to Evernote no problem on my Mac

Mike - March 9, 2010 Reply

Question. I have ScanSnap scanning to Evernote no problem on my Mac, but it saves a copy of the PDF file to the folder specified on the Save File tab AND to Evernote. So I end up with 2 copies of the PDF. Anyway to turn off the file saving in ScanSnap so I only have to one copy in Evernote?

Thanks,
Mike

Oogiem - January 27, 2010 Reply

What if there is no option to create a new profile in the ScanSnap SW? Your screen shows a drop menu for selecting a profile and there is no such box on my version 2.1 L10. Is that feature only in certain revisions of the SW?

Christina - November 1, 2009 Reply

I have the same problem as #Steve and #Paul. ScanSnap will scan as PDF but place in my local hard drive. I have Windows 7 and can simply move the file to my Evernote, but was hoping that Evernote would be the default manager. It is setup in my profile as the application and can see the Evernote icon in the profiles. Any answers?

Steve - October 30, 2009 Reply

I followed the instructions for setting up the Evernote profile (Windows system) and scanning. I am using the 3.5 beta version of Evernote. When I run the scan, it saves a copy of the .pdf to my local hard drive, but never copies it into Evernote.

Paul Snyder - October 7, 2009 Reply

I would love the Evernote and Scanscap hookup. However, somethings not working. I followed directions, but when I scan the document doesn't show up in Evernote. It is weird because after OCR is finished, Evernote flashes in toolbar (as if it has just recieved a file), but file does not show up. Suggestions?

    Brooks Duncan - October 8, 2009 Reply

    Hi

    Brooks Duncan - October 8, 2009 Reply

    Hi Paul is this Mac or Windows?

Jose - September 15, 2009 Reply

Hi,

I need some help here, I'm really desperate. I can't find a reason but the Application tab upon setup cannot be selected (it appears as a light grey) and cannto set it up for Evernote. Any hint? Thanks!

    Brooks Duncan - September 15, 2009 Reply

    Hi Jose, I think your quick menu might need to be disabled. Does this post help? http://www.documentsnap.com/what-to-do-when-scans…

      Jose - September 15, 2009 Reply

      Hey! that worked! I am so ashamed :S Thanks so much ;(