ScanSnap + Evernote = Chocolate + Peanut Butter
January 13, 2009
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.
Related posts:
- OCR Your ScanSnap PDF Before Sending It To Evernote
- How To Encrypt Evernote On Mac OSX
- Using a Windows ScanSnap On the Mac Using VirtualBox
- ScanSnap Evernote Giveaway
- How To Encrypt Evernote On Microsoft Windows
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34 Responses to “ScanSnap + Evernote = Chocolate + Peanut Butter”
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Looks great. I’ll let you know how it works on the Windows side.
Thanks!
I have been using Evernote with Scansnap since Evernote has been handling PDF’s properly.
My method – Evernote is set up to monitor a folder called “Evernote Filing”. The Scansnap has been set up to save all scans to the Evernote Filing folder.
Works like a charm. I wonder what the difference is between the two methods. Will have to try your method to see which is best!
@Braamk I had seen mention of that method of the special Evernote Filing folder. I couldn’t figure out how to do it on my install, so perhaps that functionality is only there in the Windows version of Evernote?
Or I could have totally missed it.
Thanks for the tip!
@Brooks – Another way to accomplish what Braamk has done is to try using Hazel. Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing your files according to the rules you create. http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php
Dumb question from one who is pseudo tech-literate — why would I need to send stuff to Evernote from my SnapScan if the SS Organizer contains PDFs that I have made searchable. I want to get the max out of my SS AND Evernote, so I would love it if someone wouldn’t mind educating me. Thx!
@Christopher Thanks for the tip!
@Phillippa I would say that people should use whatever tool works for them. If SSO is getting it done for you, that’s great! I expect that most people would choose to upload to Evernote because they like having their docs “in the cloud” and accessible from anywhere and any computer. For some, that might be a drawback and they want everything local.
PS- Not a dumb question
@Brooks,
Finally got a chance to try this, and it works like a charm! My Evernote happiness just got a big boost.
Thanks again.
@Phillippa,
I guess it all depends on where you spend time. I use Evernote more and more all the time, and there are some things (handwritten notes from meetings, for example) that I want to have access to in that interface.
@brooks Thanks – that makes sense.
After a big tussle with my computer (not a lot of swearing!) I finally figured out how to set this up. So I will now give it a try.
Evernote would be my note manager of choice in a New York minute, but unless things have changed in the last week or so, Evernote still doesn’t OCR PDFs, so unless you run it through Acrobat or Fine Reader prior to putting it in Evernote, your PDF won’t be searchable.
I’ve experimented with telling the ScanSnap to save the document as a JPG rather than a PDF. Evernote will OCR the JPG, but a 20 page document becomes 20 individual notes in Evernote, which isn’t practical (IMHO).
I’ve posted a note on the Evernote forums and it sounds as if they’re maybe working on OCRing PDFs, but not just yet. This would me my life so much easier and probably result in world peace.
Cheers,
Stephen
@Bionic Cat I know what you mean. If Evernote had the PDF OCR step it would be tremendous. There is no way I am scanning my documents to JPG, that is for sure.
I saw a note on the Evernote forums a while ago (maybe your thread?) where they were saying that they were working on PDF OCR but they were finding it more complex than they thought.
I can only imagine how hard it is to do server side OCRing for whatever big wacky documents people throw at it, but hopefully they get it done soon.
Thanks for the comment.
does anyone know a way to have the ‘quick menu’ include evernote (or the evernote profile created in this post) as an option? i find that i have to set ‘quick menu’ to off (unchecked) to be able to use the ‘evernote’ profile but the problem with this is that it does not prompt me to select it when i run ’scansnap manager’ and then put a document into the scanner. (since i might want to scan it to somewhere other than evernote)
@john donne Hey John, I tried messing around with things to figure out how to add something to the Quick Menu, but I couldn’t figure it out. Sorry.
As for choosing another option, what you can do before you scan is click on the ScanSnap Manager icon in your Dock or System Tray. Then (assuming you have Quick Menu off) you can choose which Profile you want to use. It’s kinda like Quick Menu but you do it before you scan, not after. There’s some more info on profiles here: http://www.documentsnap.com/my-scansnap-setup-and-workflow-scansnap-settings/
brooks – thanks for your help. i will try to work something out although i think fujitsu could provide more clear and concise help information. their help resources seem to be all over the place.
I have scansnap s300 and evernote on wndows…checked the option in the manager to OCR what I scan in ScanSnap Manager…and always scan to evernote…PDF are searchable!
Cool, I didn't know that if you uploaded an already-OCR'ed PDF to Evernote it would be searchable. I'll have to try that out. Thanks Juan.
Hi Guys,
I need some help, I have S510M connected to my Mac
I have no troubles in getting a file to scan into Evernote but it's not OCR and it doesn't get OCR within Evernote, I assume it's due to being a PDF
I don't want scan as jpg option as normal scan multiple pages to 1 file
Any help would be appreciated
Andrew
I have followed this concept which is a great idea but I have a weird issue. When I scan the note as a PDF and give the note a title it keeps reverting to the default saved file name such as "2009_07_10_18_16_43" etc whenever I sync.
Any suggestions?
Hi Andrew,
I am not sure if this is the most ideal solution for your situation, but a reader just sent me an Applescript that runs a scanned PDF through Acrobat and then kicks it to Evernote.
Since you have the S510M, you probably don't need the Acrobat part since ScanSnap Organizer should OCR it for you, but what you can do is take this script and then have ScanSnap kick out an OCR'ed PDF, and then have the Applescript automatically kick it into Evernote.
I'll be posting the script soon, so keep your eyes open.
@Bionic Cat Hey Stephen, just wanted to let you know that in case you hadn't seen, Evernote now will OCR PDFs (although only for premium members). http://www.documentsnap.com/evernote-premium-now-...
Just sync your ScanSnap Organizer folder to dropbox, that works much better for me than scanning into Evernote. SSO has much better PDF functionality and I get my documents in the cloud.
That's a great tip Tse. I love Dropbox too!
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!
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...
Hey! that worked! I am so ashamed :S Thanks so much ;(
jose – i had the same problem. it can be confusing but brooksd is always there to help
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?
Hi
Hi Paul is this Mac or Windows?
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.
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?
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?
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
Question. I have ScanSnap scanning to Evernote no problem on my Mac
I have the ScanSnap 1500M.