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.
Ask The Readers: Best Windows Document Software?
April 14, 2009
Photo by iwantanimac
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am generally a Mac user. I do have access to borrow a Windows ScanSnap, but my personal ScanSnap is a S300M.
One thing I get asked quite a bit is which software should someone use to manage their PDFs? The ScanSnap comes with ScanSnap Organizer and a trial of Rack2-Filer, but what is the best?
The Mac of course has Devonthink, Yep, and others, but what abut Windows?
Since I don’t personally use Windows for my PDF management, I thought I’d open it up to you. What do you use to manage your documents? Do you use OneNote? Evernote? Your own personal folder structure?
Weigh in and leave a comment and let us all know what you use and why.
MacHeist Giving Away DEVONthink
March 5, 2009
It looks like MacHeist is giving away a free copy of DEVONthink, an information manager.
It is the Personal version of DEVONthink, not DEVONthink Pro Office. Here is more information from their site:
This is a full license for DEVONthink Personal version 1.9.16 and can be upgraded to the upcoming version 2.0 for $20. Please be sure to register before you do so, as DEVONtechnologies needs to have you included in their database before doing so. And if you need even more power, you’re able to cross-grade to their Pro or Pro Office versions.
If all you need is the Personal version, you can’t beat free.
MacHeist is doing it via a “Tweetblast”, which means they want you to claim the free software via Twitter. Here’s the website with instructions.
Enjoy!
Document Storage: The Yahoo or Google Philosophy?
July 31, 2008
Once you have your documents scanned you then of course need to put the PDFs somewhere.
There are basically two schools of thought for document storage: storing in a folder structure (the Old Yahoo model), or dumping it all in one place and letting search take over (the Google model).
Old Yahoo Model – Folders
If you have been around the Internet for a long time, you will remember that Yahoo started out as strictly a directory, where websites would get placed in a hierarchical category structure.
The folder model of document structure is sort of like that. Set up an elaborate folder structure, and when it is time to file away a document, you figure out which folder it should go in.
The advantages of this are that you don’t need any third party application, and the folder concept is something that we have used for years and everyone understands.
The downside is that you then have to figure out which folder the file goes into, and when you are looking for a document, you have to go through and figure out where you saved it.
It also takes regular processing to go through and move the files to the right place in your structure.
The Google Model – Search
Google’s advantage (among many) is that it didn’t have to rely on people putting websites in certain categories, and it didn’t rely on searchers knowing which category to find the site. Users could just type in a keyword and as long as Google indexed the site, it would show the result.
With the search model of document storage, PDFs are dumped in one or just a few folders, and then when you want to find something, you just do a keyword search to bring back documents containing that keyword.
This can be a very effective model as long as PDFs are consistently OCR’ed so that they are searchable, and you know what you are looking for.
Once you have a collection of searchable PDF files, you can use Windows Desktop Search, Google Desktop, or Spotlight on the Mac to search through the documents and find the right one.
You can also take it to the next level and use a software like Yep, Evernote, Devonthink , or OneNote to collect and store your documents and do the searching inside it.
The downside of using the search model is, as I said, you have to know what you are searching for before you search. It may be hard to remember certain keywords from the document.
Also, if you are searching for fairly generic keywords, your search may bring back a ton of results, making it a pain to wade through them.
Which Model Do You Use?
Personally, I use a hybrid.
I do have a folder structure but I try to keep things high level without too many subfolders. I then make sure that documents are searchable by OCRing them once my Fujitsu ScanSnap has done it’s job.
When I am looking for a document, I generally use the search method because that is how I am used to finding information. It’s just nice to know that the folder structure is there as a backup.
What setup do you have for saving/finding your scanned PDFs?
What Software Do I Need?
July 6, 2008
Possibly None
It could be that you already have all the software that you need. If you have a ScanSnap or other scanner, it will come with software to scan and possibly even convert it to a searchable PDF.
It might even come with some simple document management software.
If you have an external backup like a MyBook or a Time Capsule, it might already have software to do backups for you.
However, if you want to “take things to the next level” and have a full document management workflow, there is software out there that can help.
Manage Documents Like A Pro
Mac users are spoiled for choice when it comes to document management software. Here are a few favorites:
DEVONthink is called a “Personal Information Assistant”. There are a number of different flavors, but the one that works best with the ScanSnap is DEVONthink Pro Office.
It manages documents and classifies them and files them automatically, and has very advanced OCR and searching technology .
It automatically takes documents from the ScanSnap and turns them into searchable PDFs.
Yep is an iPhoto-like file PDF browser that allows you to add tags to documents in order to manage them. It will assign tags based on the folder that they’re stored in, and then you can of course add your own.
PDFPen is a PDF editing solution that lets you add comments, highlighting, signatures, move around pages, and other general document management stuff. It’s kind of like a scaled down Acrobat for 1/6 of the price.
For Windows users one solution is Microsoft OneNote 2007
OneNote is a “digital notebook” that lets you bring in documents, images, media, etc. For documents, it will OCR them and allow you to search through.
Another Windows program is Home Document Manager. Home Document Manager will scan, organize, and make your documents searchable.
Stay Safe – Backup
There are a ton of backup programs for Windows.
For local backups, SyncBackSE is a favorite.
If you want to go the online route, there is Mozy and Carbonite. Here is more information about online backup solutions.
For Mac, OSX Leopard comes with built in backup software called Time Machine. You can use that with any external hard drive, or use a Time Capsule.
The online route for Mac users is a bit more limited, but Mozy is an extremely popular choice. The best part is that the first 2 Gigs of storage is free.
Do you have any other software for managing paper and documents that you can’t live without? Sound off in the comments.
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