Update: Of course, a few days after I posted this, Evernote announced that they would make PDFs searchable for Premium users. So if you are not a Premium user, this will help. Otherwise, just upload away.
One of the most popular posts on this site is on how to use the Fujitsu ScanSnap with Evernote. It describes how to set up a profile in ScanSnap Manager to send the resulting PDF to Evernote.
There is one problem with doing it this way – Evernote does not OCR PDFs. I assume they’ll be fixing this someday, but for now, if you want your document searchable within Evernote, you need to OCR it before sending it into Evernote.
How you do this depends on which model of the ScanSnap that you have, and whether you have Windows or a Mac.
ScanSnap For Windows
If you have the ScanSnap S300, S510, or S1500, your solution is pretty simple.
What we’re going to do is set Evernote to watch a folder so that anything it finds in there it will automatically import. Then set up ScanSnap to save files to that folder.
- In Evernote, go to File -> Import -> File Import Wizard
- Hit Next and select the Source folder that you want Evernote to watch and set your notebook
- Choose “Watch folder for changes and import files automatically”
Now set up ScanSnap normally to scan to that folder you just selected, and whatever files you save into that folder will be grabbed by Evernote.
ScanSnap S510M or S1500M For Mac
For whatever reason, Evernote for the Mac does not have the Watch Folder functionality that the Windows client does (why not Evernote?!). However, thanks to the magic of Applescript, we can do the same thing.
This will work for the ScanSnap S510M or S1500M.
- Download this file – AddToEvernote.scpt and save it to /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts
- Create or select a folder that you want scanned PDFs to go into. Right-click on it and select More and then Enable Folder Actions
- Right click on the folder again and select More and then Attach a Folder Action. Select the AddToEvernote script that you just saved
Now set up ScanSnap normally to scan to the folder that you just configured. When you add a PDF to it, the Applescript will go through that folder and add the files into Evernote. Handy!
ScanSnap S300M For Mac
For whatever reason (I say that a lot), the ScanSnap S300M does not come with OCR software (why not Fujitsu!?).
However, we’re in luck. Awesome DocumentSnap reader Sebastian Poll wrote this Applescript that will use Adobe Acrobat to automatically OCR the PDF and then kick it straight into Evernote.
Obviously, it requires Acrobat. If you don’t have Acrobat, you can use whatever method you currently use to OCR and then use the AddToEvernote above to import it in.
Note that Sebastian’s version was actually written with some of the code in German. I changed it to English, so if there are problems, it is probably my fault and not his.
- Download this file – OCREvernote.scpt and save it to /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts
- Create or select a folder that you want scanned PDFs to go into. Right-click on it and select More and then Enable Folder Actions
- Right click on the folder again and select More and then Attach a Folder Action. Select the OCREvernote script that you just saved
Now set up ScanSnap normally to scan to the folder that you just configured. When you add a PDF to it, the Applescript will go through that folder and OCR with Acrobat and then add the files into Evernote.
Do you use the ScanSnap with Evernote? Do you have any other methods of making PDFs searchable? Or do you not bother? Leave a message in the comments.
