ScanSnap + Evernote = Chocolate + Peanut Butter

ScanSnap + Evernote = Chocolate + Peanut Butter

51 Comments

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

You could definitely see your enthusiasm within the work you write. The arena hopes for even more passionate writers like you who aren’t afraid to say how they believe. Always go after your heart.

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 ;(

        pendolino - September 16, 2009 Reply

        jose – i had the same problem. it can be confusing but brooksd is always there to help 🙂

Tse - August 7, 2009 Reply

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.

    Brooks Duncan - August 7, 2009 Reply

    That's a great tip Tse. I love Dropbox too!

Guy - July 10, 2009 Reply

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?

Andrew - July 8, 2009 Reply

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

    Brooks Duncan - July 13, 2009 Reply

    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.

Brooks Duncan - June 25, 2009 Reply

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.

Juan - June 25, 2009 Reply

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!

john donne - March 22, 2009 Reply

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.

Brooks Duncan - March 19, 2009 Reply

@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/

john donne - February 19, 2009 Reply

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)

Brooks Duncan - January 29, 2009 Reply

@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.

Bionic Cat - January 24, 2009 Reply

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

Philippa Kennealy - January 16, 2009 Reply

@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.

Roy Jacobsen - January 16, 2009 Reply

@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 Duncan - January 16, 2009 Reply

@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 🙂

Philippa Kennealy - January 15, 2009 Reply

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 Harley - January 15, 2009 Reply

@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

Brooks Duncan - January 15, 2009 Reply

@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!

Braamk - January 15, 2009 Reply

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!

Roy Jacobsen - January 13, 2009 Reply

Looks great. I’ll let you know how it works on the Windows side.

Thanks!

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