If you use this, how do you organize your documents? From the articles on this site, I *think* that to use DevonThink, you need the pro version, which is out of my price range. Can I use the home version easily? If it isn't easy, I won't do it (I know myself!)
Any advice, even on other scan-plans, would be very helpful!
i have a scansnap and i love it! i have set up a few basic profiles (one-sided multiple pages, two-sided multiple pages, etc) and it is very easy to change scanning profiles on the fly. i've had mine for about a month and i have scanned every shred of paper in my filing cabinet and fire safe. it's quick and easy - even on the "best" scanning setting. i have it scan directly to an encrypted dropbox folder so it instantly uploads a version for me to access anywhere. i try to give each file a meaningful name, but it's also easy to search the contents of the pdf files once they've been "ocr-ed". i plan to create subfolders like warranties, instruction manuals, etc, but i haven't done that yet.
as i went through my files, i did end up discarding tons of stuff without scanning. i didn't need copies of old utility bills and such. i set up a paper filing system with a folder for each month and i'm just tossing receipts and such into the correct month until i get my credit card and bank statements. i only scan receipts for major purchases, but i toss the originals in the month files for 30-90 days in case i need to return something. i also tossed all of my instruction manuals and downloaded digital versions from the products' websites. the only ones i kept intact are for some of my more complicated tools where it is easier to take the manual out to the garage to walk myself through the process.
also, i scanned some things and kept the originals too. like my family's medical records. some have been copied so many times that my "original" is tough to decipher, and the scanned copy is even worse. basically i'm working from a "if my house burns down" mentality where having a poor copy is still better than no copy. i also scanned savings bonds and passports and the contents of everyone's wallets, just to have all of the info in the same place. i had to use my flatbed scanner for some of that.
some minor complaints: i bought a scansnap s300m which is a mac model that doesn't automatically ocr documents. if i'd realized before i bought it, i probably would have held out for the new model that is both mac and pc compatible and automatically ocrs. i have adobe acrobat, so i can get around the ocr problem fairly easily. the only other negative i have found is that i can't rename documents as i scan. you can set up a default name (like using a timestamp or scan#), but i find if i don't rename them to something meaningful immediately, they start to stack up.
in conclusion - the scansnap makes it dead easy to digitize almost any document, so even if you don't go the extra mile to organize everything afterward, you'll still have a copy safe in your digital pile if you are vigilant about getting it backed up to a safe place. that said, it is still a bit of work to organize the digital files. if you need more info, check out http://www.documentsnap.com/ - there's a lot of good stuff there.
@karanmcgowen: So, you recommend the S1500M (or S1300 or pcs) rather than the S300? I am looking at the one on Costco.com (http://tinyurl.com/37xh2lz). There are a lot of versions of this thing, I want to make sure I get the right one!
i can't really recommend any particular model since the s300m is the only one i've ever used. the only real negative for me is that it doesn't create a searchable pdf automatically. i get around that by opening the pdf in adobe acrobat and asking it to read the document aloud. it can't read it until it converts it and that makes it searchable. not really a big deal, but it is a minor annoyance.
i bought the s300m this march for $250 at amazon. it is a portable model and can really only feed about 15 pages at a time. but it is easy to combine documents if you have acrobat and i don't really scan very many long documents. i like that it is very small - about the size of two stacked boxes of spaghetti and that you can take it with you and you don't need a wall outlet - it will run off usb.
so, your choice is really going to depend on what you are scanning and where. and whether you already own adobe acrobat (the full version - not the free reader) and can make further edits. and how much "post-production" work you're willing to do once the documents are scanned.
hope that helps!
I want a ScanSnap so badly but my OS etc. is too early. Does anyone know of a similar product for a Mac running 10.4.11 or earlier?
Thanks!
@Karen, thanks for the DocumentSnap shoutout! Regarding the S300M not coming with OCR software, I know, that's annoying.
Apparently the Snow Leopard fix that Abbyy/Fujitsu posted is a full version of FineReader for ScanSnap that works with all ScanSnaps. I am not sure if its cool for me to post links to my own site on here so if you search DocumentSnap for FineReader you can find more details.
@HappyDogs I'm actually working on a "free e-course" on exactly this topic, but to answer your questions:
-Don't get the S300 as it is being discontinued and as Karen says it doesn't come with OCR software.
-Whether you get the S1500M or the S1300 (S300's replacement) depends on your budget and your needs. If you have a lot of paper to scan on a regular basis, I'd recommend the S1500M as it is faster and can scan more documents at a time. If you don't need that much horsepower, the S1300 is great.
Hope this helps!
Thanks everyone.
I ordered the S1300. Still trying to work out a plan for how and where to store everything. A tag-based database would be ideal, but I don't feel like creating it (although I could!). I guess a hierarchical organizational scheme in the documents folder will have to do for now.
@HappyDogs Check out Yep at http://yepthat.com/yep/index.html. It's quite good and Mac-y. If you just want to use folders, I'd recommend not going too crazy on the folder structure and instead make sure your PDFs are searchable. Then you can just use Spotlight to find what you need.
Enjoy the S1300.. it's great. :)
I have 2 ScanSnap S500's and one ScanSnap S510. Two of them for business purposes. One for the house. We have been using them for something like 2 years. I have also managed to get many people to use them. We just make sure that ALL PDFs are OCR'd and that the ScanSnap folder is on DropBox. We use a hierarchical folder structure based on document type. Every person that needs the documents run some kind of desktop search client (dependent on platform) that index these PDF files. This is by far the most efficient mechanism I have found for accessing the information. It is amazing how the matches pop up when you for instance type an account number or something. We cannot imagine living without this anymore.
Nice workflow fransdw.. awesome use of Dropbox!
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