Hi, everyone! I’ve enjoyed reading many of your use cases. Thanks to the great improvements in DTPO 2.0, I’m now going completely paperless. Every time I get documents I need to file, I load them into my scanner document tray, start the scan process and walk away.
There are many different documents in the tray. My thinking is that I want to scan them, then come back and classify/file them. To that end, I select for each sheet to be placed into its own file.
My challenge is collating these files together. There is no easy way that I am aware of to select a starting scan and ending scan and have those documents merged into a new document with the pages in the order of the list window. It would be great to have this operation and have it prompt for a final file name.
I’d appreciate any thoughts y’all may have on the subject.
I’ve configured ScanSnap Manager to pop up a panel after each page is scanned, giving the option of ‘finishing’ that PDF or adding more pages to it.
Then, for documents not exceeding several pages, I feed them in a page at a time. If it’s a 1-page document, I click on the ‘Finish’ button after the scan and OCR starts. If its a 3-page document, I insert each page in sequence into the ScanSnap and hit the Scan button, and then click Finish when all 3 pages have been scanned. OCR starts.
I have Preferences > OCR configured with the ‘set attributes’ option unchecked, as I prefer renaming PDFs after they are in the database.
The ScanSnap is fast, taking only seconds for each page, so I think this saves me time and is more convenient than trying to post-process collation of the pages of a bunch of 1-page PDFs into multi-page PDFs.
Most of the paper copy that I scan in this way has been folded for mailing and/or has been stapled. That sort of copy can jam the feeder, and one paper jam can take a while to correct. On balance, feeding paper a page at a time isn’t all that inconvenient and keeps me from using bad language about paper jams. It also allows me to mix paper sizes, such as combining a bill and the check to pay the bill in a single PDF; I adjust the page width guides in such cases.
I’ve gotten in the habit of opening mail, scanning anything I want to keep, then shredding the paper. That not only gets rid of a lot of paper, but allows me to actually find something when I need it. Hard drives are much cheaper than file cabinets, and the trouble with file cabinets is that filing has to be done promptly and consistently, or I might as well throw the stacks of unfiled paper away, as the information really isn’t available. Once I capture something into DEVONthink, the odds are that I can find it very quickly, even if I haven’t organized it within the database.
Thanks, Bill! I did discover that I had missed the MERGE command on the right-click menu. This seems to work great. If it would prompt for a new file name and metadata rather than have me rename the file in the list, that would be even better! (Yes, I’m lazy. I like as few steps and clicks as possible. )
Hi Bill,
Can you go through the steps of setting up the ScanSnap manager to allow page-at-a time feeds. I find I have very frequent jams, too. When I looked at the manager it gave me the option for multiple feeds or single feeds. When I checked single feeds there was no pop up to ask me if I was finished.
ScanSnap Manager Settings > Scanning Tab: CHECK the option, “Continue scanning after the current scan is finished”.
I love the flexibility that provides.
If I load 5 pages into the sheet feeder then all 5 pages will be scanned, and a screen pops up asking whether I’m finished with this scan, or wish to add more pages.
If the paper copy was wrinkled and I got a paper jam, I can feed in the copy one page at a time and hit the scan button on the ScanSnap to initiate each scan. When I’ve scanned all 5 pages, I click on the 'Finish" button on my computer screen and OCR proceeds to create a multipage searchable PDF.
In fact I just did such a scan involving 5 pages, 4 of which had print on both sides. So I ended up with a 9-page searchable PDF, as I’ve set ScanSnap Manager for duplex printing (a blank page back will be ignored).
That “continue scanning” option also makes it easy to create a multipage PDF from paper copy with mixed page sizes, such as a letter, a cash register receipt, a check and a business card. Just adjust the page guide to fit each piece of paper as it is inserted into the sheet feeder.
ScanSnap Manager patiently waits for me to take an action after the paper loaded in the sheet feeder has been scanned. I can finish another task before responding to it, or go to lunch. I can respond whenever I wish, so I remain in control of the procedure.
But if I’m doing page-at-a-time scanning of a stack of paper that’s to result in a multipage PDF the ScanSnap is so fast that it can keep up with me as I place each page in the sheet feeder and press the Scan button.
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