HI, I was wondering how people best scan documents with their iPhone? I have on the back of a few web searches purchased scanner pro, which I believe works well with DT from the comments I looked at. I have to say though I don’t find it easy to use and I’m wondering whether I’m missing something …
Steps I see are:
Open scanner app
select the plus at the bottom right
take picture
confirm image or crop
click onto image
click share button
select devonthink
then I’m faced with selecting the Global Inbox on the seven think app
This is where I get up to and it just seems quite a few steps. Any suggestion on how to speed this up? I have a few documents which are badly damaged so won’t go through my scan snap. I was hoping to use the above method but have quite a few documents to scan and it seems very time consuming.
I’d ideally want it so the app opens with the camera on (think you can do this) you take the pic of the image and there is already a workflow setup to send to DT. That’s the ideal.
I’ve got years worth of documents I need to scan over the next few months, in a bid to go paperless.
I was hoping to get a quick and easy solution for docs that I don’t want to run through my Scansnap…
Hi, go to apple files app and go to DEVONthink folder. Then click on … on top right and click on scan documents- the scans will then go into the inbox in DTTG. Credit to @BLUEFROG
ok. not my experience. i like the ease sticking the sheet or stack of sheets into the scanner, and very quickly getting perfectly scanned (no cropping or dark edges with perfect illumination) files with OCR on to the computer, then with automation into the appropriate places therein. call me lazy. i admit it. guilty as charged.
I also prefer using a real scanner over taking a picture with a mobile device. A real scanner far, far surpasses the picture method when you have a scanner with a document feeder
But on the archivist’s side of things, you can’t run pages of the Gutenberg Bible through your scanner!
You can setup scansnap profiles that do single or double-sided pages. I set up that profile and scansnap will create a file per page. Then I let scansnap run through many pages automatically.
Open scanner app
select the plus at the bottom right
take picture
confirm image or crop
click onto image
click share button
select devonthink
then I’m faced with selecting the Global Inbox on the seven think app
I use Scanner Pro, and I’m pretty happy with it for the ability to capture a document anywhere I have my phone. Some of your steps can be eliminated, but it will take some effort on your end to customize the process. Here are some suggestions:
Open scanner app - Can’t eliminate this one.
Select the plus at the bottom right - Go to Settings > Advanced and turn on “start with camera” to skip this step.
Take picture, repeat as necessary for multiple pages. - A decent light source and relatively flat page help a lot here. Enable “Distortion Correction”, “Camera Stabilization”, and “Shadow Removal” in Settings > Scanning. The way I have it set up is I don’t even have to tap for the photo. Once Scanner Pro detects the edges, it takes its own picture. Scanning to B&W can increase legibility for text-only documents.
Confirm images or adjust as needed. - I tap the little document thumbnail in the lower right when I’m done scanning to review the document. Usually this is just a few quick swipes to ensure I don’t have any problems.
Once you’ve reached this point, you can customize pretty extensively how to proceed with your document. I use Workflows in the app to do most of the grunt work. To use a workflow, tap the “Share” icon in the bottom middle of the screen. Any workflows you have set up will appear on the bottom row. My goal is to activate one (or maybe two) and then close the app.
Some things I do with workflows (Settings > Workflows): Rename the file (if the default name, which can be changed in settings, is not sufficient), Move the file into a folder so I know it has been processed in one way or another, Email the file, or Upload to a cloud server like DropBox - there is even an “Auto Upload” feature in settings if you want it all to go. Once a file gets to DropBox, for me, it’s golden. On my machine at home, I have the DropBox folder indexed in the DT3 inbox where a smart rule can process each new file and move it into its home to whichever database location is appropriate. I typically scan about six different types of documents on a regular basis that I want to archive. Selecting the right workflow to rename the file then upload it is my way of classifying it on the spot. In four basic steps, I go from holding a piece of paper and my phone to a PDF stored exactly where I want it in one of my databases. My exact setup may not work for you personally, but it may inspire you to try something you hadn’t considered. There is a lot of flexibility in both Scanner Pro and DT3, but it takes some effort to make use of it.
My suggestion is to get DEVONthink To Go (DTTG) app on your iPhone (really good for many reasons), go to its Global Inbox in your iPhone’s native Files app and use the scan function there (click on the circle with three dots in the upper right corner and you see it). Voilà! Your scan is in DT. After setting it up it is just open Files app and scan with one clic. Can’t get faster than that.
