I've previously written about using a Fujitsu ScanSnap document scanner and DevonThink Pro to manage a paperless home or office . Since then, a few tips have surfaced that I want to pass on.
An update to DevonThink Pro resolved some of the issues I was having, and a reader named Tim left a comment pointing out that Preview in Leopard can delete pages from PDFs, which replaces my need to use PDFPen.
Thanks to a comment left my MK, I discovered the free ScanHelper from the makers of ReceiptWallet. ScanHelper provides a menu for working with the ScanSnap's software. It's useful, and it might lead you to trying ReceiptWallet (or its sister product, DocumentWallet) as an alternative tool for managing your scanned documents.
Similarly, a reader named Sam provided a link to a hack that lets you use the PC-model ScanSnap with a Mac. Quite handy for cross-platform users, and it certainly is puzzling why Fujitsu ties its models to specific platforms.
Speaking of Fujitsu, they've updated the ScanSnap drivers for all ScanSnap document scanner models. The new drivers are Leopard-certified and offer some new features. (And, in fact, might reduce the need for using the ScanHelper mentioned above.)
Finally, a few weeks ago my scanner developed a problem that was quite frustrating. All color scans had a small, but noticeable, streak in the same place. The snippet here shows the problem; notice those ugly marks against a solid-black background.
It turns out that the source of the problem was that a bit of glue, from the binding of a magazine page I scanned, was smeared on the plexiglass through which the page is scanned. (The area indicated by the arrow in the image.)
After opening the ScanSnap all of the way (as you do when clearing a paper jam) I was able to gently and carefully clean the glass and resolve the problem. Yay! (I used KlearScreen and its cleaning cloth, by the way.)
Categories
Mac
Read More Entries by Gordon Meyer.
Become an O'Reilly Member
Visit the Digital Media Forums
Subscribe to the Digital Media Blog Feed
Subscribe to the Digital Media Newsletter
Our denver limo service has been paperless since early this year. It initially took a great deal of effort to get use to and be able to work this new system into our operation. But, now, after several months we have become very accustom to working in this mode. Now, when we come into work, we are turning on our computers, making coffe, cleaning scanners, etc. But, no more taking out trash and recycle at the end of the day!!
read more about our denver office here
http://5280limo.com/Going_Paperless.html
You may be interested in Pixily.com (http://www.pixily.com/) - customers send us their paper monthly and we scan it, perform optical character recognition and upload the paper into a secure, online document management site. It is a bit like a search engine for your paper, plus gives you the ability to download as PDF, upload 30 different file types into the service (and make them text-searchable as well) and more. Please let me know if you have any questions on the service; we’ve been getting some good traction recently.
Jake and Brad,
I had similar problems that Jake had, regarding the "... Web Receipts" action silently overwriting old versions.
A few options:
- Use one of many content management tools; they all seem to add their own "print to FancyTool" option. This is what I do.
- For Tiger, see this article: Prevent accidental overwriting of web receipts files
- For Leopard, see this article: Add date and time stamp to web receipt filenames
Stop on by paperjammed.com for more stuff on the paperless home!
Brad: one weird quirk about that "save to web receipts" script -- it will silently overwrite any document with the same name that already exists in the "web receipts" folder. Let's say you buy airfare from JetBlue and the title of the page is "Your Itinerary" for example. You save that, but then next month you book another flight and save "Your Itinerary" again. Well, it just overwrote the first one, without warning.
I saw a few really cool contraptions on TV the other day. One was a pocket-sized battery powered document scanner -- you just run it down the front of a document and it gets saved. There's also a company that makes a digital pen/clipboard that you can use with a regular paper notepad but that keeps a digital copy of all the pages that you write. I think this kind of technology is going to change things a lot.
Ah the old streak on the glass. You have no idea how many support calls we get for dirty scanners. Clean them often and they will last forever. We use the purest alcohol you can get, and clean all the internal parts including the rollers. You can extend the roller life by cleaning them every now and then to remove the gunk.
Some other info on paperless stuff here:
Paperless
Office Resources
Getting the right scanner is so important! I've tried a lot of Fujitsu, Cannon, etc. but have settled on Panasonic KV-S2026C. These make very nice output even at 200dpi and auto-detect different page sizes -- and it almost never jams. I've put over 200,000 pages through it, not bad for an $800 scanner.
The reason why Fujitsu has 2 SKUs for PC and Mac is mostly due to the fact they could not reach an agreement with the makers of the bundled software, and need different SKUs to track their licensing dues exactly.
I used to have the original ScanSnap (the PC version, in fact, using translated Japanese Mac drivers). It has an unfortunate tendency to double-feed, so I have since replaced it with the much more reliable Fujitsu fi-5120C that has an ultrasonic double-feed detector, and the third-part ScanTango software to drive it.
You may already know this trick, but the Mac has a great little built-in tool that can help you avoid having to print out receipts from online orders. When you're done with your order, "print" your receipt, but when you get to the print dialog box go down to the PDF option and choose "Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder." This does exactly what it says; if you don't already have a folder in your Documents directory called "Web Receipts," it will create one for you and store it there. I have a .Mac account that I use for offsite backups, and I just add my Web Receipts folder to that backup. That way if my Mac is stolen or the house burns down, I have an offsite backup of all my receipts for everything I've purchased online, including the Mac itself and most of the software I've purchased for it.