I have taken it upon myself to sort out our archives room at our company. No one in the firm has any interest and up until now we have not had any system for managing and archiving old projects. Information has literally been shelved in an archive room and shelves and you go look for the information.

One of the systems I want to start with will be to electronically scan documents and drawings. I have no experience of any type of software that we could use for managing scanned electronic documents. On a personal level and on the home front I have to admit I have enjoyed Evernote, it did at least give me an introduction into tags if nothing else but I suspect this is not the best option.

The amount of scanning is hard to gauge at this stage. Only once I begin clearing the room will I get a better idea. In terms of the Law we have to keep all documents for 10 years. After that we can destroy documents except those involving anything to do with the design of the project . ( We are a firm of civil,structural and mechanical Engineers ) I was intending to focus on those projects over ten years and destroy all non relevant documents while scanning all documents and drawings that cannot be destroyed or could have value to our firm.

Document Management Software probably covers a very large range of software. I am looking primarily at the scanning, archiving, storage and retrieval of information.I had assumed that we would not be looking at a cloud solution but having our own storage and back up.

Any advise on what I should be researching and looking into would be greatly appreciated.

regards Andrew

Ten to 15 years ago, a colleague investigated what was available at that time and chose PaperPort. I have no idea what is available today.

I don't have specific software to suggest but I do know that investment banks need to do that sort of thing for compliance purposes, so over the last decade all kinds of fancy systems have been developed for scanning and archiving. There must be a cottage industry selling that sort of software to banks and insurance companies.

Andrew

As you say there are a lot of solutions out there but you need to tailor it to your requirements. If you haven't already done so, I would start by trying to answer a series of questions such as:
- what is the total volume of documents I want to scan
- are there are a lot of larger size documents (you mentioned engineering plans) - you may then need a large format scanner
- what sort of resolution do I need (would people be expected to read plans via the software)
- do I need full OCR or just images
- what budget have I got
- is this a standalone system or does it need to be part of the corporate network/system
- is it a once off backlog or achiving exercise or do you want to set up an ongoing document management system

And so on.

I would then research the options - not just online but find out what like sized competitors are doing or what the professional association recommends.

Finally I caution against just going out and buying some scanning software and then trying to craft a solution around it. You need the complementary hardware and software from day one.

Good luck. It sounds like a big job.

Jack

We do a lot of scanning large volumes of paper in my work. We almost always just send the documents to an outside firm that specializes in document imaging. As an example, I recently was confronted with 50 boxes of documents delivered to me, I looked through them and sorted out about 15 boxes I wanted scanned and sent them out to a company that had it done within a couple of days. They will scan it and then load it into whatever kind of software you prefer, with or without OCR, and many companies will have good suggestions on the software.

For smaller jobs, I agree with another poster that the hardware is really key. We have a Xerox Multifunction laser printer/scanner that does a great job of scanning from its autofeeder documents up to around 100 pages or so. At home I have a Canon multifunction ink jet machine that claims to do the same thing but can't seem to get past 3 or 4 pages without jamming. If you have a high volume you don't want it jamming on you ever.

One big difference between doing it yourself and outsourcing is what they call "unitization." If you scan 100 pages into the Xerox, you get out a single 100-page PDF. If that's supposed to be 10 documents, you then have to manually go through and split up the PDF into 10 separate files. The outsourcing companies usually handle unitizing, so you get one file (or one database record) per document.

Finally, for a medium-sized job, since you like Evernote, I would consider one of the scanning services offered in Evernote's "Trunk." There are a couple of services advertised there that you mail your documents to, and they scan them and put them into Evernote for you. You might get a better price from them than from one of the big imaging companies, but it would make sense to shop around.

Thanks Jack

Hardware wise we have a good quality A4 and A3 scanner which can handle volume. You can set the resolution so I am happy with this. We also have large scanner for A0 and likewise the resolution settings are there. I will experiment with resolution but it will probably be either 100 or 200 dpi. At 300 dpi the files get very large.

OCR is vital. That is the one aspect of Evernote that has impressed me and as we will be doing just a few basic tags to each file I would like OCR

Budget wise if I properly motivate I will get some leeway there but it will be moderate. At this stage we have no system but ultimately I want to introduce an overall system of which the scanning is one part.The archiving needs to be for the future.Many buildings/structures have a 30 year life cycle and we have recently picked up new rehabilitation work from projects completed 30 years ago.

Thanks again Jack. Good questions as I am still in the research and investigation part of the whole exercise. regards Andrew



Jack Crawford wrote:

Andrew

As you say there are a lot of solutions out there but you need to tailor it to
your requirements. If you haven't already done so, I would start by trying to answer a
series of questions such as:
- what is the total volume of documents I want to scan
-
are there are a lot of larger size documents (you mentioned engineering plans) - you
may then need a large format scanner
- what sort of resolution do I need (would people
be expected to read plans via the software)
- do I need full OCR or just images
- what
budget have I got
- is this a standalone system or does it need to be part of the
corporate network/system
- is it a once off backlog or achiving exercise or do you
want to set up an ongoing document management system

And so on.

I would then
research the options - not just online but find out what like sized competitors are
doing or what the professional association recommends.

Finally I caution against
just going out and buying some scanning software and then trying to craft a solution
around it. You need the complementary hardware and software from day one.

Good
luck. It sounds like a big job.

Jack

Thanks Dan. Outsourcing is definitely one of the options I will and need to look at very seriously.

In house and out sourced both have their advantages and disadvantages. Recession is starting to bite here ( South Africa ) and that terrible word retrenchments is being used in some conversations so I need to make sure I do not give away work that we could do. But at the same time it is pointless trying to do something that we are not up to.

Evernote trucks was something I hadn't thought of. Thanks again Andrew


dan7000 wrote:

We do a lot of scanning large volumes of paper in my work. We almost always just send the
documents to an outside firm that specializes in document imaging. As an example, I
recently was confronted with 50 boxes of documents delivered to me, I looked through
them and sorted out about 15 boxes I wanted scanned and sent them out to a company that
had it done within a couple of days. They will scan it and then load it into whatever kind
of software you prefer, with or without OCR, and many companies will have good
suggestions on the software.

For smaller jobs, I agree with another poster that the
hardware is really key. We have a Xerox Multifunction laser printer/scanner that
does a great job of scanning from its autofeeder documents up to around 100 pages or so.
At home I have a Canon multifunction ink jet machine that claims to do the same thing but
can't seem to get past 3 or 4 pages without jamming. If you have a high volume you don't
want it jamming on you ever.

One big difference between doing it yourself and
outsourcing is what they call "unitization." If you scan 100 pages into the Xerox, you
get out a single 100-page PDF. If that's supposed to be 10 documents, you then have to
manually go through and split up the PDF into 10 separate files. The outsourcing
companies usually handle unitizing, so you get one file (or one database record) per
document.

Finally, for a medium-sized job, since you like Evernote, I would
consider one of the scanning services offered in Evernote's "Trunk." There are a
couple of services advertised there that you mail your documents to, and they scan
them and put them into Evernote for you. You might get a better price from them than from
one of the big imaging companies, but it would make sense to shop around.

Thanks looks like Paperport is going strong today based on their web page. Worth adding to my list to research. regards Andrew

Cassius wrote:

Ten to 15 years ago, a colleague investigated what was available at that time and chose
PaperPort. I have no idea what is available today.

I'd recommend reading some of the Amazon user reviews of Version 12. Version 9 was excellent; Paperport has been a train wreck since, per its reviewers.

Andrew Mckay wrote:

Thanks looks like Paperport is going strong today based on their web page. Worth
adding to my list to research. regards Andrew

Hi, I am considering buying a scanner to facilitate the "paperless" lifestyle. The main function will be to scan receipts, old writings, etc. into UltraRecall. OCR would be nice.

Has anyone used, and can give opinions, on the following: Canon Imageformula P-150 and Fujitsu Scansnap S1300?

Also, should I get a dedicated scanner, or an all-in-one such as Canon Workforce 635 or Canon Workforce 840? I presume that the dedicated scanner has better software and usability for business cards, etc. However, my current printer is about to die, and having a new printer for documents (no photos) would be useful.

Any opinions?

Thanks, /Pavi

Hi, apologies as those models are EPSON Workforce 840 and 635.

I should probably also have mentioned that since it is for my home office, the size and portability of the unit is not a major concern. The smaller units, however, would fit a bit better on my desk.

Best, /Pavi

Pavi wrote:

Hi, I am considering buying a scanner to facilitate the "paperless" lifestyle. The
main function will be to scan receipts, old writings, etc. into UltraRecall. OCR
would be nice.

Has anyone used, and can give opinions, on the following: Canon
Imageformula P-150 and Fujitsu Scansnap S1300?

Also, should I get a dedicated
scanner, or an all-in-one such as Canon Workforce 635 or Canon Workforce 840? I
presume that the dedicated scanner has better software and usability for business
cards, etc. However, my current printer is about to die, and having a new printer for
documents (no photos) would be useful.

Any opinions?

Thanks, /Pavi

I haven't used any of the said scanners, but I see that they are supported by Evernote https://www.evernote.com/about/trunk/ (click on Hardware) as are some Lexmark models. I find that for receipts and the like Evernote is a very practical solution. You can even scan straight into Evernote and then link or export to UltraRecall, it should be that convenient.

I personally have an HP Officejet 6500 all-in-one device and am quite happy. Indeed an all-in-one might not be as powerful as a dedicated solution; yet unless you want to do some special work like scanning negatives, I believe most modern all-in-one solutions should satisfy your needs scan-wise. In addition, the value for money is much better than a scanner plus printer, which would also not work as an integrated fax.

One thing I do suggest that you check is the number of pages per ink cartridge (choose a device with separate CMYK colours, rather than just black and colour), as inkjet printers are notorious for their consumables costs --things are getting better though.

A side-note on scanners: I have a Fujitsu Scansnap 500 which when I transferred to the Mac became - ahem! - a Scansnap 500M. I cannot praise it highly enough, and it's quite hard to find substantive criticisms of the Scansnaps on the web (apart from Fujitsu's irritating policy of trying to maintain a software barrier between the Windows and Macintosh models). They are fast, robust, reliable, simple to operate and small-footprinted. I have heard of people faced with a roomful of thousands of documents to scan who work their way through two or three Scansnaps -- not because they wear out especially quickly but because with so many documents to scan at ?450 a shot a series of Scansnaps is still the most cost-effective way of tackling the task. Comes with OCR software, too.

A semi-question about Evernote's OCR: does it actually give you a text version of, say, your PDF? Or does it simply enable searching in the cloud? Obviously the latter is useful, if you stick with Evernote, but if you don't, the former may be more desirable.

No text version as far as I know; OCR is just used for searching. An example is scanned (non-OCR'd) PDFs: you can search for text in them --for a Premium Evernote account-- but the PDF attachment remains in its original form.

I have a ScanSnap S1500, the big brother to the S1300. It is, without question, worth spending the money for a dedicated scanner like this if you have any volume of paper to deal with. At a minimum, to be usable, you want your device to have ultrasonic double-feed detection and be able to duplex scan in a single pass. The kind of speed that the ScanSnap devices have is also a boon.

The one drawback that feed-based scanners (like my S1500) have is skew. As the paper goes through the device, it tends to shift slightly, and since it's being scanned as it goes through, you do get some skew. The driver software tries to correct for this, but it can't completely. So if absolute fidelity to the original is a big issue for you (maybe archiving important books or family heirloom documents), these won't do. I don't see the skew issue mentioned enough in online reviews, which are generally just glowingly positive without discussing drawbacks. I do not know what roller configuration the S1300 has... it may actually be better than the S1500, which only has a single broad roller in the center of the page... you'd get less skew with several smaller rollers, evenly distributed, like the feed mechanisms that laser printers have.

If you're into book scanning, also consider a dedicated book scanner. I had an OpticBook 3600 which worked well but it ended up breaking. These don't have skew because they scan a whole page at a time over glass.

Ultrarecall is a good software choice for a workflow. I personally use DevonThink Pro. Depends what platform you're using.

-- Chris


Pavi wrote:

Hi, I am considering buying a scanner to facilitate the "paperless" lifestyle. The
main function will be to scan receipts, old writings, etc. into UltraRecall. OCR
would be nice.

Has anyone used, and can give opinions, on the following: Canon
Imageformula P-150 and Fujitsu Scansnap S1300?

Also, should I get a dedicated
scanner, or an all-in-one such as Canon Workforce 635 or Canon Workforce 840? I
presume that the dedicated scanner has better software and usability for business
cards, etc. However, my current printer is about to die, and having a new printer for
documents (no photos) would be useful.

Any opinions?

Thanks, /Pavi

I have a Scansnap S300 from about three years back and my only problem with it is the software they use for managing the PDF's it creates. (Not Adobe, which I think came with the more expensive Scansnaps). Software will not recognize existing PDF files, so no import is possible. IOW, the hundreds of scanned PDF files on my box that were scanned with Canon or HP devices cannot even be viewed with the Scansnap PDF viewer. I wrote their support dept and was told that the only remedy is to print every document and rescan manually with the Scansnap - which is totally ridiculous!

Thanks!

Jim

I also use the ScanSnap S300 - lovely little scanner that works well with Evernote, but you're right in saying that the software is inferior. Recently I phoned Fujitsu support to get an upgrade to the latest version of ScanSnap Organizer (from v3 to v4). I was told that the software was "not available for purchase" and that I had to buy a new scanner to receive the updated software. Can you believe that? There is no upgrade path allowed for any of the software programs included with the scanner.

Debenu's Benubird PDF Pro was a good start to a PDF management solution, but it was never finished properly (still quite buggy). The developers released it as a free tool and haven't updated it since. Seems that they have lost interest.

-- Glen

I'm a long-time visitor as a long-time fan of outliner programs like PC Outline and Grandview. Today I had to register.
Regarding the question of document management, I use the Windows (XP) Explorer /My Computer /My Documents to create folders in which I file my documents. Then I use programs like Copernic Desktop and The Sleuthhound to locate any document on the hard drive in seconds. The resulting list of documents that match the search criteria are displayed like a Google search result. How much easier could it be...???

Glen Coulthard wrote:

Debenu's
Benubird PDF Pro was a good start to a PDF management solution, but it was never
finished properly (still quite buggy). The developers released it as a free tool and
haven't updated it since. Seems that they have lost interest.

They just sent me a promotional email to try the free version. After installing it in Win7, the menu options wouldn't even show. When I restarted it, all the functions were greyed out, couldn't do anything with it. After poking around a bit, it crashed. Even the "Upgrade to the Pro version" button doesn't work... Hm, I don't think I'll be upgrading any time soon (especially if even the upgrade button is not working)...

I got that mail, too. After installation, try to add a PDF file to Benubird via explorer right-click, and the buttons will work. It even seems they have managed integration with Directory Opus now. I just keep on testing.

Peter.

Dr Andus wrote:

Glen Coulthard wrote:
>Debenu's
>Benubird PDF Pro was a good start to a PDF
management solution, but it was never
>finished properly (still quite buggy). The
developers released it as a free tool and
>haven't updated it since. Seems that they
have lost interest.

They just sent me a promotional email to try the free version.
After installing it in Win7, the menu options wouldn't even show. When I restarted it,
all the functions were greyed out, couldn't do anything with it. After poking around a
bit, it crashed. Even the "Upgrade to the Pro version" button doesn't work... Hm, I
don't think I'll be upgrading any time soon (especially if even the upgrade button is
not working)...

pereh wrote:

I got that mail, too. After installation, try to add a PDF file to Benubird via explorer
right-click, and the buttons will work. It even seems they have managed integration
with Directory Opus now. I just keep on testing.

Thanks for that. I gave it another try. I guess it didn't like it that I had PDF Xchange open during installation.

It does have some nice features for organising PDFs (such as the ability to import them from subfolders as well, to tag them in multiple ways en mass, creating virtual folders and sub-folders etc.). At the moment though I can't seem to find a use for it, as I have all my PDFs categorised already some other ways (linked via EndNote or CT or manageable in DOpus).

But I can see that this could be useful for sorting out some huge and messy PDF collection. As for DOpus integration, it doesn't seem to work for me, as nothing happens when I add a file via DOpus.