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PDF File Mgmt. Question
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Posted by Ken
Feb 28, 2021 at 07:33 PM
I know this question is a bit OT, but this is the one group that I know of that has many members who work with large numbers of PDF files, so I thought I would ask the hive for some advice. I just bought a Brother document scanner so I can scan a number of old statements and get rid of the paper copies that have been taking up file cabinet space. Initially, I thought that flat scans (i.e. no OCR conversion) would suffice, and that may be the case, but the software that Brother includes with the scanner has left me a bit stumped on the best way to handle the scans since it will involve many unrelated accounts (e.g. banking, medical, utilities, etc.).
Brother provided me with copies of Kofax Paper Port and Power PDF along with a basic utility to handle settings and machine selection. Setting up a folder structure to hold the files is easy enough, but what I am trying to figure out is the best way to either incorporate either or both of these pieces of software (or neither), or see if there are better solutions that I should consider at a reasonable price. Paper Port seems useful for assembling pages into files and possibly for file naming, but there are few reviews about it. Power PDF seems more like an Acrobat competitor, and I suspect I will not have have as much use for it, but I am not clear which program I would use if I do decide that some documents need OCR conversion.
Any wisdom would be greatly appreciated. And does anybody have any thoughts about scanning these documents at 200PPI vs. 300PPI? I normally scan photos and that is a whole other ball of wax for scan settings (on a separate, dedicated scanner). I mainly am trying to balance file size/scan speed with readability and print quality (if printing is needed).
Thanks,
—Ken
Posted by Lb
Feb 28, 2021 at 10:44 PM
From experimentation I found that best scanning resolution for me is 300dpi for a more accurate OCR reading. File size is not overly large and makes a clean PDF or image file.
I can’t comment on your software since I don’t use the ones you’re using. I’ve tried many and have found that the OCR interpretation varies a lot between them.
I make all my PDF’s “Searchable” with the OCR. It takes a little longer to scan each one but worth it if you need to do a search within the files.
Best of luck,
Larry
Posted by Ken
Mar 1, 2021 at 04:37 AM
LB wrote:
From experimentation I found that best scanning resolution for me is
>300dpi for a more accurate OCR reading. File size is not overly large
>and makes a clean PDF or image file.
>
>I can’t comment on your software since I don’t use the ones you’re
>using. I’ve tried many and have found that the OCR interpretation
>varies a lot between them.
>
>I make all my PDF’s “Searchable” with the OCR. It takes a little longer
>to scan each one but worth it if you need to do a search within the
>files.
Thank you for this information, Larry. I had not thought about the quality of the scan in terms of resolution for OCR conversion, so 300ppi makes sense.
—Ken
>
>Best of luck,
>Larry
Posted by JDS
Mar 1, 2021 at 05:24 PM
I am not sure if this meets your needs, but look at DropIt. It is a utility that can monitor folders and rename and move the files based on rules and actions you set. For example, you can scan in a tax document, and DropIt can rename it to ‘‘Tax Form’’ and move it to a folder ‘‘Taxes 2020’‘. The pdf needs to have been through OCR, of course.
Posted by Ken
Mar 1, 2021 at 05:49 PM
JDS wrote:
I am not sure if this meets your needs, but look at DropIt. It is a
>utility that can monitor folders and rename and move the files based on
>rules and actions you set. For example, you can scan in a tax document,
>and DropIt can rename it to ‘‘Tax Form’’ and move it to a folder ‘‘Taxes
>2020’‘. The pdf needs to have been through OCR, of course.
Thank you for this recommendation. I have never heard of this program before, but it looks quite interesting. Have you used it?
—Ken