Scanning doc into EF

In work I use my computer to store 90% of my hard copy material. I have a portable scanner (A4) connected 24hrs to do that.

How do I utilize EF to import directly from scanner? currently, this is what I do:

Use Image capture, scan directly to ‘To Import’ folder
Run EF after scan (this is set in the Image Capture.app

My problem is, a lot of the scanned doc contains more then one page, this process becomes time consuming, few question here:

  1. Can EF combine PDF files?
  2. I can always scanned into another folder (not EF related), use makePDF or pdfLab to combine the doc, locate the result file in finder then drag to EF

both options involves with multiple step of operation, especially option 2). Which is what I am trying to avoid.

An example would be using software like Yep, it is got a simple but effective scanning interface. Basically it imports all scans into a window, until you are finished with all pages, pressing the ‘Done’ key will import the file as one PDF file.

Most of the PDF file I have are stored using Yep, I want to switch to EF because EF handles almost all other file types. But scanning PDF is something that will be a problem for me.

Please help, thanks.

My scanner has a feeder and creates multi-page PDFs, and I just have it save them into the To Import folder.

Not currently, but I might add such a feature if there’s interest. I believe Preview can do this under Leopard.

It might be possible to use Acrobat, GraphicConverter, or another utility—to scan multiple pages into a single PDF file. Or you could continue using Yep for the scanning part.

I’m considering adding scanning support to EagleFiler itself, but this hasn’t been a high priority because I figured that people who scan a lot probably have a ScanSnap, or another scanner that produces multi-page PDFs directly.

Paperless office using EF

I have a portable single sheet scanner. USB powered so I carry it everywhere I go. When portability is a main concern then there aren’t many options out there with multiple sheet scanning. Actually the maker of my scanner has a multi-page version of the USB scanner but it is still too big for me.

If I may I will tell you a little on how I operate the ‘paperless idea’.

Other then email, I receives wide range of different information (hard copy). Such as meeting notes, testing results, financial reports, quotation, catalog etc. Most of them I need to sign off then scanned into computer for storage.

I’ve tried some pretty powerful scanning software but in my usage, I am set to scan B/W, Grey, Color with almost fixed setting for the three. The problem with opening another app is that I usually end up doing many more step before I can import into storage software like EF. Which I want to avoid.

Currently I am using YEP for PDF, Mori for note taking, Finder for storing other files, Archive email exported to mbox. To combine these, EF is the best option out there.

For paperless office purpose, I think we should try to stay away from using external scanning software, and have a simple method of scanning file directly into EF.

In Yep, I would scan the doc (1 or more pages), rotate if necessary, Right after pressing DONE, it is inside the library. Immediately type in my tags and name of the file. I am done. Never leaving the application.

Even if EF solution to this involves with scanning using the OS X image capture.app, as long as I can scan document into EF (perhaps a folder such as ‘Temp Scan’) where EF can offer a chance for me to rotate/combine theses pages, then it would be perfect.

You can combine scanned pages in the Finder into a single document in 10.4. I’ve got an Automator workflow hooked up a Finder contextual menu item to do just that, and I imagine that there’s Applescript support for it, as well.

My suggestion would be to scan all your single pages into a dedicated folder, then run an Applescript that combines all the pages (if possible; not 100% certain about the Applescript) and saves the final document into the “To Import” folder for EagleFiler to pick up next launch or just tosses the file straight into EagleFiler without preamble.

If you’re really feeling tricky, you could probably have Hazel watch the folder and call the script automatically (perhaps after the folder hasn’t been modified for a set period of time).

Combine PDF into EF
Thank you George for your quick reply.

Actually, I came up with another approach.

  1. Image capture into ‘temp’ folder, execute PDFlab after scan
  2. rotate individual pages in PDFlab, create and save into ‘To Import’ folder in EF
  3. Go into EF and do the normal tag, file etc operation

This way, file are kept in PDF, usually smaller then TIFF or JPG scanned version, and with minimum operation. Disadvantage compare with Yep is that you still need to use 3 program, and you don’t get to see your scanned result without going into Preview.app or some other viewer.

I forgot to say in my previous post that another advantage of Yep is that you get to see the pages you scan as they come in, so before it is tossed into Yep library, you can be sure the scanned doc is the correct quality that you wanted.

Thanks.