Best Document Management Software and Scanner

[forrie]

I want to a document scanner for the Mac. The Fujitsu ScanSnap has the best ratings I've seen, thus far, tho I don't think it comes with any document management software. Anyone have experience with this unit?

Finally, what does everyone recommend of the best document management software for the Mac? I would use it for most of the usual stuff: receipts, bills, documents, etc. But I want them really well organized, like a virtual filing cabinet. I also want OCR capability and the ability to export to other document formats; for example, a large typed manuscript that I'd scan in and want searchable and exported into ODT or some other word processing format.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Significant1]

ABBYY FineReader is the best OCR-app I have stumbled on. Not cheap, but the best.

 

[Madmic23]

I use a Doxie scanner to scan any important documents, and use a mix of Google Drive and Evernote for my file management. Google drive works well as a virtual filing cabinet accessible from all of your devices, but Evernote works great too.
The sorting in Evernote is way better if you can wrap your head around the tag system and build yourself a sorting method that makes sense to you. Here's an interesting article on a fairly robust tagging system one Evernote user set up.

 

[Eric Best]

I want to a document scanner for the Mac. The Fujitsu ScanSnap has the best ratings I've seen, thus far, tho I don't think it comes with any document management software. Anyone have experience with this unit?

Finally, what does everyone recommend of the best document management software for the Mac? I would use it for most of the usual stuff: receipts, bills, documents, etc. But I want them really well organized, like a virtual filing cabinet. I also want OCR capability and the ability to export to other document formats; for example, a large typed manuscript that I'd scan in and want searchable and exported into ODT or some other word processing format.

Thanks in advance.

I use DevonThink Pro Office. Could be worthwhile checking out its features...
Cheers,
Eric.

 

[Ebenezum]

I also recommend DevonThink Pro Office. If your needs are modest they also have cheaper Devonthink Pro which has most of the Office version functions...

 

[rhp2424]

I've been using a Brother scanner I bought from Costco that I think is the same one they sell now, the ADS-2000. My experience with the Fujitsu ScanSnap was hit and miss. I choose it for work a number of years back based on those high ratings you speak of, but personally I had one problem or another with it half the time. I can't recall exactly what I didn't like, but when it came time to buy a scanner for home, I remember not wanting the Fujitsu ScanSnap. I have had no issues with the Brother scanner, however.

 

[forrie]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.

I've never used doc management software before. I see now that the ScanSnap iX500 can scan-to-formats (PDF, Word, etc), which is handy. My conundrum is going to be managing all the images into a virtual file cabinet, with searchable indices.

I have Yojimbo, but I don't know it's suited for it. I'm TERRIBLE at using tags/labels My old fashioned mind thinks in terms of an actual file cabinet. In any case, I have heard of a couple of these; I don't see anything in the open source world that is really suitable.

I would scan a lot of crap into it -- from my bills, receipts, to random papers, my car warranty, other things I can shred.

Thanks!

 

[forrie]

A good feature to have is the ability to have the "file cabinet" live in a place like Dropbox. Though, without good encryption (which has its own drawbacks), I'm not entirely sure I want confidential info in the cloud -- I'm not paranoid, but I don't know that it's prudent.

 

[Madmic23]

You could always give Paperless a try from Mariner software. It's like a digital file cabinet, lets you scan in all of your stuff and keeps it all organized on your hard drive. I tried it a few years ago, but switched to cloud options when I realized I wanted to access all of that information on my iPad.

 

[caparsons]

I'm a big fan of the Evernote + Snapscan combo. I'm a premium Evernote subscriber and so I have in-text search, which is incredibly helpful. I also just try to (a) give consistent titles to common documents; (b) have a tag system so I can fairly easily find stuff again.

For Evernote, depending on how much you're scanning, you'll need some kind of monthly membership because they provide a certain amount of upload bandwidth/month. That said, if you have a massive scanning month, followed by much smaller ones, you could (at least historically) get a 1-month membership to upload lots and then just downgrade to the cheaper or free memberships after that one massive month.

 

[talmy]

I've never used doc management software before. I see now that the ScanSnap iX500 can scan-to-formats (PDF, Word, etc), which is handy. My conundrum is going to be managing all the images into a virtual file cabinet, with searchable indices.

I have Yojimbo, but I don't know it's suited for it. I'm TERRIBLE at using tags/labels My old fashioned mind thinks in terms of an actual file cabinet. In any case, I have heard of a couple of these; I don't see anything in the open source world that is really suitable.

I would scan a lot of crap into it -- from my bills, receipts, to random papers, my car warranty, other things I can shred.

Thanks!

I don't use any document management software. I've got a iX500 (over two years now) and scan to PDF having it OCR while it scans. Then I use Hazel to sort the documents (and also documents in the Downloads folder from downloading statements electronically) into 36 folders on my server, divided by company or topic. Hazel renames the files and adds a date stamp to the name. Any subdividing I do manually (I often have sub-folders for different years for statements.) Here are my water bills:

For searching, I just use the Spotlight search in Finder. Search either name, content, or both. And since all the documents are not inside some proprietary database the individual files are easy to locate, move, or back up. I've got about 6000 statements, manuals, tax documents, etc, and can find any one essentially instantly.

Credit card receipts I either scan with the iX500 or a scanning app on my iPhone. In the latter case the receipts go into DropBox and then my server (running Hazel) monitors the Dropbox and moves the receipts in to a receipts folder. I only need credit card receipts for 90 days. Hazel deletes them as soon as they get older.

I recommend the ebook "Paperless" by David Sparks (AKA "Mac Sparky") to see the pros and cons of various approaches. I give him credit for my purchase of the iX500, Hazel, and other related programs (I use TextExpander to put date stamps in file names when I have to rename a file manually and I use PDFPen Pro to annotate PDFs and OCR any image PDFs I receive but want to file.

 

[AleRod]

Something like Rack2-Filer for OS X would be great.

https://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/en/products/rack2_filer/

 

[jasefo712]

Hi, yes I have been using onsite scanning which is the ability to transfer your paper files into searchable digital images and your documents can be filled digitally for instant access.

 

[harriska2]

I don't use any document management software. I've got a iX500 (over two years now) and scan to PDF having it OCR while it scans. Then I use Hazel to sort the documents (and also documents in the Downloads folder from downloading statements electronically) into 36 folders on my server, divided by company or topic. Hazel renames the files and adds a date stamp to the name. Any subdividing I do manually (I often have sub-folders for different years for statements.) Here are my water bills: View attachment 580548

For searching, I just use the Spotlight search in Finder. Search either name, content, or both. And since all the documents are not inside some proprietary database the individual files are easy to locate, move, or back up. I've got about 6000 statements, manuals, tax documents, etc, and can find any one essentially instantly.

Credit card receipts I either scan with the iX500 or a scanning app on my iPhone. In the latter case the receipts go into DropBox and then my server (running Hazel) monitors the Dropbox and moves the receipts in to a receipts folder. I only need credit card receipts for 90 days. Hazel deletes them as soon as they get older.

I recommend the ebook "Paperless" by David Sparks (AKA "Mac Sparky") to see the pros and cons of various approaches. I give him credit for my purchase of the iX500, Hazel, and other related programs (I use TextExpander to put date stamps in file names when I have to rename a file manually and I use PDFPen Pro to annotate PDFs and OCR any image PDFs I receive but want to file.

You are a man of my ❤️. I might try your method without the actual scanner.

 

[MBAir2010]

Canon makes good software for their scanners, today i had to scan a 24x18 poster painted in inks and canon stitch feature help alot! If this helps........

 

[shamelin73]

I have been using Fujitsu scanners for a while now and my current one is the ScanSnap S1300i. Is great and their software is nice and comes with ABBYY OCR software. I had one of their bigger scanners at one point but had to replace it. This one does both sides at the same time and does a really good job naming the files. I want to try Rack2-filer they have too but the do not offer it for Mac.
The stock software works fine for me.

 

[harriska2]

Canon makes good software for their scanners, today i had to scan a 24x18 poster painted in inks and canon stitch feature help alot! If this helps........

I don’t know of any canon page scanners (not flatbed) that work in mac?

 

[PhillyGuy72]

Slightly frustrating with the older scanners and newer MacOS. I picked up a Canon 4400f scanner yesterday - real cheap from a thrift store. Only reason is the big benefit that it scans 35mm film negatives, old slides.

I simply could not get it to work with my iMac running Sierra - If I had Mavericks on this, it apparently would work. And even though the one (very crass terrible) Canon utility program read the scanner was connected to my iMac...no luck. I tried multiple times, downloading drivers from Canons site..again no luck.

I see others have issues with this same scanner on newer OS. Also other older printers/scanners.

Before packing the darn thing up and taking it back, I tried this on my super ancient and very painfully slow Windows laptop (this thing was still running a very early version of Windows 10 ) Well the scanner worked on that...so ok.

...and I now also remember why I don't use windows anymore. It needed updates - of course, a ton of them. Looks like the last time I loaded up this laptop was 2016..oops, lol. Once I confirmed the scanner works, although slow. I installed these "critical updates." Well, that took almost 8 hours to install and finish the updates! (SMH!)

 

[robgendreau]

Slightly frustrating with the older scanners and newer MacOS. I picked up a Canon 4400f scanner yesterday - real cheap from a thrift store. Only reason is the big benefit that it scans 35mm film negatives, old slides.

I simply could not get it to work with my iMac running Sierra - If I had Mavericks on this, it apparently would work. And even though the one (very crass terrible) Canon utility program read the scanner was connected to my iMac...no luck. I tried multiple times, downloading drivers from Canons site..again no luck.

I see others have issues with this same scanner on newer OS. Also other older printers/scanners.

Before packing the darn thing up and taking it back, I tried this on my super ancient and very painfully slow Windows laptop (this thing was still running a very early version of Windows 10 ) Well the scanner worked on that...so ok.

...and I now also remember why I don't use windows anymore. It needed updates - of course, a ton of them. Looks like the last time I loaded up this laptop was 2016..oops, lol. Once I confirmed the scanner works, although slow. I installed these "critical updates." Well, that took almost 8 hours to install and finish the updates! (SMH!)

The normal solution on macOS is to buy and install Vuescan. You might not get all functionality, but one wouldn't expect that in such an old scanner anyway.

 

[PhillyGuy72]

The normal solution on macOS is to buy and install Vuescan. You might not get all functionality, but one wouldn't expect that in such an old scanner anyway.

You ROCK! Thank you.
The VueScan wasn't reading the scanner when I installed the 64bit program, but the 32bit program read it.
Works great! Thank you so much.

....and I can go back to using my painfully slow ancient Windows laptop as a cool paperweight..lol!