How to Scan Documents With Your iPhone in Three Quick Steps

[ignatius345]

You can certainly name the file when you add to Notes after you finish scanning documents. This is the same name used in the save to pdf. Pretty simple really.

Cool tip about renaming the scan within Notes, but you didn't specify how.

- Tap on the scan inside the Note you just made, and tap where it says Scanned Documents -- that will bring up a dialog for renaming it. That name will be used when you save to the Files app.

 

[SteveJobs2.0]

What’s a bit idiotic to me is that you can use this to get a nicely trimmed and colour adjusted document, but it won’t let you export it as a photo. You have to basically open the saved PDF file then export as a photo.

 

[timmyh]

Just FYI, you don’t NEED to add it to control center...you can just force touch or long press the regular notes app icon.

That's true. This how-to is for when your iPhone is locked, which I think is the typical starting point when most people take out their phone to scan something.

 

[Mitochris]

That’s actually quite neat. I’ve been using Scanbot for years and it’s nice that it automatically saves them in Dropbox, but this will work nicely too for my purposes.

 

[Sefstah]

You don't even need to make a Control Centre shortcut. A Force Touch press on the Notes icon either on your homepage or when searched using Spotlight does the same thing.

Thank you for this!

 

[gaanee]

Is there a way to scan documents from within the Notes app instead of long-pressing on the icon or in the Control Center?

 

[fredrik9]

Cool tip about renaming the scan within Notes, but you didn't specify how.

- Tap on the scan inside the Note you just made, and tap where it says Scanned Documents -- that will bring up a dialog for renaming it. That name will be used when you save to the Files app.

Problem is, I still don't understand exactly what you mean. How can you rename it other than adding a title to the Note which will then serve as file name? I just want Apple to make the box with the file name in the collapsed folder view in Save in Files tapable. That would be how you do it on a Mac — choosing a file name in the Save As... Box. And, I have reported all of this to Apple via the feedback forum but it takes them years to implement such simple stuff, it is a bit annoying they haven't figured this out themselves. One could be forgiven believing they don't even use their own products.

 

[imronburgundy]

This is awesome. Great way to scan receipts and toss them after leaving a restaurant instead of keeping a pocket full in a night on the town.

 

[ignatius345]

Problem is, I still don't understand exactly what you mean. How can you rename it other than adding a title to the Note which will then serve as file name?

It's not the simplest or the most intuitive, but once you save the scan into a note, tap the scan to open it, then tap on the title.


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I just want Apple to make the box with the file name in the collapsed folder view in Save in Files tapable. That would be how you do it on a Mac — choosing a file name in the Save As... Box. And, I have reported all of this to Apple via the feedback forum but it takes them years to implement such simple stuff, it is a bit annoying they haven't figured this out themselves. One could be forgiven believing they don't even use their own products.

Agreed. There's tons of simple crap like this that makes iOS so much of a PITA when you actually try to do any work on it.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Is there a way to scan documents from within the Notes app instead of long-pressing on the icon or in the Control Center?

Yes. Push the “plus” button at the bottom of the screen inside the notes app.

 

[MrJeffreyGee]

Adding OCR would be awesome and very helpful, but I can't picture Apple doing that for a while.

 

[krizalidzero]

I use the memo's widget, it has a scan document shortcut.

 

[gaanee]

Yes. Push the “plus” button at the bottom of the screen inside the notes app.

Thanks for the tip

 

[Bruce Patterson]

Wow. Thanks! I appreciate this tip so much I’m logging in and posting something for the first time in years!

By the way, anyone know any good scanning apps for the Mac? High sierra broke the software I was using.

We use Neat Receipts and it’s pretty good. Does anyone know if the document scans (either in Notes or when a PDF is created) have searchable text created? That would be the most important thing for me and Neat does this.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

I’ve been using iOS since day one. Had no idea you could scan documents with notes.....noob.

 

[MauiPa]

Problem is, I still don't understand exactly what you mean. How can you rename it other than adding a title to the Note which will then serve as file name? I just want Apple to make the box with the file name in the collapsed folder view in Save in Files tapable. That would be how you do it on a Mac — choosing a file name in the Save As... Box. And, I have reported all of this to Apple via the feedback forum but it takes them years to implement such simple stuff, it is a bit annoying they haven't figured this out themselves. One could be forgiven believing they don't even use their own products.

Take a deep breath, let it out.

When you scan the documents, you scan them as a group (so you could actually scan multiple groups into a note). When you select "keep scan" after snapping the scan and possibly editing it, You see a "save" button. Click the button to add the scans to your Note (you could also take another scan here). The scanned documents then appear in your Note. with a title, like "scanned Documents". click the title to view, and click the title in the view, ergo "scanned documents", you will see a "rename" dialog. Trust you can handle the rest.

BTW: tap the share button to send, save Create PDF, print, etc........ , and click the image to edit documents, you can also click the "+" to add more scanned documents.

oh and you don't rename it by changing the note title. This wouldn't work if you had more than one group of scanned documents.

Nothing could be simpler. If you think about it, if it automatically came up with a Rename or save dialog, that would be an extra step when you don't need to do that, and no extra steps when you don't

That's not to say your comment is not relevant, there could be a Rename option on the share menu, but with the name of the file right next to the share button, there kind of is.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Three steps is too many? You'd rather do three other steps?

View attachment 796543

This seemed like overkill to prove a trivial point.

 

[AngerDanger]

This seemed like overkill to prove a trivial point.

Hardly. That was just a placeholder until I can finish my actual response. Should be ready to go sometime in early 2020; I’m just working through refinancing my mortgage in preparation.

 

[fredrik9]

It's not the simplest or the most intuitive, but once you save the scan into a note, tap the scan to open it, then tap on the title.

View attachment 796662 View attachment 796660 View attachment 796661
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Agreed. There's tons of simple crap like this that makes iOS so much of a PITA when you actually try to do any work on it.

Right thanks for all the sceenshots and information. It is a bit complicated but it seems Apple has thought this through after all, at least when it comes to Notes. In the Share sheet they still need to put tons of work in.
[doublepost=1540104596][/doublepost]

Take a deep breath, let it out.

When you scan the documents, you scan them as a group (so you could actually scan multiple groups into a note). When you select "keep scan" after snapping the scan and possibly editing it, You see a "save" button. Click the button to add the scans to your Note (you could also take another scan here). The scanned documents then appear in your Note. with a title, like "scanned Documents". click the title to view, and click the title in the view, ergo "scanned documents", you will see a "rename" dialog. Trust you can handle the rest.

BTW: tap the share button to send, save Create PDF, print, etc........ , and click the image to edit documents, you can also click the "+" to add more scanned documents.

oh and you don't rename it by changing the note title. This wouldn't work if you had more than one group of scanned documents.

Nothing could be simpler. If you think about it, if it automatically came up with a Rename or save dialog, that would be an extra step when you don't need to do that, and no extra steps when you don't

That's not to say your comment is not relevant, there could be a Rename option on the share menu, but with the name of the file right next to the share button, there kind of is.

You are right of course. And thanks for all the tips and explainations. However, this only applies to Notes.app by Apple. In other apps renaming the file in the actual app interface is also possible almost always, but I am requesting that a file rename in the share sheet menu is implemented for ease of use. I mean, more intuitive features and more places to rename files and less wasted space to boot can never go wrong.

 

[shotts56]

It's not the simplest or the most intuitive, but once you save the scan into a note, tap the scan to open it, then tap on the title.

View attachment 796662 View attachment 796660 View attachment 796661
[doublepost=1539984234][/doublepost]

Agreed. There's tons of simple crap like this that makes iOS so much of a PITA when you actually try to do any work on it.

Thanks, no idea you could rename it like that. Why keep such a feature a secret ?

 

[m0sher]

What happens to the ‘scan’ feature when haptic touch is removed, like in the XR? How can we access ‘scan’ on XR?

This might deter me from buying the XR for my spouse in three months when her contract is up. Don’t realize how important it is till you can’t do things like this as easy or at all.

 

[ignatius345]

Thanks, no idea you could rename it like that. Why keep such a feature a secret ?

Not sure it's so much "secret", but like a lot of Apple software features, it doesn't jump out at you. Feature discoverability is tricky with MacOS and iOS -- there are all kinds of little features that you might not know are there. It generally pays to try tapping or clicking on things to see what they do.
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What happens to the ‘scan’ feature when haptic touch is removed, like in the XR? How can we access ‘scan’ on XR?

Through the method detailed in this article: adding it to the control center. Losing force touch only takes away the method wherein you deep-click on the app icon on the home screen. I have an SE, which never had force touch in the first place, and it's really not a huge deal.

 

[jst_testing]

I didn’t even know that scanning was an option in the notes app. I’ve been using ScannerPro by Readdle for years. It’s an excellent app. Highly recommend it.

+1. ScannerPro and Siri Shortcuts.

 

[ignatius345]

I’ve been using iOS since day one. Had no idea you could scan documents with notes.....noob.

It's a pretty newish feature. Notes used to just be this crappy corner of your phone where you could make a note in Marker Felt and that was basically it. They've really beefed it up a LOT in the past couple years. It's my go-to on iOS and Mac now, great replacement for Evernote imo.

 

[usarioclave]

My wife and I use notes to scan all the Dr. paperwork for our kids. It's unbelievably handy as a hacked-together way to keep track of medical records. Then just share the notes and suddenly it's instantly referenceable.