Five Best Document Scanners for Going Paperless

Five Best Document Scanners for Going Paperless

Not every scanner is a great one if you're thinking about going paperless. You need a good one that'll handle all the documents, receipts, and oddly-shaped papers you need to digitize, and preferably one with great software support to help you keep all that stuff organized. Here's a look at five of the best, based on your nominations.

Earlier this week, we asked you which document scanners you thought were the best for the job. Not just any old scanner, or multi-function scanner/printer/copier—specifically which document scanners were best for helping you empty that filing cabinet and go paperless. We have a favorite of our own, but we've shown you how to go paperless with any scanner, and even cleared up some of your questions after the fact. After tallying up your nominations, here's a look at the top five.

The poll is closed and the votes are counted! To see which of these top five took the crown as the Lifehacker favorite, head over to our hive five followup post to see and discuss the winner!

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500/Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 Scanner for PC and Mac (PA03656-B005)

List Price: $495.00

Amazon.com: $426.98

The ScanSnap S1500 is technically no longer available, having been replaced by the newer ScanSnap iX500, but those of you who own them and nominated them noted that both models are exceptional at quickly scanning documents of different sizes and shapes, and even converting some text documents into searchable PDFs. While the S1500 was Windows only, the iX500 extends support to Mac users who want to organize their lives too. The S1500 sported 20ppm scanning, and the iX500 brought that up to 25, and both models have a document feeder that makes scanning multi-page documents as easy as loading the tray—no feeding each page one after the other. The iX500 also supports scanning to iOS and Android devices, can make PDFs with one button, and more. It'll set you back $500 retail ($430 at Amazon).

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Doxie Go

The Doxie Go is a great scanner—so much so that our own Adam Dachis used it to go paperless in two days, and showed you how you can do it too. It's a tiny thing, portable enough to fit into a bag and go with you almost anywhere, is powered via USB, and great for scanning everything from photographs to multi-page documents to tiny receipts on thermal paper. Best of all, the Doxie comes with software that makes the most of its features and helps you organize the documents you scan with it. If you scan text, the companion app does OCR so you can search the text in those documents, and if you prefer to use another platform like Dropbox or Evernote to organize your files, it syncs with those services as well. Even if you don't use another web service for your documents, the Doxie's software can sync with all of your (iOS) mobile devices and computers on its own. The Doxie Go will set you back $199 ($187 at Amazon), but the other Doxie models are a bit cheaper.

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Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i

If you're looking for a more affordable ScanSnap document scanner than the previously mentioned iX500, the S1300i brings a smaller, space-saving form factor to your desk without sacrificing much of the power that makes the ScanSnap line a great one for digitizing documents. It does away with the large body in exchange for a smaller, more streamlined model like the Doxie Go or the NeatReceipts, but still includes a fold-out document tray for multiple pages and papers of odd sizes. You can keep the tray closed and feed photos or other documents yourself though, and the fact that it's tiny and USB-powered makes it portable enough to take with you if you travel. It even supports multi-sided documents, and it comes with the ScanSnap software for Windows and OS X to make getting your documents in a format you can use easy. The ScanSnap software can also sync with and scan to other web services, including Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Drive, if you prefer to use one of those services to organize your newly digitized documents. The S1300i will set you back $300 retail ($260 at Amazon).

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Neat Scanner

Despite its appearances on infomercials and late night television, the Neat Scanner is actually a capable document scanner, and those of you who nominated it praised it for being speedy, portable, and able to handle documents of all sizes easily, from business cards to full-sized sheets of paper. The Neat comes in two varieties, the NeatDesk (shown here) and the NeatReceipts, a smaller, USB-powered version similar in size and shape to the Doxie Go. Both models include supporting software to make scanning and organizing your documents easy, and that also sync with the Neat mobile app for iOS and Android. Neat's angle is to get you hooked with the device, and then sell you additional services, like its Neat Cloud service, which is essentially a Dropbox clone with a monthly fee, or its NeatVerify service that puts a human eye on every document you scan to make sure it's been processed correctly. On its own though, the Neat scanner and software package make a powerful enough combination to keep your paper clutter to a minimum. The NeatDesk will set you back $400 ($380 at Amazon), and the NeatReceipts $179 ($140 at Amazon). Both models come with the desktop software.

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Your Smartphone's Camera

Several of you said that your smartphone's camera and an accompanying organizational app would work just fine for you. It's free, not including the cost of an app you may use, and it only requires the equipment you already own. This is true, but this is a perfect case of getting what you pay for: it may be free and easy, but it's slow, especially compared to the other contenders in the top five, and scanning large, multi-page documents you may want to digitize will undoubtedly be an agonizing process with a smartphone's camera. If you want the document you photograph to be legible and useful, or even searchable once you save it and organize it, good luck. Still, enough of you nominated it that it's worth mentioning as an option. Photo by Mauricio Lima.

Five Best Document Scanners for Going Paperless

Dropbox: Shared Folders vs. Links

Collaborating with Dropbox: Shared Folders vs. Links

Posted by Sheila Vashee

We love hearing from people about how sharing folders and links helps them collaborate more effectively with their team members. Since there are different advantages to sharing a folder versus sending a link, below are a few tips that will help you choose the best way to share.

When to share a folder:

Let’s say your group has a big client meeting next week and everyone is working together to prepare. Several team members are making edits to the presentation, working on different spreadsheets, and saving large video files. Rather than managing multiple versions of your files and emailing attachments back and forth—share a folder!

When you share a folder with your colleagues, it feels like you’re sharing a computer. All of your project files will be in one central place and any member of the folder can save changes directly to the shared copy in an instant.

When to send a link:

It’s the night before the big meeting and you’re ready to send the client a preview of the work you’ve done. The files are very large, so rather than try to zip and send as an email attachment—send a read-only link!

With a Dropbox link, your clients can view or download the latest version in seconds, even if they don’t have a Dropbox account. And you don’t need to worry about re-sending the file if you notice a typo. Just update your file and the latest version is available at the original link, automatically.

Whether you want to share folders to collaborate or send links to show your stuff to others, Dropbox has you covered at work, from start to finish!

Dropbox for Teams Blog » Blog Archive » Collaborating with Dropbox: Shared Folders vs. Links

Set Word AutoRecovery to a Dropbox Location

Set AutoRecovery to a Dropbox Location for Double-Strength Backups

The AutoRecovery (or auto-save) feature in Microsoft Office is great for recovering documents when the program crashes, but if you want to be absolutely certain that backup has a home, change the default location of those save files to your Dropbox (or other cloud storage) folder.

The only time you really need AutoRecovery is when something goes bad. Microsoft Office has a really simple procedure for changing the location in all its programs and all you need to do is change that location to your file syncing service of choice. This is just as applicable to any program you use that automatically saves data. If you're working on a project that's incredibly important, this is a good way to add an extra layer of protection.

Set AutoRecovery to a Dropbox Location for Double-Strength Backups

Sync Online Media with Your Desktop

Social Folders Syncs Your Facebook Pics, Google Docs, and Other Online Media with Your Desktop

Windows/Mac: If you've ever wanted to keep a local copy of all the pictures, video, and files you post on social media sites like Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and Google Docs, Social Folders can give you just that. Additionally, it'll sync any changes you make online or locally so managing your online media from your desktop is incredibly easy.

All you have to do to get started with Social Folders is download the app for Windows or Mac, sign up for an account, and start linking your social media accounts through the Social Folders web app. If you're already signed in to those accounts this process will only take a few clicks. You'll be able to connect to a good variety of services, such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Google Docs, Instagram, YouTube, and Box. Social Folders will then sync all your content so you can access it easily from your computer. It will also scan for updates periodically, whether they were added via the web or to one of the synced folders on your machine, and synchronize the changes. This means, for example, that you can upload new photos to Facebook by just dropping them in a folder.

Social Folders isn't as quick about noticing updates as it could be, but you can always manually initiate a sync to hurry the process along. Even if you're using it solely to keep local copies of the stuff you post online, it's a very useful utility.

Social Folders

Social Folders Syncs Your Facebook Pics, Google Docs, and Other Online Media with Your Desktop

Recover Deleted Songs In iPod, iPhone, iPad

Recover Deleted Songs Music In iPod, iPhone, iPad

by Nitish Singhal

If unfortunately you lost all your songs and playlist present on your computer hard disk due to viruses or disk crash, then today we are going to tell you about a tool named GizoRip which can easily retrieve your all tracks and playlist if you have saved them on your iPod or other devices from Apple like iPhone, iPad etc.

When you run this tool, at the main window there is a option to search for the iPods. Basically it will show only iPod but this tool works perfectly for any device from Apple. Alternatively, you can even select search for devices by finding this option under file.

Then this tool will take little time to search for you connected device and once it complete search, it will show all the music tracks present in your iPod or other device. You can copy these tracks and playlists directly to your hard drive and even you can simply import them to your iTunes Player. This tool even supports the latest version of iTunes.

To customize these settings, go to Options and then click on Preferences. There you will see option to import music directly to iTunes and also to ignore copy of all those files which already exists on your system. You can even Browse and select alternate path for export directory if you don’t want to make backup directly to iTunes.

Now once you are done with all the settings, simply click on Recover Music whose short-cut is given on main window or alternatively you can select this option from file also.

When you click on it, your music file restoring process will start instantly. You can see the progress of the restoring process from the bar given on top. Once the process is done, you can open the destination folder directly from the option given at bottom. Developer has also added option to Donate that is just upto your wish.

You make even discover the following .Net error while trying to run this tool. Just ignore that as it may be a little bug with the tool and it works perfectly after ignoring this error message.

The size of GizoRip is 1.70 Mb and as usual it will create a desktop shortcut which can be used to access this freeware. This tool is compatible with all the versions of Windows and has been tested successfully on Windows 7 Ultimate-32 bit edition.

Download GizoRip

Read more: http://www.technixupdate.com/recover-deleted-songs-music-in-ipod-iphone-ipad/#ixzz1jdcMbCFc

Recover Deleted Songs Music In iPod, iPhone, iPad