Other than buying a duplex scanner is there any way I can scan in double sided documents relatively quickly using the multi sheet feed function? Ive tried using some free software called pdfsam which if all the odds and scanned into one file and then all the evens are scanned into another you can split them into individual pages and then merge them together again alernating odds and evens. It works but there must be a better way of doing it?
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Software isn't the answer
Unless you have a device that is capable of scanning both sides of the document without manual assistance, no software in the world is going to achieve your objective for you.
You need to value your time more!
Duplex scanners are pretty cheap now and by the time you've researched and played with this it would have been cheaper to buy one.
Thanks for the comments, I agree about the value of my staff's time but it is rare we get double sided documents to scan at present so I dont see the need to buy a duplex scanner when we have a perfectly good scanner sitting there.
I have actually found some software that does exactly what I want. Scan all odds into one file then scan all the evens into another. Select both files and it outputs the combined file in a matter of seconds. Im not in the office at the moment but I will post the name of the software once I get back if anyone is interested.
Free duplex scan PDF files merge
It's a free web site: http://www.single2doublesidescan.com/ .
You scan the front side of pages into a PDF file, then simply turn over the pages and scan the back side to second PDF file, then upload these 2 files into this web site and merge them by clicking "SinglePageScanMerge" button then you get one file contains all pages in order!
This site can also be used for regular PDF files merge ---- just merger one PDF file after another. Or to extract pages from a PDF file.
The limit is 10M for all upload files.
It's always faster to scan single side pages than double side scanning by the scanner itself. And using software to merge single side scanned pages can extend scanner's life.
ScanSnap s1500
I use this scanner and it automatically scans both sides and then deletes blank pages. It avoids all the messing about above.
ScanSnap
Peter, how have you found the ScanSnap output quality? Does it work well with smaller documents (receipts etc.) ?
Receipts
I don't scan them. After your question I tried scanning a small parking ticket and the software said I didn't have any paper in the scanner! I tried it with a slightly larger ticket and it scanned perfectly with very good quality. I suppose the solution with very small receipts is to copy them to A4 first.
We use Fujitsu fi-5110C
Bought second hand off the interwebthingy
Do a good double sided job up to A4
Duplex Scanning and Parking Tickets
Hi all
The best way to scan duplex is to use a duplex scanner.
Whatever your using to handle the documents afterwards would need to cope with Duplex or Simplex scanners, with PaperLess you control that setting on your scanner from within our application so its easy to scan documents into your document management solution as either duplex or simplex.
With parking tickets , petrol vouchers etc.. then one way our clients find is useful for these types of documents is to use one small piece of sellotape on the top edge and put on receipt in the middle of the page, one per sheet.
Preparation is quick and using the sheet feeder of your scanner its a smooth operation to scan in lost of receipts.
I hope that helps you.
Phil
Softi ScanWiz will reposition a document as double sided and much more, it's inexpensive software.
Jason
scanning
look at www.celaton.com and download the connolly accountants case study...fantastic cost savings, great efficiency
Microsoft Office
The office suite used to contain Microsoft Office Document Imaging which would allow you to do this sort of thing. It is no longer bundled with the more recent versions but you may be able to make use of a free download see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982760
Adobe Acrobat
If your scanner supports the twain interface, then you can use the scanning function in Adobe Acrobat. You scan the front sides first, then the back sides, and it automatically sorts everything in the correct order.
Brother DCP-8085DN
Bought this printer about 10 mths ago after our refurbed HP2200 became unreliable. It's been excellant, duplex printing and scanning built in with doc feeder. There is a fax option but didn't go for this as we have fax/phone system on our PC's.
Use the s/w provided for scanning, into PDF's, Word, Excel etc
Mark
photocopy the backs!
Forget all the faff. I only occasionally need to scan double sided docs. I just photocopy the backs of the relevant pages, interleave them in the right order with the originals and run the lot through my single-sided scanner. Low tech, but job done!
I forget all the faff
by running my documents through a double sided scanner.
It's much less messing about than photocopying the backs of relevant pages interleaving them in the right order with the originals and running them through a single sided scanner!