(Archived) Do you name scanned in PDF files?

[llbean 8]

So I've been scanning in and dropping literally hundreds of documents into EN and love it. I've noticed, however, that all of my scanned in PDF attachments have the same or slightly modified file name of "scan", "scan1" or whatever else generic name I might give it.

1) As far as best practices are concerned, does it matter at all that I am not giving my note attachments a real name?

2) Where are the files actually kept on my computer?

Only drawback I can see is that if I ever were to stop using EN and export out then I would have a bunch of files with the same name.

Thoughts?

The Bean

[cynwren 9]

I rename my scanned docs. The name of the file becomes the title of the note so I consider it time well spent - I'd have to type in a title anyway and renaming gets two tasks done in one pass. But I'm not doing as many as you you, more like 10s than 100s (on a weekly basis).

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I do not let my scanning software assign the file name. I give the file an accurate name & then drop it into Evernote. The title is then defaulted to the file name.

[JMichaelTX 4,118]

I always rename my scanned documents as I process them just after scanning.

It takes a little extra time and effort, but I have found it well worth it over the years.

I also use a consistent naming convention that includes the date associated with the document (not necessarily the scan date).

For example, here is how I would name the file of a rental car receipt:

Receipt -- Avis -- Dec 1-5, 2011.pdf

I do this whether or not I am uploading to EN.

[gazumped 12,066]

I let my scanner title the scans with a date and time, then add to that with a more meaningful title based on "<sender><document type><date><content>" because that's

• easy to remember
  
• easy to be consistent with
  
• quick to apply
  
• the sort of information I'll have when trying to find this document
  

I might change the created date of the note, so the scanned dated in the title gives me a timeline that will not change. If I'm searching for a letter from my college in June of last year about my term paper, some or all of that data will be in the title and (hopefully) easy to find. I can look through all letters, all the documents sent by my college, or all files started in June.

[JamesCE 5]

Couldn't agree more with everyone here.... I select the notebook, scan the document, type a detailed and clear title and save. The file name then becomes my note title... love it!

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

More of the same here. I assign a name (usually YYMMDD Keyword Keyword Keyword) and toss it into Evernote. All of my PDFs are already OCRd, so between the title and the content, I think I can find just about anything again. Later on, when I am gardening/pruning/weeding my notes I'll add some tags.

[anjoschu 67]

What's the simplest workflow to achieve this with the scansnap scanner? Right now, I only have to push the scan button and have the scansnap software put the pdf into a new evernote note with a title like yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss.pdf. Ideally, the scan software would ask me for a name before creating the note. But I don't really want to save the pdf to a temporary location, find it in finder, hit enter to rename, type in name, and drag it onto evernote.

In a related matter, is it possible to rename attached files in evernote for mac without evernote losing track of the attachment?

[JamesCE 5]

What's the simplest workflow to achieve this with the scansnap scanner? Right now, I only have to push the scan button and have the scansnap software put the pdf into a new evernote note with a title like yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss.pdf. Ideally, the scan software would ask me for a name before creating the note. But I don't really want to save the pdf to a temporary location, find it in finder, hit enter to rename, type in name, and drag it onto evernote.

In a related matter, is it possible to rename attached files in evernote for mac without evernote losing track of the attachment?

Well I have my snapscan s1300 setup to use the Evernote Application to scan directly into evernote.

So I

1. Select the notebook I want the scan to go into

2. press the button, The scanner then scans the document,

3. The scanner asks me to rename the document prior to save

4. once saved it automatically puts it into EN in the notebook I'm currently in with the name I saved

I know you don't like item 3 but (keep in mind I'm Win 7) I keep my documents in a folder that is erased every shutdown cycle. Its like a temp folder on my system. I believe EN needs to import the data from somewhere and without it being saved there isn't any other way.

I'm not sure of your second cquestion regarding "losing track of the attachment"

I guess you could re-save the attachment with a new name? Not sure I follow.

[gazumped 12,066]

Ideally, the scan software would ask me for a name before creating the note.

Not to nitpick here, but the name of the file becomes the default title of the note. If you want to change the title you can do so later, once the note has been created. I've talked before (lots) about "gardening" notes - that's going back over a day or so's notes and correcting titles and tags (and layout, orientation etc.) where necessary.

The file name is still the same, only the title of the note is changed. If you want to change the file name AFAIK the only way to do so is to

1. open the file direct from Evernote
   
2. "save as" <new name> to desktop
   
3. delete the file from the note
   
4. re-import <new name> from desktop
   

But why would you bother? The note itself is an infinitely expandable index header for the file and will take you to the correct document even if the file name is just a date and time. In fact in Evernote the file name in one note can be identical with several other filenames attached to other notes, but will still be identifiable separately from the content of that note.

[cynwren 9]

I use a scansnap and have it save to folder on my desktop, not directly into EN. The scanner software lets me name the scanned doc that way. After I've scanned everything I want to for that work session, I drag the docs I just created - all at once, using multiselect - into EN. Each doc becomes a new note, titled with the name I just gave to it.

anjoschu, I know you said you didn't want to go through this many steps. But I find it pretty easy, really just one more step (total) than if I could name and save everything directly to EN. I name and save to the temp folder, then in one click and drag, put them all into EN.

[anjoschu 67]

Thanks everyone for your helpful answers.

James, this does sound like a workflow making use of the win-only watched folders functionality. Nify!

gazumped: You may nitpick. My wording was unclear - I meant naming the file, not the note. Thanks for the clarification.

cynwren: This is very helpful, thank you! I thought I had to rename every file individually, but this sounds very easy and fast. I'll definitely try it.