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How to "split" (scanned or not) note that contains multiple, many-page documents?


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Posted

Summary.

 

How to split a many-page, scanned note into multiple notes without copy and paste?

 

Details.

 

I have a ScanSnap iX500 scanner.  I load it with 3 different documents, each with 4 pages, 12 pages total.  I scan all 12 pages into the same EN note via the "auto save to EN" feature.  How can I, within Evernote, easily "split" the resulting note into the 3 documents, each with 4 pages?  (No, I don't want to copy and paste.)

 

Without such a feature, it seems I'm forced to do: 1) do 3 different scans, 2) copy and paste (way too tedious for repeating the same workflow for many more documents), or 3) buy a ScanSnap Evernote Edition (SSEE) and employ the "place a biz card between each document" (or similar) trick.  Is this correct?  Do I have any other options?

 

This forum appears to littered with many request for note splits, many for same use case:  many-document, multi-page paper scans.  Why has the feature not been implemented?  I hope this feature witholding is not motivated by SSEE sales.  Even so, the SSEE "place a biz card between docs" seems like a rather inelegant way to solve this problem.  Splitting via Evernote software/service possibly offers, if done right, a more-elegant solution for me.  And I'm happy to pay significantly extra above my Premium service to get it.

 

I envision copy and pasting to not only be manual, cumbersome, and time-consuming, I'm guessing it can lose metadata that the user is forced to re-enter.  However, I'm a complete Evernote newbie, so I've little context, background.  Alas, I can imagine a multipage note "view" that enables the user to select any number of a subset of pages from a note, click a keyboard shortcut to "split," and Evernote creates a new note whose name and metadata is derived from the original/"parent" note.  Would this be hard to implement?

 

I'd really love to shove a bunch of papers into my iX500, walk away, and come back and split the single note into multiple notes later.  Maybe copy-and-paste isn't as bad as I'm thinking?  Or maybe I've got the bite the bullet and buy a SSEE in addition to my iX500 (which is past its return date)?

  • Level 5*
Posted

Hi.  When I first started scanning I used a flatbed.  You can get backache,  tennis elbow and eyestrain in one all-inclusive package that way.  And I still thought it was great to see my documents in Evernote rather than on paper.  Then I got a ScanSnap S1500 and couldn't believe how fast documents were sucked into Notes.  I can stack 10 pages or 100 and by the time I get through sorting out the next batch of papers to add,  the last one is finished and I need to file/ shred the completed pages and restack some new ones.  I don't ever see the scanner being able to take 100 random pages though and produce a number of complete document files.  How does it tell the difference between a letter and attachments that I want as one file,  from a set of 2 and 3 page files of maps / pics / user guides that should all be separate?

 

My ScanSnap does: everything as one file -or- one page = one file.  So its sensible to stack one-page documents and alter the setting so I can run trays full of one page scans.  Otherwise I just manually stack each set of papers and convert to one file.  If I make mistakes,  or (occasionally) get a miss-scan I'll merge or split files in Adobe 9.0 which came with the scanner.  There are other tools out there for editing (or just merging/ splitting) PDFs.

 

Whether it's worthwhile splurging the extra moola for an SSEE depends on what sort of scanning you do - lots of similar-size documents,  or a business collection of random papers that you can sort into mixed sizes.  Only you can judge whether it's worth it.  (It's a cool piece of kit though...)

Posted

I get puzzled on the put the stack in the scanner and walk away part. I'd like to do that and like gazumped, I set my scanner for how many pages to a document. However, I tend to scan in a lot of media (magazines) and walking away would be a total disaster. While I have batches that go through with no problems, I have batches that rumple up in the scanner and would destroy themselves and the scanner if I wasn't nearby to halt the process. 

  • Level 5*
Posted

When I'm scanning,  I'm too busy to leave the scanner anyway..  there are files to edit,  names to add,  the next scan to sort out..

Posted

I don't ever see the scanner being able to take 100 random pages though and produce a number of complete document files.  How does it tell the difference between a letter and attachments that I want as one file,  from a set of 2 and 3 page files of maps / pics / user guides that should all be separate?

 

Which is exactly why I propose a "split one note into many" feature in Evernote, post scan.  If done right, this could offer far more benefit than ScanSnap Evernote Edition + "business card in-between documents" trick.  (Or, as I like to call it, a hack.)

 

Here's my vision for such a feature:

 

Imagine viewing the pages of a note in a large-thumbnail view, similar to this:  http://i.imgur.com/ZOThDXh.png

(Said view offers thumbnails of pictures+videos viewed from OS X's Finder, but imagine they could be anything:  text-based documents, magazines, etc.  Further imagine each picture/video is a "page" in one big note, whether or not it got scanned.)  Notice I have 5, non-consecutive pages selected.  Then imagine being able to simply drag-and-drop said selected pages into a "new note" pane to the right (or wherever) to automatically create a new note that gets auto-saved and then cleared from the "new note" space. Then I can keep making new notes from existing pages until I'm done.

 

Why would this not be extremely valuable?  Would this significantly enhance Evernote's market penetration, scanning or not?  Is this costly or difficult for Evernote to implement?  Can anyone offer enhnacements to this idea?  (I'm sure it's not a new/novel/original idea.)

 

gazumped, I value your feedback.  Further, any arguments, current or future, that attempt to block progress because "I had it much harder back in the day, things are so much better now even without this fancy feature" or "I have manual workarounds for that feature" or "that won't work in some scenarios".... they (would) seem a bit shortsighted.  Why block meaningful progress because of excuses?

 

I pose the challenge to Evernote (and not to gazumped):  why not make something great and elegant?

  • Level 5*
Posted

I'm afraid all the answer you'll get is going to come from me or one of the other mods,  as Evernote aren't prone to discuss future development.  You've posted the idea,  so Evernote will see it.  They have their own agenda for development anyway,  so this may or may not be accepted;  and if it's not already being worked on,  don't bank on seeing anything soon. 

 

I would say though that what you're requesting is

  1) already available - a small company called Adobe (and probably others) can do pretty much all the above internally with PDF files,  and

  2) Evernote notes aren't PDF files and different content - especially clipped content - doesn't always play well together.  Mixing and matching notes in the way you hope is way more difficult than it appears.

 

Neither of those are 'excuses',  just practical observations that might inform Evernote's view of this request.

Posted

That's helpful gazumped.  #1 sounds somewhat promising, but #2 seems to mitigate #1's usefulness -- for Evernote purposes, anyway.  Further, having to manage an application (like Adobe's Reader) separate from Evernote inhibits a smoother workflow.  (I'm probably stating the obvious...)

 

To further build on the feature request:  providing both 1) "page re-ordering," similar to Facebook's photo reordering and 2) page-to-note reassigning (ie, move pages between notes/documents at any time) might significantly enhance the "page split" capability I describe here.

 

I have yet to play with the "note merge" feature, so maybe some of this is there.

  • 2 months later...
Posted

@hydrostarr: Do you know that OSX has exactly the functionality you're looking for? I've blogged about it. The post is in german, but the videos are pretty much self explaining.

Take a look at http://www.stefan-krauth.de/digitales-buero-dokumente-pdfs/

 

I hope this will help you to optimize your workflow.

 

EDIT: English Version is now available here: http://www.stefan-krauth.de/blog/2014/evernote-workflow-and-pdfs

 

 

That's helpful gazumped.  #1 sounds somewhat promising, but #2 seems to mitigate #1's usefulness -- for Evernote purposes, anyway.  Further, having to manage an application (like Adobe's Reader) separate from Evernote inhibits a smoother workflow.  (I'm probably stating the obvious...)

 

To further build on the feature request:  providing both 1) "page re-ordering," similar to Facebook's photo reordering and 2) page-to-note reassigning (ie, move pages between notes/documents at any time) might significantly enhance the "page split" capability I describe here.

 

I have yet to play with the "note merge" feature, so maybe some of this is there.

  • 4 months later...
Posted

Coming in late to this discussion, I, too, think that easy ways to split as well as merge notes would be a terrific addition to Evernote. Why? This is one of the features I like best in Scrivener. I would happily use Scrivener on my iPad+bluetooth keyboard but the application doesn't exist for iPad. Just yesterday I saw an Evernote blog story promoting Evernote as a writer's tool. With splitting as well as merging, I could do most of what I can do in Scrivener on all my devices. That would be totally cool. 

 

Or maybe not. To be totally cool would require a display of notes in a dedicated notebook that could be shuffled and merged on screen and also split from inside the note.

 

Just saying.

  • Level 5*
Posted

I don't see this request of splitting a PDF into multiple PDFs as being an Evernote issue.  Who knows when/IF Evernote will ever provide this feature.

 

Adobe Acrobat (and other 3rd party PDF editors) is already well equipped to handle this today:

  1. Put all of your documents into the scanner
    (for ease of identification, I'd put a special page with big bold "NEW DOC" between documents)
  2. Scan to a folder on your PC/Mac -- not to Evernote
  3. Open in Acrobat, and use the EXTRACT feature to extract selected pages to a new document.
    (you can do a FIND on "NEW DOC" to quickly locate the page range for each document)
  4. Save each new PDF with a descriptive file name -- it will become your EN Note Title
  5. While you're in Acrobat, I would also OCR (Recognize text) each PDF file.
  6. Save all PDFs and exit Acrobat.
  7. Drag these PDFs into your Evernote Import Folder
    (If using EN Mac, see Evernote Import Folder Using AppleScript from Veritrope.com)

Whether you would do this in Evernote (if the feature existed) or in Acrobat, the process and number of steps would be about the same.  

Posted

Curious thread is this. I have the same issue, the requirement to split multi page scanned pdf into separate (groups of or just single) pages which then get filed (moved) into relevant notebooks.

 

I first discovered this Evernote "gotcha" when enjoying the merge notes feature, only to discover that there is no un merge. Not even an undo. So that was me scuppered. Granted that un merging merged notes is not exactly the same as extracting pages (in Adobe speak) from a pdf.

 

Here's my use requirement:

 

open and scan the incoming post (in country one) to Evernote direct from scanner. (Not Fujitsu)

 

in country two: Review and action and so allocate (i.e. move) pages from the scan file to relevant client/project notebooks with tagging. Anything unmoved remains in the day's "post file". This is carried out in country two.

 

tagging will include "extract and keep safe" tag  - nearly everything is destroyed except certain quite rare key docs: thus the person who did the scans can be informed what to keep safe, the rest consigned for disposal in due course. 

 

As such this isn't a one person operation and the required skills are separated (by a thousand miles).

 

The attraction of using Evernote is that no computer need be employed at the scan site; just the net connected scanner.

 

Anyway, regrettably I have to look elsewhere until Evernote becomes capable for this - which I remain in hope will happen one day.

 

edit: by definition all pages within one file will be the same type as regards playing nicely.

 

Anthony

 

p.s. indeed scan to say dropbox or a net connected nas drive then use Adobe Acrobat to extract and file looks inescapable for the time being. Would be nice though to use Evernote because of it's lovely presentation of the results.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Curious thread is this. I have the same issue, the requirement to split multi page scanned pdf into separate (groups of or just single) pages which then get filed (moved) into relevant notebooks.

 

I first discovered this Evernote "gotcha" when enjoying the merge notes feature, only to discover that there is no un merge. Not even an undo. So that was me scuppered. Granted that un merging merged notes is not exactly the same as extracting pages (in Adobe speak) from a pdf.

In Evernote, a merge operation causes the original notes to be placed in the Trash. To un-merge them, just retrieve them from the Trash. You're correct in that there is no "undo", though.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Curious thread is this. I have the same issue, the requirement to split multi page scanned pdf into separate (groups of or just single) pages which then get filed (moved) into relevant notebooks.

. . .

p.s. indeed scan to say dropbox or a net connected nas drive then use Adobe Acrobat to extract and file looks inescapable for the time being. Would be nice though to use Evernote because of it's lovely presentation of the results.

 

Anthony, you can still use Evernote to scan your documents to.

 

When the people in Country Two are ready to process it, just open the scanned PDF in Adobe Acrobat, and use the Extract tool to separate into individual documents.  Save each of these docs to a local folder, which can be an Evernote Import Folder.

When satisfied the extraction/import is complete, the original Note/PDF can be deleted if you wish.  But since Evernote does not have a storage limit (only an upload limit), you could leave the original Note/PDF in place, and just tag it with something like "SplitComplete"

 

Good luck.

Posted

thanks to you both - that extract from the trash info is priceless! Never occurred to me. So simple. :-)

 

I was just looking at acrobat's document capture features, shame I can't engage those at scan time but I cannot be in two places at once. 

 

 "just open the scanned PDF in Adobe Acrobat" - are we saying I can open a pdf directly from Evernote into Acrobat ? I can see the save has to be local (?) and regrettably I do not use a PC so from other threads iiuc Mac has no auto import folder and requires use of apple script or automator, again iiuc (?).

 

Given that most of my post is single sheet I have been looking at getting the scanner to scan individual pages to individual files. For example scanning as jpg and converting to pdf THEN upload would achieve this, but that is very clunky and requires the intervention of a mac/pc to run programs (converter and Evernote) whereas I desire to avoid the use of a computer (PC/Mac) and use only a scanner and perhaps a small NAS device such as https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/EDS14which (oddly) is a NAS drive with no (internal) storage (except SD card)   yet provides me with (unix derivative) applications in a headless keyboardless remotely WAN accessible silent (no fan) tiny box. I could even Velcro it to the scanner. That way I could VPN in to it and the scanner (also WAN accessible, but thusly via the "NAS") as such this equipment could sit unobtrusively in the "post room" without requirement for local human computer skills: something I absolutely want to avoid. 

 

For interest my proposed scanner is this: http://www.brother.co.uk/printers/inkjet-printers/mfcj6720dw an earlier (now really quite old) incarnation of which I already have and I have excellent experience of it; principally it's reliability of sheet feeding whereas the Fujitsu I had (Mac version) and the current model a colleague has, always requires baby sitting for multiple sheet feeds. In any case, the standalone scanner cannot print, which with VPN access means I can print a letter from anywhere on the planet (perhaps written in Evernote? Not tried this yet for appearance) and output it in country one ready to envelope and post with pp signature (or indeed a printed image of sig, depends on what I think when I see one).

 

I have seen there are pdf service web sites that can operate on pdfs so I have wondered if I could scan to one of these and output individual pdfs to Evernote... however for the sake of an Evernote pdf splitter being made available it all seems an awful lot of work when I am trying to achieve the opposite. 

 

So, I am very willing, just not so able. Yet :-)

 

It's possible the NAS might have a solution and if I could write or install programs myself it definitely would as it could receive scanned pdf (to the SD card) , split it up and upload it to Evernote. Maybe I should enquire on the forum over there (I already use a couple of their drives, hence desire for familiar operating system in the EDS14).

 

Many thanks for replies. 

 

Anthony

  • Level 5*
Posted

 "just open the scanned PDF in Adobe Acrobat" - are we saying I can open a pdf directly from Evernote into Acrobat ? I can see the save has to be local (?) and regrettably I do not use a PC so from other threads iiuc Mac has no auto import folder and requires use of apple script or automator, again iiuc (?).

 

Yes, you can open a PDF attached to an EN Note simply by double-clicking on the PDF header icon.

This will work in both Windows and Mac, and will open the PDF using the default app for PDF in your PC/Mac.  If you have Adobe Acrobat installed, it will use that.

 

You are correct that EN Mac does not have a built-in Import Folders feature.  But the Evernote Import Folder Using AppleScript from Veritrope.com  works quite well.  I have used it for years.  If you don't want to use that, you can just drag the PDF from the Mac Finder to the Evernote icon in the Mac Dock, and it will create a new Note.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I'm in Windows and I have an Epson scanner, but some variation on this may work for you:

 

The scanner software has named software setups, so mine are called things like:

  • 1 side 1 page > one file
  • 1 side all pages > one file
  • 2 sides 1 paper > one file
  • 2 sides  all papers > one file

I decide which software setup to use when I'm doing the scanning, so I could scan 100 pages all at once if desired.

 

All scans are sequentially numbered so there is no fear of overwriting.

 

Scans are all saved to c:\_Temp. I do this because I may not want to send every scan to Evernote, and often I want to use Acrobat to tidy up the images before they go to Evernote, but I could have the files dumped by the scanner directly into an Evernote import folder. The filename is irrelevant because once the file is in Evernote, the old copy of the file will no longer be referenced.

 

YMMV

  • Level 5*
Posted

This is a matter of personal preference, but I find it easier and more convenient to rename the scanned file immediately after I scan it, THEN import it into Evernote.  That way the Note Title, taken from the file name, is useful immediately.

 

Otherwise, I have to go into Evernote, open the Note, open the PDF (so I know what it is about), and then change the Note Title.

 

But each can choose what works best for his/herself.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Since we are sharing methods, with my ScanSnap 1300i, I scan to an import folder which imports into a local notebook named Scan.  Typically I review the notes in List view, the PDF is visible in the Note window so I can change the title and add tags as need be, and finish up by moving the note to the destination notebook.  

 

This way I do all scanning with the SS and all edits inside of EN, including occasionally renaming the actual PDF, though not often.  And the Scan notebook is a work queue since it should be empty most of the time.  FWIW.

  • Level 5*
Posted

The problem with changing the Note Title AFTER you have imported the PDF with some non-descriptive name like "Scan-0001" is that if you need to save the attachment for your own use, or send it to someone, it has a filename that is NOT helpful.  Whether you change the "title" of the file or of the Note, it's the same amount of effort.  The benefits of changing the scanned PDF filename BEFORE importing should be obvious.

  • Level 5*
Posted

Whether you change the "title" of the file or of the Note, it's the same amount of effort.  The benefits of changing the scanned PDF filename BEFORE importing should be obvious.

I rename the PDF when I need to.  Downloads from the web like statements I name as I get them.  The bulk of what I scan does not get renamed at scan time.  I have 16,861 notes with PDFs in them according to the resource PDF search.  Half of those were scanned and 10% of those get renamed at some point.  So that says I have not renamed about 7,200 PDFs in the process.  So I don't think I can agree with with the obvious benefits you imply, for my use case anyway.

 

On a more personal note, JM, I started my post with "Since we are sharing methods..." to be clear that I was just presenting to any readers another way to go about dealing with PDF naming whether you split PDFs or not.  I've always thought the forum is a place where different ideas are presented and folks choose what they may.  So, why the compunction to critique the method when it is simply a share, and why the all caps OBVIOUS?  Similar events in the past, why the contentiousness?  I don't get it.  Life's too short.

  • Level 5*
Posted

On a more personal note, JM, . . .

 

 

Let's stick to the topic, and not get into personal discussions.

 

My comments were not directed at you personally, but at some possible shortcomings with the approach you described.

I'm glad your approach works for you, but it may or may not work for others.

Posted

The problem with changing the Note Title AFTER you have imported the PDF with some non-descriptive name like "Scan-0001" is that if you need to save the attachment for your own use, or send it to someone, it has a filename that is NOT helpful.  Whether you change the "title" of the file or of the Note, it's the same amount of effort.  The benefits of changing the scanned PDF filename BEFORE importing should be obvious.

 

While I suspect that JMichael has the smartest way to go, I don't do this. I like to scan a bunch of stuff all at once and usually I set up my scanner to scan one page as a document because my documents are one page long and it is too tedious to scan and then rename at that moment because I have more things waiting to be scanned. 

 

So instead I generally scan categories into their correct notebooks, tag all scans with a tag that says "needs a title," and then at some later point I come back and title the note and add tags. I do not usually rename the file since most files are for my use only and I never will need to rename them. Occasionally I'll need to share a file then I'll rename the file. I usually work on re-titling when I am doing something else like watching TV. 

  • Level 5*
Posted

I think it is best to let the participants determine the shortcomings of any of the different approaches presented for a personal preference such as when to name PDFs..  All the methods have shortcomings and benefits relative to use case.  There really isn't one right or wrong way.  So obvious, or OBVIOUS, should be in the eye of the beholder.

  • Level 5*
Posted

There is no harm in pointing out potential shortcomings to any approach.  In fact, I welcome others to do so on anything I post.  I may learn something new, or I may have overlooked something.  IAC, others will probably benefit.   Each person should be well informed, and can then make a decision on what is best for him/herself.

Posted

Ok, so let me imagine I have imported my file per scan files up to evernote and the usual sequential file names have been applied, now I want to see these files in a list and change the filenames, then apply them to their final resting places in whatever notebooks or noted I may wish to move them.

 

The attraction of this process is not having to use (or rather, have used by someone else) any other software and then for me to be able to use Evernote (and only Evernote)  across multiple devices and computers (granted those words can be interchanged) from whatever location I may find myself in as long as I have an internet connection, or indeed without one as long as my device has been synchronised.

 

How is this possible?

 

At present scans are made to a NAS (network attached storage) where I can do the name changing and then upload to Evernote.

 

I suppose I could synch that NAS folder to my Mac and after processing upload to Evernote. Maybe I should stick with that. Would be nice to be able to drop everything else and just use Evernote though. A kind of liberation from all that mixed tech.

 

Just in case it is not entirely apparent, I have read the posts before this and I am basing my thoughts upon them.

 

I suspect the answer is "you cannot do that", but I have seen that Evernote users in here have many many ways of doing things and it is always good to ask and then see what comes.

 

Anthony

  • Level 5*
Posted

Ok, so let me imagine I have imported my file per scan files up to evernote and the usual sequential file names have been applied, now I want to see these files in a list and change the filenames, then apply them to their final resting places in whatever notebooks or noted I may wish to move them.

 

The attraction of this process is not having to use (or rather, have used by someone else) any other software and then for me to be able to use Evernote (and only Evernote)  across multiple devices and computers (granted those words can be interchanged) from whatever location I may find myself in as long as I have an internet connection, or indeed without one as long as my device has been synchronised.

 

How is this possible?

 

@Anthony:  As you can tell from the above discussion, there are two basic approaches you can choose IF you want the attachments to have a meaningful name:

  1. Scan to a folder, change PDF filename to something descriptive, move to EN Import folder, EN imports the file and sets the Note Title to the Attachment filename.
  2. Scan to EN Import folder, find the newly created Notes in EN, change the Note Title, change the Attachment name

    (so you're making the same change twice)

I would highly recommend that you establish a file/Note naming convention for whoever to use when renaming files and/or changing the Note Title.

 

You can decide what works best for you.

 

If it were me, I would use Dropbox as the intermediate stage:

  • Everyone involved would be given read/write access to the appropriate folders in DropBox, and have DropBox installed on their PC/Mac/Smartphone

     

  • Everyone anywhere with even temp Internet access can scan to the "Scan Inbox" in Dropbox.
    • Works for all devices
    • Scanning can be done offline, without Internet access
    • When you get Internet access, Dropbox will upload to DropBox Cloud
    • I would also do the OCR here, either via the scanner SW, or immediately afterwards using a tool like Adobe Acrobat.
      • This allow you to select text in the PDF
      • It makes the PDF instantly (or very quickly) searchable in Evernote
      • Does NOT require a Premium account to be searched.
  • Everyone anywhere with Internet access can review the scanned files (if necessary), and rename.
    • After renaming the file, they can either move to another DropBox folder (Evernote Import)

      OR

      If they are running EN Win/Mac, can move to the Evernote Import folder and then sync Evernote

  • Any files that have NOT been imported into Evernote will still be in DropBox
  • Everyone anywhere with Internet access and that is running EN Win/Mac can move the renamed files to the Evernote Import folder on their local drive, and then sync EN.
  • Whoever does the actual import into Evernote can also assign tags and move to another Notebook, if needed.

That gives you a lot of flexibility for who does what, and when.

If you have used up your Evernote Upload Allowance for the month, you can keep the files in DropBox until the next month.

 

At any time everyone (on your team) can see what has been scanned and ready to process in DropBox.

 

Hope this helps.

  • Level 5*
Posted

If you create a notebook in EN to as a holding tank for your scans (whether you name them before or after), and you share the notebook with update privileges with whomever is creating the scans for you, they should be able to import the scans into EN and then you can adjust them as you see fit with some limitations by platform.  If I am getting what you are trying to do. 

Posted

You can rename file attachments in the Window desktop version of Evernote. Simply right click on them once and you'll get a pop up of things to do with a file. Choose "rename."

 

I don't know if this can be done on the Mac platform or not. 

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

I confess up front that I haven't read every post here, but I did read several, and I came here with this same problem.

 

How to load a pile of documents into a scanner, together, and have them saved as separate files (PDF or otherwise) in the receiving directory?

 

Well, the systemic answer, which I've already seen implemented somewhere, is this.  The scanner or other software handling the documents has the capability to print out its own specific separator page, which is unique, and which it recognizes when coming in through the scanner or in the bulk PDF.  When it sees one, it simply starts a new document scan, adding metadata or anything else just like it would on the first page.  

 

I'd hoped that Evernote had something like this baked in already, in which case any scanner could be used universally.  I think a few scanners out there handle this on the front end, before the PDFs are created.

 

If there are any updates out there I'm not aware of, or if (Hey, Evernote!) the software might support this any time soon, please correct me.  This one feature would really help it move closer to a universal, scan-anything-and-everything tool for me.

  • Level 5*
Posted

I confess up front that I haven't read every post here, but I did read several, and I came here with this same problem.

 

How to load a pile of documents into a scanner, together, and have them saved as separate files (PDF or otherwise) in the receiving directory?

 

Well, the systemic answer, which I've already seen implemented somewhere, is this.  The scanner or other software handling the documents has the capability to print out its own specific separator page, which is unique, and which it recognizes when coming in through the scanner or in the bulk PDF.  When it sees one, it simply starts a new document scan, adding metadata or anything else just like it would on the first page.  

 

I'd hoped that Evernote had something like this baked in already, in which case any scanner could be used universally.  I think a few scanners out there handle this on the front end, before the PDFs are created.

 

If there are any updates out there I'm not aware of, or if (Hey, Evernote!) the software might support this any time soon, please correct me.  This one feature would really help it move closer to a universal, scan-anything-and-everything tool for me.

To be sure I get it, the trade off here is to add a piece of paper between documents (how ever many pagers per) or load the documents one at a time?

  • Level 5*
Posted

I'm sure it's already been said in this thread,  but my workflow is to sit down with a deskload of paper and scan one document at a time into a holding folder on my desktop.  I use 'smart' titles,  and I add the details to the file when it's being saved.  That step also gives me a chance to rescan pages,  correct orientation and change page order if I scanned something with a weird layout.  

 

Then I drop the next item into the scanner for processing.  When my desk is cleared of paper I batch OCR all the documents in my holding folder,  and the output from that goes into my Import Folder and then to Evernote.

 

I guess I could stack all the paper together,  include some jazzy header page so I can recognise the intervals and scan all to one PDF,  then split that PDF at my header pages into separate files,  but that seems to me likely to be a longer exercise.

 

The Evernote Edition Scanner will recognise different documents in one stack (mainly,  I think,  by size) so dropping a visiting card or an A5 sheet between scans will get you separate files.. plus a bunch of blank business card scans.

 

Those are the available options..  Nice idea for the scanner-generated header page,  but that's like the EE Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner - a manufacturer specific tweak that most scanners can't emulate.

Posted

How do I get to see new notes created via the "email in" method? So a document has been scanned and sent in with an @notebook moniker so it is put into the named notebook; at this point I don't know about it and there may be a number of these new documents emailed in for me. How can I list and see them so I can be confident I have seen all the incoming post?

 

I have half "solved" (I suppose better said as "resolved") the pages issue by having documents scanned in client related bunches. So client A then client B and so on are each one pdf. On a daily basis that is for practical purposes one document per pdf. The exceptions will be where there is more than  one document related to the same client, but I can live with that for now. I suppose one might characterise it as a granularity compromise. 

  • Level 5*
Posted

You could sort by created date in list view and review the new notes that way.  If you tag all your notes, you can do a -tag:* search to find notes without tags.  Or some combination of the two.

Posted

[Replying to older discussion I started.]

 

Discovery: .pdf page splitting, reordering, and merging features provided natively by Preview.app (on Mac OS) serves my original feature request well. Includes dragging-to-Evernote capability. All great stuff. Described in part (sans Desktop-integration technique) by Stefan's post (view in Chrome to auto-translate the German, if needed), which contains handy videos - thanks much Stefan. I think someone else here may have pointed me to the Preview.app-to-Desktop splitting/merging, but can't find the reference right now. This itself deserves a writeup or video, tough for me to deliver right now.

 

This seems like a great candidate for a knowledge-base article. EN, can you generate it? Seems like it might save a lot of potential angst for similar users to know there's (imo) an existing, suitable solution. Would have saved a lot of time/investigation/typing on my part of I knew of this nifty Preview.app feature.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

[Replying to older discussion I started.]

 

Discovery: .pdf page splitting, reordering, and merging features provided natively by Preview.app (on Mac OS) serves my original feature request well. Includes dragging-to-Evernote capability. All great stuff. Described in part (sans Desktop-integration technique) by Stefan's post (view in Chrome to auto-translate the German, if needed), which contains handy videos - thanks much Stefan. I think someone else here may have pointed me to the Preview.app-to-Desktop splitting/merging, but can't find the reference right now. This itself deserves a writeup or video, tough for me to deliver right now.

 

This seems like a great candidate for a knowledge-base article. EN, can you generate it? Seems like it might save a lot of potential angst for similar users to know there's (imo) an existing, suitable solution. Would have saved a lot of time/investigation/typing on my part of I knew of this nifty Preview.app feature.

 

Thank you! I create an english version. I hope it's better than the automatic translation:

https://www.skrauth.de/blog/2014/evernote-workflow-and-pdfs/

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