(Archived) Anyone out there use NEAT?

[rick@rickwsmith.com 0]

I have a neat scanner and have used it for scanning all my docs (receipts, letters, etc).

Question, if you are looking to find things easy by searching (for instance a Macy's receipt, or a letter from a insurance company) using spotlight on your Mac what is the best way?

Is it better to just keep using the neat scanner and the neat software?

Or can I scan with the neat scanner and scan into evernote?

What is it that does the character recognition? Is it the scanner, or the software? Meaning what a better scanner give you better CR, or would better software?

Thanks!

[TheGurkha 1]

Scan them with the scanner and scanner software, and then move your scans to an import folder if you have any setup, or drag them into Evernote.

When they are Synch'd to the evernote servers, the server software performs the OCR and creates the search capability, and that searchable index/data is then sent back to your PC so that you can search within Evernote for strings within the scans. There is a time lag between your scans (or in fact any others images) being Synch'd and the OCR occuring, so you have to wait a while and then re-synch to get the data back to your PC so that the search is possible.

[jbenson2 2,147]

I use 2 scanners.

I have been using a Neat Receipts scanner for 4 years. I scan all small receipts and let the Neat software put it into the Neat database.

I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner for all larger items which end up in the Evernote database.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I've been using Neatreceipts/Neatworks for over 3 years. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The software is the most persnickity software I've ever used. The most current version I have (~2 months old) doesn't play nicely with McAfee real time scanning. So I have to make sure I turn that off before opening Neatworks or else it gets an error, must shut down & then spend ~15 minutes reindexing my large database.

But...when it works, it works well. The scanner & it's software are very good at scanning, OCR'ing & "correcting" receipts. The OCR software is also nice b/c it defaults the vendor, date, payment method & amount & most of the time is fairly accurate.

So...I continue to use Neatworks for thermal receipts, such as grocery stores, gasoline, restaurants, etc. But the Neatreceipts/Neatworks software was soooooo slow that I started simply using Paperport (with a Xerox Documate 510) for non-thermal receipts, bills & bank/credit card & investment statements. (This may be less of a problem now that they have the quick scan program that will OCR while you continue to scan other receipts. But with Neatreceipts, if you scanned a one page credit card bill, NR would be hung up for the next ~7 minutes, trying to OCR the darned thing.) I don't need those OCR'd & I don't want to waste the time Neat takes to try it. The Paperport scans often contain sensitive info, so I keep those on my encrypted hard drive & back them up only to other encrypted hard drives or Jungle Disk (in an encrypted bucket.)

Since I'm not fully comfortable with Neatworks, I have taken prior years, exported them & then imported the scans into Evernote. That way, if I ever get to the point where I'm fed up enough with Neatreceipts, I can easily jump ship.

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

What is it that does the character recognition? Is it the scanner, or the software? Meaning what a better scanner give you better CR, or would better software?

PS - the NR scanner I have is the Plustek OpticSlim M12 that has been modified by NR. The OCR is in the software, but there is something NR did to the firmware of the scanner, too. I think the modified firmware is to handle the longer receipts b/c I can use the same scanner with Quicken. But in Quicken, the scan stops after ~11 inches, when doing a very lengthy receipt, such as a long grocery receipt. OTOH, the scan will get the full receipt, when scanning in NR.

[jbenson2 2,147]

BurgersNFries said:

I've been using Neatreceipts/Neatworks for over 3 years. I have a love/hate relationship with it. The software is the most persnickity software I've ever used.

Ditto

I have been amazed at the "Not Ready For Prime-Time" software that comes with Neat Receipts. The installation process was painful. I had to go through several upgrades that were very, very clunky.

The recurring error messages that drove me nuts were:

"An unexpected error occurred while using NeatWorks. We apologize for the inconvenience, please contact Technical Support if this problem persists."

and

"NeatWorks cannot launch because a connection to the databse could not be established, possibly, because the database is still starting up. Please wait 30 seconds and then try re-launching NeatWorks. If the problem persists, please contact NeatWorks technical support for assistance."

The export and import into Evernote sounds like a nice solution to give me more confidence. Thanks for the tip.

Questions:

(1) Do you use the Neat Receipts Export option for Searchable PDF's?

(2) Create a single PDF file For the entire year?

(3) And place the PDF file into a notebook dedicated to Neat Receipt exports only?

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I have been amazed at the "Not Ready For Prime-Time" software that comes with Neat Receipts. The installation process was painful. I had to go through several upgrades that were very, very clunky.

Me, too. Especially given the fact that this is not inexpensive software. The first version I had (3.x on the CD that came with the scanner) wouldn't allow the software to be loaded onto any drive other than C. (???) This was Jan of 2008, so having a drive other than C was not a novelty at that time. I contacted them & they sent me a link to download a version that could be installed on another drive. (However, the database is still, always installed on the C drive.) THAT took me 3.5 hours to get installed on my computer during a chat session with Arlene from NR.

The recurring error messages that drove me nuts were:

"An unexpected error occurred while using NeatWorks. We apologize for the inconvenience, please contact Technical Support if this problem persists."

and

"NeatWorks cannot launch because a connection to the databse could not be established, possibly, because the database is still starting up. Please wait 30 seconds and then try re-launching NeatWorks. If the problem persists, please contact NeatWorks technical support for assistance."

I get those too. The second one is a PITA, but I can live with it. I got the first message occasionally on the 3.x software. But with the Neatworks 4.x, I get it EVERY TIME, if I don't turn off McAfee's real time scanning. I contacted their tech support & got the following reply, along with a link to a knowledge base document indicating Kaspersky Anti-Virus Causes Error at Startup.

"It appears you may have an indexing conflict between the NeatWorks software and another third party application running elsewhere on your system. NeatWorks will periodically re-index itself automatically to catalogue data. Third party indexing/backup software such as Carbonite or Google Desktop can potentially interfere with this process. This does not necessarily mean you will need to shut down those applications while using NeatWorks everytime, however in most cases if you disable those applications temporarily, NeatWorks will successfully re-index upon launch and the crashing will cease."

This is just cRaZy. But there you go. So I turn off the real time scanning for 30 minutes, while using Neat. :?

The export and import into Evernote sounds like a nice solution to give me more confidence. Thanks for the tip.

Questions:

(1) Do you use the Neat Receipts Export option for Searchable PDF's?

(2) Create a single PDF file For the entire year?

(3) And place the PDF file into a notebook dedicated to Neat Receipt exports only?

You're welcome! My big dog computer is still down, so I can't get into Neat. But I looked in EN & I have a jpg for each receipt. IIRC, I would select all receipts & then I think you can export as jpgs, one file per receipt. Also, FWIW, I'm using the latest version which is Neatworks 4.x. (I bought the upgrade in Feb 2010 & there was an upgrade issued in May...that's the one I'm using.) I don't have them nicely titled in EN, since I'm still relying upon Neatco. I do have them in a single notebook (receipts.) Each batch is tagged according to year & person. I do my Mother's books, so receipts from 2007 for her are tagged 2007 - Mother. Hope this helps...I just hate the thought of being in a position where I can't get Neat running & yet want to find a receipt. So EN is my "backup" for this.

[jbenson2 2,147]

My Neat Receipts program crashed again today, so after re-indexing it, I exported pdf files for each year with no images.

I then tried to export the images of the receipts, but I got a warning which said:

NeatWorks only supports exporting up to 100 receipt images at a time. Please select fewer images and try again.

Uuggggh! With 4 years of receipts, this is going to take a long time. But I have to do it, because I have lost all faith in the software.