(Archived) Business Cards and Evernote?

[blackcows 9]

I tried searching for some info on scanning business cards and was suprised I really didn't find much. A Google search just brings up lots of info about an iPhone app (I have an android). I have a stack of about 200 to 300 business cards that I would like to scan and discard, 95% are cards that I may need in the future or may never need (most likely the case) so I don't have a need to automatically transfer any data to Outlook but will do this manually for the few cards I will need. Would it be practical to scan 10 to 12 at time? Any suggestions on how to best do this? Once I get this done and archieved any suggestions on how to scan cards individually that I want to keep and add to Outlook?

Mike

[BurgersNFries 2,407]

I don't know what software you have. But I have Paperport Pro 14 (or 14 Pro or whatever). Anyway, I recently did a similar thing when tossing out my old Rolodex. PP allows me to scan them as jpegs but do multiple scans & then assign file names. IE, I would load a card onto the flatbed scanner, scan, load another, scan, load another scan, etc. I would retain the order in which they were scanned so I would know what to name the jpegs. Once I'd scanned ~10, I'd say I was done scanning. PP would then ask the file names. I would name them last name first, comma, first name followed by company name. IE: "Smith, John - ACE a/c". Once they were all named, I'd copy the 10 to my import folder & they would automatically be added to EN & the titles defaulted to the file name. I then tagged them "from my old Rolodex" & moved them into my contacts notebook.

You may not have software that allows you to do that work flow. But I would still stick with scanning individually as jpegs (you could even let your software assign the file names), dropping into EN & assigning the name as the title.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I tried searching for some info on scanning business cards and was suprised I really didn't find much. A Google search just brings up lots of info about an iPhone app (I have an android).

I don't know what search terms you used, but my Google search for "scan ocr business cards" returned many hits, most of which are NOT iPhone related.

You might take a look at Cardiris 5. It seems to provide a lot of output options. Available for both Windows and Mac.

I believe this is the SW that comes with Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners (which get high rating in these forums).

[Grimmknuckle 6]

You might take a look at Cardiris 5. It seems to provide a lot of output options. Available for both Windows and Mac.

I believe this is the SW that comes with Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners (which get high rating in these forums).

I don't even bother with programs like that anymore. They were always so cumbersome to use. It has been a lot simpler, for me at least, to just scan a business card with my flatbed scanner and drag and drop the jpeg to a new note. With a proper title, tags, and Evernote's OCR, I always find the cards I am looking for.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I don't even bother with programs like that anymore. They were always so cumbersome to use.

I guess you just never found the right program then. I have used several that are very easy to use, especially if you have lots of cards to scan.

It has been a lot simpler, for me at least, to just scan a business card with my flatbed scanner and drag and drop the jpeg to a new note. With a proper title, tags, and Evernote's OCR, I always find the cards I am looking for.

That's OK if you only need to scan a few cards at a time, and you don't need to organize the contacts in any particular way. I can't imagine using a flatbed for scanning hundred's of cards, or even more than 10 :-)

You are having to set the "proper title, tags" manually for each scanned card -- again very slow.

With the proper OCR card program, it can go through hundreds of cards very quickly, capturing all the data on the card into the proper field.

To each his own, I guess. :-)

[Jeff510 95]

Some image software (like Photoshop, maybe others) can separate multiple images from a single scan. So you could load up a regular scanner and then have the software separate to individual images.

[lucas123 0]

I use Android phone to collect more thousands of business cards now. So easy and simple. You can access the contacts everywhere without Internet connection by using CardFila for Mobile (iPhone or Android phones). Business contact manager

[wizzy 0]

I got the fujitsu scanner and it scans cards and ocr's to the database.  have not set it all up to get to contacts yet but works great so far