My friend Carmen is a busy woman. She travels on business a lot, constantly on the go. When she went looking for a smart phone several months ago she originally bought an Android device. I forget which one, but she quickly found that incorporating it into her daily routine was not as easy as she'd hoped. There were apps available for her phone, but using them and the device in general hampered her productivity. She wanted something simple yet powerful and useful.
Of course, I recommended the iPhone 4s.
She took me up on my recommendation and, besides a few hiccups with syncing to her Windows PC, she's been a very happy camper. She commented as much the last time I saw her.
In fact, she showed me a few apps I hadn't seen that she finds useful. I was so impressed with them that it gave me an idea for a series of articles highlighting iOS apps that business folk might find useful, and this is the first article in that series.
Each article with focus on a particular type of app and I will offer three the I've looked at extensively and deemed Good, Better and Best of the three. Of course, the apps I mention in this series won't be the only apps available in any particular genre, and there may be better apps. However, if I tried to review everything I'd never have time to write these articles. Still, if you know of an app that may have better features than the ones I've mentioned please let me hear about it. So, without further ado, let get into the first genre: Document Scanning.
Document Scanning
These apps let you “scan” and manage your real world paper documents by virtualizing them into PDF files. They come in handle in surprising ways and they are a bit more than a glorified camera. The object of scan apps is the make what's scanned legible. Many app employ software to enhance the contrast and definition of text so that what you save is readable. You can scan blackboards or whiteboards, signs and billboards, book passages, handwritten notes, and, of course, receipts and other documents that can be cumbersome to keep track of. For the business person traveling on his or her company's nickel, having a pocket scanner saves time and could save you money if you lose the original receipt.
Scan Pages (Good): This is one app my friend Carmen finds useful. While traveling she will use the app to scan into her iPhone all of the receipts she's accumulated over the course of the day, then send them on to the accounting department after she has reconciled her expenses.
The clean interface of Scan Pages
Scan Pages helps organize receipts of any size, saving PDF or JPEG versions on your phone in dated folders. You can label each scan and use tags so you can search a type of document later.
Scan Pages offers a nice array of export options too, including email, Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs(!), or to your photo camera roll, which is an open ended option. Still I wish they'd included a direct to SMS/iMessage option.
Scanning docs in Scan Pages is simple too
Managing your scanned docs is easy too. The dated is folders I mentioned earlier is organized by month with each item in the folder dated and showing its label, if you gave it one. Docs show up with the latest scanned item at the top of any given month. If you've tagged the items then the used tags appear across the top of the folder screen as tabs. Touch one and only those tagged docs will appear. The permanent “All” tab reveals everything you've saved. So simple even Simon can do it (with or without the pieman present).
Nice variety of export options
Scan Pages has two significant flaws; it requires an internet connection and it's slow. I don't understand why it needs the internet to convert you scans into a PDF, other apps do this without net connection and without ceremony. after taking the photo of a document the apps warns that there's not internet connection and claims to have saved the document to you photo gallery for processing later. However, when you hit the “Done” button you get a spinning daisy and nothing happens. canceling the scan is your only option, and you'll find that nothing was saved to the photo gallery.
No internet connection? No scanning joy with Scan Pages
If the file is being uploaded for processing then some business folks may baulk at the notion of sending what may be sensitive financial data to some unknown place. It's internet connection requirement is likely why it takes a while to “scan” your document. Depending on the resolution and complexity of the document it can take up to 30 second to get a PDF file.
Still, it's free and has no ads.
Genius Scan Free (Better): If you want quicker scans and don't mind ads occupying some of your screen real estate from time to time then Genius Scan might be a better option. Scan creation is fast and simple and there's a plethora of export options available. Unfortunately all except for email and “Other Apps”are only available in the paid version. Not to worry, you can still export your PDF to Dropbox through the “Other Apps” option. In fact, you can move your files out to any other accepting app through this options. The difference is that you'll have to put up with a few extra taps since those apps aren't integrated. Not a big deal in my book.
Genius Scan sports a nice UI, and ads
Document management is nicely done. Tap the 3-line icon in the upper left of the main screen and the whole screen slides over to reveal an extensive menu where you can list your docs, upload new ones, even pass docs around via WiFi sharing. You can also sort docs using tags.
Swipe right to get to tools
Speaking of tags, Genius Scan lets you create them then keeps track of how many documents are using them. And you can groups documents, then tag the group. Useful if you're trying to keep receipts separate.
Tags help keep docs organized
While I like what Genius Scan can do, there are a few things I'm not happy with. For instance, I can't adjust the look of a document once I'm done. Sometimes you're in a hurry and want to quickly scan something. If the results aren't quite right then you'll have to import the photo and scan it again.
Export through “other” to export to everything
Still, Genius Scan is free or US$2.99 for the ad-free full version.
JotNot Scanner Pro (Best): If the good features of Scan Pages and Genius Scan are to your liking then you'll love JotNot Scanner Pro.
Organize and share through cloud services
Scanning documents can be simpler than with the other two apps because JotNot includes an auto document size function which attempts to adjust the size of the document according to what it “sees”. It works well, but not all the time, an when it doesn't you can still manually adjust the sizing as with the other apps.
Auto-scan works wonders
Managing your docs is nicer too. If you are needing to scan several pages from a book, for instance, JotNot automatically combines and number the pages under a set, which has a default label of the date, time, and number of docs in the set. Of course you can label it yourself and apply your own tags for better search results. It also lets you lock the docs with password protection. Doing so will keep make the document(s) from being opened in any other app.
A bit cumbersome, but WiFi sharing works
JotNot Scanner Pro also offers a wealth of sharing options. There's all the usual suspects, DropBox, Box, Google Docs, Evernote. You can also used WebDav and your iCloud account. A note about the last two option, JotNot still calls iCloud MobileMe iDisk, and there's no easy way to get your files out of iCloud/iDisk once you load them in. It's best to stick with Dropbox or Box if you want your docs cloud based.
Export to wherever
To share via WebDav you have to connect to your other device using Safari. This works if you have a stable WiFi connection on both devices and they are both on the same network, but it fails my “Grandma Test,” meaning that I think it's too complicated for my grandma to master. Again, the best option is to use Dropbox or Box if you must cloud share.
JotNot Scanner Pro scanning options
One other thing, the iPad version lacks a decent share interface, it only presents two options, take a photo with you cam or grab something already in iPhoto. Even after using WebDav or iDisk, you have no way to find and open a was copied. Once you've opened your first document, however, things get a bit easier.
Another way to share is to use other applications. JotNot lists all of the PDF compatible apps on your device and allows you to open your doc directly. This can be extremely handy if you need to sign a document and want to keep a record of it. Scan the doc you want to sign, export it to Sign Now or other PDF noting app, sign it, and there you go. Send your signed PDF to yourself or whomever you need to.
And if that's not all, JotNot Scanner Pro will let you fax your scanned document! There is a charge to fax docs, however, US$0.99 for up to five pages. Still, it can be a very handy option.
JotNot Scanner Pro is a lot of app for two bucks, even with its minor problems.
By the way, there's a “single page” version and a free version. Both are a bit strange in the way they're being offered. The single page is a bit more automatic than the pro version, it'll send your scans directly into an app or storage of your choice. It's also two bucks. The free version creates “an electronic format” of your document, apparently PDFs and other formats are only available in the pro version. Get this, if you upgrade to pro from free via in-app purchase it will only cost you a buck!
Scanning app like the ones I've mentioned can really come in handy in unexpected ways. Export your scans to Google Docs and use the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature to make your scans searchable and editable. Export scanned forms to PDF annotation apps to fill in the blanks and sign your documents. Scan in your napkin scribbled idea for safer keeping. Scan the phone number that was scrawled on your palm by that mysterious beauty you met in the coffee shop. Scan the tag of the car that just smacked your bumper.
I could go on, but the point is, once you use a scanning app, you're likely to continue using a scanning app.
OK, that's a wrap for this installment. The next article should appear in about a week. Until then, please let me hear about your experiences with scanning apps.