Five Reasons to Change Your ScanSnap Software

ScanSnap scanners have become wildly popular for a reason. They're cheap, fast, easy to use, and reliable. But to give you that ease of use, the ScanSnap software has skimped on features. So in this article, we're listing the top five reasons to start using different software for scanning with a ScanSnap. Is there an alternative that satisfies every reason to switch? Absolutely. And it's FileCenter, the low-cost leader in scanning software.

We'll walk you through the five best reasons and show you why FileCenter DMS is our top pick.

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ScanSnap Software Summary

  • Scan software should let you scan straight into the folder where you want to ultimately save the scan.
  • You should be able to give the scan a sensible name.
  • Scanner software should make it easy for you to store your scans together with the rest of your work files.
  • Scanning software needs to make bulk scanning easier and more efficient.
  • Since you scan to PDF, how about scan software that provides easy tools for combining scans or making PDF edits?
  • Jump to our recommendation »

Scan Software Should Let You Scan Straight into the Folder Where You Want to Ultimately Save the Scan

We can all appreciate the ScanSnap's ease-of-use. But let's face it, sometimes simplicity comes at the cost of productivity. For example, when the ScanSnap always puts new scans in a common folder, it seems simple at the outset, but when you factor in that every time you scan, you must then go to that folder, find the scan, and move it to where you ultimately want to save it, the ease-of-use has just created more work for you. So the first reason to change your ScanSnap software? So you can actually scan a document and file it in one step.

For example, our recommended ScanSnap software replacement, FileCenter DMS, gives you a clean and simple file cabinet interface for organizing your files. To scan and store a scan, just navigate to the drawer/folder where you want to ultimately store the scan, then perform your scan. It will pop right into place.

You Should be Able to Give the Scan a Sensible Name

And that leads to the second reason to replace your ScanSnap scanning software: so you can give your scans a sensible name at the time you scan. Sure, you can rename any ScanSnap scan after-the-fact, but again, that creates an extra step. You should be able to assign a name to a scan when you perform the scan. Back to our FileCenter example, when you perform a new scan, not only does FileCenter deposit the scan where you want it to go, it also prompts you for a name. What better time to name a document than at the moment you scan it?

Scanner Software Should Make It Easy for You to Store Your Scans Together with the Rest of Your Work Files

This might be our biggest beef with the default ScanSnap scan software: that it lumps all scans together in a single folder. How is a scan any different than any other work file? If you scan an incoming letter from a client, wouldn't you want to put that letter together with the reply you'll write as a Word document? Or with the bid that will be a spreadsheet? Let's face it, files shouldn't be lumped together by file type (every Word file in one folder, every spreadsheet in another folder, every scan in another one ... ). Which is why FileCenter DMS is all about organizing your files logically, like by client or project or case. Then all relevant files get stored together, including scans.

Scanning Software Needs to Make Bulk Scanning Easier and More Efficient

Having a good scanner makes you want to scan. But the more you scan, the more you come to realize how much work it is to deal with large documents and large batches of scanning. And that's why you should use paperless scanning software with features specifically geared toward making bulk scanning easier and more efficient. For example, your scanning software should provide automatic document separation so you can scan more than one document at once but still end up with multiple files. Or better still, it might provide automatic separation and routing so you can scan whole stacks of documents and have each document automatically pulled out of the stack and saved into a predetermined location.

Since You Scan to PDF, How about ScanSnap Scan Software That Provides Easy Tools for Combining Scans or Making PDF Edits?

Suppose you have scanned a 400-page document. But because you didn't want to babysit the scanner, you scanned it in eight parts. Now you're left trying to figure out how to combine those eight files into one unified document. This is the sort of thing your scan software should help you with. FileCenter DMS, for example, has features that let you quickly combine PDF files by just dropping them on each other. And what if you need to redact some information out of the scan? Again, your ScanSnap scan software, to truly make you productive, should include some PDF tools for making edits like these. You've probably already guessed that FileCenter includes a full PDF editor right in the interface so you can edit, annotate, stamp, and secure your ScanSnap scans.

Our Recommended ScanSnap Software

FileCenter document scanning software goes out of its way to make ScanSnap scanning not just easy, but highly efficient, whether you scan one document a day or hundreds. With an excellent file organization interface that users rave about to handy PDF tools, FileCenter DMS has been thoughtfully designed to meet the needs of any paper-intensive office. Download a free trial today!

FileCenter DMS Screenshots