The scanner in your pocket (Using iOS devices to scan documents)

When I mention that I’m scanning documents for students’ files to my advising colleagues they often assume that our office has an expensive scanner. They express great interest in paperless systems, but see the presumed expense is a definite barrier. That is until I explain that, whether they realize it or not, they already have a capable scanner in their iPhone and iPad (many advisors on our campus have iOS devices). So “How do you do this?” they ask. In response, I’ve put together my brief guide to getting started using your iOS device as a scanner.

Get a scanning app (or two)

There are dozens of scanning apps in the iOS App Store. Many are free with ads, have a free version with a basic feature set (with an accompanying paid version), or offer in-app purchases to go ad-free or access advanced features. The three I suggest to get a feel for scanning are ScanBot, Scanner Mini (a free version of Scanner Pro), or Evernote Scannable (if you’re in the Evernote ecosystem). If you only want to save scans to Microsoft’s OneDrive , you might try Office Lens. Its features are quite limited, and it seems designed mainly to save scans to OneDrive. Start by installing a few, try them out, and see which works for your needs.

Scanning tips

  • Scan on a flat surface, such as a table or desk, whose color is dark enough to provide good contrast with the document. Most scanning apps will automatically detect the document’s edge and the high contrast helps this work most effectively.
  • Scan where there is bright, even lighting. Scanning in daylight near a window and/or with strong room lighting tends to work the best. One challenge to scanning with an iPad can be the shadow it casts over part of the document. Good lighting will help obtain optimal results. Some apps will correct for the distortion from a device being held at an angle, rather than directly overhead. This can often overcome the iPad shadow issue. It also makes it easier to capture a readable scan without the need to have your device absolutely parallel with your document. It helps too with documents that have been folded (like a receipt from your pocket). Scanner Mini and Office Lens are two apps with this feature.
  • Try different filters to optimize the readability of the scan. Good scanning apps will allow you to apply various filters to your scans. Filters make it easier to get the best results based on the document you’re capturing and what you want to do with the scan. Most common filters are full color, grayscale, and black and white. ScanBot adds a “magic color” filter that tries to optimize the scan automatically (I’ve had mixed results with this). If your document is mainly text, black and white usually provides good readability (especially if you plan to apply OCR to the document) and keeps file sizes smaller than grayscale or full color. I suggest trying each filter to see which one produces the best results. Filters are applied before you save the document, so you can see the results and change filters, if desired.

    Filter options in ScanBot

  • Save your scans as PDF documents and apply OCR. For document scanning, Adobe’s PDF format is usually preferable to JPEG (unless, perhaps, if you’re scanning photos and want to use them in a photo app or upload them to photo site like Flickr or Google Photos). PDFs are universal across platforms, offer small file sizes, and can contain a text layer (sometimes called PDF + text). The last feature is particularly useful for a paperless system because it allows you to search the text of a document in the future. To add a text layer to a scanned document, you need to apply optical character recognition (OCR) to the scan otherwise your PDF is just a picture of your document. Some scanning apps, including Scanner Pro and ScanBot (with in-app purchase) have this feature, and it works surprisingly well. Evernote will apply OCR to scanned documents, using its cloud-based servers, and also is quite accurate. It also can extract some of this data, for example when scanning business cards, which can then be exported to a contact management system. Office Lens will also scan business cards (this is done in the cloud) and import the data into a contact card stored in OneDrive.

What you can do with your scan

 

There are a number of ways you can manage your scans once you have created them. Depending on the type of document you’re scanning and what information is recorded there (e.g. student ID numbers or grades), some methods may raise some student record concerns. This is particularly the case if your scan might be synced to a cloud service, such as iCloud, Dropbox, or Evernote. Disclaimer: In my commentary I note some of these concerns, but I’m not intending to give FERPA advice. Check with your Registrar or IT department if you have concerns about this.

1. Store it on your device

Storing scans on your device is one option. This approach works if you scan infrequently, have space on your device for storage, and do not have a need (or very limited need) to send the scan elsewhere. Using an app such as Readdle’s Documents or DEVONthink can provide a place to organize and store them for future reference. This solution can work effectively if you have a large amount of available space on your device or if you scan documents infrequently. This may be your only option depending on your institution’s policy regarding student records (if you’re scanning documents with FERPA protected data). Be aware that some scanning apps, such as Office Lens and Evernote Scannable, do not store scans in the app. They are essentially conduits to save the scan to their respective apps, which store your documents in their cloud services.

2. Email scans to yourself

If you plan to store scans on your desktop, laptop, or a file server attached to them, email can be used to transfer your scan from your iOS device. Using the iOS share sheet, most scanning apps can send a scan as an email attachment. Sending the message to yourself allows you to open the email and attachment on your primary computer and work with the file from there. Assuming you’re using your institution’s email account, email is an option worth considering if you’re working with scans with student information on them.

There are a few downsides to using email in this way. First, depending on what you’re scanning, like color documents or multiple pages, the files can be on the larger size. This can be a limitation since most email services restrict the size of attachments that can be sent. Furthermore, since you will end up with two copies of the file, one in your inbox and another in your sent mail, this can quickly eat up space on your email server (unless you’re diligent about deleting both copies once you’ve saved the file elsewhere, which also adds a step your scanning workflow). Your friendly IT department may restrict your abilities to send and receive mail once this capacity is reached. Second, I find managing documents being sent back and forth over email to be cumbersome. Sending email to yourself as a method of file transfer can involve many steps and may lead to scans stacking up in your inbox (most of us do not want more email). Unless you have a very low scan volume or your institution’s IT policy is severely constraining, an email-based workflow is usually not the most efficient strategy to manage your scans.

3. Sync to a cloud service

The option that provides the most flexibility with your scans is having them sync to a cloud service, such as iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, or Google Drive. A distinct advantage of this method is that your scans are available on multiple devices simultaneously. This opens up many possibilities for what you can do with a scan including printing, accessing them in meetings, saving to a file server, sharing with colleagues, or uploading to an advising record keeping system. Most scanning apps can send scans to a cloud service using the share sheet. Some apps, such as ScanBot, can be configured to do this automatically once it has scanned and processed the document. Others, such as Office Lens and Evernote Scannable, are designed mainly to send scans to their respective cloud-based services. Syncing to a cloud service is the by far the most flexible solution for managing scanned documents.

It does, however, raise the most concern for scans with student data since files reside on servers not directly in control of the institution. Some institutions have contracts with cloud service providers, such as Google or Microsoft, where the terms of the contract are such that FERPA-protected data can be stored in the service (usually through an account tied to your university credentials). Your IT department should be able to advise if your school has this sort of arrangement. If this is not available on your campus, using one of the other methods discussed above may provide a solution when working with documents with student data. You could still employ a cloud service for other kinds of scans, for example, reference information or handouts from meetings.

Sharing options in Scanner Mini (with in-app purchase to full version)

Now that you’ve learned the basics of scanning with an iOS device, download a few apps and give it a try. Before long you will be a scanning pro and your colleagues will be asking you “How did you do that?” too.

 

Is My Apple Pencil Charged?

A few months ago, I received a 12.9 inch iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil at work. I charged up the Pencil (it charges with a lightning cable via a small adapter) and started annotating PDFs. The Pencil performed this task admirably and using it was a wonderful, almost magical, experience. After a few days the Pencil stopped working, but after brief charge I was back in business. This experience caused me to wonder how I could determine the Pencil’s battery level. I was baffled because the Pencil itself does not sport LEDs (or anything else) that might indicate its battery level. With Apple’s attention to detail, I figured they must have included some mechanism for this. After some searching, I found in iOS 10 there is a Widget called “Battery” that displays the charge level of a paired Bluetooth device. After adding the Widget to the “Today View” on the Home screen, I could now view the charge level of the iPad and the Apple Pencil on the Home screen. (In a subsequent iOS update the iPad does display a “low charge” notification when the Pencil’s charge drops to 5%).

“Batteries” Widget

One note about the widget. The Pencil needs to be paired with the iPad and within Bluetooth range for the widget to appear on the Home screen.

 

My Go-To iPad Apps

I often get asked what apps I am running on my iPad and how I use them. While not an exhaustive list, here are some of the apps I rely on to get things done on the iPad. It’s a mix of free (or have free version and offer in-app purchases) and paid apps.

Office Tasks

iWork Suite (Keynote, Pages, Numbers)

  • I turn to Apple’s iWork suite for most word processing and presentation tasks when I’m not collaborating with co-workers who also need to edit the documents. Documents sync over iCloud, so they are available on my Mac as well. If needed, the apps can save documents in the corresponding Microsoft Office formats.

Microsoft Office Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

  • Working in a Business School, Microsoft Office documents are the de facto standard for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation files. The iOS versions of these apps work well and include most features of their of their desktop counterparts.

Other Writing/Text Tools

Drafts

  • Drafts is perfect when I need to jot down an idea or a bit of text and hold it until I decide where it will eventually end up (email, tweet, task, calendar item, etc.). When I’m ready to send it to a final destination, Drafts allows you to export, share, and send text to the clipboard, other apps, and cloud services with its built-in actions. Actions tap into iOS’s URL schemes, and the app allows you to create custom actions by writing your own schemes (unfortunately, not all apps support URL schemes).

Ulysses

  • This is where most of my writing projects start. Ulysses is a elegant app designed to be the home for all your bits of writing. Writing is done in the app’s version of the Markdown to allow focusing on the content of your writing rather than being distracted by its appearance. I have the companion version installed on my Mac and my text is synced via iCloud, so it’s available wherever I happen to be working.

PDF Tools

GoodNotes

  • Great app for marking up PDF documents and general note taking with the Apple Pencil. I use GoodNotes daily for completing checklists and writing grad plans for students. In a future post, I’ll plan to cover my PDF markup workflow in detail.

PDF Expert

  • I use PDF Expert as my primary tool for reading and annotating (highlighting, making notes, etc.) PDFs

Utility

1Password

  • Everyone needs a good password manager to create and store strong passwords! A share sheet action extension makes it easy to fill the passwords when logging in to websites from Safari or Chrome. The basic version of 1Password for iOS is free, but an in-app purchase unlocks additional features. If you’re running the 1Password app on your Mac or PC (highly recommended!), you can sync your passwords between devices.

ScanBot

  • My current scanning app of choice. I use ScanBot for capturing scans of meeting handouts or documents during student appointments. The in-app purchase unlocks additional features, such as custom file naming templates and optical character recognition (OCR) for text. I’ve found the OCR to be quite good, which is essential for a paperless (or less paper) workflow to search for scanned documents later.

Workflow

  • If you have ever wanted to automate repetitive tasks on the iPad or iPhone, Workflow is the app you have been looking for. It allows users to build custom “workflows” to manipulate text, files, and images, share to social media, save URLs to read it later services, to name just a few, using pre-defined building blocks provided by the app. Users can create their own workflows and download pre-made workflows from the Workflow Gallery. Once created, workflows can be run from the app, as a widget from the home screen, or from the share sheet.

Calendaring, Task, and Project Management

OmniFocus

  • I’ve been a (not always consistent) practitioner of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system for over 10 years. OmniFocus is a powerful task management tool built around the GTD methodology. I run the companion Mac app, and the OmniGroup’s syncing service keeps everything in sync between my Mac and iPad.

Fantastical

  • Fantastical is my primary calendaring tool. The natural language event entry, speedy event creation and modification, and many other features make it hard to beat. The one feature Fantastical does not incorporate is the ability to view shared calendars of other Exchange users as my workplace uses Exchange for email and calendars (in fairness most calendar apps, including Apple’s own, do not have this feature). This is not a deal breaker for me since I don’t need to view coworkers calendars often.

Communication

Airmail

  • I use Airmail as my primary email app on iOS. I love the highly customizable swipe gestures to take action on emails quickly. The app allows you to have up to three possible actions per swipe. Depending on how far you swipe on the message in the reading list, you can reveal up to three possible actions (three for a swipe left and three more for a right swipe). This makes a particularly speedy way to process email each morning. Airmail also features email snooze and integration with other apps, such as OmniFocus, Calendar, and Reminders.

Slack

  • My advising team recently began using Slack for team communications. At the most basic level, Slack can be described as instant messaging for a group or “team” in Slack parliance (the app and the service behind it is much more than this). Our advisors work out of two locations and Slack helps keep our staff stay connected throughout the day. We still use email for mission-critical communications, but Slack has quickly filled the gap for most other internal communications.

Cloud Storage/Syncing Services

Dropbox

  • Dropbox has long been the leader in the cloud storage and syncing files between devices. Syncing is nearly instantaneous between devices. I use Dropbox mainly as a conduit for transferring files between my iPad and my Mac.

Microsoft OneDrive

  • While it does not have the syncing prowess of Dropbox and can be a bit clunky, I use OneDrive as my primary cloud storage location. I save most files here, so I can access to them on the Mac and iPad. I also use it extensively for sharing files with our advising team. For activities where our team is working out of the office (orientations, remote advising, etc.) OneDrive provides easy access to our files (compared with our office file server, which is not always easy to access remotely). The university has a Office365 contract and has vetted OneDrive for storing most kinds of data. Each user has a generous 1 terabyte of storage, so this makes OneDrive an attractive option.

Evernote

  • For many years I used Evernote as a “virtual general reference file cabinet.” I stored information on academic policies, handouts from meetings, reference documents–essentially anything I thought I would need to reference in the future and wanted to do so wherever I had internet. Evernote has exceptional search and text recognition capabilities, which makes it particularly well-suited to this function. For a variety of reasons, I have recently transitioned to DEVONthink for my less-paper workflow. I still recommend Evernote as a terrific service for getting started with the paperless lifestyle.