Tech Tip Tuesday - Mobile Scanner

hile I have stopped producing paper, I still receive paper from others throughout the day. One of the biggest culprits are receipts. My old process was just to shove the receipts in my wallet until I got back to the office and then tape them to a sheet of paper, and scan the receipts using the copier. To save some time, I started to take pictures of the receipts with my phone, but they always seemed blurry.  So after a little digging, I came across two scanner apps that process the pictures taken from the phone's camera.

• CamScanner (iOS)(Android)(Windows) - One of the Top Rated Apps
• Office Lens  (iOS)(Android)(Windows) - Integrates into office 365

While Camscanner is my app of choice, the recent improvements in Office Lens make it a close second. Try out both apps and let me know which you like best. 


Keep advancing,
Ralph

CamScanner

• Download and install CamScanner (iOS)(Android)(Windows) on your device
• The first time you run the app you will be asked to sign in, register, or use now.
  • Sign in if you already have an account.
  • Register to create a new account, use and email or phone number.
  • Use Now allows you to go right into scanning however your images will not back up.

• Start your first scan by clicking on the camera icon at the bottom of the screen.

• If requested allow CamScanner to take pictures and record video
• Place document in front of the camera and tap the camera icon to take the picture. Tip camera recognizes better on a high contrast background. Note you can select different document types, such as PowerPoint, docs, ID Cards and QR codes. Also, you can pick from single page and batch mode for multiple pages.

• Once the picture has been taken, you can crop the image by dragging the dots, rotate and resize. Once the image is right at the edge, go ahead and tap the check-mark.​

• Adjust the image quality as necessary and tap the checkmark icon. Tap back to retake or re-crop.

• Tap the share icon to transmit to your computer or another app

• Select PDF or Image

• Pick an such as Outlook or Box to share the file

• For example, tap Outlook, enter email address and tap send

• It's that simple. Try it out and see how you do. ​

 Office Lens​

• Download Install Office Lens (iOS)(Android)(Windows) on your device, run the app, then give it permission to access your camera.

• The default "view" in the app is a live camera viewfinder. Choose one of the four available image types -- Photo, Document, Whiteboard, or business card -- then point the camera at whatever you want to capture.
  • For documents and whiteboards, you'll see the app attempt to automatically frame the image as you move around.
• Once the frame encompasses the desired area, tap the shutter button.

• After a moment of processing the image, Office Lens gives you a preview of it. If it needs cropping, tap the Crop icon in the upper-right corner. If you have another page to add just hit the camera icon with the plus symbol. Once you have all pages you need, tap save. 

• Now it's time to name the file and choose the destination for this item. I typically choose PDF (Send PDF of image to OneDrive) and tap the check. Alternately, Office Lens can export to your OneDrive account (jpg), Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, or your photo gallery. In this example, I selected my gallery so I can send it via email. After you have selected your file type(s), tap Save. 

• The image will now appear under your files and you can share it using the share icon to the right of the file

• Select an app to share with such as outlook or box. For this example, I selected outlook

• Enter an email address and tap send

• It's that simple. Take a picture and stop the flow of paper with you.