Have you ever felt like her? If so, you are not alone. Let's face it, paperwork is a pain. Scanning documents for easy access and safe keeping is absolutely essential in business today. To keep it simple there are two general file formats in which documents can be scanned. One is called a tif image and the other is called Adobe Acrobat pdf.
A tif file is a picture similar to those created with a digital camera. In order to open or view the file, a picture-editing program must be open such as Kodak Imaging or Photoshop. This type of file is limited to its abilities. For example, you cannot search for words with a tif file nor can you easily delete pages.
A pdf file is a file that can be opened by using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Reader is a widely distributed free program from Adobe. It is the most popular type of document distribution format. With a pdf file, users have the ability to perform word searches and edit pages. Many companies now distribute all of their internal documents in pdf format.
Digital copy machines offer a wide variety of scanning methods. To use these new methods and abilities it is most important to understand them.
Scan to Email: On a network machine it is now possible to simply place documents in the automatic feeder, type in the email address and have those documents sent to an email recipient anywhere in the world. Documents may be sent in tif or pdf format.
Scan to Hard Drive: With an optional external hard drive installed, users have the ability to scan documents and store them on the machine for later output. This does not require the machine to be on the network since the documents are stored on the hard drive in the copier itself.
Scan to Network: Users are able to scan hard copy documents and have them retrieved from anywhere on the network. This requires the machine to be installed with a print controller and connected to the network. With this feature, documents can also be sent in tif or pdf format. Each user may have their own unique mailbox and have those scanned documents automatically retrieved to their own computer. This is known as "pulled" from the copies print controller.
Scan to FTP: If there is an FTP (file transfer protocol) server running on the network, users may send documents directly to folders on the local area network or across the world. Users may enter the address of the FTP server along with the specific destination folder and have the documents go straight to that destination. This is called “push” scanning since documents are “pushed” from the copier to their destination.
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