ScanSoft PaperPort Professional 10

Rating:
Summary: Paperless Paradise
Review: A business associate turned me onto this product for my agency. Having never used the program I was skeptical. I originally bought the other version of Paperport also called Paperport 10 but not "Professional" Upon investigation it became clear that I made the wrong choice in my attempts to get by on the "cheap", so I decided to return the first copy and to go all out and get the professional version. I also decided I needed a new scanner to work with Windows XP. Mine was old and didn't have a document feeder. Let me tell you, sometimes change is good! After getting used to doing things the paperless way I soon discovered that this program is totally fantastic. One note of advice. If you work with PDF files then you MUST have the "Professional" version. I can't even begin to detail all the new and better ways I have discovered to work. There is a utility called Scan Direct that is great, it comes with another utility called PDF Creater that I cannot live without. I have since decided to get Omnipage and now I can scan in a file to Paperport and convert it to an editable Word document. The whole thing has changed the way I work. I subsequently purchased two more copies for the other workstations that don't even have a scanner. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Best upgrade so far...
Review: Being a paperport user since version 3 I was really excited about this upgrade because it had so many features I've been looking for. The scanner wizard is wonderful since it will remember your settings. The search engine and indexing has been upgraded to be much faster and the split desktop has been sorely needed and very welcome!

It also includes another of their products PDF Create! which makes working with MS Office and PDFs much easier!
Two thumbs way up!

Rating:
Summary: I reinstalled Paperport 8
Review: For many years I have used Paperport at home in conjunction with Quicken, scanning receipts, utility bills, etc., and attaching the scanned document to the Quicken register item it pertains to. (I am using Quicken 2001 Deluxe.) This was one of the primary things I'd do with Paperport. Unfortunately, Paperport 10 does not seem to function with Quicken, and as near as I can tell by web surfing, this holds true for newer versions of Quicken as well. The minute I installed Paperport 10 (and it uninstalled Paperport 8) all the linked documents in my Quicken file disappeared! There was no longer an icon on the bottom of the page to export a scanned document to Quicken.

For many people, this may not be an issue, but for me it was a deal-breaker. I uninstalled the thing and reinstalled Paperport 8.

Rating:
Summary: NO NEED UPGRADE FROM VER 9 TO 10
Review: I HAVE USED PAPERPORT FOR MANY YEARS IN OUR INSURANCE AGENCY. WE HAVE BEEN THROUGH ALL THE VERSIONS INCLUDING VERSION 9 WE HAVE BEEN VERY PLEASED WITH THE FEATURES. WE SCAN ALL OUR DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOS INTO OUR NETWORK SERVER FOR ARCHIVING. WE HAVE GIVEN AWAY ALL OF OUR PAPER FILE DRAWERS. I PURCHASED VERSION 10 TO TRY IT OUT. I UNINSTALLED IT AND REINSTALLED VERSION 9 PROFESSIONAL THE SAME DAY. VERSION 10 HAS A SINGLE MACHINE INSTALLATION VERIFICATION PROCEDURE THAT YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF. THE CUSTOMER SERVICE OF THIS PRODUCT IS EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. OTHER THAN THAT, IF YOU CAN GET IT INSTALLED AND CAN AFFORD TO PURCHASE A PROGRAM FOR EACH AND EVERY MACHINE YOU OWN, THEN OK. OTHERWISE I WILL STICK WITH VERSION 9.

Rating:
Summary: Great Upgrade!
Review: My practice just upgraded to this version and our staff just loves it. The split desktop makes moving docs between folders a breeze. Why didn't they think of this sooner? Its worth the price to upgrade for this feature alone.

Rating:
Summary: Great software ... to a point.
Review: This is the first edition of PaperPort that I have used, so I am not writing this from the perspective of the value of an upgrade from earlier versions. This is a "first impressions" review.

Right after I installed it, I wanted to start an index on my computer. I have about 30 Gig of documents, so I knew this would be a chore.

First effort: Run the included "Index Manager". This failed because Index manager does not erase temp files until the entire scan completes. I had 40 Gig of free space on my disk, but that wasn't enough. I had to abort the scan. A full two days wasted before I recognized the issues with Index Manager.

Second effort: Run the internal index by selecting, "Add to all-in-one index". This seemed to work, however it kept me from using PaperPort while running. I decided to try another route.

Third effort: Setup to scan during "idle time" and let it run. This worked fine. It still took hours, however it cleaned up as it went. I was still unable to use PaperPort while the index ran because the index would restart. I did let it complete my index, however.

Now I have all my documents indexed. How does maintenance work? Many of the local PC search utilities tie into Windows XP functionality and update in realtime without having to rescan the hard disk. Not true with PaperPort. Clearly dependent on old code, it must scan periodically. Okay, we'll move on.

PaperPort will scan during idle times. The problem is that it reads through everything, every time. Then if you use PaperPort, let it go idle, it will again restart from the beginning. If you have a substantial amount of documents, this method just won't do. The index program will run constantly.

Since I have the professional version, I have "Index Manager", which allows me to schedule regular updates for my index. While this tool was unacceptable for building the initial index, it does work for maintenance. I set it up and let it run through and "update" my documents. Just to be clear, no changes were made to my documents, I just wanted to test the program. Even though every single document was recently indexed and not one file was changed, it still took hours to rescan my data. Monitoring the temp folder, it produced over 1 Gig of temp files for documents that were not modified. This is horribly inefficient. Even with no document changes, an update scan will take a half day to complete. This is INSANE!

A "professional" edition of this product should index documents better. The entire index process is totally garbage-by-design. My point deductions for this program are strictly due to the indexing process.

If your documents are less than a couple gig, then this application will probably work okay for you.

So now onto the application of PaperPort. What a great product! I could make a long list of things to improve, but the improvements I would suggest are minor. I love being able to see the pages of my documents, to search through all these PDF documents, OmniPage projects (I love OmniPage), etc.

For the main application, you can use PaperPort to manage documents in all new ways. I love being able to stack and unstack pages, move things around, and it makes short work of organizing my huge collection of electronic documents. I could list a dozen features I would like to see added, however what is provided works extremely well.

I have to add a couple more negatives. If you want support, you have to pay for it. You get one free call and that's it. The documentation is weak, the knowledgebase is rediculously weak, and email is billable. The forums are the only free option for support and I have not been able to get a login setup for the forums.

I am a huge fan of OmniPage Pro 14 and I use it all the time. PaperPort will be part of my new routine for the time being. If I find a better product, I will fly quickly away since PaperPort cannot maintain indexes very well.

Indexing: 1 Star
Document Acquiring: 5 Stars
Application Functionality: 3.5 Stars
Support: 2 Stars

Conclusion: If you are interested in electronic document management and your volume is reasonably modest, this product is an excellent value. If you want a "professional" tool, don't be fooled by the word "professional" in the title of this product. This is not a professional solution.