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Using the Fujitsu S510 ScanSnap with Adobe Acrobat

By Rick Borstein

My sister Sue is seven years older than me and— as she occasionally will point out— seven years wiser.

Sue is a family therapist and works with a number of clients. She's been in practice for well over twenty years and consequently has a a large number of paper files. The state where she works mandates that she must keep these files for seven years.

Thus, it wasn't surprising when I received an e-mail from her asking if I could suggest ways for her to go paperless.

It immediately occurred to me that Sue's needs might not be unlike those of the typical solo attorney or small firm.

My suggestion was to use an inexpensive Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner to scan in her client files. Fortunately, I just happened to have a ScanSnap S510 sitting in my office. This would be the perfect test environment to develop a workflow and best practices for scanning in client records..

At about $400, the S510 comes with a full version of Acrobat Standard (that's worth $299 right there) and has a rated scanning speed of 20 double-sided pages per minute.

Perhaps this is not the most elegant way to describe this device, but it is sort of a beginner's scanner. Unlike more expensive devices, you cannot control the S510 directly from Acrobat or other applications because it lacks a TWAIN or ISIS driver.

The lack of TWAIN doesn't mean that this isn't a useful device. The ScanSnap S510 is a great scanner, but you do need to understand how to use it to best advantage.

The ScanSnap S510 has since been replaced by the S1500. The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Deluxe Bundle includes Acrobat 9 Standard and updated versions of the applications mentioned in this article.

Read on to learn how to set-up and use the scanner. I've even included a downloadable PDF version of this article.

Full post as published by Acrobat for Legal Professionals on July 12, 2009 (boomark / email).