Most major companies are working toward going green, and Nuance Software is no exception, in fact, they’re an early adapter. Their latest entry into the greening of consumer households is Paperport 12 (for operating systems through Win7) .
Nuance creates programs for imaging and speech. They’ve pioneered speech-capable car navigation systems, are the likely vehicle for cell phone speech commands, and designed Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking, arguably the best voice to computer software value on the market.
PaperPort 12 makes it possible to dispose of paper-based filing systems at home or in the work place. User can create and organize digital documents simply and quickly. Manufacturers of printers and scanners, companies like Kodak and Brother, include PaperPort with their hardware. In record time, it’s possible to whittle down a mountain of paper -- personal and business.
About the Paperport Software
PaperPort turns paper into electronic documents - PDF's. There's no reason to keep hard copies of most items. A FAX or email signature is usually acceptable these days, even to banks and government institutions.
Even bank accounts are going nearly paperless, and consumers are finding it much more convenient to allow their bank, insurance provider, mortgage company, and doctors office to provide paper copies of records on demand when required, or to simply scan their own records and print them out as needed.
Plus Points for Paperport
PaperPort installs easily. The first view is a desk-top environment that resembles Windows applications, complete with the latest ribbon/tab navigation interfaces. The overall interface is complete with easily understood Wizards that explain each available task with a walk-through. Scan a document, organize a set of file folders. Set up preferences that allow particular types of documents, for example, documents about car insurance, transfer automatically upon scanning to a designated folder.
The latest version includes highly improved OCR software that converts an image of a document to a live, searchable version. The included PDF bundle is as robust as the expensive versions, and again, easy to use. Paperport can use a digital photograph of a document to create a live version, and also includes a new “scandirect” function that saves time.
A simple document scanner with auto feed available from about $69, permits the user to sort daily mail and feed it to the scanner. PaperPort holds the scans until the user is ready to file them.
Minus Points for Paperport
Though Nuance has been weak in the area of customer support, it's nice to see he program's documentation becoming easier to read. Live chat is available online, but the delay for assistance is long. The settings and preferences could be more intuitive. Beginner level users may find terminology and choices frustrating. Included paper notices and announcements felt unnecessary and redundant. And as with many companies, the print is so small as to be unreadable to anyone with less than eagle-eyed vision.
This isn’t the only document conversion program out there. There’s everything from Adobe’s Acrobat series to free- and shareware products. It might be worth trying some – most offer free trials. But Nuance is famous for flexibility, robust capabilities and affordable price point (PaperPort is under $200, or free with many scanners and printers).
When the consumer level computer user is ready to convert their paper file system to an easier, compact digital version, this may be the perfect solution. It even looks and behaves like a file cabinet, with 29 folder colors to boost its organization capabilities.
Maryan Pelland - A professional, established freelance writer, I've earned the moniker, "expert" in technology for baby boomers. I have deep experience in ...
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