You might already know that every document you have scanned with OfficeDrop gets converted to a text-searchable PDF. The text-searchbility is what lets you search your documents by word or phrase in our system or others. If you’re wondering how we do that, then we have three words for you - Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

OCR for Text Search

OCR is a software that we integrate with every scan. Without it, your scan is just a recording of light as an image. It isn’t until OCR is employed that applications can start “reading” characters and interacting with features like search. You can see why we think OCR is so important considering search is one of the best parts about digital filing. To learn more about OCR and OfficeDrop, see our OCR scanning page.

OfficeDrop Scans Documents to PDF

The PDF is a universal format, requires no exclusive software to be read, and maintains a consistent layout on any platform. This makes it ideal for sharing because it will view the same way for both parties. Also, since the PDF is so popular,  it’s pretty unlikely that a recipient doesn’t already have a program for PDF viewing.

There are plenty of other reasons we think the PDF is an ideal format for digital filing. To learn more about the benefits of the PDF, see our scan to PDF page.

Register for Webinar Part Two: Online and Offline Tools to Master Your Paperless Office

Like the last one, this webinar is free, so all you have to do is register here. It’s kicking off on July 29th at 11am PST so hurry and get those registrations in. This is a great opportunity to learn about specific tools that will help you reduce paper, become more efficient, and lower costs.

Also, if you want to see the video from the first webinar you can visit our Digital Office page - the video is on the right!

There are a lot of different ways paper infiltrates your home or office. The obvious culprits are bills, receipts, pamphlets, flyers, etc. In the article linked above, a woman tracks the influx of paper from a less suspected source, our children.

If you have kids in school, I’m sure you’ve noticed the piles of handouts, assignments, permission slips, worksheets, outlines, and syllabi that they pack up and deliver from class to your home. They seem so innocent, I know, but as a Southborough mother found out earlier this month, these kids are packing thousands of pages throughout one school year.

For the parent trying to reduce paper clutter, your own kids could be your biggest problem - dumping Spiderman backpack-loads of paper on the kitchen counter five days of the week. I remember back in middle school there was at least one handout every class and college wasn’t much better. At least a college student has a dorm to dump paper in, but middle and high schoolers probably don’t have their own filing cabinets in their rooms and so the paper inevitably ends up cluttering your home. It’s not their fault, schools simply distribute paper at an alarmingly unchecked rate.

What To Do With It All?

Kids’ paper flow is essentially the same as the influx of bills and invoices, it’s just delivered on shorter legs. Therefore, document scanning can be just as effective for kid’s documents as it is for mom and dad’s.

With OfficeDrop’s monthly scanning service, the kids can dump their paper directly into an OfficeDrop Scanvelope to be sent off for scanning before pages even hit the kitchen table. If you asked for it to be shredded, you won’t have to see those pages ever again, left to organize and delete the unwanted pages from our convenient online filing system.

In the video featured below, organizer Amy Volk talks OfficeDrop and even flaunts one of our Scanvelopes. In first few minutes she reviews Neat Receipts scanners and then does a great job describing the benefits of OfficeDrop and comparing the Neat Receipts service to OfficeDrop. (OfficeDrop comes in at minute 3:00)

Thanks, Amy for talking us up and letting us know about the segment!

To see more organization tips from Amy Volk, see her website, Simplified Living.

Get Document Scanning Estimate & Signup

Or you can visit our new document scanning prices page, which has information on … the prices we charge for scanning your documents! Visit the document scanning prices page.

Lifehacker is known for providing tips and tricks that make you more productive. That’s why we were psyched to see that ScanDrop caught their eye. ScanDrop lets you scan your documents directly to Google Docs or Evernote. Lifehacker thought that was a pretty handy trick, so they gave a quick outline noting ScanDrop’s “seamless uploading…to Google Docs, Evernote, or [OfficeDrop] itself, for free.”

If you’ve been looking for a way to get paper into Google Docs or Evernote, there are few easier ways than ScanDrop. Get to the OfficeDrop page and get the free ScanDrop download now.

Scan Directly to Google Docs (2 Ways)

1. Have Us Scan It

Hopefully you’ve heard that OfficeDrop provides mail-based scanning either in bulk, or with monthly scanvelope submission. When you have us scan, you have the option of automatic upload to our online digital filing system. Now that you can link your OfficeDrop account to Google Docs, you can configure your OfficeDrop account to automatically send every page we scan to your Google Docs account. Keep in mind that because you scanned with OfficeDrop, every document is converted to text-searchable PDF, ready to search on Google Docs.

2. Self Scan with ScanDrop

With our increasingly popular ScanDrop scanning software (free for download), you can turn your own personal scanner into a direct portal to Google Docs (*see below for compatible scanners). Configuring your scanner with ScanDrop allows you to view, edit, delete, reorder, and upload any scans right to Google Docs - all from the same intuitive application. You can even choose which Google Docs folder to upload to, and name your scans. However, keep in mind that documents sent directly to Google Docs through ScanDrop are not made text-searchable. See ScanDrop’s recent article on Life Hacker.

If you use Google Docs, then don’t miss out on these two simple and affordable ways to get all of your paper documents directly to Google Docs. Send to us or scan yourself and start putting your paper to work in Google Docs.

*Scanners ScanDrop is compatible with:

Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners (Windows only):
Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 Color Mobile Scanner
Fujitsu ScanSnap S500 Color Mobile Scanner
Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Color Mobile Scanner
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Sheet-Fed Scanner

HP scanners that support the Twain standard including:
HP Officejet 7200
HP Officejet D125XI
HP PSC 1310
HP ScanJet 2200C
HP ScanJet 2400
HP ScanJet 3800
HP ScanJet 4600
HP Scanjet 5000 Sheet-feed Scanner
HP ScanJet 5470C
HP ScanJet 5550
HP Scanjet 5590 Digital Flatbed Scanner series
HP Scanjet N6010 Document Sheet-feed Scanner
HP Scanjet N6310 Document Flatbed Scanner
HP Scanjet N6350 Networked Document Flatbed Scanner
HP Scanjet 7000 Sheet-feed Scanner
HP ScanJet 7400C
HP Scanjet N7710 Document Sheet-feed Scanner
HP ScanJet 8250
HP Scanjet 8270 Document Flatbed Scanner
HP Scanjet 8300 Professional Image Scanner
HP Scanjet N8420 Document Flatbed Scanner
HP Scanjet N8460 Document Flatbed Scanner
HP ScanJet 8890
HP Scanjet N9120 Document Flatbed Scanner
HP All-In-One printer PSC 950
HP T65xi
HP Color LaserJet CM1312

Canon scanners that support the Twain standard including:
Canon CanoScan 3000
Canon CanoScan LiDE 60
Canon DR-2050C
Canon DR-2080C
Canon DR-3080CII
Canon DR-5020
Canon DR-5080C
Canon DR-6080
Canon DR-7580
Canon DR-9080C
Canon LiDE 20
Canon LiDE 30
Canon LiDE 35
Canon LiDE 50
Canon LiDE 60
Canon IR2870 (network scanner)
Canon MP730

Xerox DocuMate scanners that support the Twain standard including
Xerox DocuMate 150
Xerox DocuMate 152
Xerox DocuMate 162
Xerox DocuMate 252
Xerox DocuMate 262
Xerox DocuMate 262i
Xerox DocuMate 515
Xerox DocuMate 510
Xerox DocuMate 700
Xerox DocuMate 632
Xerox DocuMate 742
Xerox DocuMate 765
Xerox DocuMate 752
Xerox DocuMate 3640

Epson scanners that support the Twain standard Twain compatible including:
Epson Perfection 1240
Epson Perfection 1660
Epson Perfection 1670
Epson Perfection 1680
Epson Perfection 2580
Epson Perfection 3170
Epson Perfection 4490
Epson Perfection 4870
Epson Perfection V10
Epson Perfection V700 Photo
Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 Document Scanner
Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S80 Document Scanner
Epson GT-2500 Document Scanner
Epson GT-2500 Plus Document Scanner
Epson CX5200
Epson GT15000
Epson GT-20000 Document Scanner
Epson GT-30000 Document Scanner

Fujitsu scanners that support the Twain standard including:
Fujitsu fi-60F
Fujitsu fi-4120Cdj
Fujitsu fi-4220Cdj
Fujitsu fi-4340C
Fujitsu fi-5015c
Fujitsu fi-5110C
Fujitsu fi-5120Cdj
Fujitsu fi-5220Cdj
Fujitsu fi-5530C2
Fujitsu fi-5750Cdj
Fujitsu fi-5900c
Fujitsu fi-60F A6
Fujitsu fi-6130
Fujitsu fi-6140
Fujitsu fi-6230
Fujitsu fi-6240
Fujitsu fi-6670
Fujitsu fi-6770
Fujitsu fi-6800
Fujitsu Scan Partner 600C

Visioneer scanners that support the Twain standard including:
Visioneer RoadWarrior
Visioneer Strobe 500 (Scanner + Docking Station)
VisioneerStrobe XP 450 PDF
Visioneer Patriot 470

Kodak scanners that support the Twain standard including:
Kodak i40
Kodak i55/i65
Kodak i60
Kodak i250
Kodak i260
Kodak i600
Kodak i810
Kodak i1320
Kodak i1420
Kodak i1440
Kodak DVC325

Considering how much we’ve grown in the last two years, it’s like perusing baby pictures when we look at the Boston Globe article that covered our ‘08 launch as Pixily. We’ve changed our name since then and have continued to grow in functionality and user base. We even look different now that we’ve made the transition to our new website.

Though some would call our age the terrible two’s, we don’t see anything terrible about it. In fact, we’ve only gotten better, adding new features like context menus, new integrations with FreshBooks, Google, and Evernote, and new products like our ScanDrop scanning software and iPad application.

As we venture into our third year, you can bet this trend will continue and we will work hard to make OfficeDrop better, faster, and easier to use. As for today, however, we’re going to kick back and have some cake. Many thanks to all who have used and supported OfficeDrop over the last two years!

The results came back (pictured below) and we were actually pretty excited about the outcome.

Are you paperless? Results

Why should I be paperless? I don’t care. 8% (23 votes)
Yes 100% paperless. I get all my bills online.23% (65 votes)
I am trying. I have gotten more than half of my bills to stop sending snail mail. 50% (138 votes)
I think I might try to go paperless in the near future. 14% (38 votes)
What do you mean by paperless? 5% (13 votes)

Total Votes: 277

As you can see, the majority answer is that people are working towards a paperless environment which, for us, is a best case scenario.

It shows that people are open to the idea of going paperless, but they are hesitant to get started. OfficeDrop helps with this by providing an easy way to start reducing paper in your office. Since we do all of the scanning for you, our mail-in submission system replaces hours spent scanning with a quick trip to the post office.

Congrats to those who have eliminated paper altogether, and as for those of you that are trying to get there, keep fighting the good fight. Going paperless yields a mountain of benefits, and isn’t nearly as hard as you might think. If you’ve hit a wall trying to get paperless, we encourage you to try our document scanning services which is sure to simplify your conversion process, and get you managing digital documents online in no time.