How to scan just about anything

Many scanners with automatic document feeders include a setting that allows for scanning larger legal size documents — just check your scanning software settings to ensure it’s processing the full image. 

Flatbed scanners are trickier, as the scanning surface needs to be large enough to support the entire document. If you’re looking for a flatbed scanner, ensure its tray is at least 14” long so you can capture the entire document at once

Scanners with automatic document feeders can process scans much faster than flatbed scanners, but they operate at maximum efficiency when all pages are the same size and thickness — a difficult task when organizing receipts.

Some scanners provide special receipt guide attachments to help organize and process receipt scans. Hook it up to your scanner, stack your receipts into the guide as uniformly as possible, and let the scanner speed up the process of digitization for you.

Staying organized makes processing expense reports and managing taxes much easier and more efficient. If your scanner came with software, there’s a good chance it can help keep your digital files in order.

Setting a filename prefix provides a standard structure for all of your scans. For example, suppose you’re scanning dozens of receipts from a recent business trip. In that case, you can ensure each numbered scan has the month and year or other unique identifier attached to the beginning of the file to keep everything sorted and easy to find.

Depending on the quantity or condition of slides you’re dealing with, it may be best to hire a professional slide scanning service to handle restoration and digitization.

If you opt to scan slides at home, you may need to clean them first. Always use nitrile gloves to avoid depositing further oil or dust on the slide, then gently apply a cotton swab dipped in at least 95% isopropyl alcohol to the slide. Dry the slide with compressed air.

Slides require specialized scanners which are different from document scanners due to the position of the light source and camera. Make sure to research the correct device for your needs. 

Placing a JPEG or PNG image file within a Word document is as easy as clicking the Insert menu, choosing the Pictures option, then selecting your scanned image and clicking Insert.

Once inserted, move it around by dragging and dropping, and you can resize images by clicking and dragging any of the squares on the image border. Quick tip: hold the Shift key while resizing an image to maintain the current sizing ratio.

Images can also be easily aligned with your text — click on an image and select the Layout Options icon that appears. Here, you can choose options to wrap text around the image as desired.

PDF files can be converted into editable Word documents, which can be manipulated directly and saved to .docx file formats.

Conversion is as easy as clicking File, then clicking Open. Select the PDF file, then click OK on the pop-up window that asks if Word should convert the PDF into an editable Word document.

You may need to do a bit of formatting clean-up as PDF-to-text conversion isn’t always perfect. That said, the entire process from scan to conversion should take far less time than retyping a whole document from scratch.

From your desktop, files can be dragged onto new emails to add as attachments or directly embedded into the message as an image. You can also upload files by clicking the paper clip icon. It’s important to note that Gmail will send anything smaller than 25MB as an email attachment — Google Drive can handle larger files.

Outlook provides similar functionality to Gmail, whether you want to drag and drop your files directly onto a message or attach them manually via the paper clip icon.

Attach files to Apple Mail’s desktop app via the standard paper clip icon. If you’re on mobile, you’ll need to long-press on the body of the email, tap the arrow on the pop-up menu twice, and then choose to insert a photo or document to your email.