Doxie, the amazing scanner for documents

I decided to go fully digital with my receipts, leases, statements, etc. I initially bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap, which took me 30 minutes to realize it simply wasn't working (DOA I suppose). I then discovered Doxie, which costs a third of the ScanSnap, plus it's lighter, smaller, portable, and much more pleasant to look at while it sits on my desk.

Their software is a little funky, with the hearts and all, but it's also very lightweight and effective software. It hooks into many great applications and web services, and the company seems to be adding more every few months. If you use Evernote for your personal information control, then Doxie is great.

Overall, if you want to digitize your documents, this thing kicks ass. It's fast and small and very pretty.

Easy set up and super simple to use. Works perfectly with our Mac network. Great scanner for personal use. We are scanning the mountain of paperwork everyone keeps because they think they might need it someday, and shredding the hard copies. It's safer not having those account numbers lying around and much easier to actually find what you are looking for when you scan and file with the Doxie.

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First of all, I bought the Doxie from Amazon refurbished, although I don't think it made a difference from a new product, other than having to clean it a bit more during the setup process.

It's a really great concept, being able to scan and have the result automatically pushed to other apps and to the cloud. I find it really convenient. Doxie has helped me go mostly paperless, although scanning bulky things like instruction manuals is impossible unless you tear the pages out first.

It's great that I can scan a document and get it into EverNote, which syncs with the EverNote server automatically, to get a piece of paper into the cloud in under a minute.

Now on to the issues:

There's an issue between Doxie and EverNote where the title used for the document gets cut off after 8 characters. When you finish scanning a document it asks for a title, so I'll put something like "groceries receipt 9/12/2011". Then I always have to copy the title, hit the "Send" button to send it to EverNote as a PDF, but in EverNote the filename will get cut off to GROCER~1.PDF, and the same for the note title. Here I'll select the title in EverNote and paste what I copied from Doxie. It's a minor annoyance.

Another thing is where it's very easy to forget to change the scan settings for future scans. Say I'm scanning a photo in color with high dpi, and then a few minutes later dig up a black and white receipt to scan. I'll more often than not, put in the receipt and hit the physical scan button on the Doxie, forgetting to change to Grayscale with lower dpi--resulting in an unnecessarily huge file. Again a minor annoyance with the UI. It happens because after scanning the first photo, EverNote pops up on the screen, usually obscuring the Doxie window. Once I finish the copy & paste dance (the previous issue I mentioned), I forget that the Doxie window is there. At least with different dpi, the actual scan is noticeably slower, so I know to cancel and try again. But between Color and Grayscale it takes the same amount of time, the only difference being the file size, so I won't know until afterwards that I unnecessarily scanned in color.

An issue with the scan itself, which is a bit more annoying, is that the paper will often slide around and become crooked as it scans. So pretty much every time I scan something that's more than 1 page thickness (i.e. I folded the paper in half) I'll have to guide the paper through with both hands, in an attempt to minimize the sliding. There have been a number of times when I had to rescan a document because it slid and became crooked and unreadable.

My last issue is that Doxie has trouble scanning long documents. For example, I tried scanning a brochure pamphlet thing I got at Mount Rushmore, but Doxie automatically stops before the last few inches. Same thing with this folded terms and conditions from a car rental company, I just couldn't scan the entire thing in one go. Same with a long grocery receipt.

So, would I recommend Doxie? I'm on the edge on this one. If I had to replace my Doxie, I'd probably first look at other brands and compare.

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I got a Doxie because it's so portable.

It powers entirely though the USB, so if you have a laptop you could basically use it anywhere. I used it once in a hotel once, and once in my university library, both for sending documentation that needed to be rushed. But mostly I scan receipts and goofy stuff like forms from my insurance company.

It's been reliable, but the one time it was acting up, the support people were quick and efficient.

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I already owned a flatbed scanner, but it is such a hassle to scan, edit, and save. Doxie is clearly directed to a female population, which I don't mind, and is ridiculously easy to use. One button is all you need. Editing and saving is also effortless, and you can send your documents straight to programs like Evernote. I use it for everything from tax documents, receipts, and medical records to magazine articles and recipes.

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