Here are two questions I see come up a lot: As a ScanSnap user what do I do with my documents once I get them into my Mac? And how can I make changes to these PDF documents?

Great questions! In a previous article I mentioned how you can scan directly to your desktop or Evernote. So now what? As a Mac person you have some more wonderful resources at your fingertips.

Just the other day a “new media” book was released to the iTunes store, by David Sparks. It’s great to say it will not be printed in paper version (since the topic is about going paperless). This book includes 32 screencasts and 4 movies to show step by step ways to go paperless. You won’t find those kinds of bonuses in a paperback book. David really loves his ScanSnap and is a huge supporter of this product. Why? Because it works so seamlessly with the Mac. This new media book is great for all levels of ScanSnap and paperless users. And the best part? It’s only $4.99!

Paperless: David Sparks
A MacSparky Field Guide
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/paperless/id520393162?mt=11

David breaks his work down into 3 very understandable sections: Capture, Process and How to use them once you’ve gone paperless.

The other question is how do you make changes to PDF documents once I have them on my Mac or iPad?
Another wonderful “Mac only” resource is available from Smile Software. They are a small company located in CA. Smile has several incredible products including PDFpen and PDFpen for the iPad. After you scan in a document it becomes a PDF. With PDFpen you can make changes to it, including adding your signature, filling in forms and other wonderful things. I find PDFpen for the iPad indispensable since it allows me to make changes to a document and then send it back to whomever emailed it to me.

Be sure to check out the online screencast tutorials:
http://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/
http://smilesoftware.com/PDFpen/iOS/index.html

In last month’s article I posted an answer to this question:  How can I get the copy that is sent to the desktop to ALSO show a more meaningful title automatically?”

There is a workaround you can setup via an AppleScript, and while you’ll need some sort of technical know-how, you’ll find helpful step-by-step instructions on IFormattable. It was worth repeating. As Christopher Atkins points out in his January 12, 2012 blog:

Evernote Watched Folder on Mac Snow Leopard
Maybe you’re a PC going Mac, or just a Mac looking to save a few clicks, but in either case you could reasonably expect this PC-only feature of Evernote to be available on Snow Leopard: watched folders. Basically, this ensures that most documents put into a particular folder find their way into a new note in Evernote. This is useful is you want to save PDFs, for example, that are not clipped in the way standard HTML pages are when using the Evernote Web Clipper plug-in for your favorite browser.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this article. Being a Mac person you have a lot of resources at your fingertips when it comes to being paperless. And the NUMBER ONE resource is how easily ScanSnap makes it all happen.

Lorene Romero (@lorener) is the President of the North Coast Mac Users Group in Santa Rosa, CA. She is also a full-time Travel Agent.