Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-24 of 24
 Neat Idea! November 26, 2008
rbhatta (Sunnyvale, CA, USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This review is for NeatScan To Office (White)
This is indeed a Neat Idea; Intended for business people on the go for those quick scans needed to complete your expense report on time.
The unit is sleek, small and well designed for portability, the packing is also very impressive, A lot of care has been taken in the packaging the unit. The software package installed fine on Windows XP home Operating system without any need for rebooting.
PROS:
(+) Small, Sleek, Looks cute and portable
(+) DOES not require additional power (It draws power from USB port)
(+) Scans directly into Micro$soft applications like Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc;
(+) Very fast OCR conversion (Scanning pages into Word files are fast)
(+) upto 600 DPI optical scan in other applications like MS Paint or Adobe Photoshop etc;
(+) Includes a carry bag for true portability
CONS:
(-) Photo Scans are not that great.
(-) Need to have Micro$oft Office Suite to have those Scan Buttons enabled.
(-) If the bills are crumbled the scanner fails to read the information accurately and import them into EXCEL
IMPORTANT Notes:
(**) Install the CD containing the drivers and applications ** FIRST ** before plugging in the scanner into the USB port
(**) Connect the scanner directly to the USB port on your computer, Do not connect to a non-powered USB hub or Keyboard / monitor USB port which cannot provide power to the scanner.
While the unit itself is very well designed, it has some shortfalls, the main problem is Photo Scan Quality, and it is not as good as other scanners within this price range.
But remember, this was mainly designed for portability and does a very good job in OCR conversion into Micro$oft applications.
It is indeed a nice idea and I am impressed by the OCR function of the unit, I am sure the price of this item will come down eventually making this a very good purchase.
 Low Quality Scans November 25, 2008
ESVK (Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The device itself is nice and small and very cool looking. But the quality of the scans is a very low 200 dpi. Which means it is great if you trying to scan receipts and b&w documents. But the quality of, let's say, a photo ad would be bad. This really limits what you can do with this scanner.
I own a Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 that is just plain awesome. I wasn't expecting that from the NeatScan for $150, but I was expecting high resolution scans - maybe just a lot slower. There are much better alternatives out there for a little more money. Check out the Fujitsu Scansnap S300.
Neat (No Pun) and Valuable Tool November 25, 2008
Dave - Free as Can Be (Franklin, TN)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was pleasantly surprised that such a small scanner would work so well, a large part which is obviously attributable to the supplied software which converts scanned items to Microsoft or Adobe products. It took me about ½ hour to set it up which requires that you read a simple set of instructions to load the software before you connect it via USB to your computer. It needs to be connected to a USB port on your computer and not to an auxiliary port you may have on your keyboard or monitor to insure sufficient power to the scanner. You can also watch a video contained on the software disk which is of some help understanding how and what the scanner can do. One small thing that I did not notice in the instructions is that to get the required Neat Scan tool box to appear on your MS Outlook 2007 product you must push the "Add-Ins" button on your existing MS tool box. After that, it is about a 20 second process to calibrate the scanner with the paper calibration templates supplied. I then scanned a 1 full page document with an uncommon font into Word which takes about 10 seconds and another 10 seconds for it to complete conversion. It converted without error and was easily modified in word to change fonts, font size and content. From there it is like any other word document which can be emailed or printed, etc.
As with MS Word, the conversion of a Neat scan to Power Point and Adobe Reader were error free in my limited trials.
I scanned a document into one of the supplied Excel templates which is a bit more involved and lengthens the learning curve significantly. I did not get this process to work perfectly, but I am certain that I will once I put a little more time into it. It also has the capability of custom designed templates which I designed a very simple one, and it worked.
The scanner itself is very compact and is exactly wide enough for an 8 ½" page width. A page just 1/8" wider will not fit because it appears that the opening helps maintain a straight page position. The scanner is made with good quality plastic on the outside. I did not disassemble it because it appears that the rubber feet on the bottom of the unit cover the screw heads that hold the top to the bottom and I did not want to pull apart a glued joint. However, even with its outward appearance of quality, I would guess that this unit is not meant for large volumes of scanning that might be necessary in some businesses. But at the Amazon price, I think it is a good investment for a personal scanner that converts to MS and Adobe or for a small business which would treat such scanners as supplies and not long-term capital expenditures. I will update this review should I discover any problems or significant items of note during its future use.
This review relates to product performance with MS Vista 32.
 Check the Specs. . November 25, 2008
palealien (Butte Creek Canyon, Ca United States)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
UPDATE: I finally have upgraded to the point of being able to use and appreciate this fine device, and so far I am enjoying it tremendously. I have not had a chance to write a full review as yet, so please stand by and watch for one soon.
I'd been looking forward to trying this model out, and seeing if any of the complaints about it I had read previously had been addressed. I was prepared for the fact that the NeatScan would not work on my workhorse old desktop, a Win98 machine in perfect working order. I plan to upgrade it to XP one of these days, but for now, I allowed that my laptop- a vintage XP unit- would probably be able to handle it, if being slightly less convenient to use.
The install started fine, unlike on the 98 machine. (Yeah, I tried anyway, I like to see how their install software handles it. In this case, it said it needed "Windows 2000 Service Pack Three or better".) But on the second screen on the laptop, it hung. I gave it ten minutes, during which time I heard the drives rattling and saw processor activity in Task Manager. I decided enough was enough and now there was another hardware issue, this machine met the low-end specs but is also a relic. I began to cancel the application, and then it suddenly began to continue. Hmm. So far so good- until another halt screen informed me that it needed MS Office 2003 or better, thanks and bye.
I was aware of the OS requirements, but in initial perusal of the product listing I did not see anything about which version of Office to use. If it's there, I haven't found it yet, I wanted to be sure before posting this review. As far as a description, here is about all I found under the description:
Product Features
· Installs a Scan button in all your MS Office applications
· Scans directly to Office applications
· Mobile, easy to carry scanner goes everywhere
· Boost productivity and cut down on re-typing, cutting and pasting
Technical Details
· Scanner Type: Sheetfed
· Optical Resolution: 600 dpi
· Maximum Document Size: 1 x 1 up to 8.5 x 14 (up to 30 long)
· Interface Connectivity: USB 2.0
· Power Source: USB Powered
So, it looks like a nice little unit, but until I score a copy of MSO 2K3, I will be unable to report further. If I do, (and it hasn't gone obsolete yet!) I will be providing a real review, possibly video.
I can only advise that when purchasing any PC device or software online, no matter how much you want to hope that: just because they left it out doesn't mean it still might work- contact the vendor or mfr. to be sure.
Showing reviews 21-24 of 24
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