|
|
|
|
November 29 2006 Organize Your Business Cards
CardScan Executive (www.CardScan.com, Windows XP, $259; B&W personal version $159) is a time-saving device that scans business cards and then automatically puts the information in a readily usable database format. The data is then available to sort, organize, view, and synchronize to Outlook, a mobile device, and more. To use CardScan, just plug it into your computer, insert a card into the scanner slot, and in seconds the card is displayed in full color on your screen. Then you can scan more cards or process just the card scanned. Either way, the software performs OCR (optical character recognition) on the card’s image and automatically organizes the information into the correct fields in the included CardScan 8 contact management software. The contact name goes into the name field, the company into the company field, and so on. We watched this work, accurately, time and time again. No more manually typing the information into your contact manager program.
You can also scan the back of the card to keep other information, such as those hand-written notes we commonly write. CardScan can also read and sort business card information in several languages, such as French, German, Mexican and Swedish. There are occasional problems with business cards that have unusual fonts, speckled paper, watermarks and such, but the scanned image of the card is saved along with the contact information, so you can easily make any corrections needed. And although the OCR isn’t perfect, it’s a snap to make changes, corrections and to add notes and the like. The program also helps by highlighting information in fields it doesn’t recognize. Once your cards are scanned and processed, your contacts can all go into one address book, or you can create several address books. The contact information is displayed in the CardScan address book as a list of names, companies and phone numbers and can be sorted in any of these fields. Double-click any contact to display the complete information, including the scanned image of the card (front and back), notes and categories. The Categories feature is a great way to select groups of contacts. The program starts with a large predefined set of categories (such as personal, prospects, vendors), but you can add or delete categories to fit your needs. Great for keeping together all the cards from specific conventions or meetings. And a contact can be included in more than one category, making the program even more useful.
A cool convenience feature is Quick Search, which lets you type in anything about a contact (such as name, city, company or even any part of a note you remember writing or a few letters of a name). The program then displays a list of contacts matching your search terms. You can also search by name by clicking on any letter displayed along the top of the screen to find contacts whose last name begins with that letter. CardScan can automatically or on command synchronize with your favorite PIM (personal information manager), such as Outlook or ACT! It will also synchronize contact data with the address books in PDAs running Palm OS and with smart phones running Windows Mobile.
You can print your list of contacts, showing all or selected information, print a subset of your list or print labels in a variety of formats. Click on a contact’s e-mail address to send an e-mail, or click on the phone number to have the program dial it for you. Scan your own personal card into the program, and you can attach it to outgoing e-mails. And if you need a map or directions to a given contact, just right click on the address to go to MapQuest or other favorite mapping Web sites, and the appropriate map is automatically displayed. Another click and you’ll get written directions. Very cool. And, true to our preaching about backups, the CardScan company maintains a secure Web site, www.cardscan.net, where you can upload your address book, encrypted and password protected, for backup and guaranteed safekeeping. From www.cardscan.net you can access your address book from anywhere in the world. Make changes either at your computer or on the Web site, and these changes are automatically synchronized with each other. The on-line backups are free for users of CardScan Version 8 software. An additional plus for using www.cardscan.net is automatic updating. You can choose to have the service send a quarterly e-mail to each contact listed in your online address book to verify that all their contact info is still correct. All the recipient has to do is click OK or, if necessary, change any information. Next time you synchronize with your online backup, any updated data is added to your computer’s address book. The scanner is small, measuring about 7 x 2 x 4 inches and weighing 10 ounces (the personal model is smaller at 4 x 3.5 x 1.75 inches). The unit connects to and is powered from your computer’s USB port. The scanner fits in most brief cases, so you can take it along to use at meetings, conventions and such. Installation and setup are very easy, and there’s a complete User Guide on disc to fill in all the details. Highly recommended for dealing with those mountains of business cards and keeping your contacts in orderly, usable fashion. |
