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Corex CardScan 600c
February 5, 2003 CardScan 600c (Corex, Windows 98+, $299; B&W version $199; software only $79) card scanner is an amazing time-saving device that scans information from business cards and then automatically puts that information into a readily usable format. And more. This scanner, with its included CardScan V6 IVY software, makes it easy to organize contact information from all those business cards you collect. Just open the software, drop a card into the scanner, and in seconds the card is scanned in full color. Then choose to scan more cards or process the card just scanned. Whether you process one or many cards, the software performs OCR (optical character recognition) on the card’s image and automatically organizes the information into the correct fields in the CardScan address book. The contact’s 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 info into your contact manager program. The OCR isn’t perfect, but it’s a snap to make changes, corrections, or to add notes and the like. The program does have 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. You can also scan the back of the card to keep 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. 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 it 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 putting together all the cards from specific conventions or meetings. A contact can be included in more than one category. A neat 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) to have the program display 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!, and in addition will synchronize contact data with the address books in PDAs such as Palm or Handspring. There’s more: the program also synchronizes with the address books in many models of cell phones, saving those tedious key-punching sessions trying to update the dialing lists in your phone. You can print your list of contacts showing all or selected information, print a subset of your list or print labels. 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 the MapQuest Web site, 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 Corex company maintains a secure Web site, www.cardscan.net, where you can upload your address book, encrypted and password protected, for backup and guaranteed safe-keeping. From www.cardscan.net you can access your address book world wide. Make changes either at your computer or on the www.cardscan.net backup, and these changes are automatically synchronized with each other. The on-line backups are free for users of the CardScan V6 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 on-line address book to verify that all their contact info is still correct. All the recipient has to do is click OK or, if necessary, add any new data. Next time you synchronize with your on-line backup, any updated data is added to your computer’s address book. The scanner itself is small, measuring about 7 x 2 x 4 inches and weighing 14 ounces. The unit connects to your computer’s USB port and requires an included plug-in AC adapter. This all fits in most brief cases, so you can take them along to use at meetings, conventions and such. Installation and setup are very easy. There’s a complete User’s Guide to fill in all the details and a short tutorial to get you off and scanning. Highly recommended for dealing with those mountains of business cards. |
