SmartSoft Capture Part 5 - To separate or to not separate. That is the question

Monday, Dec 12, 2016

Do you have piles of paper to scan? Are you processing multiple pages of documents at once? SmartSoft capture can support multiple pages when scanning or importing files.

There are a few ways that pages can be separated when processing documents through Capture. This is configured in the Tools > Settings > General tab.

SmartSoft Capture automatic page separation

One page documents

If every document is a single page document, disable the Enable automatic document merge check box. If you have multiple page documents, do not disable this setting.

Multiple page documents

If you have multiple page documents, enable the Enable automatic document merge check box and select one of the following Merge Mode options.

1. Auto

This setting makes Capture attempt to be smart about where to split the documents. It will look for page numbers, identical invoice numbers, or any kinds of clues to attempt to group pages from the same document together. If the clues are sparse, you may need to try another method such as barcode separators or manual manipulation.

2. 1 Document = 1 File

This setting is only to be used when processing existing files, in other words, you are not scanning paper documents in. This will keep all the pages from one file together and will not split them up. For example, you can open a 57 page PDF file and Capture will not split up the pages.

3. Fixed page count per document

If the number of pages that are being scanned is always the same, for example always 2 pages long, pick this setting.

3. Use barcode separators

If you find that Capture is having issues with splitting your documents automatically, the foolproof method of getting the documents separated in the right place is to use a barcode separator sheet. You can place a barcode page in between where the documents need to be split. The barcode separator sheet can be printed from here. I recommend to print these out on a light yellow paper as they can be quickly added and removed and reused repeatedly. The yellow paper makes the barcode separator sheets easily visible in the stack and the light yellow won’t interfere with the visibility of the barcode when scanning.

SmartSoft Capture barcode separator page

Still having problems with separation?

If you’re still experiencing issues where the document separation isn’t quite right and needs to be adjusted, you can use the manual method in the session view.

In the session view you can right-click on a page and select one of the following options:

Move current page up – Merges a page to the document/page above. Rearranges the pages in multiple page documents.
Move current page down – Merges a page to the document/page below. Rearranges the pages in multiple page documents.
Move current page to a new document – Splits the current page from the previous page into a new document.
Merge current document to previous document – Appends the current page to the previous document.
Merge current document to next document – Appends the current page to the next document.
Split document at current page – Splits the document from the currently selected page. For example, if you need to split page 2 and page 3, select page 3 and click the "Split document..." option.