double sided scan (by merging pages?)

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Level 1

106 points

double sided scan (by merging pages?)

I have a HP 8500 deskjet scan copy fax.

I need to do a double sided scan of a ton of documents.

Does anyone happen to know if I can do this by scanning one side (like 150 pages), then scanning other side and /merging/ the two results?

I know I would have to keep my fingers crossed and that I would have to make sure I deleted any bad scans so they lined up but will this work? Practically? Theoretically?

Thanks.

macbookpro and macpro, Mac OS X (10.6.6), parallels VM

Posted on Mar 21, 2011 2:55 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

PeterBreis0807

Level 8

41,241 points

Mar 21, 2011 3:14 PM in response to hotwheels22

If you want to turn this into a multi-page pdf, then save the scans as .pdfs and drag them into place in one pdf in Preview .app and resave that.

It might help if you do the scan in 2 batches, odds then evens and use Automator or Renamer or ABFRX to number the file names accordingly so they all fall into order in Finder.

They could then be dragged into Acrobat Pro to assemble into one .pdf at one stroke. Or manually into Preview's sidebar.

Pages is not involved at all in this.

Peter

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Answer 2

Barry

Level 9

60,035 points

Mar 21, 2011 11:16 PM in response to hotwheels22

For 150 pages, I'd drop into a self serve copy shop and run them through a machine with a sheet feeder that can do both sides of the paper in a single pass. For less than $20, it's going to be a lot faster than doing it with a deskjet.

And like Peter, I wonder what it is that you are actually trying to do, and what connection it has with Pages '09.

Regards,
Barry

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Answer 3

gosnet

Level 1

0 points

Oct 3, 2011 8:11 PM in response to hotwheels22

I never got an answer to this. My solution was to buy an Epson TX800FW and Acrobat X will at least see this device to scan. It scans single sided fine which Acrobat X will not do with the HP6500A. In fact Acrobat X will not even see the HP scanner although it prints fine. My best results with the Epson are when I uncheck the "Make Seatchable (Run OCR) box in Acrobat X. Then I can usually scan using the "Both Sides" option in Acrobat. Occasionally it will crash, though, but at least I have a solution that is working for me and allows me to do a modest amount of two-sided scanning. Infuriating because older versions of Acrobat worked fine for me on two sided scanning using an old HP all-in-one printer and either mac or pc versions. Someone, somewhere lost the recipe of simple two-sided scanning. I am now using a new MacBook Air OS 10.7.1 and Acrobat X for Mac.

Peter's answer Mar 21, 2011 4:14 PM looks like a possiblity also but I don't know what Automator, Renamer or ABFRX are.

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Answer 4

Oct 3, 2011 9:15 PM in response to gosnet

Automator is supplied with your Mac and lets you assemble a workflow of tasks: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 for one or more applications on your Mac. It works like assembling lego blocks.

Renamer is software that can sit at the top of your window and lets you rename files in many clever ways, including sequentially number them, add prefixes, suffixes etc

ABFRX is a A Better Finder Renamer X and does much the same as Renamer with a few more tweeks.

Both of you seem to not have had the correct drivers installed for your Printer/Scanners. OSX 10.6 and up have finally implemented TWAIN to make scanning available wherever needed, usually through Preview .app.

I use it in conjuction with my wireless HP Photosmart, but most of what you want seems to be part of your scanners and their drivers. Something you need to investigate with the supplier's websites, User Guides and whatever support you can get for those models.

Peter

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2011 5:33 PM in response to hotwheels22

HP is a bit of a shemozzle on this, but DL the software and pdf guides for your product and do the best you can.

One important point, where it asks you if you want to allow HP to get feedback don't click OK to that. It is a program that checks your media usage and sends it back to HP and has a bad memory leak in it.

I have found with my wireless All in One it was a bit quirky and needed a couple of prods and reboots and start-ups but eventually it made the link and more or less works now.

Name Mangler is fine (and free) I got the others as parts of bundles and they have a few more tricks up their sleeves.

Peter

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Answer 6

Mar 21, 2011 3:09 PM in response to hotwheels22

How do you mean merge?

Since they are separate pages and opposite sides of the sheet, why would you make them a spread which it sounds is what you want?

You can make spreads in Preview .app by opening the first page, enlarging the page size to the right, then copying and pasting the 2nd into place in the blank area then resaving.

But what's the point? What are you really trying to do? Print 2 up? Because if that is the problem it is better to just use your print dialog to achieve this.

Peter

btw What does this have to do with Pages?

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Answer 7

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

106 points

Mar 26, 2011 2:30 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Hi Peter.

Thanks.

I guess I could have posted in the Preview forum...I still get pages and preview mixed up as I get started up over here but I will go ahead and do this.

I have not started using automator yet but hope to in the next year or so. Can I ask you if either of the last two software recommendations you give are extremely easy to use and/or understand?

I have been using Name Mangler which I have found an unbelievable pleasure to use and an incredible time-saver and I'd love to increase my functionality with this.

Anyway, this seems like a really good idea and designed to do what I am hoping to do. Do you know how I might go about tackling this from a functional perspective? Somehow I would have even pages with some naming convention and then odd pages with some naming convention but I'm not sure how I might "slot them" so to speak.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Jon

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Answer 8

Mar 27, 2011 2:56 AM in response to hotwheels22

hotwheels #22 wrote:
I have not started using automator yet but hope to in the next year or so. Can I ask you if either of the last two software recommendations you give are extremely easy to use and/or understand?

Pretty easy to understand and use and we can help you with that.

Acrobat Pro is expensive but it does somewhat more than Preview.

What Preview does it mostly does very well. And it comes free with your Mac, so worth learning.

Peter

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Answer 9

gosnet

Level 1

0 points

Apr 23, 2011 7:35 PM in response to hotwheels22

I think I have the same issue as initially posted by hotwheels #22. Hope someone can help. What I'm trying to do is scan and save multiple page two-sided paper documents. I don't care so much about printing them out. I have hundreds of documents that I want to scan, save, archive and then I just shred the originals. This is very easy with windows and any old version of Adobe Acrobat and I have scanned thousands of pages this way with a PC and Acrobat. Acrobat has a drop down menu where you choose "front sides" or "both sides" but for some reason Acrobat "both sides" scanning does work with OS 10.6. I have a Macbook pro running on 10.6, a full version of Acrobat 10.0.3 for Mac and a new HP Officejet 6500A and I'm unable to scan "both sides". Does anyone have a solution to scanning two-sided documents using OS 10.6 and the new Acrobat?

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Answer 10

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

106 points

Sep 25, 2011 8:56 AM in response to gosnet

Hi g.

Did you ever get an answer to this?

I have a HP 8500 "All in one" and it seems the only thing it will do reliably is print. All the buttons no longer work on the device and I am totally at a loss as to how to fix this. I drop a question on the HP site and it is lost in the void. If I pay for tech help they end up putting me on with Mac.

Ah - short rant - anyway - - - did you ever solve this two sided scan issue? I actually need to still do this.

Thanks

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Answer 11

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

106 points

Oct 4, 2011 7:48 AM in response to gosnet

thank you for your help.

i've not been happy at all with HP's All In One 8500 scanner.

all i can do is get it to print.

then i pay for technical support and they tell me that it is out of warranty and I can send it in for a repair that will likely be the price of a new printer.

i'll likely be doing the don't buy HP Anything Ever Again.

Cheers and thanks for the help and the post

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Answer 12

hotwheels22 Author

Level 1

106 points

Oct 4, 2011 7:52 AM in response to PeterBreis0807

Hi Peter.

Always nice to see your name.

I have Name Mangler which I am quite happy with and I hope to get into Automator at some point in the next year. Can I please ask you about the printer DRIVERS for Mac in general and HP in particular?

I have been advised on the forum NOT to install printer drivers as they come with the OS and in talking with HP about why I can't just hit "scan" on the machine they say that this is a Mac issue and that it won't be fixed due to Mac conflicts. So I scan from the computer which is a pain. They actually put me on a conference call with Mac Tech when I called on this issue last time.

Now basically nothing works from the printer interface/buttons.

I see that HP does appear to have a driver on its site for this machine and I think it shows Mac OS.

Should I download the driver and put it on the MBP and MacPro?

Thanks for any guidance on this. I read the Lion technical docs on this and it appears that there are some improvements to this (excepting apparently the scan from the printer fix) but I am just really confused at this point.

Thanks...

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