Customer Reviews

ScanSoft PaperPort Professional 10

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This is the first edition of PaperPort that I have used, so I am not writing this from the perspective of the value of an upgrade from earlier versions. This is a "first impressions" review.

Right after I installed it, I wanted to start an index on my computer. I have about 30 Gig of documents, so I knew this would be a chore.

First effort: Run the included "Index Manager". This failed because Index manager does not erase temp files until the entire scan completes. I had 40 Gig of free space on my disk, but that wasn't enough. I had to abort the scan. A full two days wasted before I recognized the issues with Index Manager.

Second effort: Run the internal index by selecting, "Add to all-in-one index". This seemed to work, however it kept me from using PaperPort while running. I decided to try another route.

Third effort: Setup to scan during "idle time" and let it run. This worked fine. It still took hours, however it cleaned up as it went. I was still unable to use PaperPort while the index ran because the index would restart. I did let it complete my index, however.

Now I have all my documents indexed. How does maintenance work? Many of the local PC search utilities tie into Windows XP functionality and update in realtime without having to rescan the hard disk. Not true with PaperPort. Clearly dependent on old code, it must scan periodically. Okay, we'll move on.

PaperPort will scan during idle times. The problem is that it reads through everything, every time. Then if you use PaperPort, let it go idle, it will again restart from the beginning. If you have a substantial amount of documents, this method just won't do. The index program will run constantly.

Since I have the professional version, I have "Index Manager", which allows me to schedule regular updates for my index. While this tool was unacceptable for building the initial index, it does work for maintenance. I set it up and let it run through and "update" my documents. Just to be clear, no changes were made to my documents, I just wanted to test the program. Even though every single document was recently indexed and not one file was changed, it still took hours to rescan my data. Monitoring the temp folder, it produced over 1 Gig of temp files for documents that were not modified. This is horribly inefficient. Even with no document changes, an update scan will take a half day to complete. This is INSANE!

A "professional" edition of this product should index documents better. The entire index process is totally garbage-by-design. My point deductions for this program are strictly due to the indexing process.

If your documents are less than a couple gig, then this application will probably work okay for you.

So now onto the application of PaperPort. What a great product! I could make a long list of things to improve, but the improvements I would suggest are minor. I love being able to see the pages of my documents, to search through all these PDF documents, OmniPage projects (I love OmniPage), etc.

For the main application, you can use PaperPort to manage documents in all new ways. I love being able to stack and unstack pages, move things around, and it makes short work of organizing my huge collection of electronic documents. I could list a dozen features I would like to see added, however what is provided works extremely well.

I have to add a couple more negatives. If you want support, you have to pay for it. You get one free call and that's it. The documentation is weak, the knowledgebase is rediculously weak, and email is billable. The forums are the only free option for support and I have not been able to get a login setup for the forums.

I am a huge fan of OmniPage Pro 14 and I use it all the time. PaperPort will be part of my new routine for the time being. If I find a better product, I will fly quickly away since PaperPort cannot maintain indexes very well.

Indexing: 1 Star
Document Acquiring: 5 Stars
Application Functionality: 3.5 Stars
Support: 2 Stars

Conclusion: If you are interested in electronic document management and your volume is reasonably modest, this product is an excellent value. If you want a "professional" tool, don't be fooled by the word "professional" in the title of this product. This is not a professional solution.

I'm a huge fan of Paperport 9; I use it extensively. I was excited to see an upgrade and recently installed PaperPort 10. While the split screen and other features are a nice improvement, the software seems very buggy.

The biggest problem for me is that I can no longer scan multiple page items using an HP OfficeJet scanner. I spoke with their technical support about this issue and was informed that "PaperPort 10 is not as good as PaperPort 9 at scanning and stuff." These were the exact words of one of PaperPort's support engineers. At least this engineer was kind enough to tell me how to best uninstall version 10.

I would keep looking.

I installed v10 and was not able to get it working and I am a Microsoft Engineer. I do have a lot of software on my machine but with the lousy support that they have and the fact that they are making you pay to debug their software I would stay away from this unless you want to create headaches for yourself.

On their forums you can find many other users who requested their money back as I had to do.

The worse problem was that it broke the Version 9 that I had that was working and to add insult to injury, after they broke my system I had to pay $20 to have them get it back to working order.

I do not mind paying for support if it is my fault. But if you (scansoft) break it you should fix it.

Someone should tell the support line in India that if you are going to get a fake US sounding name and you are a female you should at least get a female name not one like Allen. This is just indicative of the lack of professionalism on the support line.

When you are a software company and your support line is a profit center you need to be concerned!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would have to agree with the comments previously mentioned.

I have to add a couple more negatives. If you want support, you have to pay for it. You get one free call and that's it. The documentation is weak, the knowledgebase is rediculously weak, and email is billable. The forums are the only free option for support and I have not been able to get a login setup for the forums.

I am a huge fan of OmniPage Pro 14 and I use it all the time. PaperPort will be part of my new routine for the time being. If I find a better product, I will fly quickly away since PaperPort cannot maintain indexes very well.

As one reader suggested: revert back to v8!
I bought a Brother MFC that inlcuded PaperPort 8, because I wanted to utilise the ADF to get my documents onto disks, rather than floating around in the office. The software was a charm. Just put the documents into the ADF of the MFC, press Scan to file, and off it goes.

I can't recall for what reason I upgraded to v9, but this was the end of being able to use the "Scan to File" function.

I bought a new PC running XP. Installed v9, and had the same problem: no "Scan to file" functionality.

I installed XP SP2 and the frustration kicked in. Now the software did not even work. ScanSoft advised on their web site that v10 would be required to run on XP SP2. I bought it, and guess what: scanning would not work properly.
1. "Scan to file" still does not work!
2. Scanning multiple documents does not work at all, no matter which way it is being intitiated, or whether PaperPort of SmartScan is being used.

v9 and v10 are not worth the money, let alone the time wasted Google-ing around to find answers to the problem, with ScanSoft simply not carying at all. Their suggested fix of enabling Data Execution Prevention (except for PaperPort) did not make a difference!!

Buy something else!

I will see how how I go with v8. But v10 will be uninstalled!

Buyer beware! There is much harsher critique out there... and I agree: ScanSoft does not deserve my business!

I have used paperport for a long time, having upgraded several times. By Version 9, things became unbearable. Hoping that the company would have responded to the ample negative feedback on their internal own "paperport users community" discussion board, I went ahead and bought v10. What a mistake! It was even more buggy than the previous version. And Nuance/Scansoft's customer support? a waste of time-IF you get through, they'll put you through endless paces that don't resolve user's problems. It appears that the newly branded "Nuance" has basically abandoned the consumer market and are putting all of their resources into the B2B market, i.e. IVR applications etc. I will not make the same mistake again, Nuance managed to turn a loyal customer into one that wouldn't go near their products with a 10 foot pole.

We use Paperport 10 with a Fujitsi scanner on XP workstations and it works like a dream! The directory management and file sizes are amazingly good. The ability to browse and display pages quickly and easily are excellent. That's the good news.
The bad news, and it is REALLY bad, is the indexing function.

We've got our images on a server, with PP10. I've been told that if the indexing is done on the server, they will be available to the clients, so they don't have to run the index procedure as well - Nope, incorrect.
If you try to run the indexing program whilst the server index is running, PP10 says you can't, whilst the server is doing the biz. Stop the server indexing and start the client, PP10 says the server is still running, but would I like to force a local index - say yes, and the server index is broken and the local still won't start, because it says the server still has the process. Go back to the server and try it again and it says it can't because the workstation has the process!!!
All this is on top of the problems the other reviewers have come across.

This is a tragedy. I've actually got it working (once) after about a weeks work. It was amazing. I could find phrases or words in 10's of k's of documents almost instantly. Without it, this is just another file and print storage system.

It's also interesting to note that the link to the on-line community from their website is broken, so I'm unable to see what other problems users are having - accidental? You make up your own mind!

I am a longtime Paperport user and fan. I currently use Paperport Pro Version 9.0, which is excellent.

A year ago I tried upgrading to PaperPort Pro V 10, because it had some major new features that - in theory - sounded awesome. However, it screwed my computer up so badly that I ended up having to reformat my hard drive and then reinstall my operating system (Win XP Pro) and all my old software and data. If you think my problem was a fluke, look at the other reviews posted here and elsewhere on the Internet.

Nuance/ScanSoft never admitted to any problem and never resolved many of the major problems with version 10.

Yesterday, I received a mailing from Nuance/ScanSoft announcing a new version 11 as "... the biggest upgrade in the history of PaperPort..." and touting it as "The BEST ScanSoft PaperPort Professional EVER!".

No way I'm going to trust them again, unless I receive a personal letter from the President, with an apology for all the problems with Version 10 and a personal assurance that those problems were resolved in Version 11.

I'm sticking with Version 9. I would advise you to do the same.

For many years I have used Paperport at home in conjunction with Quicken, scanning receipts, utility bills, etc., and attaching the scanned document to the Quicken register item it pertains to. (I am using Quicken 2001 Deluxe.) This was one of the primary things I'd do with Paperport. Unfortunately, Paperport 10 does not seem to function with Quicken, and as near as I can tell by web surfing, this holds true for newer versions of Quicken as well. The minute I installed Paperport 10 (and it uninstalled Paperport 8) all the linked documents in my Quicken file disappeared! There was no longer an icon on the bottom of the page to export a scanned document to Quicken.

For many people, this may not be an issue, but for me it was a deal-breaker. I uninstalled the thing and reinstalled Paperport 8.

A business associate turned me onto this product for my agency. Having never used the program I was skeptical. I originally bought the other version of Paperport also called Paperport 10 but not "Professional" Upon investigation it became clear that I made the wrong choice in my attempts to get by on the "cheap", so I decided to return the first copy and to go all out and get the professional version. I also decided I needed a new scanner to work with Windows XP. Mine was old and didn't have a document feeder. Let me tell you, sometimes change is good! After getting used to doing things the paperless way I soon discovered that this program is totally fantastic. One note of advice. If you work with PDF files then you MUST have the "Professional" version. I can't even begin to detail all the new and better ways I have discovered to work. There is a utility called Scan Direct that is great, it comes with another utility called PDF Creater that I cannot live without. I have since decided to get Omnipage and now I can scan in a file to Paperport and convert it to an editable Word document. The whole thing has changed the way I work. I subsequently purchased two more copies for the other workstations that don't even have a scanner. I highly recommend it.

I have been using Paperport since it first came out. I find that it works well for my purposes, which including maintaining a massive collection of scanned papers and articles. Also, it is a handy tool for easily connecting scans to printers, word processing software and email. What I do not like about it is a very clunky indexing feature, which takes too long to index a large number of files.