These days the ability to scan documents is the most important part of a multifunctional machine. We’ve previously written articles about the benefits of digital document management, how to stay organized at work, and document management best practices. Scanning is the cornerstone of each of those articles.

In other words, we’ve written about scanning at length, but one thing we have yet to cover are the many ways in which you can scan documents. There’s more than you may think, and in this post we will go over several of the most important ways you can use the scanning functionality of your multifunctional machine.

The Many Ways to Scan Documents

Scanning in Color
Whether you have a color machine, or a black and white machine, you can always scan in full color (if that’s what you want to do). It’s not uncommon for customers to be under the false assumption that if they purchase or lease a black and white machine they are limited to scanning in black and white as well. There’s no truth to that at all. No matter what kind of machine you have, if it has the ability to scan then it has the ability to create a full color electronic document.

Scan Directly to Email
If you’re scanning a document with the intention to email it to a coworker or client, you can scan it directly to your email inbox. In theory you can scan any document, put it on your computer, and email it to whoever you want — but this feature allows you to skip a few steps. Just scan directly to email, and there it is ready to send.

Scan to Computer
When people think about the ways to scan a document, this is the most common one that comes to mind. If your computer is connected to your multifunctional machine, you can scan a document directly to your computer hard drive. Alternatively, if you have a large office with many computers networked together, you can scan documents to a network hard drive for everyone to access. From there you can send it to others via email, file it electronically, or do virtually whatever you want with it.

Scan to Copier Hard Drive
Multifunctional machines come equipped with their own internal hard drives, so another way to scan a document is to scan it and store it directly to the copier hard drive. This is a useful feature if there are specific documents that you frequently need to print or make copies of. If you scan the documents directly to the copier hard drive, they’re immediately accessible for making physical copies whenever you need them.

Scan to External Hard Drive
Modern multifunctional machines have USB ports which allow you to scan a document directly to an external hard drive. Whether it’s a thumb drive, or a larger storage device — you can scan to any type of external device that connects via USB. This feature makes it incredibly easy to scan a document and it with you wherever you may need it.

Conclusion

We hope this has helped open your eyes to the various ways in which you can scan documents. If you need any further advice about scanning documents we recommend reading the articles linked to at the beginning of this post. Or, of course, you can always contact us directly.