Scanning options for your office printer

Scanning is an important feature for businesses so it is important to make sure your multifunctional printer is setup correctly.

If your business does lots of scanning then it is likely you have an automatic document feeder that can handle multiple and double sided pages easily.

For most new printers you normally have a choice of 3 options when scanning:

1. Scan to email

2. Scan to your printers Hard Drive

3. Scan to file on a Networked PC or Shared Drive

1. Scan to email

Scan to email is one of the easiest ways to send a scanned image or document. Simply place your document on the glass, or if multiple pages then use the document feeder; choose the settings required, enter the email address where the document needs to be sent to (or can be selected from the address book) and press the green button. This scan is then emailed directly to the recipient and does not require a computer to be connected to the printer. The recipient receives an email with pre-programmed text and the scanned imaged/file attached.

In order to use this functionality, you will need to assign an email address to your printer. The best way to do this is to setup a dedicated email address. This email address will the solely be used to send scanned documents.

Adding frequently used email addresses to your printer’s address book will also speed up the process and avoids errors when entering an email address.

If you are scanning very large files (detailed image files or hundreds of pages) then scanning directly to a computer can be faster, plus some email accounts have a size limit for attachments .

2. Scan to your printers Hard Drive

This is one of the easiest options to setup as this feature is built into new printers, and scanning is simple. The document is placed on the glass or loaded into the document feeder, settings chosen and option for Scan to HDD selected.

Using your computer, connected via the same network, you can access your scanned documents. These scanned documents can be copied over to your computer ready to be saved elsewhere or emailed.

This is not the best option if you are scanning sensitive documents as any other user on your network will have access to these same files.

After a number of days (normally 30, but this can be changed), or if the HDD’s storage limit has been reached, saved files on the printer’s hard drive will automatically be deleted.

3. Scan to file on a Networked PC or Shared Drive

Scanning to a PC or location on a network is more complex to setup and would require administrative passwords. Your own company’s internal or external IT support would need to provide or find a suitable area on your PC or network to save your scanning. Access to this location would need to be granted too.

Multiple locations can be setup and shortcuts created on your printer’s home screen to make scanning to each location easy. This may include a different location for different types of scanning (e.g. completed forms or archiving).

There is unlikely to be any restriction on file size, and if scanned files are sent to a secure location then only users with access are able to view the files.

To find out more about which scanning option is best for you, please give our support team a call on 01322 643826 or use our Contact Us form.