Working with a document

Whenever a document is open, regardless of whether you just scanned or converted it or you're opening a document that you previously saved to the cloud, there are several things you can do with it. Note that if you do any of the actions below before you have saved a document to the cloud, you will first be asked to give the document a name. Then, for your convenience, the document will be saved to the cloud in addition to the action you requested, unless you have disabled Serotek cloud storage and processing in Preferences (only available on Windows).

Emailing a document

To send a document by email, press the "Email" button or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+E on Windows or Command+E on the Mac. If you're on Windows and you're a Sero subscriber, you'll be asked whether you want to send this document via Sero email. If you answer yes, the Sero email window for sending a message will open. If you answer no, or if this option doesn't apply, then your default email program, such as Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, will open. In either case, the document will be attached to the new message as an HTML file.

Sending to Amazon Kindle

You can send a document to your Amazon Kindle account by email. This will work on a physical Kindle device, as well as on various Kindle apps. Note that this feature is not available if you have disabled Serotek cloud storage and processing in Preferences (only available on Windows). First, check your Amazon account to see if a Kindle email address has been assigned to it. If not, you will need to log into Amazon, set up a Kindle email address, and add your email address as an approved sender for your Kindle account. Once you have done that, you're all set to send documents to your Kindle account from DocuScan Plus.

First, scan or open the document you want to send. Then press the "Send to Kindle" button or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+K on Windows or Command+K on the Mac. If this is your first time sending a document to your Kindle account from DocuScan Plus, you'll be asked for the email address of your Kindle account, and the email address to use in the "From" header of the email. This second email address is the one you added as an approved sender on Amazon. Once you've entered these email addresses and pressed the "Send" button, the document will be sent. You only have to enter these email addresses once; after that, just press "Send to Kindle" or the appropriate keyboard shortcut, and the document will be on its way.

Making a DAISY book

DocuScan Plus lets you convert a document to the popular DAISY format. This format includes the text of the document itself, and optionally an audio recording created by synthesizing the text with your preferred text-to-speech engine. You can then transfer the DAISY book to a portable DAISY player, or play it using a program on your computer which supports this format. Using your DAISY player, you can play the audio content of the book you've just created, or you may switch to the text content, which will give you the ability to navigate the content by character, word, sentence, and so on. When playing the audio version of the DAISY book you've created, you may navigate by phrase, which in this instance will jump by paragraph.

To make a DAISY book, first scan or open the document you want to convert, then press the button called "Make a DAISY Book", or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+D on Windows or Command+D on the Mac. DocuScan Plus will then prompt you to choose the folder where you want to save the DAISY book, using your operating system's standard folder selection dialog. Then, DocuScan Plus will ask if you want the DAISY book to include audio. If you answer yes, the audio will be created using the text-to-speech engine that you have chosen in Preferences. In any case, DocuScan Plus will then show the progress of the conversion and play a sound when it's done. Feel free to do other things, in other applications or in DocuScan Plus itself, while the conversion is in progress.

Creating an MP3 file

To make an MP3 recording of your document, which can then be played on your computer or any portable device that supports MP3 playback, first scan or open the document, then press the button called "Make MP3 File", or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+3 on Windows or Command+3 on the Mac. DocuScan Plus will then present a standard file save dialog to ask where you want the MP3 file to be saved. Once you've selected the location and name of your file, DocuScan Plus will create the file using the text-to-speech engine you've chosen in Preferences. It will show the progress of the conversion and play a sound when done. Feel free to do other things, in other applications or in DocuScan Plus itself, while the conversion is in progress.

Saving a document to your computer

You can save a document to your computer as an RTF, plain text (TXT), or Braille (BRF) file, which you can then edit or print with another program. If you have already saved the document to the cloud, or if you opened a document in a format such as Microsoft Word or ePub that is automatically saved to the cloud when it's opened, then you'll find a button called "Save to This Computer", or you can use the keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+S on Windows or Command+S on the Mac. If you haven't yet saved the document to the cloud, press the "Save" button, give the document a name, then press the button called "Save to This Computer". In either case, DocuScan Plus will then present a standard file save dialog, which you can use to select the location, name, and type of file to save. Note that conversion to Braille (BRF) is not available if you have disabled Serotek cloud storage and processing in Preferences (only available on Windows).

When saving an RTF file, DocuScan Plus will use your font and color preferences. When saving a Braille (BRF) file, DocuScan Plus will use the translation table set in your Braille preferences. By default, this is US English computer braille, which may not be what you want. For more information on all of these preferences, see the "Preferences" section below.

Bookmarks in documents

If you have already saved a document to the cloud, then you can add a bookmark to the document, and return to that bookmark later. To add a bookmark, find the place where you want to add the bookmark, press the "Add Bookmark" button, or the keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+B on Windows or Command+B on the Mac. DocuScan Plus will ask you for a name for this bookmark, in case you add more than one. If you've already added a bookmark, DocuScan Plus will ask whether you want this new bookmark to replace the previous one. Then the bookmark will be added. Later, to return to your bookmark, press the "Go to Bookmark" button, or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+G on Windows or Command+G on the Mac. If you've added more than one bookmark, DocuScan Plus will show you a list of your bookmarks, and you'll need to choose the one you want. Note that bookmarks are not absolutely precise; they will generally get you to the screen where you left off, but not the exact line. Your bookmarks will be saved in the cloud along with the document itself, so you can stop reading on one computer, then continue on a different computer.

Editing a document

If you've already saved a document to the cloud, you can edit the document from within DocuScan Plus. To do this, press the "Edit" button. You will then be able to edit the document as you see fit. When done, press the "Save" button to save the modified document back to the cloud.

Scanning more pages to add to a document

If you want to scan more printed pages to add to a document that you've already saved to the cloud, press the "Add to Document" button, or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+A on Windows or Command+Shift+A on the Mac. DocuScan Plus will then open the "Scan a Document" window, which lets you choose your scanning device and the type of scanning you want to do, just as when scanning a new document. For more information, see the section above called "Scanning a printed document".

Setting a password

If you need to protect a confidential document you have saved to the cloud, you can set a password which will be required whenever the document is opened in the future. To do this, press the "Set Password" button, or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+P on Windows or Command+P on the Mac. DocuScan Plus will then prompt for a password for this document. Once you have set a password on a document, no one, not even Serotek staff, will be able to access the document without this password, so make sure you don't lose it.

Renaming a document

To rename a document that you've previously saved to the cloud, press the "Rename" button, or its keyboard shortcut, which is Alt+R on Windows or Command+R on the Mac. DocuScan Plus will then prompt you for a new name for this document.

Deleting a document

To delete a document that you've previously saved to the cloud, press the "Delete" button. DocuScan Plus will ask you if you're sure you want to delete the document, then if you answer yes, it will delete the document and close the window.


Last modified October 24, 2016

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