General computer skills/Scanning printed pages - Revision history

Brett Wuth at 19:04, 3 May 2016

Brett Wuth — Tue, 03 May 2016 19:04:40 GMT

←Older revision		Revision as of 19:04, 3 May 2016
Line 1:		Line 1:
	You can save yourself a lot of time		You can save yourself a lot of time
-	by ~~''never''~~ scanning a page that you've printed. There's a much faster	+	by not scanning a page that you've printed. There's a much faster
	and higher quality way of doing the same thing.		and higher quality way of doing the same thing.

Brett Wuth at 17:21, 3 May 2016

Brett Wuth — Tue, 03 May 2016 17:21:20 GMT

←Older revision		Revision as of 17:21, 3 May 2016
Line 24:		Line 24:
	The only times you should want to scan a page that originally came from		The only times you should want to scan a page that originally came from
	a computer are:		a computer are:
-	* when you don't have the original computer file. E.g. someone gave you only the printed copy	+	* when you don't have the original computer file. E.g. someone gave you only the printed copy. Perhaps you can ask them if a PDF is available
	* when there's stuff on the printed page that's not on the computer file. E.g. a signature		* when there's stuff on the printed page that's not on the computer file. E.g. a signature

Brett Wuth: New page: You can save yourself a lot of time by ''never'' scanning a page that you've printed. There's a much faster and higher quality way of doing the same thing. When you scan a page what you'...

Brett Wuth — Tue, 03 May 2016 17:19:47 GMT

New page: You can save yourself a lot of time by ''never'' scanning a page that you've printed. There's a much faster and higher quality way of doing the same thing. When you scan a page what you'...

New page

You can save yourself a lot of time
by ''never'' scanning a page that you've printed. There's a much faster
and higher quality way of doing the same thing.

When you scan a page what you're wanting to end up with is a PDF of that
page. Your computer can create the PDF without printing it to paper
first.

Most programs (e.g. your wordprocessor) have a menu option to create a
PDF. This is usually something like "File > Export ..." and then choose "as
PDF". This will create a PDF file on your computer which you can then
upload to the wiki. You skip the printing and scanning entirely.

For those programs that don't have a PDF option, you can generally
choose "File > Print ..." and then set your printer to "Print to PDF".

Avoiding the scanning step will have these advantages:
* it's faster
* it saves paper
* the PDF is more readable
* you can copy text from the PDF
* the PDF is thousands of times smaller

The only times you should want to scan a page that originally came from
a computer are:
* when you don't have the original computer file. E.g. someone gave you only the printed copy
* when there's stuff on the printed page that's not on the computer file. E.g. a signature