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Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > July > 17 > Entry
Getting those business cards all-digital
The problem.
When I started working at the American-Statesman, just over 12 years ago (I know; I am surprised by that, too), I didn’t have a PDA or a smartphone. I kept things in a weathered Day Planner I got in college. I thought it was a gigantic leap forward in my organizational prowess when the company gave me a large Rolodex (pictured above) to keep my business cards in order.
What I didn’t count on was that being a business reporter was one of the quickest ways to fill up that thing. In just a few months, I’d already jammed the Rolodex with enough business cards to exhaust my supply of plastic card sleeves. New business cards began to get stored, unfiled, in a box I kept in a desk drawer. I’d thumb through those cards like a Vegas dealer whenever I needed to contact someone who wasn’t on my computer’s contact list file.
A decade and hundreds of business cards later, my collection had grown to three boxes, the Rolodex (now dusty) and the hundreds of contact scattered across my work computer’s Address Book program, my laptop’s Address Book, my iPhone and my contacts list in Gmail.
I’d had enough. One of my big projects this year is to consolidate everything into one electronic contact list that’s synchronized across all my computers and is updated on my phone as well. It’s a tall order and I’m not even sure what some of the steps will involve, but I do know that the first order of business is getting rid of those stacks of cards — many of them filled with outdated, useless information — off my desk.
The first thing that spurred me to action was a Buy.com sale on a receipt/business card scanner for $69. That deal’s no longer available, but a business card-only scanner by the same company is there for just a little more, about $75.
The one I bought looks like this:
Most similar scanners I’ve seen cost more than $200, especially if you want a Mac version, so this was enough of a steal for me to go ahead and jump at the offer.
I installed the software on my Windows machine and got to work. I brought home several dozen business cards at a time and started scanning. The NeatWprls software that came with the device stores not only the information from the card, but also a color or black-and-white image of the original card in case you need to come back to it later. You can also scan a double-sided card (though you have to insert the card into the scanner manually twice), and it does a remarkably good job recognizing text and numbers from most standard-issue business cards.
It runs into problems with cards that have a black or transparent background, requiring you to go back and type much of the information anyway. But with about 75 percent of the cards I scanned, all the information was recognized and categorized correctly without much work on my end. You have the option of approving a card and going in and fixing any typos or category mix-ups (say, a physical address that might have gotten mixed up with a Web address).
Although going through and fixing things yourself would seem to defeat the purpose of having hardware and software dedicated to scanning in cards automatically, I learned to be sympathetic: I was amazed by the variety of typefaces, weird graphics and obscured information on business cards, especially for people who are supposedly marketing experts.
Some of these cards weren’t just giving the character-recognition software problems: they were hard for me decipher using my own eyes. Word of advice for creative types designing their own business cards: don’t be so cute. Or if you’re going to have a typographical meltdown, do it on the back of the card, away from your basic name/company/phone/e-mail information.
Otherwise, the scanner performed fine. Scanning in cards takes only four of five seconds each (even faster if you scan in black and white instead of color), much quicker than trying to use a flatbed scanner. The software was good about recognizing text, even if the card was scanned slightly askew, as can happen on hand-fed scanner like this. The scanner is small, light and unobtrusive, and even comes with a stand and a wall mount to keep it from taking up too much desk real estate.
The biggest hurdle I had to overcome (next to the sheer number of cards to be scanned) was getting the cards recognized in Apple’s Address Book software. Every format I tried to export the business card information (including supposedly ubiquitous formats like vCard, .csv text or .rtf) was ignored by Address Book as an invalid card format.
The work-around for me was to export them as vCards, import them to Microsoft Outlook and then export them again as vCards. Something about doing it that way seemed to magically fix the problem. Then, I put the files onto a flash drive, walked them over to my Mac and imported them into Address Book, no problem.
It’s an annoying middle step and one that could have been eliminated if I’d simply bought a Mac version of the scanner and software in the first place (at three times the price).
It’s an annoyance I’m willing to live with and, as long as I do the extra export/import steps in large batches, it’s not too time consuming. Once they’re in Address Book and on my phone, I no longer have to worry about them and I can even sync with Facebook to pull down images of my contacts to go with those phone entries.
My stack of business cards is still large, but after scanning in more than 150 over the last few weeks, I’m starting to feel like I’m making a dent. It’s very nice to see fewer cards on my desk, and it’s been a good opportunity to clear out outdated information and to throw away cards for people who are no longer at the companies listed.
Of course, if I’d decided it was too much time and effort, I could have tried out a service like Cloud Contacts, which does the physical scanning for you and even exports your contact info to social networking sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo or Facebook. The service starts at about $30 for 100 cards scanned and even offers a service that allows you to simply take a photo of your cards and upload them.
Shoeboxed.com also offers a monthly service for scanning in those cards, starting at about $10 a month.
If nothing else, I feel a little more organized every time I scan in 20 or 30 cards and am able to toss the paper versions in the recycle bin.
How do you handle business cards? Are you all-digital or do you have stacks and stacks around? Let me know in the comments.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Gadgets, Phones
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By Omar Gallaga
July 27, 2009 10:43 AM | Link to this
Michael -- I tried Mobile Me and the first thing it did was dump a duplicate of every contact onto my phone. I disabled it right away because that was incredibly annoying. I'm sure Mobile Me might be part of the solution, but I also sync with Google Calendar and Gmail -- I'm not quite there yet but as soon as I have most of my cards scanned in and one good contact list set up, I'll write about what my next step will be.
Bee -- are you using something that recognizes the text in your pictures or are you having to type everything in manually in addition to taking photos? The scanner I'm using has software that recognizes most text/phone numbers/e-mail addresses, etc., saving me a lot of time on the typing side.
By MichaelM
July 26, 2009 12:05 PM | Link to this
About getting all the data synchronized among the various platforms, websites, and email clients--
Have you (or any readers) tried www.me.com? It claims to be "a service that pushes new email, contacts, and calendar events over the air to all your devices. So your iPhone, Mac, and PC stay in perfect sync. No docking required. "
I have no "devices" and so don't use it myself, but after reading your description of the problems you had getting the Apple Address Book to recognize the data, this seems like a possible solution. It costs $99/year, which is a deterrent for many, but perhaps not for those in business.
By bee
July 25, 2009 11:36 PM | Link to this
After a trial run the iphone camera isn't such a great idea. Doesn't take sharp photos at macro level. Had much more success with the Canon PowerShot SD870IS on macro, no flash.
By bee
July 25, 2009 2:33 PM | Link to this
I've started taking pictures of business cards with my iphone camera, then uploading and tagging them.
By Jann
July 25, 2009 11:41 AM | Link to this
thanks I will check it out. love the clutter expert site, thanks for that too. still I ponder: "And how is it possible to continuously keep life clutter-free anyway?" That's why I turn to columns like yours. BTW, am huge fan of the work you do with NPR. would love to hear you have a regular short broadcast each day on KUT--after all, you are an Austin-based expert!
By Matt Scherer
July 24, 2009 10:10 AM | Link to this
Thanks Omar, for this great review. I have a 4-inch notebook filled with business cards.
By Omar Gallaga
July 22, 2009 4:42 PM | Link to this
Jann -- there's a Mac version of the scanner here:
http://www.neatco.com/products/neatreceipts-for-mac
It's more expensive, which is why I got the Windows/PC version.
I'm not sure what you mean about follow-up reminders (the card scanning services have monthly fees, so you can continue to send cards in regularly), but I know a clutter expert who might be able to help:
http://clutterdiet.com/
By Jann
July 20, 2009 9:17 PM | Link to this
Loved getting the blow-by-blow on your process. Certainly needs more dedication than I possess to sort the various piles of cards around my desk, many of which sit there to remind me to take some kind of action before the inaction of never actually filing them. in case I ever summon up the energy to follow in your footsteps, what's the Mac solution you recommend? And do any of the services allow for follow-up reminders? And how is it possible to continuously keep life clutter-free anyway?