I just finished up my Ed Admin certification using C-Pen to scan my books. It worked.
I suppose this could go in the student topic, bu
I suppose this could go in the student topic, but it's getting pretty unweildy. Any chance we could have a student discussion area? Anyway:
I've got my tablet, and I've got my scanner. After looking at the options, I went with an HP Scanjet 4600 (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...78-303780.html) because a) I want to resell my books, and b) my books are REALLY heavy and I can't imagine turning them over all the time to scan them. This scanner is really great, since you can put the window directly on top of your book.
Thus far, I've used OneNote for notetaking, homework, and housing scanned pages. Each page gets a different tab labeled with chapter and page number. I have the following problems with my method:
1) When doing homework, it's a pain to switch between sections if I need to look something up in the book. I'd rather have two windows open at once: one with the book, and one in which I'm doing the work. I may solve this by moving to GoBinder for my written work, since the container issue in OneNote is driving me mad. I would continue to scan my text into OneNote, but do all work in GoBinder.
2) I'm not sure if scanning each page individually is the most efficient way to go about it. It makes it easy to find a page or problem set, but I'm unsure about the file size. I scan at 200-250 dpi by Insert - Picture - From scanner or camera from within OneNote.
If I could avoid paying $50 for GoBinder this semester I would.
How does everyone else handle these issues? Note that I don't need to share my work thus far, but that might be a concern for some.
I just finished up my Ed Admin certification using C-Pen to scan my books. It worked.
Molly,
Thanks for starting this discussion again. Gave my opinion on it in oh about the 30th page of that long student thread, but I've changed my approach since then.
Can you still return that scanner? I ask only because I've returned two scanners, but I've finally found a winner. Plustek's OpticBook 3600 (http://www.plustek.com/products/book.htm can't be matched by not even a $600 scanner.
All I need to mention is that it can produce color A4 sized pages in less than 10 seconds at 300dpi. Check out the link, this scanner is made so you can scan up to the binding of the book while eliminating the shadow area (patent pending). The price is well worth the investment. I'd rave more about it, but the site is super informative and even has video showing this scanner in action.
The reason I prefer 300dpi is because I produce my scanned texts as PDF books with Adobe Acrobat (student priced of course). 300dpi makes OCR super accurate allowing you to highlight and mark up the book using Acrobat. It is so much easier to navigate through Acrobat when the instructor tells the class to turn to page 355.
I used to import scanned books into OneNote (10 book pages per each OneNote page), but that was too cumbersome when finding a specific page, yet for a 400pg book (each page on a different page) one must keep scrolling down OneNote to find the correct page. If you do end up with GoBinder it will almost be like you had OneNote open in two windows; the 30 day trial for GoBinder has not convinced me that it can replace what I already have, but it would be great to have it in the background as a book.
The container problem is just that, a problem in OneNote. I've made my way around this issue by staying within the lines (college ruled). This is only a remedy for non math courses though.
I know you didn't want to spend the extra $50. It's a small price to pay as you will see that feature you're after makes your work of scanning books well worth it. While everyone in class is taking out their books you will be clicking to the program that has your book (GoBinder, OneNote or Adobe).
In the end your current approach is just fine. My advice comes from trial and error with sofware, a few tablets and scanners. A good scanner will make you or break you as far as putting up with scanning books, so it's best to have something with quality and speed. The tablet will probably dictate the quality of scans required because if you keep dropping your tablet to pick up your book it's because your scans werent good enough. Now the software is what joins these two together; hence, give the 30day trial of GB a shot so you can see how much better it is to have those two windows open.
so you can just scan the whole book without doing all the flipping?
how long does that take?
is it only that scanner has that function?
The flipping of the book is required, but the included software flips the images into place for the final document.
A4 is bigger than an 8.5"x11" page, so as long your pages are smaller you can count on about 6 seconds per color page (300dpi), so multiply the pages in question by six and you'll have a good estimate of how many seconds it will take to do an entire book of x many pages. A 300pg book can be done in 1 hour; watch the video to see how easy it is.
Gheng,
No, go to the site and watch the demo video. A very nice scanner but not auto page turning.
:-(
jamcgowan,
I meant the user must do the flipping of the book to get the images scanned in, as I stated earlier, but the software will automatically rotate the pages for your document. If the software didn't do this, one would be forced to rotate every other "scanned."
A used scanner that flips the unscanned pages for you is priced at well over $1000.
no need to rave about the opticbook 3600... http://www.justechn.com/reviews/arti...cbook_3600.php already has... and on October 30th 2004! In my opinion the auto-lock might be good when mine arrives, and 7 buttons beats my other scanner which lasted maybe a month before I used xp and the company closed so that my scanner was non-functional... but enough of me. Search www.bbf.ca for the best price in canada.
You scan an entire book with a C-Pen?????? I've got a C-Pen...but only use it for times I'm at the library and want a paragraph or two from a book or a journal. A whole book....yikes! [:O]quote:Originally posted by BLiF
I just finished up my Ed Admin certification using C-Pen to scan my books. It worked.
I think you will lose a hand if you try scanning a 300pg textbook with a C-Pen. What about all the graphics...no Pictures?
Buying the Opticbook has become the best "accessory" I've purchased for my TPC usage. Its pixel by pixel scans are superior to all other scanning methods.
I always go to extremes when finding a product worth my money. Think that's why I'm always buying computer products that are least advertised yet the best in the market: US Robotics wireless network, M-Audio sound card for a PC, LACIE Big Disk Extreme HD 320GB, TPC...and so on and so on.
The Opticbook is no different (it is THE BEST). For scanning textbooks at its price this scanner has no competition. Someone aspiring to go paperless with their "TEXTBOOKS" should save the money to buy an Opticbook because it dominates the job it was meant to handle. Heck, I returned a couple of scanners before landing on this accessory, so I would know what I'm writing about.
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