Kofax PaperPort 14 Standard [PC Download]

This review of Paperport 14 covers two areas: editing PDFs and compressing PDFs. I don't use the software for scanning or organizing, so cannot comment on those functions. Have used it from Windows 8.1 through Windows 11 with no problems. This software deserves five stars despite its issues because of its amazing compression function, and because it does certain editing tasks very well for large multi-page PDFs (even 100MB). Some of these features can be found in free software to do one page at a time, but this is the only software I could find which does this for all pages of large PDFs. Sometimes it works exceptionally well, sometimes at least better than it was. (My current project is to convert several hundred large PDFs to black and white.) One weakness: sometimes it does not process images well if you are converting to black and white (may lose detail). This only happens sometimes, dunno why. But if you are using the software for other functions (clean borders, auto-enhance, auto-straighten, etc), you can indicate "color" or "grayscale" for the output, and the images will usually stay intact. Favorite features: Convert grayscale PDF to black and white - even remove "stains" Convert color PDF to black and white Erase whatever you choose (current page) Despeckle (not completely successful, but helps) Remove black marks on borders Auto-straighten pages Rotate Resize Compress automatically. For example a 70MB PDF will usually compress to 7MB or less. And more features The user guide is excellent in listing all the features, but does not always make clear how you get there. A quick google search will find the answer. Here are a few tips: Before buying, download the basic version's user guide (Getting Started Guide) to see if it has what you need. Compare basic version features with the premium - the basic probably has everything you need. And shop for a good price - at time of purchase the Amazon price was cheapest. After you run updates, version 14 will upgrade to version 14.5. Create a working folder just for Paperport, and copy one item there temporarily for processing. (Copy, don't use the original, as sometimes it gets modified.) Click on the item to be edited, and then click on "Item" to process all pages or "Open with Image View" to process individual pages. When prompted, change the resolution to 300. Also check "make a copy" if you want to keep your input file intact - otherwise it will be replaced. The output copy will be compressed without affecting quality. (There is no option to compress - it happens automatically.) There are several options to convert color or grayscale to black and white. Usually the "convert color" option works best, even for grayscale, but "black border cleaning" usually works too and guarantees cleaner borders. In theory you can adjust the "white point" and "black point" used to convert to black and white, but usually the defaults work best. Double-check the size of the new PDF - it should be much smaller, but occasionally Paperport has a hiccup and you need to start fresh or use a different option. After processing, move the converted PDF elsewhere. Then delete everything in the folder including the little "junk" files, so that the folder is empty before processing the next item. Otherwise Paperport may process your new item based on rules it set up for the prior item. After doing a heavy processing task, before starting the next task close Paperport entirely and reopen. This refreshes the software's workspace. As mentioned above, it is critical to delete the junk files in the temporary folder before reopening Paperport. The software is very slow on large PDFs, and if you try to hurry it, it will lock up. Note: when the screen seems locked and you see "Not Responding", don't quit. Just leave it awhile and it will finish what it is doing. As an example, a 70MB item might take 15-60 minutes to process. I recently processed a 300-page PDF containing a large number of crooked pages. This software did a wonderful job of automatically straightening all the crooked pages. It also does cropping, but I have not tested this as I already use Briss (on CNET). Also another software product very useful for working with PDFs is free PDFsam Basic. It easily extracts portions of a PDF, creating a new PDF, and will also build a new PDF easily by piecing together multiple PDFs. For my current project I use three products: Paperport 14, Briss, and PDFsam Basic. Just fyi, I updated this review in Feb 2014 to add PDFsam Basic instead of a previous product which was not free.

I have just upgraded from PaperPort 12 to PaperPort 14. I have used this product (since Version 8) constantly both on a professional and personal level. I have to admit that I miss the simplicity of Version 8 and its' easy-to-use FormTyper program. I was first introduced to PaperPort when I moved the accounting division of where I worked from a paper-mill into a very organized paperless office. PaperPort worked very well with the office software that was necessary for the business, and complimented the built-in filing capabilities of that same software. We saw early on that professional market PDF would soon become the standard, so we welcomed moving up to PaperPort 12, but the simpler FormTyper program of Version 8 was missed. In working for many years with PaperPort, I have learned that you have to be very versatile in your thinking to get the program to function as you want. While PDF may be the standard and default, all other file formats previously offered are still available in this version with just a bit of tweaking. Now that I am no longer working, I am using my non-professional version of PaperPort to turn my home office into paperless. Again, with a bit of flexibility I am achieving the filing setup I want. All of it is within the PaperPort program boundaries. CAUTION: PaperPort works best with a scanner that uses a Twain Driver. I'd strongly suggest to get that type of scanner, because I have used the program with both Twain and non-Twain. You will be happier with the program by having the integration between scanner and PaperPort, that a twain driver supplies. NEGATIVE THOUGHTS: Nuance does not have its' pulse on the users' needs as much as I would like. They also build in a totally annoying update reminder into their software, that mostly has nothing to do with software updates and by that I mean to fix a software glitch. They usually just come out with a newer version and hound you to death via mail, email, and pop-up messages about buying the newer version. The FormTyper program is not as user friendly as it was prior to Version 9. Also their PDF Viewer program is molasses slow in loading and a pain to use. A plus to counter that negative, though, is that they do allow you to select the VIEWER you want to use for specific file types. POSITIVE THOUGHTS: It is a very good skeleton program that allows the user a lot of leeway to create and implement a filing system that fulfills the user's needs. It also integrates with the more popular Microsoft Office type programs almost seamlessly. I have not tested the Cloud feature or the interface with mobile devices. Maybe later. Right now it is not relevant to my needs. RECOMMENDATION: I would recommend buying it if you are needing a very flexible filing program, one that you can create from the bottom up, complete with Main Folders (like a drawer), Sub-Folders, Sub-Sub Folders, and so on. You can color coordinate, edit, annotate, stack and unstack groups of papers, share folders/documents of just about any file type you can imagine, including photos. If you are a novice to the paperless, filing cabinet type world, then they do have a very credible Help Section with How-TO Guides to get one up and running rather quickly. At this point I will keep with Nuance's PaperPort, and continue to upgrade as necessary.

I often wonder about all the bad reviews this product gets. I have been using it for many a year. It has had some problems along the way but for the most part it runs fine. I am a IT Pro and I used this programs for all my receipts for my business as well as my personal files. The program has help me out of a few problems along the way. I make every file a PDF and this way I can email any file I need to. It becomes extremely easy that way. I am presently running Win 7 with Paperport 14 and it works great. I had just upgraded from a Win7 machine with Paperport 12 with no problems. I tell all my customer about paperport and I have loaded it on many of their systems with no bad problems. I have to admit that there customer service is lacking or non-existence but I only have needed it once or twice and I have been able to get through those problems. The program has many a features and is probably not for the novice. Basic feature are easy to use and when set up properly it works great. I am 67 and I fine this program easy to use but if you want to use some of the more advance features it will take a bit to learn. I recently had a occasion that an insurance company readjusted a bill from 3 years ago saying I now owe the hospital $2600.00 so I went into paperport and found the old receipt and call them on it and they said I was correct and they would fix it. For keeping records on warantties and the like there is nothing better. The paperport files goes right into your document files and are easy to transfer from system to system and makes backup easy as well. I highly reccomend this product but be sure to read the setup files to learn the features. I think some of the negative reviews come from people who believe that they are computer wizards and that they do not have to read any instructions. It like saying that a new computer user can figure out how to run MS exel just by looking at it. Looking at setup and help files certainly would help many of computer people out of simple jams. The latest feature is the paperport cloud. I do not need this feature but anybody that has a business and may need a file that they do not have with them they can go on the cloud to get them. Bottom line a great product in my book.

I have been using this software for many years and recently bought the newer version. I am surprised by all the complaints so thought I would write a review. Yes it has bugs and no, it's not perfect. I am a software developer so maybe it is easier for me to fix problems with it. It works fine on my windows 10 system with my old HP all-in-one. I have yet to find another solution that lets me annotate and directly edit pdfs, fill fields (on unfillable pdfs), unstack, restack, paste signatures, crop, trim, enhance, move sections around, etc. I keep annoying forms in her (like from health insurance, fsa, etc) and have everything pre-filled and just modify the date or whatever. I also enjoy the ability to view thumbnails of many types of documents in one place which saves opening hundreds of files. It lets me modify my scanner settings directly to avoid all the annoying scan dialogs. There are lots of options for how you scan that you can configure and save as profiles to speed things up. It also knows how to handle 2-sided documents if you scan them as a stack with the document feeder. If I put a receipt on the scanner it will auto-crop, straighten, and enhance it. If I scan high-res photos it will autostraighten and crop them and label them with the tags I select. I can add it as a 'printer' and put webpages, articles, etc from any application that can print directly into the program. It lets me drag and drop files around, stack pdfs, quickly and easily. A HUGE timesaver if you have a paperless office. Given the price of this software I think it's pretty awesome, I have looked for other options that have as much functionality and haven't found any. You would have to buy acrobat pro to get the same level of pdf editing that comes bundled with this one and then you wouldn't have the ability to sort other types of documents.

Paperport 13 is horrible. Save your time and money, find something else that works and which is supported by the company. First, I am a long time Paperport user. I've used paperport since 2001. I purchased Paperport 14 because my Paperport 12.0 stopped working on my desktop. I note that PP 12 did work and recognized the scanner. However, I apparently did not properly uninstall PP12 while the computer was connected to the internet (I lost connectivity due to the McAfee software mess) and now PP12 reports that I have exceeded my activations when I tried to re-install it. It makes no sense - I have no other computers using PP12 (I do have PP12 LE installed on my laptop). I installed PP 12 LE on the desktop computer and verified it would operate the scanner. Of course, PP12 LE does not properly display thumbnails on anything but .pdf files, which is why I decided to upgrade to Paperport 14. (Note, I switched from McAfee Virus Software to Webroot after McAfee issued those bad updates and am now much happier with my system performance.). However, I have wasted, yes wasted, over four hours trying to install Paperport 14 on a Windows 7 desktop 64 bit system with an I-5 prosessor and 8 gb of ram so that PP14 functions properly. I installed a new harddisk and reloaded my software and data. I updated all of the drivers and related software. I checked the scanners (Fujitsu fi-6130 and Cannon MF4570dn) and determined they worked fine with their native scanning software. I verified that all other software on the computer works and that there are no problems with the registry. I verified I had no viruses, etc. I checked my system with Microsoft Fixit. I installed the PP-14 software with no other programs running. Yet I could not get Paperport 14 to operate the scanner. The PP 14 scanning buttons are not functional. I tried but could not enter PP-14's advanced scanner setup features. I sought help on [...] only to determine it was worthless. I've looked at the support forum on yahoo but did not yet find a solution. One help screen suggested on PP-14 recommended I contact my hardware manufactuer - why, the computer and scanner works fine with everything but PP-14. I really need for PP14 to work. It doen't. Now I am behind on my scanning and other work. Paperport 14 software is horrible!

PaperPort 14 Great programs are sometimes bought out by software companies intent on milking them for cash through frequent updates that provide little additional functionality, yet worsen the product in some way, and thus take away from its original simplicity and greatness. Among them are Scansoft's PaperPort and JASC's PhotoShop Pro, both truly great programs which were bought by Nuance and Corel, respectively. Yes, PaperPort continues to be a good product, but having used for many years Scansoft's version 8, I was disappointed with Nuance's V14. Of course, if you haven't used any previous version, you will not know or miss the difference. The program no longer uses (or offers) the old PaperPort MAX format, although it can open such files. Instead, it uses by default the PDF format. This is a step in the wrong direction, because that choice has resulted in a loss of functionality while offering little new that could not be done before. Yes, you can now edit PDF files directly, but so what? Although V8 couldn't do so, a straightforward solution was to "print" that PDF file using the PaperPort "printer", which converted the PDF file and stored the pages in either MAX or TIFF formats, both of which were editable. After all my editing was done, I would stack the pages in the correct order and then print them as a PDF using Acrobat Distiller, and presto, there was my edited PDF. So what is lost in V14? Magnifying glass no longer visible, now hidden in "View" ribbon Undo button no longer visible, now hidden in "Edit Ribbon". So if you resize in the Page Ribbon and you don't like what you see, you must move back and forth between ribbons. Dumb. When I attempted to resize a tiff document form a (known) page size 5.5x8.25 at 300 dpi to 8.5x11 (i.e. to full letter size), V18 erroneously informed me that the image was 46"x69" at 32 dpi. To test the truthfulness of this, I chose to resize to the true size while "increasing" the resolution to 300 dpi. The result was horrible, the fonts became unreadable. By contrast, my old V8 had no trouble telling me its correct size and resolution. Thus, resizing is now a guessing game. Furthermore, in the old version I could indeed carry out the resize, but the new refused saying that there was not enough memory. Program crashed while renaming files In version 8, all tools were directly and simultaneously available, but in version 14, they are hidden in several "ribbons" (Page, Edit, View, Annotation, Help), and it took me a while to find them. For example, I needed the "eraser", but at first could not find it. After much searching, I finally found a button in the "Page" ribbon called "Set Imaging Tools". After clicking on it, another ribbon appeared underneath which contained the eraser, but when I clicked anywhere else, that ribbon disappeared. I then tried dragging that ribbon elsewhere, but to no avail, it can't be moved. Much later, by sheer chance, I discovered that if I widened the PaperPort window beyond the right edge of that stubborn ribbon, it docks itself onto the Page ribbon, and does not disappear (unless you shrink the width of the window again). Dumb! Why not docking that ribbon permanently onto the right edge of the PaperPort desktop, ready to be used, as it was the case in V8? Resolution: In V8, I would simply choose Edit, Change Color, and I could tell at a glance the type of image (B&W, Grey, Color) I had. Now, that is not possible, there is no "properties" attribute that tells me what image type and resolution I have (and in fact, for a PDF file, the program does not even know). Memory leak: It opened a multi-page TIFF file without problem, and displayed it correctly. After closing the program and reopening it later, it could not open the file, with the message "Out of memory". But if I could open it the first time around, why not later on? Later on, I just ignored the "out of memory" message, and clicked on another page of the multi-page document on the left pane. It had no trouble opening it, and after clicking on the one that it could not open before, now suddenly the problem with memory was gone! When I tried unstacking the multi-page document referred to above into its individual pages, the option was greyed out and could not be executed. However, after opening the first page of that document and then choosing "Save As" and saving it in plain vanilla tiff (the default type is PDF), it had no trouble saving it as separate pages. So why is then the option greyed out? I could go on, but I guess that by now you got the message. I reverted back to my old version 8, and am sorry for the upgrade money I lost. My recommendation: get an older version at a lower price, and you won't regret it.

I upgraded from Paperport 11.0 to PaperPort 14.0 so that I could effectively scan documents duplex (both sides at a time) with my Canon P-150 scanner. PaperPort 14.0 certainly did that. Paperport (both versions) has excellent features: - Scans - Files in separate folders - We have the capability of stacking and unstacking scanned sheets. - We can annotate using text, lines, or arrows. - And more... However, I lost so much when going from Paperport 11 to 14: - Paperport 14 took much longer to launch. - I no longer had the ability to name the saved file. I had to scan and then rename from the default name (such as "Document" or "Picture"). - When I double clicked on a thumbnail image of a document, Paperport brought up a clunky viewing program that took too long to launch. (I could right click on the image and bring up a better viewer, but it was less natural and I sometimes double-clicked by mistake.) - PaperPort 14 frequently crashed and I would have to restart it. (As a former software engineer, I suspect poor program memory management.) As it crashed, it naming each of about 6 modules that crashed; each time I'd have to click "OK". Then a window would pop up asking whether I should report this to Microsoft. What a pain! - I had it with PaperPort 14, when it began to crash regularly whenever I annotated documents. Since I reinstalled PaperPort 11: - The program is completely stable. - It comes up quickly and quickly brings up its viewer. - I can name the scanned file without having to rename it from its default name. - It does everything that PaperPort 14 does (as near as I can tell). I have even developed an easy work-around for the duplex problem: Place the document in the scanner hopper, press the one button on the scanner (which brings up the CaptureOnTouch program that came with the scanner), and follow software prompts to name the file and directory. Note: I would imagine that one can develop an easy work-around for the duplex problem with other software. At worst, you may have to scan each document, flip it over, and scan the other side. My advice: Do not buy PaperPort 14; buy an earlier version of this same program.

Quick delivery and expert service. The software is also excellent and useful. I have been a user of Paperport since version 8 and have been very pleased with the newer software capability and how easy it is to scan, categorize, and interchange documents and photos with other applications on my computer. This particular version came with an integrated software capability that was supposed to allow sync capability with the cloud, apparently to be used by multiple platforms, however I have found that this feature was abruptly discontinued by Nuance with no apparent patch or replacement for Version 14. It's a little disappointing particularly since I do not believe I can remove the icon from the software ribbon, but in all it is very capable and useful for what I am using the software for. If the user doesn't mind not having a one click sync capability to a cloud share point I would recommend this to everyone.