Using the Pro 3 to scan documents.

[ctitanic]

The Pro 3 does a lot of things well, scanning documents is not one of them. But one of my friends MVP have found a workaround that she shares at her blog.

 

[cmergel]

Nice! Very useful hack!

 

[annabanana]

Interesting. My BlackBerry Z30 takes good scans with a scanner app.

 

[daniielrp]

Interesting. My BlackBerry Z30 takes good scans with a scanner app.

I do the same on my iPhone, works beautifully.

 

[Clovismod]

Using the same trick on my SP3 since 2 months. Highly recommended. And shame to MS on this point. That's really my only real gripe against this exceptional hardware, the best I've ever own.

 

[jnjroach]

Barb is resourceful....I really don't see the point for me personally as Office Lens on my Windows Phone does a great job and creates a OneNote File, Word Doc or PPT for me...

 

[GreyFox7]

Those are very useful, I use them at times when I need to free a hand from holding a magnifying glass to work on something. kudos to Barb for creativity.

 

[Clovismod]

Maybe because I'm working in areas without wifi and because LTE isn't cheap?

 

[JackieInCo]

Though it's no excuse for the camera on the SP3 to suck so bad, I just used my iPhone to take a picture of a document and then saved it in OneNote. I was then able to use it in OneNote on the SP3.

I really don't have a need for the camera on the SP3 so it's really a non issue for me. I am happy that people are finding ways to get around it.

 

[rabilancia]

Barb's trick got me thinking...

Several years ago, Microsoft Research had a project to use early generation Windows Phone devices to take close-up pictures. They sent out free devices (like the one in the first attached picture) to those of us that requested them. I still have mine.

Once I found where I had placed it, I took the following two [2] close-ups with my Surface Pro 3: one before and one after I taped the magnifying glass to my SP3.

As you can see, I took the close-up with the magnifying glass much closer and it is still much sharper.

It's certainly not a replacement for the better camera that we really deserve, but I thought I'd share.

Rich

 

[ptrkhh]

I wish that I could 'pair' the camera of my SP3 with my phone's camera, so that the SP3 thinks that I took the photo with SP3's camera.

 

[rabilancia]

I wish that I could 'pair' the camera of my SP3 with my phone's camera, so that the SP3 thinks that I took the photo with SP3's camera.

Since I have an Eye-Fi device (even though I'm not using it with my current setup) I've got this working with my Android (Galaxy Note 4) and my SP3. I have installed the Android Eye-Fi app on my Note 4 and Eye-Fi Center on my SP3. Whenever I take a picture with my phone (as long as my phone & SP3 are on the same WiFi network), the picture gets automatically transferred from my phone to my SP3.

I think you may need a registered Eye-Fi card to get this to work, but I may be mistaken.

Another option is to sync your phone's pictures with a cloud service that also syncs with your SP3. This solution might take a few minutes for a sync to complete and the pictures to get to your SP3.

Good luck,
Rich