A scanning workstation consists of a standard desktop computer with a high quality/high speed scanner. Special drivers and scanning software are installed before scanning begins.

Incoming paper is prepared into logical batches. A batch can be as small as one piece of paper or as large as many hundreds of sheets of paper; the limit is determined by the scanner. Preparation of the batch involves removing all staples, paper clips etc and putting a small bar code on multipage documents. This barcode instructs the scan software to keep multipage documents together and store them as one object. Thanks to the built-in barcode technology, a single batch can include many such multipage documents.

Once the paper is prepared, all the paper can be loaded and scanned. Each object, whether a one page object or a multipage object, is stored as a batch in the Holding Tank. Each batch is assigned a sequential number. The scanning of the paper is the only operation that must be done at a ‘special’ computer (one with a scanner).

Once the objects are in the Holding Tank, indexing can be performed by any person who has permission to view the objects in the tank. Indexing can be completed at any workstation that is running Green File.

Shown to the right is a sample of what might be in the Holding Tank. You can see a number of batches have been scanned and are ready to be indexed. In fact, batch #677 has two of the objects already indexed, and paper clipped, showing that they came in the mail together. When the Post button is clicked, all indexed objects in the currently selected batch are posted to the Green File database.