I am a computer consultant, and have sold several earlier models of the ScanSnap scanner to my clients. All have tried other, cheaper scanners, and usually quit using them out of frustration. All complained at first about the higher cost of the Fujitsu, but once I set the scanner up in their offices, they are amazed and pleased. It just works, scans both side of a sheet at once, color, black & white, small, large, all with the touch of a single button.Up front, you need to know, this is not a 'twain' supported scanner. You will not be able to just scan a sheet directly into MS Word or a photo editing software package. If you need that, get a little inexpensive flat-bed scanner. The ScanSnap is a high-speed, production scanner, that scans to PDF or JPEG file formats.Now I am in the process of converting all my own files to digital format, the mythical 'paperless' office. I have worked with a variety of scanners over the years, and knew this model would work well. Set up is easy, you put in the disks and follow the simple install process (it does take a while though). When that is complete, you plug the scanner into a USB port, and it powers up, and is ready to scan. You can use the default settings for the scanner button, or make changes to suit yourself. Color, both sides, resolution, file naming, etc. can all be adjusted as needed.It will hold about 50 pages to scan, based on the thickness of the paper, but you can set the software to ask to continue to scan when the paper runs out, so you can scan as many pages in one session as your computer's memory can handle. (or break the scan into sessions, and merge the files together with Acrobat)The included Acrobat v9 is a great for creating all PDF files of your scans. And you can scan more and add to existing PDF files. You can even import old jpeg files and add them to your PDF files. Works very well. I am now scanning receipts and things as I get them, and add to existing PDF files as I go.A typical scanning process for me, I have a folder set up on my computer called '2010 File Cabinet', and have set the scanning software to use that as the default location to save files to. I also have the program set to automatically ask me for a file name. Now for my example, I have some credit card receipts, (the scanner will take a variety of papersizes, and can rotate them as well) I stack them into the scanner, press the button, and the scanner scans each one, and at the end, prompts me for a file name. I enter 'May gas receipts', click enter, and it is done. I now have a PDF file with all my gas receipts for the month. I can open the file with Acrobat, and adjust images, or add other files as needed.Of course once in a while you have a page that jams (oops fogot to remove a staple) or is crooked. The software stops the process, you can straighten the paper out, and click on the 'continue scanning' prompt, and the scanner picks up where it left off.By the way, I have found there is no 'off and on' button for this model. My clients with older models for-the-most-part leave theirs on all the time. But I like to turn it off when not in use. I found that if you unplug the USB cable, the scanner powers down. And best of all, when you plug the USB cable back in, the scanner is more-or-less instantly available to scan, no warm-up time.The really nice thing is, you can leave the whole system with default setting, which makes it real easy for the less technically inclined, or as I have done, get into the various settings, and create and customize several alternate scan set-ups to get exactly what you want in the most efficent manner possible.

I have scanned about 8000 sheets so far. I have found these settings helpful with rack2filer:1. Auto color detection, Duplex, Best image quality (300dpi Color/Grey 600dpi BW), Options [Only Blank page removal checked (no auto rotation - slows down page viewing)], Continuous scanning.2. Same as above except change color mode to gray.And in general I have found:The multifeed detector works great and has detected many double feeds. It handles old thin thermal fax paper without double feeds - pretty amazing, because I would think that if anything would jam or double feed it would be that. The prompt shows the image of the detected multifeed and gives you the option of keeping it or discarding it - this has been helpful when it detects sticky notes on scanned paper that are supposed to be there.It has handled many old papers - barely legible and has done an adequate job picking up light print.Very light or old papers with light print or pencil hand writing are better handled by forcing the color detection to grey. Otherwise Auto everything works well.Blank page detection - does not work with the other side of lined loose leaf paper or graph paper that has nothing written on it. That is to be expected - but a possible design improvement idea for this product. And to get around this, I have set the scanning side to single-sided. Otherwise blank page detection worked well.Scans looked exactly like the originals and in rack2 filer the binders read and looked as well as the paper binders.When it does jam (which was rarely the scanners fault and mostly from staples, taped paper or over loading), the prompt shows the last few pages scanned which makes it easy to recover.Fanning and creating a step-like pattern of your paper stack before loading the paper makes a big difference in preventing paper jams.Some of the advantages:I can take many binders worth on information with me on my notebook without dragging the heavy paper binders in my bag - or one of those wheeled bags that my colleagues use.There is the security of now being able to have multiple copies of my binders in physically different locations [desktop, notebook, and off site backups] all without using a copy machine.I need less space for file cabinets [files], bookshelves [binders], and thus less office space.Everything is now in one place. My office is too small to have all my binders and files together, but now they all fit in one folder on my hard drive.Although I will still use paper to write on, I don't foresee a reason to ever need to bind or file papers anymore. Just take notes, scan, and recycle.The actual images for Rack2Filer and CardMinder are in PDF files so if anything happens with Rack2filer - you can always access the data via windows explorer and acrobat.I have used NeatWorks for my accounting (receipts), documents, and business cards for about a year now. The mobile scanner scans at 3 ppm black and white and 2ppm color - single sided only. So for duplex color ScanSnap is (20ppm x 2)/2ppm = 20x faster - a huge improvement. The NeatWorks software is also heavy and slow compared to Rack2filer and CardMinder.However, NeatWorks is better than ScanSnap organizer or Rack2filer for receipts. And it can import the PDF scans from the S1500. So, I recommend using NeatWorks software (not the NeatWorks/Desk scanner) for receipts, Rack2Filer for documents and CardMinder for Business cards.