Best software solutions to scan and organize documents.

Learn which apps you need to scan documents and organize a digital archive.

Huge piles of paper and enormous filing cabinets belong in the past. Organizing your documents digitally makes storing, editing, and sharing them quicker and easier — not to mention cheaper. But you need the right types of software and applications to create an efficient digital document archive.

Read on to learn how to choose document scanner and organizer software.

Install a mobile scanner.

These days, you can ask to receive many official documents as digital PDF files. However, some organizations and agencies still rely on paper. You need a solution to scan papers into PDF documents.

An actual scanner is often the easiest solution, but not everybody has one. Don’t worry, though — you can use a mobile scanner app. With a free scanner application, like Adobe Scan, you can point your phone’s camera at any document to digitize it into a high-quality PDF file. You can then upload your documents to cloud storage or your computer.

Get a PDF editing application.

You should have a PDF editing program for working on your scanned files. With a good PDF editor, you can split and merge documents, request and create electronic signatures, convert PDFs to different formats, and much more. There are many free and commercial PDF editing applications available, such as Adobe Acrobat, so choose one that works for you.

Set up online file storage.

You should save your digitized documents in two ways — locally and online. This way you can rest easy knowing you can always access your archive, even if your computer breaks or you lose your internet connection. You can set your online archive up on any reliable cloud storage platform. Install the platform’s specific syncing application to automatically upload your files to the cloud.

Congratulations — you now have everything you need to scan and organize your documents. With your files safe and neatly archived, you can find and share them quickly whenever and wherever.