Fantastic scanner, great (but down-rev) software, poor documentation

I have now scanned several thousand pages with my Xerox Documate 262. This is a great scanner. I am well on my way to a paperless office at home and I intend to get another 262 for my office at work.

I had misgivings about buying a sheet-fed scanner without a flat bed. In the end, I decided that I would use two scanners. That works well. 99% of my documents go through the 262. Surprisingly, because it is so easy to use, I find myself feeding small documents like receipts through this scanner as well - documents I expected to scan with my flatbed scanner.

Without the plastic paper supports, the 262 is about the size of a loaf of bread. It has a very solid feel that connotes quality. The feeder mechanism is surprisingly strong. When the 262 grabs a piece of paper, it, not you, is in control. I have not had a problem with paper jams. They occur infrequently, and are easy to clear.

Because the machine feeds so well, you can load a stack of 30 pages, walk away and be almost certain that the stack will have been scanned properly when you return. Scanning is fast.

Xerox bundled high-quality software with the scanner:
OmniPage Pro 12
Paperport 9.0
Kofax VRS 3.5
QuickScan 3.5
ArcSoft PhotoImpression

The first thing you might notice is that this software has been superseded by more recent editions: OmniPage 15, PaperPort 10, Kofax VRS 4.0. Nevertheless, these are excellent products. Where Xerox completely falls down is in helping the user make sense of these packages.

I spent several days trying to understand the relative merits of these programs and how they relate to each other. There were some unpleasant surprises: I found that you must buy an expensive license to enable Kofax VRS to work with QuickScan on the 262. A friend of mine who also has a 262 (he loves it) runs all his scans through QuickScan.

I like Kofax VRS very much: it straightens out the documents, removes noise, smoothes fonts and adjusts brightness and contrast so that each scan looks its best. (Tip: Kofax VRS presents itself to other software packages as a scanner driver. Instead of selecting the 'Documate 262' scanner, you select the 'Kofax Software VRS - TWAIN' scanner, which in turn selects the Documate 262.)

In the end, I settled on using Adobe Acrobat, which I already owned, with Kofax VRS. This is my workhorse scanning combination. I use OmniPage and PaperPort occasionally. Because QuickScan won't support Kofax VRS without a hefty license fee, I don't use it at all. I have no opinion of Arcsoft photoimpression; I use Photoshop.

Today, I discovered that I was able to upgrade to Kofax VRS 4.0 via the Kofax web site. This capability was announced by Xerox in May of last year, with no sign of follow-through. Xerox tech support folks said that it would be added to their website when available. They still haven't done so. (Tip: don't be put off by the lack of a scanner driver for the Xerox 262 in the VRS 4.0 download package or installer. VRS 4.0 works with the driver you've been using in 3.5.)

All in all, a superb product, except for 1) the complete lack of documentation about how the add-on software products fit together, and 2) the fact that the add-on software has not been kept current. Users unfamiliar with the add-on products should not underestimate the pain the lack of documentation will cause.

Nevertheless, I enthusiastically recommend this product.