Using TurboScan

The Scanning Problem: One annoying side-effect of the shift to a digital world is that while paper is becoming ever scarcer, it is far from gone, and there are often situations when you have a paper document that must be converted into a digital document, that is, "scanned." For years, special devices called "scanners" have been available to do this job, but most people don't have one, and even those that do often find them slow and complicated to use. The need to scan documents often arises in the course of our billing business when clients have paper documents such as CMS 1500 forms, insurance card copies, and session tracking sheets that they want to email to us but can't because they have no way to scan them. 

An Easy Solution: The advent of "smart phones" such as the Apple iPhone and Android-based phones has made possible an amazingly simple solution to the scanning problem. Special scanning "apps" enable you to take a photo of a document that is converted into a copy or scan that can be emailed. The process is fast and easy. This page will explain how to install and use one of these apps, called TurboScan. There are many other similar apps that do the same thing, but TurboScan is the most popular: Piksoft, its developer, claims that TurboScan has been the top iTunes business app in the U.S. for the past three years.

Installing TurboScan on an iPhone: You install TurboScan the same way as any other app:

   1. Open the Apple App Store app on your iPhone

   2. Use the App Store search function to find the TurboScan app

   3. Click on the "$2.99" button to start the installation process

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​Installing TurboScan on an Android phone: We can't offer detailed directions on how to install an Android version of TurboScan because we don't have an Android phone. However, the process is similar: visit the Google Play store, click the "magnifying glass" icon to search for the TurboScan app, then buy and install it.

Using TurboScan: Using TurboScan is as easy as installing it. Follow these steps:

   1. Open the TurboScan app

   2. Click the "Camera" (one image, slightly less precise) or "SureScan 3X" (three

   2) images, slightly more precise) button to start the image capture process

   3. Hold the phone so that the document fills but does not stray outside the window.

   2) Push the round "shutter" button to capture the image. If you have selected

   2) "SureScan 3X", you will be asked to capture two more images, which the app

   2) ​averages together in an effort to create the best image possible.

   4. After you have finished capturing an image (or three images), a preview of the

   2) scan will appear. Note that the preview you see on the phone screen  is not as

   2) sharp or straight as one off a scanner or copier, but usually you will find it is, as

   2) they say out West, "good enough for government work," with even small type

   2) quite legible. Click "Next" to go to the next step.

   5. Click the "Send" symbol (     ) to call up a set of sending choices. Select "Send to

   2) ​myself" to send the image as an attachment to your email.

​   6. A dialog box will appear notifying you that the image is in the queue to be sent. 

   2) ​Usually it will appear as a new email within a minute or less.

   7. Once the email has arrived, you can simply forward it to its destination, or cut and

   2) ​paste the image into a new email.

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Becoming a TurboScan Master: Novices generally have two problems when they first start using TurboScan, both related to the issue of "framing."

Get It All (critical): The first problem novices often have is that they sometimes fail to get the entire document in the phone window when they take its snapshot (1). As a result, some of the document isn't included in the final scan (2 and 3), possibly including vital information. The solution is simple: make sure you can see the entire document in the window before pushing the shutter.

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Get It Straight (not critical): The second common problem TurboScan novices have is producing a (reasonably) squared-up image. This is generally an aesthetic issue: all the required information may be visible and legible, but the document scan just looks ugly and crooked. If you don't care, we don't care: just make sure that what we need to see is actually legible. But if you are a perfectionist type who cares about such things, here is how to make sure your scans are as straight as possible.

First, one thing you DON'T have to worry about is making sure that the original photo of the document itself is straight. Unless you are truly obsessive-compulsive and are willing to spend minutes positioning your phone in the one exact position directly above the center of the document that will result in a perfectly square optical image, the image that you capture will be skewed (1). 

But that is OK: TurboScan is designed to correct for this. After you capture your crooked image, the "Adjust frame" window will appear. Overlaid on your crooked image is a pink quadrilateral with dots on its corners. The software automatically tries to place those dots on the corners of the document. If the dots are in the right place at this stage (2), you can click "Done" and the software will automatically unskew the image. However, occasionally TurboScan puts the dots in the wrong place (3).

How can you fix this? There are two ways: first, try clicking the "frame" button in the upper left hand corner. This button has two settings: a "square" setting (     ) which puts the dots in the corners of the frame, and a "skewed" setting (      ) which attempts but sometimes fails to put the dots on the corners of the document. Normally, the frame button will be on the skewed setting after you take a photo; if the dots aren't on the document's corners, click the frame button once to change it to the square setting, then click it again to return it to the skewed setting, which (counterintuitively, perhaps) is the correct setting to get a straight document scan. If the dots are now on the document's corners, click "Done" to go to the next stage.

If the dots are STILL in the wrong place (3), you can use your finger to slide them manually to the corners. Once you have got them where you want them, click "Done."

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