Xerox DocuMate 510

Jeez, where to start here. First of all, the price is ridiculously high, even for an item like this that actually works. This one doesn't work, unfortunately.
A. No Mac drivers available anywhere on the internet, even though it has been out around 4 years now. I have a PC also so I used it on that.
B. First 7-8 scans O.K., and then several lines down the middle of all the rest.
I put it back in the box and took it back to the store. End of saga. It's hard to believe that this is such a total pile of junk considering the price, but as others have said this isn't made by Xerox. It's a re-badged Visioneer model, and a crappy one at that.
Don't waste your time or money.

I love my Documate now, but I was ready to throw it down a cliff when I first got it. The software seemed useless and the software driver had problems. But then I figured out that Xerox has an updated driver on their website (critical) and that I don't need the scanning software anyway - I can just scan from within my programs (e.g., Acrobat, Photoshop etc). I can change my settings from the program itself. Once I did that, I fell in love. Well, not quite, but I'm very happy, especially with the automatic sheet feeder, which has scanned many hundreds of large documents (even double sided) and continues to work well. I also like that it is both a sheet feeder and a scanner.

The scanner looks nice but very deceiving, I bought this scanner because of the name Xerox.
I had it for about 2 months and scanned maybe 100 sheets, now it died!
Xerox after 3weeks of calls now wants me to pay return shipping and they say I will get a refurbished unit. (Bad company)

While I agree with previous posters about customer service. I completely disagree with the overall "do not buy" comments. I have had 5 different ADF scanners (priced below $500) and have had numerous problems with all, EXCEPT for the Documate 510. This product is fantastic and is one of the only true low priced ADF scanners.

Man, after reading the reviews here I thought that I had made a big mistake in buying the Xerox Documate 510. I bought it for office use at my desk, light to moderate use, mostly for document scanning. The unit works fine. I admit that the paperport software takes a little to get used to. It wants to do everying, like organizing your files within its system of doing things. My files are already organized, thank you. So I just use the simple Microsoft Office Document Scanner software that I already know how to use. It's fully compatable with the scanner and I can convert to PDF without a problem. I can fax scanned documents as easy as pie.

In looking over the negative reviews here, it seems like many of them had problems with the set up and didn't get much help from Xerox support. i.e, an axe to grind? Don't let them scare you away. The instructions are explicit on how to do the set up. It's not a simple plug and play type of unit. But, it took me about 1/2 hour to do the set up and I'm very happy with it so far. I paid $200, including shipping, off of ebay and it's worth every penny and more.

Firstly, it is incredibly important that you DO NOT use the bundled software for this scanner. The program is confusing and terribly disorganized. I have had several issues with using OmniPage, Readris, and Microsoft Scanning software bundled with Windows. While image quality is good, especially considering the speed of the ADF, the ADF gets jammed during almost every scan with these programs.

I strongly recommend that if you have purchased this scanner, use Adobe Acrobat 6 or later. I am using 6.0 Professional and it works like a charm. The file size is extremely manageable (300K for 15 pages) and is quite readable.

If you have not purchased this scanner, DON'T. While I don't have any recommendations for other models or brands, I will suggest strongly that you avoid this one. It has been quite an experience, causing me to use Kinko's and similar because I couldn't get this scanner to work. Since using Acrobat, most issues have been mitigated to a tolerable level.

I bought this scanner impulsively at Office Depot and then came home to find all these catastrophic reviews. I figured I would keep an open mind and try it out.

So far I have scanned about a 100 pages and it has worked perfectly. When I bumped the resolution up to 600 dpi the scanning took much longer, but the results are impressive. The text is clear and crisp. Plus the paperport software has an "erase" tool that allows me to get rid of all the black smudges and page lines. The results are really spectacular.

I was confused at first to see that if I scanned a 15-page article, 15 different scans appeared in the scan-manager window. But I soon realized that the pages were "stackable" (using the mouse to superimpose one page on top of another) and this stacking operation created a single .pdf document. It's a little weird, but not that inconvenient for someone usually scanning between 10-30 page articles. If there were. hundreds of pages at a time it might be a problem. (UPDATE: actually, when you scan some pages, all the newly-scanned pages appear on the software screen highlighted. If your right click on these pages, you can "stack" them with one click. several weeks after writing this review, I still like the scanner, but amd annoyed at times that the two columns of text on a scanned pages often do not come out parallel.)

I have had no problems with jamming so far. On some pages the text has come out a little crooked, but the software has a one-button straightening tool that works reasonably well.

It is a little annoying that you HAVE to use the included software. I'm worried about losing the disk, something that happens to me all the time, but hopefully in that case xerox will let me download the software.

This scanner was $250. The highly recommended Fujitsu scansnap is $450, plus it doesn't seem to have a flat bed scanning option like the xerox does. So I have to conclude that even thought this scanner may have some limitations it works well and is a good value.

Touching on the strong points first I will start by saying that the scanner produces a good quality scan. The automatic document feeder is a great convenience for scanning small stacks of paper. OK that's about it. Now, for weak points. When doing any quality scanning it is extremely slow about it, when scanning in stacks of paper (far under the "max" paper feed count) it very frequently feeds the paper in wrong and jams, then many times when it jams, you clear the jam, and then try to start over, and it locks up the program. Then when you go through the whole "end program" fiasco, go back into the program and try to scan it will say "driver busy". So you have to turn it off, then back on. Turning it back on requires even more waiting as it goes through its startup routine. OK now you are back to scanning. Not sure how long though, the ADF seems to jam at its own no matter how perfect the paper you are feeding it is. Other than that, its OK. Id give about 10 bucks for it at a garage sale...maybe. Its certainly not suitable for heavy usage such as at the workplace or at a home office. Overall, its a pretty poor performer.

I set it up according to the directions, clicked the scan button, and the contraption made a noise but never began the scanning process. Uninstalled it, then re-installed it, and the same thing happened. Complete and utter waste of my time. I gave it one star only because it had all the parts in the box.

Don't buy this scanner, if you want to use the ADF to scan multiple pages into one document. The "SCANDIRECT" software that ships with this product WILL NOT scan multiple pages into one document. When you feed 5 pages into the ADF (automatic document feeder) thinking you'll get one document with 5 pages ---WRONG.. you get 5 documents with one page each.

Just UPGRADE your paperport software for a minimum of $100, and then you can use the scanner as it was designed. When I called to complain to XEROX about this, I was told that they had "mated" this scanner and the software (Version 9) before the ADF was added as part of the base scanner. Seemed pretty crappy to me. IT GOING BACK to the store tomorrow.

This scanner is the first scanner I have ever used that I am acutally happy with. The PaperPort software is a powerful tool. ADF feeds legal and letter size sheets very well, scans quite quickly, although not as fast as some. Overall, I am very happy with the product.

My company bought this scanner about a year and a half ago. We have 10 - 15 people who use it intermittently. It does not see heavy use. From the beginning we've had trouble with it jamming and feeding multiple pages. The cover to open it is very hard to snap open, and it won't recover from a jam without us turning off the scanner and rebooting the computer. I discovered that if I change the automatic document feeder pad assembly every 3 months or so, which I should not have to do, it helps the jamming and misfeed issue. Recently I went to order these pads, which were $20.00 apiece, and I couldn't find them on Xerox's website. When I called them they said this item was no longer being sold individually, but in a kit with cleaning solution and 2 pads. So what would have cost $40.00 - bad enough - now costs $100.00 !! As if we haven't spent enough money and frustration on this thing. I am going to do my best to get rid of this thing and buy one that works!

For a cheap sheet-feed scanner the 510 seems an adequate unit (I paid £185 including delivery and VAT) and I've used mine daily for 8 months scanning many thousands of pages. After a paper jam the scanner will not automatically recover - and refuses to continue scanning. In Windows XP the solution is to switch off the scanner for 10 seconds then on again. After up to 90 seconds the scanner will reset itself and the job can be continued. But who'd guess that that was possible ? The instructions make no mention of it and apparently owners have been starting jobs all over again after a jam. The software has worked flawlessly.

For the price (about $200) this isn't a bad scanner, considering it comes with an Automatic Document Feeder. It's reasonably fast and does a good job with things like double-sided scans and converting non-editable files to Word and Excel. That being said, I will be replacing the unit soon because of a quirk that is really getting on my nerves: There is no way to turn off or adjust the lamp warm-up feature. When you first use the scanner it makes you wait 30 (sometimees 60) seconds while it warms up the lamp. If you wait 45 minutes or more before you try another scan, IT MAKES YOU WAIT 30 TO 60 SECONDS AGAIN. If your work processes don't allow you to scan all your documents at once (and most people with a desk scanner don't work that way) it is very annoying to see the "Wait while scanner warms up" message several times a day. Furthermore, it says right on Xerox's tech support web site that there is no way to turn off OR EVEN ADJUST THE TIME-OUT on this "feature". Sorry, Xerox, but I have work to do and your scanner just gets in my way.

After having so much trouble with HP scanners, I decided to try another company alltogether and go with Xerox. I needed a scanner capable of handling large amounts of paper 30-50 sheets at a time, was quick, and most importantly, worked. Unfortunately, 2 out of 3 doesn't cut it.

This scanner is very fast. It takes about 5 seconds to feed a sheet of paper. It can also handle a lot of paper at a time. Those are the only things it has going for it. If you notice from the picture, the auto document feeder is at a ridiculously sharp angle. It almost points straight up, which makes it awkward to load paper into it if you're sitting down and less than 6 feet tall. My employees that use this always have to stand up to insert the paper because it's easier that way. The feeder tray isn't very long either so you actually have to hold the paper and use your hand as a guide if you use more than a few sheets of legal-sized paper in it.

Without a doubt, the biggest problem with this scanner is that it is incompatible with Adobe Acrobat 6. It refuses to work with it. I don't know if this is Adobe or the scanner's fault but don't get this scanner if you want to use both. Acrobat 6 refuses to locate this scanner. I have a degree in computer science, spent about 6 hours searching for a fix on the Internet, and still couldn't resolve this. The only way to get around it is to either use a different version of Acrobat (I ended up having to pay $400 for Acrobat), or use the scanning software that comes with it. The scanning software included is okay, but is like most software in that it's bloated and has a lot of junk I didn't need. All I want is a simple TWAIN driver, which is not included. I don't need 50 mb of software and drivers, and four different programs to do simple image scanning.

Stay away from the Xerox Documate if you have an interest in scanning to PDF. It's not even made by Xerox, but by a company called Visioneer, who then sells it under the Xerox brand.

Bad Scanner. Only with their software are you able to scan in paperwork. Paperport causes more problems with the computers I have it installed on than any other product I know of. If you have anything greater than Adobe Acrobat 5 installed, you can't use Acrobat to scan in software. Stay away from the Documate line of scanners!

I bought this scanner to scan approximately 100,000 pages of literature and it is just horrible. I returned it after a few weeks and got the fujitsu scansnap scanner. The fujitsu scansnap is simply the best non-commercial adf scanner on the planet, and I recommend you take a look at it (search for scansnap at amazon).

I wanted a product to convert cabinets full of paper at my home and be able to search for documents when I needed.

So far, the Xerox 510 lives up to its billing. You can just add stacks of paper to the document feeder, walk away, and come back to add more. Costco had it for $309 less $50 rebate so a good price. The software scans directly into PDF and also allows conversion of existing PDF's into paperport format.

I love it so far (scanned 500 pages without a hitch or jam!)

I have tried several permutations and combinations with this scanner. Here are some of the observations:
1) Image resolution is too bad for the file size it produces. I used an EPSON scanner before, and could get a much better B&W and color resolutions for a much shorter file size
2) All the images are titled towards one side. So, if you are scanning photographs, this is not the right scanner. A part of the picture will always need to be cut out if you try to straighten it up!
3) When trying to get a reasonable B&W resolution (300 dpi), scan speed is not as great as advertised.

Overall, I don't think this scanner is worth its price.

This scanner worked fine for me for a year, and now with later windows 2000 service patches, it has what appears to be USB problems. I've tried the latest driver available on several machines, and if they have windows 2000 with the newest patches, it will only work once or twice, then there is a driver error. I can do the normal windows recovery technicques of uninstalling & reinstalling, rebooting, trying different USB ports, etc. but short of re-imaging the machine, it won't recover. I am using this scanner with Adobe Acrobat 6 Pro with the latest service patches. I've researched and not found a new driver for this device for quite some time. Going to try to hack on a visioneer driver after reading some of the other reviews here.

Our company bought this scanner to be able to scan documents directly into Word. (Our HP scanners can do this easily.) The problem we ran into was that the scanned image from the Xerox had black lines on either side. When I called tech support I was told I would have to crop the image with the software that came with the scanner, save the image and then insert it into Word. Rather than incur the wrath of the secretary who needed to perform this function, I exchanged the Xerox for an HP scanner. The Xerox performed fine in other respects, so it all depends on what you need it for.

I wanted a product to convert a career's worth of consulting notes into .pdf files, which will let me access them on my laptop and throw out several filing cabinets full of paper.

So far, the Xerox 510 lives up to its billing. You can just add stacks of paper to the document feeder, walk away, and come back to add more. The ability to scan one side of a stack of papers, and then scan the other side (while it organizes them back in order) is very nice. It does take a little bit of finessing, since it can be very touchy on paper jams.

A couple of minor problems that could be fixed in a later model: 1. The scanning application demands to be run in the foreground, so if you want to do something else on your computer while it scans, you have to work around a window in the middle of your screen. 2. It does not resolve errors very well at all. Most errors require a reboot, and don't even attempt to stop the process in the middle of a scan. Also, don't try to go for the full 50 pages in the document feeder. If it can't grab the first page, it'll force you to reboot.

A few other tricks: When I first started scanning, I was getting jams every 100 pages or so. Now I get one less than every 500 pages. It likes well-thumbed pages better than new, perfectly cut paper (easier to grab). Also, for some reason when I did not open the paper feed extension all the way my jams decreased dramatically. 300 dpi (10 sec/page) works for most of my scans, unless there are very small fonts which require 600 dpi (30-40 sec/page).

All in all, a very good product.

Jams with 2 pages jams with 10 pages. I basically have to sit here and babysit the scanner the whole time. I could scan my documents faster one page at a time on a regular scanner. Returning it as we speak.

This Xerox scanner is a decent buy if you have hundreds of pages to scan. I have scanned thousands of sheets through mine, with little trouble. Xerox even includes a replacement part for the feeder, which I have yet to need. This scanner has allowed me to tackle a project I would not have done otherwise, it has paid for itself many times over. The included software (PaperPort/TextBridge) are excellent! The only reason this scanner did not get 5 stars is that nearly every scan is crooked from the feeder. The software has features to correct this skew, but it is a bit time consuming.

When it works I've been happy with this scanner. It often just hangs after a paper jam and there is no way to reset it, short of power cycling and starting all over again. This is very annoying on large documents.

I've had great experiences with this scanner connected to Win XP, using the ADF to scan 50 pages at a time without problems. Unfortunately I just bought a iMac G5 desktop & discovered that there is no Xerox support for Mac OS X ! So I will need to keep using my Windows laptop if I want to scan....otherwise a fine product.

This scanner works, most of the time. I am moving toward the (still distant) paperless office, and this scanner has gotten me much closer. However, I can't recommend purchasing one because it has some maddening problems that just don't seem to be tractable.

The DocuMate 510 doesn't work at all with Windows Server 2003, because apparently corporations don't need to scan documents.

On Windows XP, it provides both TWAIN and WIA drivers. In my case, I can choose between the TWAIN driver, which inverts the colors of all black and white scans (the option to correct this simply doesn't work on my PC), and the WIA driver, which ignores the auto document feeder, forcing me to babysit the machine while it scans. I've worked around this in Microsoft Office Document Scanning with a greyscale scan that converts to black and white, but that slows it down from its rated 10ppm to about 3.

The Documate 510 software bundle includes (indeed, centers around) PaperPort 9 Deluxe, which allows scanning to PDF. Despite the "Deluxe" this product is crippleware, designed to entice you to buy the "real" version: PaperPort Pro. Except PaperPort Pro is now at version 10, which isn't really compatible with this scanner, due to the driver problems mentioned above (which are pervasive no matter what application is used, except the shipped version of PaperPort 9 Deluxe appears to have some kind of workaround).

I've tried several times to reinstall the drivers in the hopes of correcting some of these issues. Doing so requires on-the-spot "registration" every single time, including typing in the 20-character alphanumeric serial number from the back of the unit. As an added bonus, it requires you to enter your email address and subscribes you (with no indication that it is happening) to Xerox's marketing email list.

I believe this scanner is actually made by Visioneer, who sells or sold it under another name (4650?) and OEM'd to Xerox as the Documate 510. The "beauty" of OEMing a product made by someone else is that you can take it to market without a single person in your organization knowing how it works. This certainly appears to be Xerox's approach, as evidenced by the product's second-class citizen status on their website and their support personnel's inability to deviate from their call scripts.

So the Documate 510 does work, sort of. I have scanned quite a bit of material with it; my complaint is that the experience is inevitably much slower and far more frustrating than there is any need for it to be.

I am unconvinced that there are any superior alternatives in this price range, but as a result of my experiences, my office won't be buying any more scanners from either Xerox or Visioneer.

This Documate 510 scanner is sold under the Xerox brand but is made by Visioneer. You should not buy it because (1) it is a BAD, POORLY-MADE product (parts of the ADF wore out so badly after 8 months we couldn't use the scanner anymore), and (2) the CUSTOMER SERVICE is some of the WORST and MOST ARROGANT I have encountered in a long time. My company bought this item new from Amazon on 4/26/04; it was paid for with a credit card on the Amazon web site. As I said, by the end of October it had fallen apart to the extent the document feeder wouldn't work anymore. There is a 1- year warranty, so I called the customer service number to find out how to return it, and got Visioneer. I explained the problem and the rep said to fax a proof of purchase and they would issue an RMA. I faxed the shipping label from the original box from Amazon, showing all info (product, serial number, date of shipment,etc. I got a call the next day saying the rep's supervisor would not approve the return, that I needed something with the date of purchase on it. I said how about if I fax the credit card statement showing the purchase from Amazon, made one day before the shipping date on the shipping label. Nope, not good enough. I said we evidently had not saved the e-mail confirmation from 8 months ago, and it would be very hard to get a new receipt from Amazon, since there were at least 5 different people in the company (2 of whom are not even here anymore), each with a different Amazon user name, who use this credit card, and we could not see the purchase history on Amazon unless we had the username that placed the order. He still couldn't help, so I asked to talk to his supervisor, who could not talk at the moment but would call me back. Well, 24 hours later, no call, so I called back,and after 2 transfers and being on hold for 10 minutes and calling back in, I got the supervisor. He said there was nothing he could do. I said, do you think Amazon shipped us this without us paying for it, especially since we have the credit card statement showing the purchase date coinciding with the shipment date? Sorry, can't help you. I asked, what if we got it as a gift. Well,you'd need a gift receipt, etc.... I told him if we can find somebody that has the time we'll try to get a receipt otherwise we'll turn it over to our lawyer. I guess the new motto is "the customer is always wrong".

This scanner is absolutely terrible. I have a small home business and I want to go paperless. If you are in the middle of a scan job, say you are on the 30th page already, and something is wrong, there is no recovery feature so you have to start from scratch. In fact, tech support says you will get constant errors if you scan more than 20 pages at a time, yet the document feeder is supposed to hold 50 pages (?). You can scan and then merge multiple scans to become one, but that is not the point. The point is that out of 900 pages of scanning, i got about two dozen errors which requires me to shut off the machine, close the scanning program and start all over again. I returned the product and got another documate 510 because tech support said it must be faulty, but the second is exactly the same. This scanner is nothing but a pain in the rear. I am shipping the second one back in the morning.

The unit seems to do a pretty good job as a document scanner. The rating depends on the purpose for which you purchase this scanner.

Couple items to note:

1. The unit does not come with the PaperPort Pro 9 office as advertised by Amazon. It is bundled with the Deluxe 9 software which is a less costly product.

2. The flat bed scanning of photos is not up to my expectations. It is probably ok if you're scanning photos for commercial / non-artistic reasons. I do not believe that this takes the place of a 'decent' photo scanner. I had planned to compromise on getting shorted on the Pro 9 Office software and keep this scanner. However I decided that it was not worth it given the compromise that I would also have to accept in the photo scanning.

3. The ADF always pulls slightly to the left as the pages go through. I don't know if this is a typical problem on other ADFs or not.

4. The instructions for the software both hard copy and on the web site are not thorough. A lot of trial and error is required in order to better understand the scanner options.

5. I don't like the fact that the Deluxe 9 software provides the 'preview' scan in a small sub-window. The window is too small to get any valuable 'preview' info.

6. A positive item is that Xerox has spare parts available for the ADF and scanner which may need replacing. I don't believe that this is typical for other non-commercial consumer type units.

The scanner does a fine job. There are many options to control file size and scan quality. The interface took a little getting used to, but after a couple of days I was a "whiz".

PLUSES:
I like the fact that it scans directly to PDF format. I especially like the "Scan Manager" that allows you to preview reorder, and add pages to an ongoing scan. For example, if you finish scanning a document and want to add a forgotten page to the same file, you can do so in the Scan Manager. You can even re-order the forgotten page to its proper place in the PDF file. This feature would also be useful if you had a 200-page document to scan since the ADF cannot hold 200 pages at once. The machine also comes with a spare ADF "roller", which is supposed to need replacing after 20,000 documents.

I had some trouble with pages that had been stapled, but I was able to correct my problem by flat rolling the staple holes to make it feed properly. This was more user-error than the machine's fault. In fact, I scanned an unstapled 50 page document without a hitch.

I will buy this same machine as the demand for it grows at my office.

This scanner works really well! I would give it 5-stars if it was faster!

Look at my full review in my April 2004 posting here:
http://reecewilton.tripod.com/blog/

I am in the process of scanning all my documents, bank statements, tax returns etc... and this scanner does a great job. It is very fast with the ADF and the Paperport software it comes with does a wonderful job organizing the information in folders. The software will also let you search the scanned document for any words in the text of a document. This feature is really great once you have scanned a lot of documents. This scanner, and the excellent bundled software, is a great addition to my attempt to digitize my world. Highly recommended.

This scanner is everything that I expected and more!!!! I cannot express how happy I am with this scanner. It scans quickly - both with the auto document feeder and the flatbed. The step-by-step installation instructions were very easy to follow.
I highly recommend this scanner to anyone who wishes to purchase a high-speed, inexpensive scanner.