A first glance at ScanToNotes
For this review, I used various color photographs and magazine ads, though the software's marketing material is actually targeted at companies who need to scan documents, CAD drawings, and other line-based images.

According to the marketing material on ImagingGroup's Web site describing the capabilities of ScanToNotes, you can scan in two different ways:

• You can scan multiple pages as a single attachment in TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format, such as a contract or report, directly to a Rich Text Field of a Lotus Notes document.

• You can scan one or many pages, such as transportation bills or suppliers' invoices, so that each becomes a separate attachment to a Rich Text Field of a Lotus Notes document.

You can pre-specify scan specifications such as scanned image size, location, and save format specifications. You can preset scanned image size, resolution, and bit depth without using TWAIN user interface. You can output to over 40 different image file formats, such as JPEG, TIFF, and CALS. There's support for black and white, grayscale, and color scanning, and there's support for flatbed scanning of papers and document pages. There's an option to use the vendor supplied TWAIN user interface. There's support for an automatic document feeder feature for multiple page scanning, and you can scan to either a Lotus Domino database or do local file page scanning.

For purposes of this review, I tested all but the first feature listed and found that the software lives up to the marketing admirably (which isn't always true in today's technology market). I was especially pleased with ScanToNotes' handling of full-color photos and magazine ads.

Using the software
Here's the process I followed to use the software (including all my mishaps).

First, I downloaded ScanToNotes as a .ZIP file from The ImagingGroup's FTP site. Purchasers of the software have the option of downloading it here or ordering it on CD-ROM.

Next, I installed it (with no apparent errors) on a Windows NT 4.0 machine using Notes 4.6 and read the ReadMe.txt file, which contains some great details on customizing the software.

After restarting the machine, I launched Notes. This caused a DLL (Dynamic Link Library) error dialog box to pop up. Once I clicked OK in the dialog box, I was able to get into Notes without a problem; I could not, however, open SCANTONO.NSF, a ready-to-use sample database that defines a working scanning application.

I tried using the ScanPro shortcut icon that the software places in its install folder. This method of starting ScanToNotes will complain if you don't have Notes open and a document selected. Once I filled that requirement, however, I still got the DLL error

Having stumbled up against these problems, I contacted the staff at ImagingGroup. They were extremely helpful in solving my problems.

I implemented a dual-install of Notes R5 and 4.6 on the same NT 4.0 machine and then reinstalled ScanToNotes.