Apps and Tools · May 11, 2021

Scanning Documents with the Notes App

Being able to scan a physical document is necessary to upload an artifact to SFS, share the document digitally with students or colleagues, or save it in Google Drive. There are scanners in the buildings, but you can also scan a paper document or image from your iPad and save it to your Google Drive using the Notes app you already have installed. Students also have this app and can scan and save documents to their Drives as well.

The Notes app looks like this:

Tap the app to open it. If you already have notes written that you want to save, create a new note by selecting the pencil and paper button in the top right hand corner:

Tap the “new” icon to start a new note.

In the list of options at the top, right of the screen, you’ll see a camera. Tap the camera icon and select “Scan Documents” from the list that appears:

Give the app permission to use your camera (if you haven’t already). Your camera will open, and you can position the document you want to scan on the screen. A yellow square will highlight the document. Once the square highlights the edges of your document properly, click the white button to take a picture. 

Next, drag the white square to match your document and position each of the white circles on the corners of the document. Click “Keep Scan” if you are happy with the scan, or “Retake” to try again.

If you have more pages that you want to scan for that document, repeat the last two steps until the full document is scanned. After, click “Save.”

You will see your document saved in the note. To move the document to Google Drive, tap it then tap the share icon in the top right hand corner. Find the Google Drive app in the list of apps, choose “Select Folder” and find the folder where you want to save it. Then click “Save Here” in the bottom, right hand corner. Finally, select “Upload” in the top right hand corner.