I do not. I use a scanner separately, scan the documents into a batch of JPGs, and then import those images into the database.

Getting Access to communicate directly with a scanner is not much fun. The drivers and interfaces are different for every manufacturer, so there really is not one universal method I could make a useful video around.

The most practical approach I have found is to batch-scan the documents to JPG, PDF, or whatever image format you prefer, save them in a folder, and then import them into the database. That keeps the scanning process independent of Access and makes it much easier to maintain.

Juan I have found NAPS2 is an opensource scanner software that offers CLI's.  Without having tried anything myself, from reading it looks pretty doable to initiate a scan from a button on a form, name the file, save it to the location and append a record with filename, path, and date to a table.  Also, Naps2 works with a variety of scanners so changing hardware may not be terrible.

Thanks, guys. I guess I'll keep doing it the way Richard recommends. It has been working well so far. I just thought another approach might be useful now that I'm retired and only prepare one or two documents a month. It's not like when I was working and handling full contracts and deliverables.

That sounds like the right call, Juan. For one or two documents a month, the simple batch-scan-to-folder approach is probably the best balance of effort and reliability.

Matt's suggestion of NAPS2 is worth keeping in your back pocket, though. If you ever decide you want a button in Access to kick off the scanning process, a command-line capable scanning program could make that possible without having Access deal directly with scanner drivers.

Search online for "How to use Microsoft Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) to scan in Microsoft Access" and you will find an answer to your question. You can use early or late binding depending on if you want to add References to your database or not.

Sweet thanks Joe.

Juan About 3 weeks ago, I was about to ask the same question when I came across a Youtube tutorial using WIA for scanning in Access. The original was in Arabic but the tutor also made an English version. The full tutorial is 9 parts, starting from a scan to using ADF scanner and saving as PDF. If you download the last tutorial (Part 9) you have the full version to use in a database.
The only backdraw I encountered was the fact that WIA creates a JPEG which can't be opened directly in Photoshop before opening it in e.g. GIMP and then saving back to JPEG. Then it can be opened in PS if needed.
I hope this is useful for you.
Here is the link to the YT video: https://youtu.be/YD8wPJrGaWk?si=j0jVvy6NZq4lnnbS

Thanks I will look into this.  Good looking out.  

V/r
Juan
LLNP

Juan You're welcome! It worked for me after resaving the database to a different name in order to get trusted restrictions deleted. Then worked straight out of the box on my laptop and on my pc with different scanners although being both Epson. You might need to adapt to your own needs. Be sure to put a title in before it can activate the scanning feature.
Good luck and have fun with it ;-)

If the scanner software is a standalone executable file, you can just have Access VBA open the executable via a form button, which needs only one line of code.  After the scans are done, have Access VBA open the files via file dialog boxes with another form button, which also requires very little VBA coding.  I'm with Richard: I wouldn't try to interface Access with the scanner.  If all you need is clicking a button on your Access form, my method above should suffice.

Kevin Hi Kevin, I agree with you on this as long as this is for an intermediate to expirienced user.
In my case, a catalogue for a local heritage society containing everything from documents, photos, etc. that still need scanning and describing it needs to be used by even an unexperienced or novice user without knowledge on scanning. It is also meant to facilitate the steps needed in getting the scanned images on the network server and speeding up the process.
If needed for photos or small documents, any cropping can be done afterwards by an admin.
Nevertheless it is a good idea to create a button to open the executable of a dedicated WIA scanning app. There already is an option provided to import already existing documents such as digital camera images and other than scanned images at input.

Matt's NAPS2 suggestion is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of. Since it has command-line support and works with a variety of scanners, it may be a good middle ground: Access doesn't talk directly to the scanner, but it can launch NAPS2, tell it where to save the file, and then import or link the resulting image.

That's similar to how I handle screen captures. I use HyperSnap with a preconfigured hotkey. I click a button in my Access database, it captures the screen area I already configured and saves a JPEG, and then Access can see the file and import it with one click. There has to be a comparable workflow for scanners, and NAPS2 sounds like a promising candidate.

Paul, thanks for sharing that WIA tutorial too. WIA can be a workable direct-in-Access solution when the scanner and its drivers cooperate, especially for a controlled setup like your heritage catalog. I still wouldn't make it my first recommendation for a general-purpose database because scanner drivers and capabilities can vary so much, but if it works reliably with the equipment you have, that's what matters.

For Juan's situation of only a document or two per month, the existing scan-to-folder method is probably still the simplest. But for a database used by novice volunteers, a single Scan button that launches a lightweight scanning app and saves into the proper network folder could be well worth setting up.

I just asked ChatGPT about this because Matt's NAPS2 suggestion got me curious, and it looks like this may actually be a really good solution.

NAPS2 (Not Another PDF Scanner 2) is free, open source, and supports command-line scanning. You can configure a scanner profile once with the device, paper source, resolution, color settings, etc., and then have Access launch the command-line version, tell it which profile to use and where to save the resulting file, and that's basically it.

For example, once you've created a profile called "My Scanner," the command can be as simple as:

'NAPS2.Console.exe -o "C:\Scans\Customer12345.pdf" -p "My Scanner"'

That tells NAPS2 to scan using that profile and save the result directly to that PDF. No need for Access itself to communicate with WIA or TWAIN.

NAPS2 supports WIA, TWAIN, and ESCL on Windows, along with flatbed scanners, automatic document feeders, duplex scanning, PDF/JPEG/TIFF/PNG output, OCR, different resolutions and color modes, and more. There's even a portable Windows version if you don't want to install it. It's free with no ads or restrictions.

NAPS2:
https://www.naps2.com/

Command-line documentation:
https://www.naps2.com/doc/command-line

So I'm actually liking this approach more and more. Access doesn't need to know or care what scanner you're using. You configure NAPS2 to handle the scanner, then Access just shells out to NAPS2 and waits for the resulting file.

You could have a Scan Document button in Access that generates the desired filename, runs NAPS2, waits for it to finish, verifies that the file exists, and then stores the filename/path in your table or displays the scanned document.

That's very similar to how I handle screen captures in some of my databases. I let a dedicated program do what it's good at, and Access just tells it what to do and deals with the resulting file.

I think this might actually be worth a TechHelp video. Thanks Matt for pointing me toward NAPS2. ChatGPT did the digging from there, and this looks promising.

I might have to make a video about this now, lol.

Richard That video would a great idea! 😉
I knew about Naps2 and downloaded it looking for opensource apps but did not explore its documentation or possibilities yet.
So thanks for the great tip. Since I have been working with a PC and desktop publishing since 1986, I grew up with it and for me it is fairly easy to use scanners native interface but not for everyone.
So looking forward to your great tutorial on scanning. I'll be further designing and programming my database and will implement the scanning later on after experimenting with Naps2.

Richard , I'm just happy to be useful, sometimes...  :)

I just finished putting together a test scanning form.  It works well and was not terribly in the weeds, on the scanner end.  I am using the naps2Portable.  I have my database in a folder structure that contains all of the relevant files necessary to service the database, like documents and images.  I use relative addressing to access these.  My thinking is I can drop the portable Naps2 folder in there and address it relatively, so it will travel with the rest of the database.

Having done it, I think it would make an excellent Tech help video.  I would be interested to see what you do differently.

Wow Im surprised to see that my comment has sparked up this much interest.   If Richard does a video I will be looking foward to see it also.

Juan there are still people needing to use or having a scanner. I have 2 portable scanners, Epson and Canon and a dedicated Epson v600 photoscanner + a Plustek A3 scanner (large format) to use with my Access-app.
We were lucky that I found an add-inn to restart the conversation. 😄

I'm definitely interested in this as well. At the Union, we're required to have paper copies of everything that we're not allowed to dispose of until audited by the International. But it's nice to have a digitized version so I don't have to go down to basement digging through boxes, remembering which year and month something is from so I scan everything.

It also makes it easier when we have to fax stuff (yeah, working with government agencies such as BWC makes that a requirement often too) because, at least sometimes, I can e-fax stuff. But even when I can't, it's easier to have a crisp printout of a digital rather than a paper copy that's been handled dozens of times.

This will be a great add on to the ABCD, scan from fan entity and have the file populate in the Document tab for that id.  Im starting this one this week Im sure i can get this done.