Automatic Duplex Scanning in PaperPort Versions 11, 12, 14

This article is about duplex scanning in Nuance's PaperPort software with a hardware-capable duplex scanner. It is not about the Scan Other Side feature in the Capture Assistant that allows a simplex scanner to achieve double-sided scanning. If you are interested in the latter, see my Experts Exchange article, How to Perform Duplex Scanning with a Simplex Scanner in PaperPort Versions 11, 12, 14. But this article is strictly about how to get duplex scanners to work in PaperPort, more specifically, how to achieve automatic/one-click duplex scanning, that is, duplex scanning with neither the Display scanner dialog box nor the Show Capture Assistant box checked. This article applies to the three most recent versions of PaperPort, i.e., 11, 12, and 14 – yes, Nuance got superstitious and did not release a version 13.

The first step in any scanning issue is to download the latest-and-greatest drivers from your scanner manufacturer's website. My experience over the years is that PaperPort is very sensitive to the TWAIN/WIA drivers, and I've seen many scanning problems fixed by installing the latest drivers.

The problem that I'm addressing in this article is the lack of a Duplex ADF choice in the Source field drop-down in the SET tab of a Scanning Profile. For example, here's what it may look like when the existence of a duplex scanner is not recognized:


The first approach to fixing this is to run through Advanced setup for your scanner, telling PaperPort to download the latest scanner database, normally the option that PaperPort says is recommended. If that works, great! But the raison d'être of this article is to explain how to fix it when that does not work, in other words, when the PaperPort scanner database has a bug such that your duplex scanner is not properly configured as a duplex scanner in the database. Here are the detailed steps to fix this:
 
Now add a scanning profile (or modify an existing one), click the Settings button on the profile, click the Scan tab, click the Source drop-down, and Duplex ADF should be there, as shown here:


Select Duplex ADF. Now you may uncheck Display scanner dialog box, as well as Show Capture Assistant, and you will have one-click, automatic duplex scanning in PaperPort – just click the Scan button!

If you find this article to be helpful, please click the thumbs-up icon below. This lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. Thanks very much! Regards, Joe