PaperPort - How To Reorder/Rearrange Scanning Profiles
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Browse All Articles > PaperPort - How To Reorder/Rearrange Scanning Profiles
The standard (non-Professional) edition of PaperPort from Nuance Communications (previously known as ScanSoft) is limited to five Scanning Profiles, but in a previous article, I discussed how to overcome this limitation. The technique presented in that article may also be used to address an issue that I've been asked many times by PaperPort users, namely, how to reorder the Scanning Profiles in the Scan or Get Photo pane.
For users with many Scanning Profiles, it is desirable to order the list such that the more frequently used ones are at the top. Unfortunately, PaperPort 12, the previous release, offers no ability to rearrange the order of the Scanning Profiles. PaperPort 14, the current release (yes, Nuance got superstitious and skipped 13), added a little-known, undocumented feature that helps: drag-and-drop of the Scanning Profiles. However, it works poorly, in my opinion, as I find it difficult to drop the profile exactly where I want it.
Also, in both PP12 and PP14, there is no ability to search for a Scanning Profile, so the user must scroll through the list to find the desired profile. This article presents an approach for reordering the list, using the same method presented in my previous article, PaperPort - How To Achieve More Than Five Scanning Profiles in the Standard Edition.
All of the screenshots in this article are from PaperPort Professional 14 running on W7/64-bit. However, the technique presented also works for the prior release, PaperPort 12, both the Professional and Standard editions. Indeed, it is essential for PP12, since, as mentioned above, PP12 does not even have the drag-and-drop feature that PP14 has.
Here's a screenshot showing why this is a problem for PaperPort users:
![PP14 Scan or Get Photo pane before reordering]()
The Select a profile box shows all of the Scanning Profiles, which may be an unlimited number in PaperPort Professional – and in PaperPort Standard, too, if you read my previous article. :) In the screenshot above, there are 16 profiles, but I've seen PaperPort installations with many more.
There are numerous problems with the User Interface here. First, there is no way to expand the vertical size of the box containing the profiles, so the only way to see other profiles is to scroll down. Second, there is no way to sort the list alphabetically. Third, there is no search/find feature, such as the ability to look for all profiles with Grayscale or with Duplex in the name. Fourth, the drag-and-drop feature is mediocre in PP14 and doesn't exist at all in PP12.
The good news is that it is possible to reorder the list outside of PaperPort. This is because the Scanning Profiles are stored in a plain text file in XML format that can be easily searched and modified. The file containing them is called Profiles.xml and is located here:
PP12 in XP
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Nuance\PaperPort\12\Profiles.xml
PP14 in XP
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Nuance\PaperPort\14\Profiles.xml
PP12 in Vista, W7, W8
c:\Users\All Users\Nuance\PaperPort\12\Profiles.xml
PP14 in Vista, W7, W8
c:\Users\All Users\Nuance\PaperPort\14\Profiles.xml
The first two lines of Profiles.xml are:
The last line of Profiles.xml is:
Between those two XML tags may be any number of scanning profiles, each beginning with a Profile name="whatever..." tag and ending with a /Profile tag. For example, the first two scanning profiles in the screenshot above look like this in the XML file:
The key to the solution is that PaperPort displays the Scanning Profiles in their order in the Profiles.xml file. So by using an XML editor, or even a plain text editor like Notepad, the Scanning Profiles may be rearranged to any order that you'd like. Here are the steps:
(1) Exit PaperPort.
(2) Copy Profiles.xml to Profiles-restore.xml. This is just a safety measure in case the process goes awry and you need to restore it.
(3) Edit the Profiles.xml file using an XML or plain text editor to move the profiles around, arranging them in the desired order. Be careful to move each profile in its entirety, that is, everything between and including the beginning XML tag Profile name="whatever..." and the ending XML tag /Profile. Save the modified Profiles.xml file.
(4) Run PaperPort. The Scanning Profiles will now be in the desired order!
To show how this works, I just started a scanning project that will involve a lot of scanning to simplex color searchable PDFs and simplex grayscale searchable PDFs, and I'll need to switch frequently between those two scanning profiles. Here's what they look like in the XML file:
It turns out that they're in the middle of the file, so I'd have to scroll down in the Select a profile box to find the one I want each time I switch document types. Instead of that, I moved those two profiles to the top of Profiles.xml for the duration of the scanning project. I did this in a text editor (with a powerful text search function), although I could have used drag-and-drop in PP14 (not possible in PP12, as discussed above). After moving them, here's what the Select a profile box looks like:
![PP14 Scan or Get Photo pane after reordering]()
I'd like to see the Nuance folks enhance the UI for the list of Scanning Profiles in a future release of PaperPort. In the meantime, I hope this technique helps some EE members. 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
For users with many Scanning Profiles, it is desirable to order the list such that the more frequently used ones are at the top. Unfortunately, PaperPort 12, the previous release, offers no ability to rearrange the order of the Scanning Profiles. PaperPort 14, the current release (yes, Nuance got superstitious and skipped 13), added a little-known, undocumented feature that helps: drag-and-drop of the Scanning Profiles. However, it works poorly, in my opinion, as I find it difficult to drop the profile exactly where I want it.
Also, in both PP12 and PP14, there is no ability to search for a Scanning Profile, so the user must scroll through the list to find the desired profile. This article presents an approach for reordering the list, using the same method presented in my previous article, PaperPort - How To Achieve More Than Five Scanning Profiles in the Standard Edition.
All of the screenshots in this article are from PaperPort Professional 14 running on W7/64-bit. However, the technique presented also works for the prior release, PaperPort 12, both the Professional and Standard editions. Indeed, it is essential for PP12, since, as mentioned above, PP12 does not even have the drag-and-drop feature that PP14 has.
Here's a screenshot showing why this is a problem for PaperPort users:
The Select a profile box shows all of the Scanning Profiles, which may be an unlimited number in PaperPort Professional – and in PaperPort Standard, too, if you read my previous article. :) In the screenshot above, there are 16 profiles, but I've seen PaperPort installations with many more.
There are numerous problems with the User Interface here. First, there is no way to expand the vertical size of the box containing the profiles, so the only way to see other profiles is to scroll down. Second, there is no way to sort the list alphabetically. Third, there is no search/find feature, such as the ability to look for all profiles with Grayscale or with Duplex in the name. Fourth, the drag-and-drop feature is mediocre in PP14 and doesn't exist at all in PP12.
The good news is that it is possible to reorder the list outside of PaperPort. This is because the Scanning Profiles are stored in a plain text file in XML format that can be easily searched and modified. The file containing them is called Profiles.xml and is located here:
PP12 in XP
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Nuance\PaperPort\12\P
PP14 in XP
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Nuance\PaperPort\14\P
PP12 in Vista, W7, W8
c:\Users\All Users\Nuance\PaperPort\12\
PP14 in Vista, W7, W8
c:\Users\All Users\Nuance\PaperPort\14\
The first two lines of Profiles.xml are:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Profiles>
The last line of Profiles.xml is:
</Profiles>
Between those two XML tags may be any number of scanning profiles, each beginning with a Profile name="whatever..." tag and ending with a /Profile tag. For example, the first two scanning profiles in the screenshot above look like this in the XML file:
<Profile name="B&W PDF Searchable Best Simplex" view-order="-1" version="1" ShowInJumpList="0">
<Description>B&W PDF Searchable Best Simplex</Description>
<ImgProc auto-orient="1" auto-crop="0" auto-crop-type="0" scale="0" page-size-percent-based="1" page-size="47" page-size-percent="100" page-size-width="0" page-size-height="0" page-size-units="1" delete-blankpage="1" Auto-straighten="1" Auto-enhance="0" EraseEdges="0" EraseEdges-left="0" EraseEdges-right="0" EraseEdges-top="0" EraseEdges-bottom="0" EraseEdges-units="1" SinglePageItems="0" BlankPageSeparated="0" Auto-enhance_LightColor="14803425" Auto-enhance_DarkColor="1973790" BlankSheetSeparated="0" auto-despeckle="0" remove-punchholes="1" remove-borders="0"/>
<ScanSettings resBW="32" resGray="32" resColor="200" imgtype="0" auto-brightBW="0" auto-brightGray="0" auto-brightColor="0" brightnessBW="75" brightnessGray="50" brightnessColor="50" landscape="0" contrastGray="50" contrastColor="50" page-size="47" units="1" color-drop="1" SourceType="16"/>
<Destination txt-format="18" PrefixName="" DocumentName="NewScan" SuffixName="nnnnn" SeparatorName="" UseCustom="1" Compression-mode="0" Use-MRC="0" Copy-folder_notes="0" Do-AllInOne-index="0" UseCustomPrefix="0"/>
<OCR language="0" page-layout="0" retain-graphics="0" PDF-A="0"/>
</Profile>
<Profile name="B&W PDF Image Best Simplex" view-order="-1" version="1" ShowInJumpList="0">
<Description>B&W PDF Image Best Simplex</Description>
<ImgProc auto-orient="0" auto-crop="0" auto-crop-type="0" scale="0" page-size-percent-based="1" page-size="47" page-size-percent="90" page-size-width="0" page-size-height="0" page-size-units="1" delete-blankpage="0" Auto-straighten="1" Auto-enhance="0" EraseEdges="0" EraseEdges-left="600" EraseEdges-right="600" EraseEdges-top="1200" EraseEdges-bottom="1200" EraseEdges-units="1" SinglePageItems="0" BlankPageSeparated="0" Auto-enhance_LightColor="14803425" Auto-enhance_DarkColor="1973790" BlankSheetSeparated="0" auto-despeckle="0" remove-punchholes="0" remove-borders="0"/>
<ScanSettings resBW="32" resGray="1" resColor="32" imgtype="0" auto-brightBW="0" auto-brightGray="0" auto-brightColor="0" brightnessBW="75" brightnessGray="50" brightnessColor="75" landscape="0" contrastGray="50" contrastColor="50" page-size="47" units="1" color-drop="1" SourceType="16"/>
<Destination txt-format="19" PrefixName="" DocumentName="NewScan" SuffixName="nnnnn" SeparatorName="" UseCustom="1" Compression-mode="0" Use-MRC="0" Copy-folder_notes="0" Do-AllInOne-index="0" UseCustomPrefix="0"/>
<OCR language="0" page-layout="1" retain-graphics="1" PDF-A="0"/>
</Profile>
The key to the solution is that PaperPort displays the Scanning Profiles in their order in the Profiles.xml file. So by using an XML editor, or even a plain text editor like Notepad, the Scanning Profiles may be rearranged to any order that you'd like. Here are the steps:
(1) Exit PaperPort.
(2) Copy Profiles.xml to Profiles-restore.xml. This is just a safety measure in case the process goes awry and you need to restore it.
(3) Edit the Profiles.xml file using an XML or plain text editor to move the profiles around, arranging them in the desired order. Be careful to move each profile in its entirety, that is, everything between and including the beginning XML tag Profile name="whatever..." and the ending XML tag /Profile. Save the modified Profiles.xml file.
(4) Run PaperPort. The Scanning Profiles will now be in the desired order!
To show how this works, I just started a scanning project that will involve a lot of scanning to simplex color searchable PDFs and simplex grayscale searchable PDFs, and I'll need to switch frequently between those two scanning profiles. Here's what they look like in the XML file:
<Profile name="Color PDF Searchable Best Simplex" view-order="-1" version="1" ShowInJumpList="0">
<Description>Color PDF Searchable Best Simplex</Description>
<ImgProc auto-orient="1" auto-crop="0" auto-crop-type="0" scale="0" page-size-percent-based="1" page-size="47" page-size-percent="100" page-size-width="0" page-size-height="0" page-size-units="1" delete-blankpage="1" Auto-straighten="1" Auto-enhance="0" EraseEdges="0" EraseEdges-left="0" EraseEdges-right="0" EraseEdges-top="0" EraseEdges-bottom="0" EraseEdges-units="1" SinglePageItems="0" BlankPageSeparated="0" Auto-enhance_LightColor="14803425" Auto-enhance_DarkColor="1973790" BlankSheetSeparated="0" auto-despeckle="0" remove-punchholes="0" remove-borders="0"/>
<ScanSettings resBW="32" resGray="32" resColor="8" imgtype="2" auto-brightBW="0" auto-brightGray="0" auto-brightColor="0" brightnessBW="75" brightnessGray="50" brightnessColor="50" landscape="0" contrastGray="50" contrastColor="50" page-size="47" units="1" color-drop="1" SourceType="4"/>
<Destination txt-format="18" PrefixName="" DocumentName="NewScan" SuffixName="nnnnn" SeparatorName="" UseCustom="1" Compression-mode="0" Use-MRC="0" Copy-folder_notes="0" Do-AllInOne-index="0" UseCustomPrefix="0"/>
<OCR language="0" page-layout="0" retain-graphics="0" PDF-A="0"/>
</Profile>
<Profile name="Grayscale PDF Searchable Best Simplex" view-order="-1" version="1" ShowInJumpList="0">
<Description>Grayscale PDF Searchable Best Simplex</Description>
<ImgProc auto-orient="1" auto-crop="0" auto-crop-type="0" scale="0" page-size-percent-based="1" page-size="47" page-size-percent="100" page-size-width="0" page-size-height="0" page-size-units="1" delete-blankpage="1" Auto-straighten="1" Auto-enhance="0" EraseEdges="0" EraseEdges-left="0" EraseEdges-right="0" EraseEdges-top="0" EraseEdges-bottom="0" EraseEdges-units="1" SinglePageItems="0" BlankPageSeparated="0" Auto-enhance_LightColor="14803425" Auto-enhance_DarkColor="1973790" BlankSheetSeparated="0" auto-despeckle="0" remove-punchholes="0" remove-borders="0"/>
<ScanSettings resBW="32" resGray="8" resColor="8" imgtype="1" auto-brightBW="0" auto-brightGray="0" auto-brightColor="0" brightnessBW="75" brightnessGray="50" brightnessColor="50" landscape="0" contrastGray="50" contrastColor="50" page-size="47" units="1" color-drop="1" SourceType="528"/>
<Destination txt-format="18" PrefixName="" DocumentName="NewScan" SuffixName="nnnnn" SeparatorName="" UseCustom="1" Compression-mode="0" Use-MRC="0" Copy-folder_notes="0" Do-AllInOne-index="0" UseCustomPrefix="0"/>
<OCR language="0" page-layout="0" retain-graphics="0" PDF-A="0"/>
</Profile>
It turns out that they're in the middle of the file, so I'd have to scroll down in the Select a profile box to find the one I want each time I switch document types. Instead of that, I moved those two profiles to the top of Profiles.xml for the duration of the scanning project. I did this in a text editor (with a powerful text search function), although I could have used drag-and-drop in PP14 (not possible in PP12, as discussed above). After moving them, here's what the Select a profile box looks like:
I'd like to see the Nuance folks enhance the UI for the list of Scanning Profiles in a future release of PaperPort. In the meantime, I hope this technique helps some EE members. 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
50+ years in computers
EE FELLOW 2017 — first ever recipient of Fellow accolade in EE history
EE MVE 2015,2016,2018
EE CERTIFIED GOLD EXPERT
EE FELLOW 2017 — first ever recipient of Fellow accolade in EE history
EE MVE 2015,2016,2018
EE CERTIFIED GOLD EXPERT
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