Evernote – Capturing Business Cards

Lets imagine you have a business card folder or Rolodex packed full of business cards. Having them on your desk is fantastic, but what if we are on the road and need that contact urgently. Most of us would call the office and the secretary or admin staff to go to your desk and find the business card and pass the information over the phone. Your on the other end trying to find a pen and notebook to write the details down.

Ok, lets backup a step. You are out on the road and need the contact number of one of your clients. You know the card is on your desk, but you were smart enough to scan all your business cards into Evernote last week. All you do is get on your iPhone or Android powered smartphone, open Evernote and search for a first name or business name. Instantly the note containing the business card appears on the screen. Bingo! A win for Evernote.

The first change you get, scan all your business cards into Evernote. Now you can do this using a scanner attached to your computer or you can use your iOS or Android powered device to photograph the business card. Either way, get those cards into Evernote. All the text on the business card becomes searchable after adding into Evernote .

If you want to be able to find all the business cards later, add a tag called business card to each note containing the image of the business card.

iOS version of Evernote provides a business card option when creating a new note with a photo. The options when attaching photos to notes are Post-It Note, Photo, Document and Business Card. If you choose Business Card, Evernote will attempt to decipher name,title,phone,fax,email, address and company name. If the card is mainly white, place it on a dark surface. If the card is mainly black, place it on a light surface. If the card is glossy, instead of taking photo directly over the top, angle the camera so that the flash does not effect the card.