Fujitsu — Rack 2 Filer
888-425-8228www.fcpa.com
Jul. 25, 2008
From the August 2008 Review of
Document Storage Programs
Rack 2 Filer was designed as a solution to help market the Fujitsu ScanSnap
desktop scanner. It is essentially designed as a very visual tool for organizing
your scanned files, and it has evolved to its current version 4 release based
on customer feedback.
Usability — 5 Stars
One thing is certain: Rack 2 Filer earns the highest marks for its ease of use.
It is very graphical in the way documents are organized. The user interface
is designed as a virtual bookshelf of color-coded binders. Each binder contains
a related set of documents. The system provides some useful functionality to
help you work with your scanned images, including a “Work Area”
that lets you scan in a batch of documents and divide them into multiple files
or combine them into a single file. Rack 2 Filer is also Vista compliant.
Document Organization — 4 Stars
The documents are organized at the highest level in binders to which you can
assign names or even pictures in order to identify the nature of the binder’s
content. The binder serves as an index for the related documents. The table
of contents assigned to a binder can be set up as a template. Within the table
of contents, you organize by the file name.
Integration — 3 Stars
Rack 2 Filer is designed as a simple file management system to be used by any
type of business. Therefore, there is no integration with tax or accounting
software applications. The system directly supports storing the following file
format to organize the storage of your files: PDF, JPEG, BMP, PCX, TIF, WMF,
PSD, PNG, TGA, PCD, FPX, Word files, Excel files, and PowerPoint files. For
formats not directly supported by the browse feature, if the application that
created the file can print, Rack2-Filer will allow you to select “Raku2
ImageWriter” as a printer source, allowing you to print the output directly
into a binder (a special dialogue comes up to let you select the binder in which
you want it to appear). This is a great way to consolidate disparate data sources
such as e-mail, CRM data, etc. A unique feature is the ability to store a PDF
copy of a Word document in Rack 2 Filer and have a link back to the native *.DOC
file. Integration with Outlook allows you to e-mail documents/files directly
from Rack 2 Filer.
Annotation — 4 Stars
The software provides the ability to add “post it” notes and highlight
sections of the document. It also permits inserting digital stamps (confidential,
etc.) and embedding hyperlinks.
Overall Value — 4 Stars
The most appealing aspect of Rack 2 Filer is its visual interface for intuitively
organizing documents. It’s an improvement over Windows Explorer, but is
limited in overall functionality. Pricing is $249 or you can purchase it as
bundle with a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner for an additional $100. Due to the simplicity
of the software, the only training you need is the six-minute video provided.
2008 Overall Rating: 4 Stars