How Scanix works

Scanix Desktop turns a stack of paper or a pile of files into clean, searchable documents with structured data you can hand off downstream. Before you start clicking, it helps to hold the whole picture in your head: what happens to a document from the moment it arrives to the moment it leaves, and where each part of that journey lives in the app. This page builds that mental model, then gives you a tour of the screen so you always know where to go next.

The pipeline, end to end

Every document in Scanix moves through the same five stages, in order:

Capture → Enhance → OCR / AI → Verify → Export.

• Capture — bring documents in: scan from a connected scanner, import files, drag and drop, import a whole folder, or let a watched Hot Folder pull them in automatically.
• Enhance — clean up the image so it reads well: straightening, cropping, and colour handling, configured per template.
• OCR / AI — read the page. OCR (optical character recognition) recognises the text; AI capture goes further and classifies the document and fills named fields for you.
• Verify — a person reviews the extracted fields, which Scanix marks as valid, needs-review, or invalid, before anything goes out.
• Export — write the results to the formats and destinations you need, such as JSON, CSV, or a searchable PDF.

The two middle stages are where a template earns its keep: a template stores the enhancement, OCR, and AI settings for a document type, so the same kind of document is always processed the same way. Captures that don't use a template still flow through the pipeline — you just trigger the reading step yourself instead of having it run automatically.

A tour of the app window

The main window has three persistent parts: a header bar across the top, a sidebar down the left, and a thin status bar along the bottom. The header and sidebar are your map of the whole app, so it's worth knowing what each control does.

The header bar

The bar runs across the top of every main screen and stays put as you move around. From left to right it carries:

• The scanix.desktop logo and brand — click it any time to return Home.
• Search — a pill showing a Ctrl+K hint. Click it or press Ctrl+K to type a query; press Enter to run it, and the results open on the Documents screen.
• The Help & Documentation button (the ? icon) — opens a short menu with Documentation (these online docs, in your browser) and Terms & Conditions.
• Settings (the gear icon) — opens the Settings page.
• Notifications (the bell icon) — takes you to the Processing screen to see live jobs.
• Account — a pill that opens the in-app account dashboard, where you can review your plan, time remaining, and license.
• The window controls — minimize, maximize/restore, and close.

The sidebar

The left sidebar is split by a divider into two groups. The top main group is your everyday capture-to-verify flow; the lower tools group is configuration and automation. Click any entry to open that screen, and use the collapse toggle on the rail's edge to switch between full labels and an icon-only strip.

The everyday flow lives in the main group:

The tools group holds the configuration and automation that the everyday flow draws on:

The Home screen at a glance

Home is where you land after setup and where the logo always returns you. It's built to get a job started in one click, and it has four parts stacked top to bottom.

• Scan / Import hero — a large drop zone reading Drag & drop files with the subtext Auto-OCR extracts text instantly, plus two buttons on the right: Scan and Import Files. A small status line shows whether a scanner has been detected. Drop files in and they queue as thumbnails you can reorder or remove before you click Import Files to load them.
• Job Groups — when you've saved at least one, a row of group cards appears with a Manage → link. Click a card to push a batch through that group.
• Templates grid — one card per saved template, each with an icon, name, and a corner badge showing how it captures (Scan, Watch, or Import), plus a New Template tile at the end. Click a template to choose how to bring documents in for it.
• Recent Batches — your latest batches, each showing its name, document count, and date. When a batch has extracted fields, the row carries coloured chips summarising how many are valid, need review, or are invalid or missing — a quick read on what still needs your attention.

Next steps

Once the pipeline makes sense, the rest of the docs are just the details of each stage — and the fastest way to feel it is to run one document through end to end.

Related

• Quickstart
• Templates vs AI capture
• Settings