Scan a paper document

theONE uses iOS's built-in document scanner (the same one Notes uses). You'll see a 'Scan' tile inside the attachment picker — but only on screens that accept paperwork.

Tapping 'Scan' opens VisionKit's document camera — auto-edge-detect, perspective-correct, multi-page. You only see the Scan tile on screens designed for paperwork (receipts, registrations, invoices, manuals). Photos of the boat or crew don't show Scan because those screens use the photo picker, not the document picker. For a manual — a whole book, not a sheet — use Manuals → Scan pages instead: as many pages as you like, a chapter at a time, and you can add more later. The first time the camera opens, iOS asks once, with theONE's reason: "theONE uses the camera to scan your boat’s papers and manuals and to attach photos to observations and incidents."

Steps

1. Fuel Log → attach receipt

   Menu (☰) → Operational records → Fuel Log → tap a fuel stop → Edit → Attachments → +. The picker shows Scan Document, Choose from Photos and Browse Files. There is no Take Photo tile here — this picker is for paperwork. Pick Scan Document and iOS opens the document camera. Capture one or more pages; tap Save.

2. Document Vault → new document

   Menu (☰) → Operational records → Documents → +. Add a photo, PDF or file opens the picker: Take Photo, Scan Document, Choose from Photos, Choose a Video and Browse Files. Pick Scan Document. Capture multi-page documents (registration, insurance certificate). You don't have to type a title — the field's placeholder is exactly what a blank title saves as: the category and the day ("Registration · <date>"), or the file's own name when you picked one by name (a camera's "IMG_0412" or a "Scan <date>…" stamp doesn't count as a name). The category opens on Other; tap the one that fits. Save is never greyed out.

3. Document Vault → add to existing document

   Open any document in the vault → +. Same picker as above (any context). Scan additional pages and they're appended to that document.

4. If the scanner stops

   A scanner that fails — as opposed to one you cancelled — used to close without a word. Now, wherever the Scan tile lives in the attachment picker (Documents → + → Add a photo, PDF or file → Scan, Fuel Log attachments, and the rest), the picker shows "The scanner stopped — try again" at the foot of the tiles and as a toast; tapping Scan again clears it and reopens the camera. Three scan doors do not go through that picker — the menu's Scan Document row, the first-launch Documents to scan screen, and Manuals → Scan pages — and each of those still simply returns you to where you were.

5. Where you won't see Scan

   Observation photos, playbook step photos, leg attachments, crew card photos, and onboarding photos all use the photo-only picker (Take Photo / Photos / Files — no Scan tile). That's intentional: those slots are for hardware/scene photos, not paperwork.

6. What it files it as

   theONE reads the top of the page and files the document under what it says it is — a Certificate of Documentation lands as USCG Documentation, a Certificate of Number as Registration, a declarations page as Insurance. If something still files wrong, open it and change the category — the correction sticks.

7. Expiry dates now come off the page

   Scan a certificate that prints an expiry — USCG documentation, a state registration, an EPIRB registration, an insurance declarations page — and theONE reads the date and fills the Expiry field for you, switched on, so you SEE it before you save. Correct it if it read wrong; a date you type always wins over one it read. Those dates are what drive the renewal reminders and the Expiring section on the vessel card, so a document filed without one is a renewal nobody is watching.

8. If it warns about glare

   The warning means a bright hotspot is sitting on the page — a lamp or a window reflecting off the paper, usually washing out a line of text under it. Tilt the page or move your light and shoot again. If you got used to tapping Use anyway without reading, the warning is worth reading again — it means something now.

9. Review scan — Apply all vs one by one

   After a scan the review sheet lists what was read off the page. Apply all takes the list, because you are looking at it. Three kinds of row stay out of it: a value you typed in yourself, which stays yours until you accept it individually under Review one by one, and the two identifier rows — a match has nothing to apply, and a mismatch is never applied in bulk. Documents also name themselves from what they ARE now — "USCG Documentation <year>", "Registration <year>" — rather than from the boat's name, which every document in your vault shares. The title is a suggestion: edit it before you save.

10. When it can't tell what a document is

    theONE names a document from the words across the top of the page. Real paperwork often leads with a carrier's letterhead or a state seal instead of a title, and when nothing on the page says what it is, the app now says so: it files under Other and leaves the title for you rather than guessing. A blank it asks you to fill is better than a confident wrong answer you have to notice and undo.

11. If you ever see the same thing saved twice

    A scan reaching the naming sheet, a crew card being saved, onboarding finishing — anything the app does that should happen exactly once now asks one shared gate first, keyed on the thing itself rather than on which screen got there first. If you do see a duplicate, it's worth reporting — it means something is firing by a route the gate doesn't cover yet.

12. Match or mismatch on identifiers

    When a scanned document carries an identifier the boat already has on file — HIN, MMSI, documentation or registration number, EPIRB hex — the review sheet says one of two things. "Matches your record": nothing to change, and the receipt records that this document confirmed it. "Does NOT match your record": identifiers don't drift, so either the record is wrong or the document is for a different vessel. That row is never applied in bulk and never auto-applied; you accept it on purpose or leave the record alone.

Related

• Document Vault — manuals, warranties, registrationsWhere to put PDF manuals and how to scan paper documents.
• Log a fuel stopRecord a fill-up so consumption math works.
• Manuals — the whole book in your pocket, always editableKeep every owner's, service and installation manual as a living PDF you can add pages to, reorder, search inside, and pin to the system it belongs to.

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