To my surprise, it appears that Neat Company has made the latest version of NeatWorks, Neat 4.0, free software.
NeatWorks (now apparently renamed just Neat for Mac) is great software that I rely on daily. It is designed to work with a select few scanners, but can provide Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for any TIFF with 300 dpi or higher resolution.
Moreover, it provides a digital/paperless document filing system that allows you to manage (and search in-text) through all your receipts, documents, and records. It’s, for lack of a better word, Neat.
When upgrading to Neat 4.0, I was prompted for a serial number that didn’t match my records. It wanted a serial number that started with NM5, not NM2 that I had from the purchase of my NeatDesk scanner (which included NeatWorks for free, obviously). No documentation either, thanks guys…
After digging through the Neat support site (no help), Neat blog (no mention of Neat 4.0 even being out for Mac), I finally stumble on the Downloads + Product Keys section, which has a link to a vending machine, which hands out product keys like candy.
Now… thinking for a minute. I didn’t log in to Neat.com. What if I didn’t have a Neat product key already?
That’s when it hit me, Neat for Mac is now free! I don’t know how long, but here’s how to get in while the getting is good:
1) Go to Neatco.com’s Mac Product Key page. Copy the product key that is automagically generated for you.
2) Download Neat for Mac 4.0 (I didn’t intercept this download URL or anything else nefarious, it’s right on NeatCo’s site).
3) Install Neat for Mac and skip the Neat Cloud offers. You will have to sign up for a free account, and activate it with a confirmation email. But, you don’t need to sign up for Neat Cloud. Near the end, you’ll be asked for that product key from Step 1.
4) There is no Step 4. Enjoy your Neat for Mac.
Keep in mind that Neat’s OCR is powerful, but demands specific settings (which is why so few scanners are natively supported). You must scan in TIFF format with 300 dpi, and of course, higher resolutions work better. You can always drag and drop such documents, and analyze them for in-text searching from inside of Neat for Mac.
I also discovered this today as well. However, even though I did have a Product Key ready to go, I was not prompted to enter a key. There was not step 3. Just Step 2. I downloaded the software, and installed it. At no time was I prompted for a Product Key. 🙂
I don’t think Neat takes the Apple OS system seriously. the application for Mac is rather week compared to PC version. I just downloaded it and hope it will stay longer on my Mac than just the 30 days, if mine is a trial.
So – just picked up a neatdesk this evening without an original installation disc and seems like I should have done some more research. I heard that this was a great solution, and the free software was killer. I didn’t figure it was so good that the company would have to discontinue it to get customers hooked on a subscription model. Irritates me actually that I have been struggling to download the software from their website for the past couple of hours, only to just find your write-up here.
They still have the links posted, but they don’t seem to be letting me download anything. They just time-out and fail. I also find it odd that there are no mentions of their software out there where someone might be able to scoop up an older copy or a mirror..
.. So if anyone happens to have a copy of the latest windows installation sitting in there downloads folder or recycle bin and would like to share 🙂
Are you using the download links in this article:
https://www.christopherprice.net/neat-desktop-mac-pc-discontinued-download-legacy-alternatives-3430.html
If not, go there and use those download links – they are much newer than this article, written almost four years ago.
If you are using those links, I just tested the article above – those download links do work currently. If they aren’t working for you, try a different web browser.
In have problem to reinstall software to my new MacBook, my Scanner Model NM-1000