Digitise a shelf of certificates as one batch

Batch work is a different shape of problem from single-document work, and treating it as 'the same thing, many times' is what turns a two-week job into a two-month one. The register is the interface.

Before you start: decide the collection

Create or pick the collection first. Results are filed into it as they are produced, which means the output arrives organised rather than as a folder somebody has to sort afterwards. Retro-filing several hundred restored sheets is the single most avoidable cost in a digitisation programme.

Survey once, for the run

A shelf of degree certificates from the same era usually shares its damage: the same storage conditions produced the same tide lines and the same foxing. Record that once against the intake rather than per sheet, and open individual sheets only where something differs.

Take the sheets in

1. 1Capture at 300 DPI or better so seal detail survives.
2. 2Bring them in from your own storage if you have it - S3, WebDAV, Nextcloud and the vendor pickers are all read-only connections set up once.
3. 3Check the register view: every sheet should have a cover and a status before you treat anything.

Treat a selection, not a sheet

Select rows and apply a treatment across the selection. Every page is processed independently with its own progress, result and failure - so a badly damaged sheet fails alone and is retried alone rather than stopping the run.

Reconcile the register

Captured award details export as one CSV. Withheld values sit in their own column, so when you reconcile against the institution's own records a blank never quietly stands in for an uncertain read. Anything in the withheld column is your review queue.