Don’t type your menu by hand. The scanner reads photos or PDFs of the menu you already have, pulls out categories, items, portions, prices, and dietary tags, and splits them into separate menus. You check how it grouped things, then import.
Scan a menu
Open Menu Manager from the dashboard sidebar.
Click Scan Menu.
Drop your files on the upload area, or click it to browse. You can add several files at once.
Click Scan Menu (or Scan 3 Files, for example, when you added more than one).
Keep the window open while it works. Scanning can take a moment, especially for photos.
What you can upload:
- File types: PDF, JPG, or PNG.
- Size: up to 10 MB per file.
- Several files: add one file per menu or per page. Remove a file with the × on its card before you scan.
For photos, lay the menu flat, fill the frame, and avoid glare. If nothing readable comes back, the scanner says so and you can try a clearer image.
How menus are split
When your menu prints its own menu headings (Entrees, Cocktails, Kids Menu), the scanner uses them as-is: each heading becomes a menu with its categories inside. Menus without printed headings are grouped by type, such as food, drinks, kids, or desserts.
Menu names also draw on file names. A file called drinks.pdf suggests a Drinks Menu, while camera-style names like IMG_2041.jpg fall back to Menu, Menu 2, and so on. Files whose names point to the same menu are combined into one.
Review the results
When the scan finishes, you see the number of items and menus it found, then each menu with its categories and item counts. Before importing you can:
- Rename a menu: click its name and type a new one.
- Move a category: use the dropdown next to a category to move it to another menu. A menu left with no categories disappears.
- Add a menu: click Add menu, then move categories into it to split things further.
You can’t edit individual items or prices in this step; fix those after the import. If a file says Results may be incomplete for this file, compare that menu against your original once it’s imported.
What importing does
- Every menu needs a name, and names must be unique.
- If a menu name matches one you already have, its items go into that existing menu, and matching category names are reused.
- Items that already exist in the same category are skipped, so importing the same scan twice doesn’t create duplicates.
- Imported items arrive switched on (Active), so they’ll go live the next time you publish.
- Items the scanner couldn’t fully read, such as a missing price, are marked Failed and sort to the top of the table.
After the import
- Fix every Failed row: open the item, fill in the name or price, and save.
- Compare prices and dietary tags against your original menu, and remove anything you no longer serve.
- Add photos. See Sections & items.
- Publish to put the menus live.
Tips
- Combined menus (dinner, drinks, and kids in one PDF) are split for you. Check the grouping before you import.
- Name files after the menu they hold (dinner.pdf, cocktails.jpg) to get useful menu names from the start.
- The scanner gives you a head start, not a final answer. Proofread prices before publishing.
- Bad read? Re-shoot the photo with even light and no glare, and scan again.