How to Get Copiers & Scanners to Use the Glass Bed When They Insist You Set Document on ADF

Have you ever wanted to copy or scan something large or unwieldy like a book, but when you put it on the glass and pushed Start, it just sat there saying to “Please Set Document on ADF” or some other similar message telling you to put it in the Automatic Document Feeder?  The other day that happened to me, and a few quick searches on the internet didn’t help, nor did the manual, which simply said that if you want to copy something with the Document Glass, you simply have to set it there and hit Copy.  That doesn’t always work, and here’s why:

The particular machine I was using was a multi-function printer (MFP), which could copy, scan, fax, and print (OkiData MC561), although I would think this is common with lots of makes & models.

When I wanted to copy what was on the glass it said “Please set document on ADF.”  So to make it work on the flat glass platen you hit the right arrow to “change settings” and then change duplex copy to “OFF(Simplex)”. That’s it!  Apparently, when you tell the copier to use duplex it insists on using the ADF, so if you want to use the glass, you just need to tell it to use “Simplex” mode so it knows to just scan one page at a time.  Once I changed that setting it worked fine.

It’s one of those stupid small things that most people wouldn’t bother mentioning, but I hope this saves someone the multiple minutes of tinkering & reading that it took me to figure it out!

 –Steve