ABBYY FlexiCapture - 8.0 Operator’s Guide

ABBYY FlexiCapture 8.0

Professional

Data Capture Operator’s Guide

Overview..................................................................................................................................... 2

Loading images........................................................................................................................... 2

Recognition................................................................................................................................. 3

Verification.................................................................................................................................3

Export.......................................................................................................................................... 7

Appendix..................................................................................................................................... 8

Overview

The typical data capture process involves the following four steps:

1. Loading images – At this step, document images are added to the project

2. Recognition – At this step, the data on the images are recognized

3. Verification – At this step, the recognized data are verified

4. Export – At this step, the verified results are saved Each step has its own button on the toolbar:

Loading images The arrow to the rights selects how images will

be obtained. You can Load Images, Scan Images, or Import Images using one of the available image import profiles. The caption of the button changes to reflect your choice.

Recognition Starts the recognition process. Click the arrow to

the right to select the Analyze or Match

Template command. Verification

Starts the verification process. Click the arrow to the right to select the Re-check Rules command.

Export Export the data based on the template settings.

Click the arrow to the right to select the Export to File or Export to Database command.

Loading images

First, you must select a project:

1. Click

2. Select a batch or create a new batch into which the images are to be loaded. To create a new

batch, right-click anywhere in the main window and select New Batch on the shortcut menu. If you try adding images to a project that contains no batches, a new batch will be created automatically.

Now you must load the images into the batch. There are several ways of loading images:

and select the desired project.

1. You can load existing image files. To load existing images, click the arrow next to the Import

Images… button and select Load Images... Alternatively, you can press the Ctrl+O keyboard

shortcut.

2. You can scan paper documents. To scan paper documents, click the arrow next to the Import

button and select Scan Images... The program will prompt you to select a scanner.

3. You can import images using one of the image import profiles that were earlier created by the

administrator. If there are image import profiles available, their names will be displayed on the drop-down

menu of the Import button. Select the desired profile to start importing images. Clicking Import Images… opens the Select Import Profile dialog box. Select the desired

import profile and click Import to start importing images. Once you select an image import profile, its name will be displayed on the Import Images…

button so that you don’t have to select this profile from the list next time you want to use it.

Images may be imported in background mode if an appropriate import profile was created. Selecting this type of profile automatically loads images into the batch from a dedicated “hot” folder.

After you add the images, unprocessed pages appear in the list.

Recognition

Clicking the Recognize. Button starts the recognition process. The recognition process may be launched automatically as soon as images are added into the batch.

To enable this option, select Tools>Options, click the Document Processing tab, and check Recognize added images automatically.

The Confidence Level column displays the percentage of reliably recognized characters. Once the recognition process is complete, you may verify the results.

Verification

Verification consists in checking the recognized data for errors. For multi-page documents, you must first check if the pages have been correctly assembled into

documents. Then the recognized data are verified using group and context verification modes. You can also verify the data in the document window. Rules are also checked at this stage.

1. Checking document assembly. This check is not required when processing one-page documents — you can go directly to data verification.

For multi-page documents, you must first check if the program has assembled the pages into documents correctly.

If the order of pages in a document does not match the order specified for this document or if the values of the key field are not identical on all the pages, the document is marked with a red flag and an error message is displayed in the document window.

If this is the case, first make sure that pages were not mixed up at the scanning stage. Many assembly errors can be corrected by simply changing the order of pages.

You can check document assembly in thumbnail view (Figure 1). In this view, you can change the position of pages and even move them between documents with the mouse.

If key field values are used to ensure correct document assembly, the values of the key fields are displayed below the image of each page (Figure 1). If key field values are not identical on the pages of the same document, they will be displayed in red.

A mismatch of key field values may occur if they have been recognized or filled out incorrectly. Verify the key field values. If the mismatch persists, the mismatching pages are from different documents. Find the pages with identical key field values and assemble them into documents.

Note: To change the scale of the thumbnail images, hold down the CTRL key and scroll the mouse wheel.

Figure 1. Document pages in thumbnail view

Next, start the verification process by clicking Run Verification. First, the group verification window opens. Once the group verification is finished, the context verification window opens.

2. Group verification groups together the images of characters that have been recognized identically. Identical characters (e.g. digits 1 in Figure 2) are shown in groups so that you can confirm the obviously correctly recognized characters and postpone the incorrect or dubious ones until the next verification stage.

If you have doubts about a character:

1. Right-click the character and select Show Character Image on the shortcut menu or press

F2. The image of the field containing the character being verified will be displayed.

2. In the verification window, select View > Field Image > Show Field Image or press the

Ctrl+I keyboard shortcut. The verification window will be split into two panes and the appropriate field will be displayed in the bottom pane when you rest the mouse cursor on a dubious character.

If a character has been recognized incorrectly:

1. Select the incorrect character and type its correct value. The value will be displayed in

green in the left top corner of the character image.

2. If you are not sure if the character has been recognized correctly even after you have

viewed it in context, click the character once to mark it with a red question mark. You can also click the Toggle button on the toolbar to change character status.

To confirm that a character has been recognized correctly, right-click the character and select Confirm on the shortcut menu. You can also confirm all the currently displayed characters by clicking Confirm All on the toolbar.

Figure 2. Group verification of digits

3. Context verification allows you to verify uncertainly recognized characters in the context of their fields, whose possible range of values is known in advance. For example, you may know which countries are possible in the Country field, and can easily correct any errors in this field.

To correct recognition errors, you can use the standard insert and overwrite modes commonly provided by text editing software. Press the Insert button on the keyboard to switch between the modes.

View the recognition results for each field and either correct or confirm them by pressing Enter or clicking Confirm Field on the toolbar.

The fields whose values do not correspond to their pre-defined data type, are marked with a red flag and an error message is displayed for them. Likewise, the program will flag the fields whose values do not satisfy the rules that were specified for them. You must either correct the values in these fields or postpone the fields until a later stage by clicking the Postpone button.

Figure 3. Context verification window

4. The document window also allows you to check and correct recognized characters (Figure 4). To open the document window, double-click the name of a page. The document window displays the data, the image of the page, and rule errors (if any). Click the Layout button to change the window layout.

In the data section, uncertain characters are displayed in red and fields with invalid data types and failed rules are highlighted. Use the and buttons to go to the previous/next error. These

buttons consecutively go through assembly errors, uncertain characters, rule errors, etc.

Figure 4. Document window

5. Rule validation. Rules that have not been met are marked with flags: yellow flags are used for warnings and red flags are used for serious errors.

If there are rule errors, check if the relevant data have been recognized correctly. If a field has been recognized incorrectly, correct the error. If a field has been filled out incorrectly and the error cannot be corrected right away, do not export the document.

To check the rules again, click the arrow to the right of the Run Verification button and select Re- check Rules. If the data have been corrected and the rules are satisfied, the flags will be removed.

Export

Once you have verified the recognized data, click the Export button to export them. The data will be exported based on the document template settings.

Instead of using the template settings, you can export the data to a file or database by selecting the corresponding item from the drop-down menu to the right of the Export button and specifying the desired export settings.

Appendix

The buttons on the standard toolbar in the main window

Name Button Description

Open Project

Save Changes

Cut

Copy

Paste

Delete

Undo

Redo

Thumbnails View

Opens another project

Saves changes

Cuts a selected object when you work with data in the document window

Copies a selected object

Pastes a previously copied object from the clipboard

Deletes a highlighted object

Undoes the previous action

Redoes a previously undone action

Shows document page images as thumbnails

Details View

Previous Item to Verify

Next Item to Verify

Previous Document

Next Document

Shows documents and their pages as a detailed list

Returns to the previous item to verify. The program navigates all errors, including assembly errors, uncertainly recognized characters, rule errors, mismatches of key fields, etc.

Moves forward to the next item to verify. The program navigates all errors, including assembly errors, uncertainly recognized characters, rule errors, mismatches of key fields, etc.

Returns to the previous document

Moves forward to the next document

The buttons on the toolbar in the group verification window

Name Button Description

Confirm Screen

Change Characters State

Undo

Redo

Takes you to the previous page if all characters do not fit on a single screen

Takes you to the next page if all characters do not fit on a single screen

Confirms correct recognition of all characters and takes you to the next screen.

Changes character status to rejected or confirmed

Undoes the previous action

Redoes a previously undone action

The buttons on the toolbar of the context verification window

Name Button Description

Previous Field

Returns to the previous field

Next Field

Confirm/Skip Field

Postpone

Previous Uncertain Character

Next Uncertain Character

Undo

Redo

Goes to the next field

Confirms correct recognition of all characters in a field and takes you to the next field. If the field value does not fit the field format, the button name changes to Skip Field. If the field value cannot be corrected, its verification can be deferred or skipped.

Postpones field verification if its value cannot be corrected

Returns to the previous uncertainly recognized character

Goes to the next uncertainly recognized character

Undoes the previous action

Redoes a previously undone action

Hot keys in the group verification window

Menu Command Hot Keys

Verification Confirm All Enter Postpone All Ctrl+Enter Toggle Space

Previous PagePa View Field Image > Show Field Image Ctrl+I Field Image > On To Field Image > On Botto Symbols Menu Show Character ImageF2 Confirm Ctrl+E Postpone Ctrl+R Reset Esc

ext Page Page Down

e Up

Alt+1 Alt+2

Hot keys in the field verification window

Menu Command Hot Keys

Verification Confirm Field Enter Postpone Ctrl+Enter

Previous Uncertain Characte

ext Uncertain Characte

F4 Shift+F4

Previous Field Page Up Edit Cut Ctrl+X Co Paste Ctrl+V Delete Del Insert Line Break Shift+Enter Merge Characters Ctrl+M View Field Data > Recognized Tex Field Data > Character Images Cuttin Field Image > Show Field Image Ctrl+I Field Image > On Top Alt+1 Field Image > On Botto

ext Field Page Down

Ctrl+C

Alt+F1 Alt+F2

Alt+2

Show Character Image F2

Hot keys for both verification windows

Command Hot Keys

Zoom into a field Ctrl+Num+ Zoom out of a field Ctrl+NumUndo Ctrl+Z Redo Ctrl+Y Select All Ctrl+A Full Screen F11 Display Help F1 Close Alt+F4

ABBYY FlexiCapture - 8.0 Operator’s Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual