NUANCE OMNIFORM 2, OMNIFORM Reference Manual

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OmniForm® Reference

Version 2 for Macintosh

CAERE CORPORATION

100 Cooper Court Los Gatos, California 95030-3321

European Offices: Caere GmbH Innere Wiener Strasse 5 81667 Munich Germany

Caere UK Information Centre Abbey House, 4 Abbey Orchard Street Westminster, London SW1P2JJ, U.K.

Please Note

To use this program, you should know how to work in the Macintosh environment. Please refer to your Macintosh documentation if you have questions about how to use menu commands, dialog boxes, scroll bars, and so on.

OmniForm Reference Version 2.01 for Macintosh

are trademarks of Caere Corporation.

Formonix is a trademark of Formonix, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Such designations appearing in this manual have been printed in initial caps.

Product Serial Number:

_______________________________________________

Chapter 1 Introduction

OmniForm Features........................................................................................................................1-2

Using the Documentation ..............................................................................................................1-3

Online Help...............................................................................................................................1-3

Formatting.................................................................................................................................1-3

Symbols......................................................................................................................................1-4

Chapter 2 Installation and Setup

System Requirements .....................................................................................................................2-2

Registering OmniForm...................................................................................................................2-2

Installing OmniForm ......................................................................................................................2-3

Starting OmniForm .........................................................................................................................2-4

Chapter 3 Tutorials

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form................................................................................................3-2

Launch OmniForm...................................................................................................................3-2

Scan the Sample Form .............................................................................................................3-3

Fax the Sample Form ...............................................................................................................3-6

Import an Image File................................................................................................................3-6

Filling in the Form..................................................................................................................3-10

Design View............................................................................................................................3-13

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic ...............................................................................3-15

Scan or Import the Sample Form.........................................................................................3-15

Verifying OCR ........................................................................................................................3-17

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form........................................................................................3-21

Pre-Organization....................................................................................................................3-22

Open a New, Blank Form......................................................................................................3-22

Create the Text Objects..........................................................................................................3-23

Create the Fill Text Objects...................................................................................................3-23

Create the Comb Objects.......................................................................................................3-27

Create the Check Box Objects...............................................................................................3-29

Create the Table Object..........................................................................................................3-31

Create the Graphic Objects ...................................................................................................3-36

Table of Contents

iii

Define the Calculations.........................................................................................................3-37

Customize the Form ..............................................................................................................3-41

Test the Form in Fill View.....................................................................................................3-44

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database......................................................................................3-46

Duplicating a Database Record............................................................................................3-46

Creating New Records ..........................................................................................................3-47

Search the Database Records................................................................................................3-48

Sort the Database Records ....................................................................................................3-49

Database Changes..................................................................................................................3-50

Deleting Records....................................................................................................................3-51

Chapter 4 Views and Form Usage

Using Form Assistant .....................................................................................................................4-2

Opening Form Assistant.........................................................................................................4-2

The Form Assistant Options...................................................................................................4-3

Setting the Form Assistant Startup Option..........................................................................4-4

The Design View Window.............................................................................................................4-5

The Fill View Window....................................................................................................................4-6

Form Usage Options....................................................................................................................... 4-7

Choosing a Form Usage Option.............................................................................................4-7

Where to Select Form Usage Options ................................................................................... 4-8

Changing Form Usage.............................................................................................................4-9

Chapter 5 OmniForm Procedures

Scanning a Paper Form...................................................................................................................5-2

Scanning With Form Assistant...............................................................................................5-2

Using the

Importing an Image File................................................................................................................. 5-8

Importing With Form Assistant.............................................................................................5-8

Using the

Filling a Form.................................................................................................................................5-13

Filling Fields With Form Assistant...................................................................................... 5-13

Using the

Printing or Faxing a Form............................................................................................................ 5-14

Printing/Faxing With Form Assistant................................................................................5-14

Using the

Searching a Form........................................................................................................................... 5-17

Searching With Form Assistant ........................................................................................... 5-17

Using the

Opening a Form to Design........................................................................................................... 5-19

Opening a Form in Design View With Form Assistant....................................................5-19

Using the

Scan Form...

Command.......................................................................................................5-13

Fill

Print...

Search...

Design

Command.......................................................................................... 5-4

Command to Import...................................................................... 5-10

Command.................................................................................................5-15

Command...............................................................................................5-18

Command.................................................................................................5-19

Creating a New Form ...................................................................................................................5-20

Creating a New Form With Form Assistant.......................................................................5-20

Using the

Command.....................................................................................................5-20

New

Opening a Form.............................................................................................................................5-21

International Settings....................................................................................................................5-22

Selecting a Language for Your Form(s) ..............................................................................5-22

How OmniForm Uses Language Selections.......................................................................5-23

The

Allow Multiple Languages

Menu Shortcuts..............................................................................................................................5-26

Chapter 6 Designing a Form

The Design Process .........................................................................................................................6-2

The Design View Toolbars.............................................................................................................6-3

The Standard Toolbar..............................................................................................................6-3

The Font/Text Toolbar............................................................................................................6-4

The Arrange Toolbar ...............................................................................................................6-4

The Drawing Toolbar ..............................................................................................................6-5

Creating Objects...............................................................................................................................6-6

General Creation Guidelines..................................................................................................6-6

Creating a Text Object .............................................................................................................6-7

Creating a Line Object.............................................................................................................6-7

Creating an Oval Object..........................................................................................................6-8

Creating a Rectangle Object....................................................................................................6-8

Creating a Graphic Object.......................................................................................................6-8

Creating a Fill Text Object.....................................................................................................6-13

Creating a Comb Object ........................................................................................................6-13

Creating a Check Box Object ................................................................................................6-14

Creating a Circle Text Object................................................................................................6-14

Creating a Table Object .........................................................................................................6-14

Creating a Fill Graphic Object..............................................................................................6-15

Defining Objects ............................................................................................................................6-16

Defining a Graphic Object.....................................................................................................6-16

Defining a Fill Text Object ....................................................................................................6-17

Defining a Comb Object........................................................................................................6-21

Defining a Comb Element Object ........................................................................................6-23

Defining a Check Box Object ................................................................................................6-24

Defining a Circle Text Object................................................................................................6-26

Defining a Table Object.........................................................................................................6-26

Defining a Table Cell .............................................................................................................6-27

Defining a Fill Graphic Object..............................................................................................6-27

Changing Object Appearance......................................................................................................6-29

Redesigning Your Form ...............................................................................................................6-33

Selecting an Object .................................................................................................................6-33

Option..................................................................................5-25

Moving an Object................................................................................................................... 6-34

Resizing an Object..................................................................................................................6-34

Deleting an Object..................................................................................................................6-35

Formatting Text......................................................................................................................6-35

Redesigning a Table............................................................................................................... 6-38

Aligning Objects..................................................................................................................... 6-39

Sending Objects Front or Back.............................................................................................6-40

Changing Tab Order..............................................................................................................6-41

Placing Objects in Table Cells ..............................................................................................6-42

Converting an Object.............................................................................................................6-43

Using the Scrap Album ................................................................................................................6-44

What is the Scrap Album? ....................................................................................................6-44

Opening a Scrap Album........................................................................................................6-44

Copying Objects to the Scrap Album..................................................................................6-45

Placing Scraps in a Form.......................................................................................................6-45

Renaming a Scrap ..................................................................................................................6-45

Deleting a Scrap......................................................................................................................6-46

Creating a New Scrap Album ..............................................................................................6-46

Renaming a Scrap Album.....................................................................................................6-46

Deleting a Scrap Album........................................................................................................ 6-47

Changing the Scrap Album View........................................................................................6-47

Chapter 7 Filling a Form

The Fill View Window....................................................................................................................7-2

The Standard Toolbar..............................................................................................................7-2

Filling Fields.....................................................................................................................................7-3

Fill Text...................................................................................................................................... 7-3

Comb..........................................................................................................................................7-3

Check Box.................................................................................................................................. 7-4

Circle Text .................................................................................................................................7-4

Table...........................................................................................................................................7-4

Fill Graphic ...............................................................................................................................7-5

List Fields ..................................................................................................................................7-7

Fields Defined by a Calculation.............................................................................................7-8

Field Validation........................................................................................................................7-8

Spell Checking .................................................................................................................................7-9

Checking the

Changing the Language Selection.......................................................................................7-10

Multiple Languages...............................................................................................................7-10

Dictionaries.............................................................................................................................7-10

Spell Checking Your Form....................................................................................................7-11

Moving Through Fields................................................................................................................ 7-12

Saving in Fill View........................................................................................................................ 7-12

Current Form

Language Selection.................................................................. 7-9

Chapter 8 Managing an OmniForm Database

What is a Database? ........................................................................................................................8-2

Managing Database Records .........................................................................................................8-3

Creating New Records ............................................................................................................8-3

Duplicating Records ................................................................................................................8-5

Moving Through a Database..................................................................................................8-6

Searching Records for Information........................................................................................8-7

Sorting Records.......................................................................................................................8-12

Recalculating Records............................................................................................................8-13

Deleting Records ....................................................................................................................8-15

Exporting Information...........................................................................................................8-16

Exported Data and Shared Forms........................................................................................8-20

Importing Information ..........................................................................................................8-21

Protecting Your Database.............................................................................................................8-26

OmniForm Filler............................................................................................................................8-27

Chapter 9 Using Calculations

Calculation Overview.....................................................................................................................9-2

Creating a Calculation.............................................................................................................9-2

Using the

Calculation Guidelines............................................................................................................9-7

Usage Conventions ..................................................................................................................9-8

Operators..........................................................................................................................................9-9

Operator Buttons......................................................................................................................9-9

Operators — Quick Reference..............................................................................................9-10

Functions ........................................................................................................................................9-11

Abs (Absolute Value).............................................................................................................9-11

Avg (Average) ........................................................................................................................9-12

Date (Current Date) ...............................................................................................................9-12

DayName.................................................................................................................................9-13

DayOfMonth...........................................................................................................................9-13

DayOfWeek.............................................................................................................................9-14

DayOfYear...............................................................................................................................9-14

Exp (Exponentiation).............................................................................................................9-15

FV (Future Value)...................................................................................................................9-15

Hour .........................................................................................................................................9-16

If................................................................................................................................................9-16

Int (Integer) .............................................................................................................................9-17

Left............................................................................................................................................9-17

Length......................................................................................................................................9-18

Ln (Natural Logarithm).........................................................................................................9-18

Log (Base 10 Logarithm) .......................................................................................................9-19

Recalculate...

Command .........................................................................................9-7

vii

Lower.......................................................................................................................................9-19

Max (Maximum) .................................................................................................................... 9-20

Middle......................................................................................................................................9-20

Min (Minimum)...................................................................................................................... 9-21

Minute......................................................................................................................................9-21

Mod (Modulus (Remainder))...............................................................................................9-22

Month.......................................................................................................................................9-22

MonthName............................................................................................................................9-23

Pi...............................................................................................................................................9-23

PMT (Payment) ......................................................................................................................9-24

Position....................................................................................................................................9-24

Proper ......................................................................................................................................9-25

PV (Present Value).................................................................................................................9-25

RecordCount...........................................................................................................................9-26

Replace.....................................................................................................................................9-26

Replicate ..................................................................................................................................9-27

Right.........................................................................................................................................9-27

Round ......................................................................................................................................9-28

Second...................................................................................................................................... 9-28

Sign...........................................................................................................................................9-29

Sqrt (Square Root)..................................................................................................................9-29

Sum .......................................................................................................................................... 9-30

Time .........................................................................................................................................9-30

Trim.......................................................................................................................................... 9-31

Trunc (Truncate).....................................................................................................................9-31

Upper.......................................................................................................................................9-32

Year ..........................................................................................................................................9-32

Functions — Quick Reference..............................................................................................9-33

Functions Sorted by Type.....................................................................................................9-36

Chapter 10 Technical Information

Before You Begin...........................................................................................................................10-2

Try this First............................................................................................................................ 10-2

System Setup Checklist .........................................................................................................10-2

OmniForm Setup Issues...............................................................................................................10-3

Memory and Installation.......................................................................................................10-3

Linking OmniForm with Visioneer PaperPort™ .............................................................. 10-3

Uninstalling OmniForm........................................................................................................ 10-3

Scanning and Recognition ...........................................................................................................10-4

System Hang During Scan....................................................................................................10-4

Scanner Compatibility...........................................................................................................10-4

Operation........................................................................................................................................10-5

Low Memory ..........................................................................................................................10-5

viii

Low Disk Space ......................................................................................................................10-6

OmniForm Limits...................................................................................................................10-6

Improving Performance ...............................................................................................................10-7

Document Quality..................................................................................................................10-7

Scanning Angle.......................................................................................................................10-7

Scanner Glass Cleanliness.....................................................................................................10-8

Paper Transparency...............................................................................................................10-8

HP AccuPage ..........................................................................................................................10-8

OmniForm Compatibility.............................................................................................................10-9

Error Messages.............................................................................................................................10-10

Low Memory or Disk Space Errors ...................................................................................10-10

Scanner Errors.......................................................................................................................10-10

Other Error Messages..........................................................................................................10-10

Caere Product Support...............................................................................................................10-13

World Wide Web..................................................................................................................10-13

Product Support Information.............................................................................................10-13

Information We Need From You.......................................................................................10-13

Chapter 1

Introduction

OmniForm is the easy way to convert your paper forms to electronic forms. Use OmniForm to edit, design, and fill forms, manage information databases, and print or fax mail forms among other functions.

This chapter gives an overview of the form creation and information management capabilities OmniForm provides, as well as an explanation of how to use the documentation.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• OmniForm Features

• Using the Documentation

Introduction 1-1

OmniForm Features

OmniForm, an easy-to-use environment for working with forms, is more than just form-recognition software. OmniForm includes the following features:

Form Input

OmniForm uses Logical Form Recognition™ to convert your scanned paper forms or imported image files into electronic, editable forms.

Fill View

Use OmniForm’s Information entered can easily be searched and sorted.

Design View

Use OmniForm’s forms. A variety of toolbars make formatting easy and convenient. Use the Scrap Album to store or copy form objects.

OmniForm Database

All information you enter into a form is stored as a part of an OmniForm database. You can create, duplicate, sort, and search records, and import and export database information.

Field Validation

You can set up OmniForm to OmniForm displays a prompt if you enter incorrect information.

Field Calculations

OmniForm’s built-in operators and functions let you define calculations that display the correct value as you fill the appropriate field(s) in a form. This automates data entry and reduces the possibility of errors.

Fill View

Design View

to fill a form with the information you need.

to design your own forms or edit existing

validate

a fillable field automatically.

Form Printing and Faxing

You can print or fax forms from OmniForm. You have a choice of printing or faxing just the form, just the data entered in a form, or both the form and its information.

1-2 Introduction

Using the Documentation

This section explains the various instructional and formatting conventions used in this manual.

Online Help

OmniForm has both online help and context-sensitive help. Use the commands in the Help menu to find information on OmniForm topics and on using Help itself.

Click the Help button in the OmniForm standard toolbar to turn your cursor into a question mark icon. Click any command, button, or portion of the window to open context-sensitive help for that topic.

Formatting

Two formatting conventions are used throughout the manual.

Italicized Text

• Labeled buttons, menu commands, dialog box text, and any text in an onscreen form are italicized; for example, “Choose the File menu.”

Menu titles, icon names, dialog box names, and unlabeled buttons are not italicized.

Using the Documentation

Open

• A new term may be italicized the first time it is used; for example, “This is a

• Variable entries are italicized; for example, “The entry n must be between 4 and 18.”

Courier font

• The Courier font indicates text that you are supposed to enter; for example, “Type Sample1 in the

• The Courier font is also used to distinguish file locations and file and folder names from the rest of the text; for example, “Locate the Sample form in the OmniForm folder.”

fill text

field.”

File Name

text box and click

Introduction 1-3

OK.

”

Using the Documentation

Symbols

Two symbols are used in this manual to highlight text.

This symbol means

It introduces a tip or an item of note.

Note.

Warning.

It introduces cautionary text.

1-4 Introduction

Chapter 2

Installation and Setup

This chapter describes how to install OmniForm and begin using it. It contains the following sections:

• System Requirements

• Registering OmniForm

• Installing OmniForm

• Starting OmniForm

Installation and Setup 2-1

System Requirements

To install and run OmniForm, you need the following setup:

• Macintosh 68040 or higher processor, a Power Macintosh, or a Macintosh compatible of either of these versions.

• System 7.1 or higher.

• Free system memory of at least 12MB RAM.

• Minimum of 10MB of free hard disk space.

• CD-ROM drive and internal hard disk.

Additional, but optional requirements include:

• A monitor capable of displaying 256, thousands, or millions of colors.

• If you plan to scan forms, you need a scanner with a Pixel Translations ISIS scanner driver.

Registering OmniForm

Registering your copy of OmniForm entitles you to technical support, notification of special offers and upgrades, and the lowest price offered on the next OmniForm upgrade.

Please complete and send in the registration card included in your OmniForm package.

See “Caere Product Support” on page 10-13 for information on technical support.

2-2 Installation and Setup

Installing OmniForm

This section describes how to install OmniForm.

CD-ROM extensions must be loaded to use the CD-ROM drive.

1 With all extensions off (see the previous paragraph), insert the

OmniForm CD in your computer’s CD-ROM drive. 2 Double-click to open the CD if it does not open automatically. 3 Double-click the Installer icon. 4 Follow installation instructions. 5 Enter the serial number found on the CD-ROM case when

prompted. 6 Restart your computer.

Installing OmniForm

Installation and Setup 2-3

Starting OmniForm

This section describes how to launch OmniForm.

Before you install OmniForm, running correctly with your computer system using the manufacturer’s scanning utility or imaging software.

To start OmniForm:

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder on

your hard drive. Form Assistant appears. It contains six options. Each is a basic

OmniForm procedure.

please test your scanner

to make sure it is

2 Select an option and click

See Chapter 5, OmniForm Procedures, for detailed information on the basic OmniForm procedures.

2-4 Installation and Setup

Next>.

Click

Cancel

Form Assistant and want to go directly to OmniForm.

to close Form Assistant if you do not want to use

Chapter 3

Tutorials

These tutorials guide you through some of the main features of OmniForm. There are four sections in this chapter:

• Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

• Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

• Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

• Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

Perform these exercises in order if you are new to OmniForm. Each new exercise builds upon skills learned in the previous one. Choose the tutorial you want to practice if you already know the basics of scanning, designing, and using forms.

The tutorials cross-reference sections in this manual for additional information on each subject. Read the other chapters in the manual to learn about OmniForm features not discussed here.

Tutorials 3-1

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

You will load the Sample form in this exercise in one of three ways:

• Scan in the Sample form with a scanner if you have one. The form is supplied inside this manual.

• Fax the Sample form to your computer’s fax modem if you have no scanner, use your fax software to save it as a PICT or TIFF file, and open it in OmniForm. The form is inside this manual.

• Locate and open the Sample file if you have no scanner and no fax modem. It was placed in your OmniForm:Sample Forms folder during installation.

Decide which method you want to use. You can try all three methods eventually if you own both a scanner and a fax modem.

After you have loaded the form into OmniForm, you will practice various features of the program.

Launch OmniForm

Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder. The Form Assistant dialog box appears.

If you accidentally close the Form Assistant dialog box, choose Form Assistant in the File menu to reopen it.

3-2 Tutorials

• See the next section if you have a scanner and want to scan the form.

• See “Fax the Sample Form” on page 3-6 if you have a fax machine and a fax modem and want to fax the form to your computer.

• See “Import an Image File” on page 3-6 if you do not have a scanner or a fax modem, or if you want to use this method instead of the other two methods.

Scan the Sample Form

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

1 Select

Scan in a form

and then click

Next>

2 Select a source for the form in the next window.

3Select

Scanner

and click

Next>

Tutorials 3-3

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

4Select

in the next window if this option is not selected.

Letter

The Sample form is a letter-sized page.

5 Click

Next>

The next window offers two form usage options.

6 Select the second option.

7 Click

3-4 Tutorials

You will just fill the form in this exercise, not work on its design.

Next>

The next window prompts you to place a page in your scanner.

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

8 Make sure the page is aligned correctly in your scanner, and

click

Finish.

OmniForm scans the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress.

The Sample form opens as Untitled 1 in Fill View. It should look the same as the original copy of the form.

9 Click the Save button or choose

in the File menu.

Save

The Save As dialog box appears.

10 Type Sample 1 in the

Save document as

text box and click

Save.

Proceed to the section “Filling in the Form” on page 3-10 to begin using OmniForm’s tools.

Tutorials 3-5

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

Fax the Sample Form

To fax the Sample form, you need the following:

• a fax modem connected to your computer

• fax software that is compatible with your fax modem

• access to a regular fax machine

To fax the form:

1 Make sure your fax modem is turned on and that your fax

software is set up to receive a call.

Refer to your fax documentation for information. 2 Place the Sample form in the fax machine. 3 Set faxing resolution to

OmniForm may have trouble recognizing documents faxed at a

lower resolution. Check your fax machine’s manual if you need

more information about its settings. 4 Dial your fax modem’s number and fax the Sample form as you

normally would. 5 Once received, use your fax software to open the Sample form

and save it as a PICT or TIFF file.

Again, refer to your fax software manual if you do not know

how to do this. 6 See the next section, “Import an Image File” for instructions on

how to convert your fax file into an electronic form in

OmniForm.

Import an Image File

OmniForm can recognize PICT or TIFF image files. An image is an electronic picture of text and/or graphics. This could be a form created in another program or one received as a fax file. See the previous section, “Fax the Sample Form” if you want to create a fax file to import.

You will import an image file in this exercise. You can import a fax file if you have one, or import the Sample form that was placed in your OmniForm:Sample Forms folder during installation.

Fine

Best

3-6 Tutorials

Load the Image File in OmniForm

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

1 Select 2Select

3 Click

Scan in a form Fax or Image

Select...

in Form Assistant and then click

in the next window and then click

in the next window.

Next>

The Select dialog box appears.

Tutorials 3-7

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

•Select

TIFF Files

in the

List Files of type

pop-up menu if you

want to import the Sample file. Locate and select the Sample file in the OmniForm:Sample Forms folder.

• Locate and select your fax file if you created one in the previous exercise.

• Click

The file name appears in the

4 Click

Next>.

to return to Form Assistant.

Open

File

text box.

The next window offers two form usage options.

5 Select the second option.

You will just fill the form in this exercise, not work on its design.

3-8 Tutorials

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

6 Click

Finish>

The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress.

The Sample form opens as Untitled 1 in Fill View.

7 Click the Save button or choose

in the File menu.

Save

The Save As dialog box appears.

8Type Sample 1 in the

Save document as

text box and click

The next section shows you how to begin using OmniForm’s tools.

Save.

Tutorials 3-9

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

Filling in the Form

Standard toolbar in Fill View

The Sample 1 form opens in Fill View.

Status text

Hold the cursor over any button in the toolbar to see its function.

Fill View Overview

The standard toolbar appears below the menus. The buttons correspond to various menu commands.

1 Place your cursor over one of the buttons and hold it there

without clicking. A ToolTip describes the button’s function.

Corresponding status text simultaneously appears in the status bar at the bottom of the window.

3-10 Tutorials

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

2 Click the Highlight button in the toolbar or choose

Areas

OmniForm highlights all recognized fields in yellow. This

makes it easy to see which fields you can fill. 3 Click the button again to turn field highlighting back on. 4 Click the Zoom button and select a page view in the pop-up

menu.

Alternatively, choose

in the cascading menu.

Fill in the Fields

1 Click the field after

place the cursor there.

This is a 2 Type your name in the fill text field. 3 Continue to press the Tab key to move to and fill in the

City,

You can press Shift-Tab to move to a previous field. 4 Tab to or click in the

This is a

elements.

also comb fields.

Highlight Fill

in the View menu to turn off field highlighting.

in the View menu and select a view

Zoom

on the form or press the Tab key to

Name

field. The word

fields (or click to place the cursor there).

field. This is a field that is subdivided into

and

fill text

State

comb

The next fields,

Zip Code

field.

Phone Number

on the form is

Name

and

Fax Number,

text

Address,

comb

are

5 Type five numbers in the

Zip Code

field.

You do not have to click in each box in the field. OmniForm

moves the cursor automatically for you. 6 Tab to or click in the

Phone Number

comb field and type a phone

number.

Tutorials 3-11

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

7 Fill in the

The next item is a

Fax Number

comb field.

. A table contains

table

and each cell

cells

contains a field. The cells in the table are all fill text fields. The headers in the table are text and cannot be changed in Fill View.

• Click in the field under

Description

• Press the Tab key to move to the field under

and type some text.

Quantity

and type

a number.

• Press the Tab key to move to the field under

and type

Cost

another number.

8 Move down the page and click in the square next to the words

Check here to receive our next magazine.

An “X” appears in the box. This is a

check box

field.

9 Click the word

next to the words

Ye s

Would you like to receive

more information?

Nothing happens. This should be a

circle text

field but there was no circle on the form to indicate this to OmniForm during form recognition.

OmniForm provides tools to compensate for missing information on forms. The next section describes how to create the circle text field.

3-12 Tutorials

Design View

There are two views in OmniForm: Fill View and Design View. You fill in fields in Fill View. In Design View, you can create and format objects (these become fields in Fill View) and add graphics to a form, among other functions.

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

Standard toolbar

Drawing toolbar

Click the Design button in the standard toolbar or choose

Design

in the

View menu.

As a handy shortcut, Control-click to open a shortcut menu. Choose

Design

in this menu.

OmniForm switches to Design View. Any text you entered in Fill View disappears in Design View. It still exists in Fill View.

Font/text toolbar Arrange toolbar

Status bar: displays current activity and settings.

Tutorials 3-13

Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form

Create a Circle Text Field

1 Click the Circle Text tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a circle (or oval) around the word

next to the words

Ye s

Would you like to receive more information?

You will select this circle later in Fill View.

Return to Fill View

1 Click the Fill button in the standard toolbar to return to Fill

View. The text in fill fields is now bold and the number in the table’s

cell is right-aligned.

Cost

2Click the word

next to the words

Yes

Would you like to receive

more information?

This time, a circle appears around the word

Ye s .

You will practice more advanced form editing and design in the next tutorial.

3-14 Tutorials

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

You will scan or import the Sample form into OmniForm again in this exercise. You will verify and correct OCR, and add a graphic to the form.

Scan or Import the Sample Form

See page 3-16 instructions on importing the Sample file instead of scanning it.

To scan the form:

1 Click the Scan Form button in the standard toolbar or choose

Scan Form...

The Scan Form dialog box appears.

in the File menu.

2Select 3Select

recognize text and fillable fields in the form.

4 Click

OmniForm scans the form, recognizes both text and fields, and opens it in Design View.

5 Click the Save button or choose

The Save As dialog box appears.

6Type Sample 2 in the

Proceed to the section “Verifying OCR” on page 3-17.

Scanner Auto Form Design

OK.

in the

Source

pop-up menu.

to use Logical Form Recognition to

in the File menu.

Save

Save document as

text box and click

Tutorials 3-15

Save.

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

To import the form as an image file:

1 Click the Scan Form button in the standard toolbar or choose

Scan Form...

in the File menu.

The Scan Form dialog box appears.

2Select

3 Click

Image File(s)

Select Files...

in the

Source

pop-up menu.

• Locate the Sample file in the OmniForm:Sample Forms

folder.

• Select the file and click

Add>>

to place it in the

Selected Files

list.

• Click

to return to the Scan Form dialog box.

Done

4 Click OK in the Scan Form dialog box.

3-16 Tutorials

5 OmniForm loads the form, recognizes both text and fields, and

opens it in Design View.

6 Click the Save button or choose

in the File menu.

Save

The Save As dialog box appears.

7Type Sample 2 in the

Save document as

text box and click

The next section explains how to use some of the design tools.

OK.

Verifying OCR

In this exercise, you will verify and correct OCR as necessary and copy a graphic to the new form.

Edit the Text

OCR is not always perfect. Text that is very small, very light or broken, or difficult to read in any other way can cause recognition problems. This is easily corrected in OmniForm.

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

Recognized, editable form

Horizontal bar

Original scanned image of the form before OCR

1 Choose

Form Image

in the View menu.

The screen splits to show the form both as it was designed with OCR and as it was scanned originally.

2 Compare the recognized text in the top view with the original

text in the bottom view. Each view window has its own scroll bar so you can scroll to

the same portion of each form. Click a window to make it active. Use the horizontal bar in-between the two windows to resize the view. Your cursor turns into a resize cursor over the bar.

3 Use the Zoom button’s pop-up menu to zoom your page view

in and out.

4 If you find text in the top window that does not match text in

the bottom window:

Tutorials 3-17

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

5 Correct any text as needed this way.

• Click the Selection tool in the drawing toolbar if it is not

selected already.

• Click any text object with erroneous text in the top window to

select it. Your cursor turns into an I-beam when it is positioned over

the editable area.

• Use the cursor to select the portion of the text that does not

match the original.

• Retype the highlighted portion of the text so that it matches

the original.

Your text may not need editing, but you can practice selecting and changing text if you like.

6 Click the Save button or choose

your changes.

Copy the Arrow Graphic

1 Scroll to the arrow at the bottom of the page in the bottom

window and to where it should be in the top window. Because graphics are not retained during Logical Form

Recognition, the arrow does not appear in the top window.

2 Click the Graphic tool in the drawing toolbar.

in the File menu to save

Save

3-18 Tutorials

Graphic box where arrow will be placed

Arrow in original form

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

3 To draw a box around the arrow, draw a box in the top window,

using the bottom window as a guide.

4 With the new object still selected, click the Object Definition

button in the standard toolbar or choose

Object Definition...

the Format menu. The Graphic Definition dialog box appears.

5Select 6 Click

Form Image

OK.

in the

Source

pop-up menu.

Tutorials 3-19

Tutorial 2 — Edit Text and Add a Graphic

The arrow appears in the top window.

7 Choose

Form Image

in the View menu to close the bottom

window. Alternatively, double-click the horizontal bar or drag it all the

way to the top or bottom of the Form window.

You will learn more advanced design techniques by designing your own form in the next tutorial.

3-20 Tutorials

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

The previous two tutorials introduced you to the concepts of loading, filling in, and modifying a form. In this tutorial, you will create the personal job-tracking form shown below for a hypothetical free-lance editor/writer.

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on form design.

Tutorials 3-21

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Pre-Organization

It is a good idea to draw a rough draft of a form before you begin to design it, complete with all fields and graphic elements. This makes the design process go faster and you will be less likely to have to go back and redo portions of the form. In this tutorial, the form pictured on the previous page can serve as your rough draft.

You do not have to design the form exactly as it is pictured. Learn the form-design concepts presented here and arrange the form as you please. Use your own graphic files if you have any.

Open a New, Blank Form

1 Launch OmniForm if you closed it after the last tutorial. Click

Cancel

in Form Assistant if it opens.

2 Click the New button in the standard toolbar or choose

New

the File menu. A blank form appears.

3 Choose

Page Setup...

in the File menu.

The Page Setup dialog box appears.

4 Set page setup options as shown in the picture below and then

click

OK.

5 Click the Zoom button in the standard toolbar or choose

Zoom

in the View menu to select the view size you want.

6 Choose

in the File menu and save your form as an

Save

OmniForm Form with the name Job Tracking.

7 Make sure the Highlight button in the standard toolbar is

3-22 Tutorials

selected so that fill objects show up in yellow. This makes it easier to see size and position while designing.

Create the Text Objects

1 Click the Text tool in the drawing toolbar.

You need text objects named Customer:, Contact:,

Address:, City:, State:, Zip:, Job Type, Editing, Tech Writing, Marketing Writing, Advertising Copy, Rate:, Expenses:, Profit:, and Comments:.

2 Create the text objects in one of three ways:

• Click the Lock tool in the drawing toolbar to keep the Text tool selected.

Draw a text object, type its name while it is still selected, then draw the next one, and so on. Click the Lock tool to deselect it when you are done.

• Draw a text object. With the object still selected, choose

Edit menu. Keep choosing many text objects as you need. Select each object one at a time and type its name.

• Draw a text object. With the object still selected, hold down the Option key and

drag to create a copy. Repeat this for each new text object you need. Select each object one at a time and type its name.

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

and then

Copy

until you have created as

Paste

in the

3 Line the text objects up approximately where you see them on

the form on page 3-21.

Create the Fill Text Objects

Customer Information

1 Click the Fill Text tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw five fill text objects as described in step 2 in the previous

section.

3 Resize the objects as necessary.

Tutorials 3-23

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

4 Line the fill text objects up with the

City,

and

State

text objects.

Customer, Contact, Address,

5 Select the Customer fill text object. 6 Click the Object Definition button in the standard toolbar or

choose

Object Definition...

in the Format menu.

The Fill Text Definition dialog box appears.

•Type Customer in the

•Select

Name

in the

Type

text box.

Name

pop-up menu.

7 Click 8 Define the other fill text objects in the same way, choosing the

3-24 Tutorials

OK.

appropriate selection in the

Name

in the

pop-up menu for the

Typ e

pop-up menu for each. (Select

Type

Contact

fill text object.)

Fill Lines

1 Draw a large fill text object.

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

2 Drag it beneath the text object

Comments.

3 With the object still selected, click the Top Alignment button in

the font/text toolbar.

4 With the object still selected, click the Left Alignment button in

the font/text toolbar. Text entered in Fill View will align to the left and top of the

field in Fill View.

5 While the object is still selected, click the Object Appearance

button in the standard toolbar or choose

Object Appearance...

the Format menu. The Object Appearance dialog box appears.

• Click the

Border

tab.

Click the bottom line in the

• Click the

Fill Line

tab.

Borders

square to delete it.

Tutorials 3-25

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Select deselect

6 Click

OK.

, a solid line, and

Black

as pictured below.

Clear

in the pop-up menus, and

1/4 pt

The bottom border disappears from the selected object and fill lines appear to show where lines of text will flow.

7 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button

8 Click

3-26 Tutorials

in the standard toolbar to open the Fill Text Definition dialog box.

•Type Comments in the

•Select

General

in the

Type

text box.

Name

pop-up menu (entries in this field

could consist of numbers, symbols, and letters).

OK.

Create the Comb Objects

You will draw a simple comb object for the zip code and use the Scrap Album to copy phone and fax numbers.

Zip Code Comb Object

1 Click the Comb tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a comb object. 3 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button

or choose The Comb Definition dialog box appears.

Object Definition...

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

in the Format menu.

4 Click the

Type Zip Code in the Select Type 5 in the Type 0.2 in the

Properties

Zip Code

tab.

text box.

Name

in the

pop-up menu.

Type

Number of Elements

Width of Elements

text box.

5 Click

OK.

6 Drag the Zip comb object next to the

text object.

Zip

Tutorials 3-27

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Phone and Fax Number Comb Objects

1 Choose

Scrap Album

The Scrap Album opens. It contains

in the Tools menu.

scraps,

copies of OmniForm components/objects. Four Scrap Albums were included in your OmniForm program, each with a different collection of scraps.

2Select

3 Locate the

Special Fields

Phone Number

4 Select the scrap and drag it into the form below the 5 Locate the

Fax Number

6 Select the scrap and drag it into the form below the

in the

Scrap Album

pop-up menu.

scrap in the Scrap Album.

City

Phone

objects.

This exercise illustrates how you can save time by using objects stored in the Scrap Album. See “Using the Scrap Album” on page 6-44 to learn more about creating, storing, and copying scraps and Scrap Album.

3-28 Tutorials

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Your form-in-progress should look similar to this at this point:

Create the Check Box Objects

1 Click the Check Box tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a check box.

Hold down the Shift key to constrain the shape to a square.

3 With the object still selected, choose

Edit menu.

4 Choose

You now have four check boxes of equal size. The user of this form wants to be able to select only one check

box at a time so that each copy of the form records just one job. To do so, you must create an

5 Shift-click or drag the cursor around all four check box objects

to select them.

two more times.

Paste

Copy

option group.

and then

in the

Paste

Tutorials 3-29

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

6 With the objects still selected, click the Object Definition button

in the standard toolbar or choose

Object Definition...

in the

Format menu. The Check Box Definition dialog box appears.

7Type job type in the 8 Click 9 Click

OK.

in the dialog box that asks if you want OmniForm to

Ye s

Option Group

pop-up menu box.

create unique On-Values for you. Now you will be able to select only one check box at a time in

Fill ViewFill View. See “Defining a Check Box Object” on page 6-24 for detailed information on Option Groups.

You can define each check box individually if you like as well to give it a unique name.

10 Drag the check boxes in front of the

Marketing Writing,

and

Advertising Copy

Editing, Tech Writing,

text objects under

Typ e.

Job

3-30 Tutorials

Create the Table Object

Create the Table

1 Click the Table tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a table. 3 With the table still selected, click the Object Definition button

or choose The Table Definition dialog box appears.

Object Definition...

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

in the Format menu.

•Type Task List in the

•Type 2 in the

Number of Columns

•Type 2.5 in the

•Type 10 in the

•Type 0.25 in the

4 Click

OK.

Width of Columns

Number of Rows

Height of Rows

Name

text box.

5 With the table still selected, click the Object Appearance button

or choose

Object Appearance...

in the Format menu.

The Object Appearance dialog box appears. 6 Click the 7 Click the

Background Border

tab and select

tab.

Clear.

A one-point black border is selected by default. Just for looks,

add a shadow effect to the border:

•Select

Lower Right

in the

Location

pop-up menu.

Tutorials 3-31

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

•Select

3 pt

in the

This moves the shadow three points to the right and bottom of the border.

8 Click

OK.

A shadow appears behind the table.

Use Table AutoFormat

1 With the table still selected, choose

Format menu. The Table AutoFormat dialog box appears.

2 Select the

Ye s

box.

3Select

Columns (Reverse Header).

pop-up menu.

Offset

Table AutoFormat...

option in the window to enable the

in the

Appearance

list

4 Click 5 Select the

6 Select the first word

3-32 Tutorials

The picture on the left shows how the selected option affects your table.

Next>.

option in the next window to enable the

Names

Ye s

text box.

Label

and click

Rename.

Field

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

7Type Task.

All fill text fields within cells in this column are automatically

renamed

Task1, Task 2,

and so forth.

(You can verify this by selecting a cell and opening the Object

Definition dialog box.) 8 Repeat for the second word but change its name to

Completed

All fill text fields within the cells in this column are

automatically renamed

Completed1, Completed2,

and so forth.

9Make sure

Change Header to Match Field Names

This changes the column names from

Completed.

10 Click

Finish.

Format the Table Cells

1 Place your cursor outside the left edge of the table, hold down

the mouse button and drag your cursor through the nine rows

in the left column but not the

Just the nine rows on the left should be selected. Shift-click to

select or deselect rows as necessary.

Ta s k

Label to Task

row.

is selected.

and

2 Choose

Text...

in the Format menu.

Tutorials 3-33

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

The Text dialog box appears.

• Click the

Margins

tab and type the measurements 0.04,

0.04, 0.02, and 0 as pictured above.

This offsets your text from the border around each row, making it easier to read.

• Click the

Alignment

tab and select

Left

and

Bottom.

Text entered in Fill View will align to the left and bottom of the cell.

3 Click 4 Repeat steps 2–3 for the

Bottom

OK.

Completed

column but select

for the alignment in the Text dialog box.

Right

and

5 With the right column still selected, click the Object Definition

button or choose

Object Definition...

in the Format menu.

The Fill Text Definition dialog box appears.

•Select

Date

in the

pop-up menu.

Type

3-34 Tutorials

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

• Select the desired date format in the

6 Click

OK.

Format

pop-up menu.

Numbers entered in this row will be formatted as right-aligned

dates in the format you chose. 7 Drag the table above the

Comments

text object to the middle of

the form.

Tutorials 3-35

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Create the Graphic Objects

You will create both a graphic object and a fill graphic object. You can import a graphic into a graphic object in Design View. You can import a graphic into a fill graphic field in Fill View.

Fill Graphic Object

Graphic Object

1 Click the fill graphic tool in the drawing toolbar.

It is the second-to-last button.

2 Draw a box in the upper right corner of the form.

You will import a graphic into this field in Fill View later in the tutorial.

1 Click the graphic tool in the drawing toolbar.

It is below the Rectangle tool. 2 Draw a box in the lower right corner of the form. 3 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button

or choose

Object Definition...

in the Format menu.

The Graphic Definition dialog box appears.

• Click

to open the Select dialog box.

Select

• Locate the Logo file in the OmniForm:Sample Forms folder

and click

•Select

4 Click

Open.

Scale Proportionally

OK.

in the

Options

pop-up menu.

The graphic is imported into the object you drew and scaled to

fit in the box while maintaining its original proportions. You

could place your own graphic or logo in this object instead.

3-36 Tutorials

Define the Calculations

The final objects on this form are fill text objects that have calculations defined on them. In Fill View, these fields become part of a calculation that determines the profit this user makes on each job after expenses. These calculations are very simple but you have the ability to create much more complex ones. See Chapter 9, Using Calculations, for detailed information.

Create and Define the Fill Text Objects

1 Click the Fill Text tool. 2 Draw a fill text object anywhere on the page. 3 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button

or choose The Fill Text Definition dialog box appears.

Object Definition...

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

in the Format menu.

•Type Rate in the

•Select

4 Click

Currency

in the

$0.00

Use 1000’s Separator

OK.

Numbers entered in the

in the

Name

Ty pe

Format

Rate

text box.

pop-up menu.

and

Enclose Negatives in Parentheses.

fill text field will use the currency symbol and number format appropriate to the current form language ($3,000,000 for U.S. English for example). Negative numbers will appear within parentheses: ($3,000,000).

Tutorials 3-37

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

5 With the Rate object still selected, choose

Copy

and then

Paste

the Edit menu. 6 Choose 7 Use the

Earnings, Expenses,

twice more.

Paste Object Definition

and

command to name the objects:

Profit.

Because you copied and pasted the objects, the other settings

are exactly the same as for the Rate object. 8 Draw another Fill Text object and use the Object Definition

command to define it as pictured below:

3-38 Tutorials

9 Click

OK.

Create the Text Objects

1 Click the Text tool. 2 Draw an object and type an x. 3 Draw another object and type an equal sign(=).

4 Drag the objects so they are lined up approximately as shown:

Rate field Hours field Earnings field

Set Up Calculations

Calculate Earnings

Earnings, on this form, equals the hourly rate ( number of hours (

field) spent on the job.

Hours

1 Select the Earnings fill text object. 2 Click the Calculation button in the standard toolbar or choose

Calculation...

in the Tools menu.

The calculation toolbar appears at the top of the window below the font/text toolbar.

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Expenses field

Profit field

field) times the

Rate

Calculation

Cancel

Calculation

Auto

Calculation

Builder

Click to Edit Calculation — the calculation

for the field appears in the text box.

3 Click the Calculation Builder button in the calculation toolbar.

The Calculation Builder dialog box appears.

Tutorials 3-39

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

4Locate 5 Double-click

Rate

in the

or select it and click

Rate

Fields

list box.

Paste.

The field name appears in the calculation toolbar. 6 Click the Multiplication (*) button in the Calculation Builder

dialog box.

It appears after 7 Locate and double-click

in the calculation toolbar.

[Rate]

in the

Hours

Fields

list box.

The calculation in the calculation text box should now read:

[Rate]*[Hours]

Click the Cancel Calculation button in the calculation toolbar if you make an error to clear the text box and start again.

8 Click the Accept Calculation button in the calculation toolbar to

define the calculation on the Earnings field.

The Calculation Builder dialog box closes.

Calculate Profit

Profit, on this form, equals the Earnings minus Expenses. You will create this calculation manually instead of using the Calculation Builder dialog box so you can see another feature of OmniForm.

3-40 Tutorials

1 Select the Profit fill text object. 2 Click in the calculation toolbar’s text box to activate the toolbar. 3 Click the Earnings fill text object in the form.

The field name appears in the calculation toolbar. 4 Click in the calculation text box after

[Earnings]

and type a

subtraction (-) sign. 5 Click the Expenses fill text object in the form.

The calculation in the calculation text box should now read:

[Earnings]-[Expenses]

6 Click the Accept Calculation button in the calculation toolbar to

define the calculation on the

Profit

field

7 Click the Calculation button in the standard toolbar or choose

Calculation...

in the Tools menu to close the calculation toolbar.

Customize the Form

Format Objects

As a general rule, forms are easier to read if you use the same font format for all the text objects. Point size and style can be varied according to what you decide looks best and is most logical for the form you create.

On the form shown on page 3-21, all text objects are 9-point Arial bold with the exception of the text objects under are entries under a header and it could be confusing if they had the same formatting as the header.

See “Formatting Text” on page 6-35 for detailed information on changing text and font attributes.

Align the Objects

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Job Type.

These four objects

Use the

commands in the Format menu or the Arrange toolbar to

Align

line up selected objects left, right, center, and so forth. Use the

Snap to Grid

precisely along a grid. Choose

command in the Tools menu to line fields up

Grid Settings...

in the Tools menu to set the size of the grid. Turn this command off if you do not want fields snapping to a grid.

Selecting Objects

There are several ways to select multiple objects.

•The

Select Special...

command in the Edit menu lets you select all objects of a certain type at the same time. This way, you can apply the same formatting to all selected objects instead of one by one.

• Shift-click to select multiple objects.

• Hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor around all objects to select.

An object only has to be touching the selection area to be selected. Remember to fully enclose table and comb objects unless you want individual elements and cells selected.

Tutorials 3-41

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Use the Drawing Tools

You can use the Line, Oval, and Rectangle tools in the drawing toolbar to customize your form.

To draw the rounded border around the outside of the form:

1 Click the Rectangle tool. 2 Draw a border around the outside edge of the form. 3 With the border still selected, click the Object Appearance

button or choose

Object Appearance...

in the Format menu.

The Object Appearance dialog box appears.

• Click the

4 Click

Background Border

OK.

tab and select

Clear.

tab and select the settings shown below.

See page 3-21 again for the completed form. Your final form should look similar to this depending on how you chose to customize it. Your form will not as yet have the arrow in the upper right corner. That is added in Fill View.

3-42 Tutorials

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

Tab Order

You can tab from field to field in Fill View. This is faster than moving the cursor to each field. When tabbing, OmniForm moves the cursor through the fields in the order in which they were created. This may not be the order you want.

To change tab order:

1 Click the Tab Order button in the standard toolbar or choose

Tab Order...

in the Tools menu.

The Tab Order window appears, and numbers appear by each field on the form.

Both indicate current tab order.

In the example above, the user wants the check box fields to be before the

field because that is the order of the fields on the

Rate

form. Your Tab Order dialog box will not necessarily look the same as this one.

2 Select the field to reorder.

Note that the corresponding field on the form highlights.

3 Reorder the field in one of the following ways:

• Drag the field up or down in the dialog box to reorder it.

• Click the

Move Up

button to move the field up. Click as many

times as needed to move it into place.

• Click the

Move Down

button to move the field down. Click as

many times as needed to move it into place.

Tutorials 3-43

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

• Click

Auto Order

The tab order numbers on the form change correspondingly

when you reorder a field in the Tab Order dialog box. 4 Repeat for each field you want to reorder. 5 Click the Tab Order button in the standard toolbar or choose

Tab Order...

in the Tools menu to close the Tab Order window.

Test the Form in Fill View

1 Click the Fill button or choose 2 Click the fill graphic field in the upper right corner of the form.

The Fill Graphic dialog box appears.

•Select

• Click

• Locate the ArrowR file in the OmniForm:Sample Forms

folder.

• Click

Graphic File

Select

to return to the Fill Graphic dialog box.

Open

to have OmniForm order the fields for you.

in the View menu.

Fill

in the

Source

pop-up menu.

to open the Select dialog box.

3 Click

4 Tab from field to field to test tab order.

3-44 Tutorials

•Select

Stretch to Fit

in the

Options

pop-up menu.

OK.

The graphic is imported into the field you drew and stretched

to fill the entire box. Click in the field again if you want to

change the graphic’s appearance or import a new graphic.

Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form

5 Enter text in the fill text fields to see your formatting and to

make sure the fields are large enough for text entered.

6 Select a check box under

Job Type.

7 Click another check box to deselect the first. 8 Enter text in the table cells.

• Verify that text is not flush against a border, making it hard to read.

• Verify that text in the left column is left-aligned and text in the right column is right-aligned.

• Enter dates in the right column in any format and note that they are converted to the format you chose when you defined the fields. The conversion takes place after you move the cursor from the field.

9 Verify that comb field elements contain the right amount of

numbers.

10 Enter numbers in the calculation fields.

The Expenses and Profit fields should fill automatically and correctly as you fill in the other fields involved in the calculation.

Return to Design View to make any changes you need. Save this form. You will use it in the next tutorial.

Tutorials 3-45

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

This tutorial is a brief introduction to the OmniForm database. A database is a collection of information stored as individual

Each record uses the same form design but can contain different information in its fields. OmniForm automatically creates a database when you scan in or import a form.

In the previous tutorial, for example, you created the Job Tracking form. As soon as you fill in the form, it becomes the first record in the new database. The user of this database creates a new record for each job completed, making it possible to store and find a large amount of similar information.

See Chapter 8, Managing an OmniForm Database, for detailed information, including working with records and importing and exporting databases.

records.

This tutorial shows you how to create new records, search for specific information in a database, sort records, and delete records. You will use the job-tracking form you created in the last tutorial.

Duplicating a Database Record

The hypothetical user of this job-tracking database uses the same form design to enter different information in new records. You can add a new, empty record to this database and fill in the form each time, or you can duplicate an existing record that has similar information when you need to add a new record. This way you do not have to fill in the whole record — just change one or more fields.

3-46 Tutorials

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

To duplicate a record:

1 Locate and open the Job Tracking form you created in the

previous tutorial.

2 Enter the customer information shown below.

Suppose you did another job for this company but this time instead of editing it was marketing writing. You do not have to retype all the same information for just one change.

3 Choose

Duplicate Record

4 Click OK in the dialog box that informs you that a record has

been added to the set. Another record for Franich & Halsey is added to the set and

OmniForm moves to the new record.

5 Select the

The

Editing

Creating New Records

Suppose after this job you complete two more jobs and need to add two more records to the database.

To create new records:

1 Click the New Record button or choose

menu and OmniForm creates a new, empty record.

2Type The Borne Corporation in the Customer fill text field.

Fill in other information if you like.

3 Click the New Record button again.

in the Records menu.

Marketing Writing

check box.

check box is deselected.

in its cascading menu.

New

Go To

in the Records

Tutorials 3-47

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

Search the Database Records

It is not hard to find information when you only have a few records, but depending on your database, you may have thousands. OmniForm makes it easy to find the information you need quickly.

To search records:

4Type Zimmer DTP in the Customer fill text field in the new

record. Fill in other information if you like.

5 Use the Record buttons in the toolbar to scroll through your

records.

First Record

Previous Record

Record Number

Next Record

Last Record

The field to search How to search

What to search for

Which records to search

1 Choose

Search...

in the Records menu.

The Search dialog box appears.

•Select

Customer

is equal to

•Type Franich & Halsey in the

in the

Field Name

Condition

pop-up menu.

text box.

Value

This dialog box illustrates why it is important to give fields a unique name after you create them. If you had not named the field, it would appear simply as

FillTextn

(where n is a number)

Customer

making it difficult to decide what to choose.

3-48 Tutorials

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

2 Click

OK.

3 OmniForm searches the database and retrieves the two records

that match the search criteria. This is called the Status text just below the toolbar shows the search results

information.

You can narrow a search further by searching a found set for more specific information. For example, you might want to find only editing jobs you had done for Franich & Halsey. You would enter the appropriate information in the Search dialog box and select

Only Search Current Record Set.

when you have a large found set.

4 Click the

Clear Search

full database set.

Sort the Database Records

You may need to sort your database records in some logical order, for example, alphabetically by customer name as you will in this exercise.

To sort records:

found set.

This is useful

button below the toolbar to return to the

1 Choose

in the Records menu.

Sort...

The Sort dialog box appears.

•Select

2 Click

Customer Ascending Order

OK.

in the

Field Name

pop-up menu.

(A-Z; descending order would be Z-A).

OmniForm examines the Customer field in each record and sorts the records alphabetically: the two Franich & Halsey records are numbers 1 and 2, The Borne Corporation is number

and Zimmer DTP is number

Tutorials 3-49

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

You could also sort a subset of retrieved search records. You might, for example, find all a certain customer’s records and then sort those records by date or any other way you choose.

Database Changes

You have changed individual records in Fill View in this tutorial. Changes to one record did not affect changes to another record. However, changes in Design View do affect your records.

To make a change in Design View:

3 Click OK in the dialog box that tells you how many records

were sorted.

1 Click the Design button or choose

Design

in the View menu.

2 Delete the graphic object in the lower right corner. 3 Click the Fill button or choose

in the View menu.

Fill

4 Click the appropriate Records button to view each record.

The logo is now missing from every record.

Any change made in Design View affects

the records in that

all

particular database. This is important to remember, especially if you have more than one user of your database.

You can protect your database from unauthorized changes in several ways:

• In Design View, choose

Protection...

in the Tools menu to open the

Protection dialog box. Select

Protect Data

to make all information read-only. No changes can be made in Fill View to any of the records. This also prevents users from duplicating or deleting records.

Select

Protect Form

if you do not want anyone to be able to change a form in Design View. Remember, deleting a fill field in Design View also deletes

the information that was entered in that field

all

in Fill View.

• Have other users use the program OmniForm Filler to open the

3-50 Tutorials

database. This is a version of OmniForm that has only a Fill View. Users cannot change the form’s design.

Deleting Records

You may want to delete an old or obsolete record.

To delete a record:

1 Return to Fill view if you are not in it already.

Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database

2 Choose 3 Click

Ye s

Delete Record

in the warning dialog box that appears.

in the Records menu.

The record you are viewing is deleted permanently from the database.

Use the command

Delete All Records

to permanently destroy all database records. You can also use the command to delete a subset of retrieved search records.

Suppose, for example, you have 14 entries for PatEl Corporation in your customer update database. Then they go out of business and you decide you no longer need the information because it just takes up disk space.

You would search for choose

Delete All Records

PatEl Corporation

in the Records menu. All PatEl Corporation

in the relevant field, and then

entries would be permanently deleted but the other records would be safe.

You cannot undo the

Delete Record

command!

Tutorials 3-51

3-52 Tutorials

Chapter 4

Views and Form Usage

This chapter describes basic OmniForm concepts you should know before scanning, importing, or designing a new form.

It contains the following sections:

• Using Form Assistant

• The Design View Window

• The Fill View Window

• Form Usage Options

Proceed to Chapter 5, OmniForm Procedures, if you want to begin working with forms immediately.

Views and Form Usage 4-1

Using Form Assistant

This section describes Form Assistant and its basic OmniForm functions. Form Assistant is a dialog box that appears the first time you launch

OmniForm. Form Assistant makes decision-making easy when processing a form.

This section contains the following topics:

• Opening Form Assistant

• The Form Assistant Options

• Setting the Form Assistant Startup Option

Opening Form Assistant

There are several ways to open Form Assistant.

• Form Assistant opens automatically the first time you launch OmniForm.

• Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar at the top of the window if OmniForm is open.

• Choose

Form Assistant contains six options for basic OmniForm procedures as described in the next section.

Form Assistant...

in the File menu if OmniForm is open.

4-2 Views and Form Usage

The Form Assistant Options

This section gives a brief description of each option in Form Assistant. A cross-reference after each description points you to step-by-step instructions for the procedure.

Scan in a form

Using Form Assistant

Select

Scan in a form

to scan a paper form or import an image file and to determine how you will work with the form in OmniForm. See “Scanning a Paper Form” on page 5-2 or “Importing an Image File” on page 5-8 for instructions.

Fill in a form

Select

Fill in a form

to fill the currently open form or to open a form and

fill it. See “Filling a Form” on page 5-13 for instructions.

Print or fax a form

Select

Print or fax a form

to print or fax the currently open form or to open a form and print or fax it. See “Printing or Faxing a Form” on page 5-14 for instructions.

Search a form for information

Select

Search a form for information

to search the currently open form for information or to open a form and search it. See “Searching a Form” on page 5-17 for instructions.

Work on a form’s design

Select

Work on a form’s design

to redesign the currently open form or to open a form in Design View. See “Opening a Form to Design” on page 5-19 for instructions.

Create a new, blank form

Show Form Assistant at Startup

Select

Create a new, blank form

to open a blank page in Design View. See

“Creating a New Form” on page 5-20 for instructions.

• Select the

Show Form Assistant at Startup

option if you want

Form Assistant to appear at startup.

Views and Form Usage 4-3

Using Form Assistant

Setting the Form Assistant Startup Option

You can enable or disable Form Assistant at startup. To do so:

1 Choose

Preferences...

in the Tools menu. A form must e open for

this menu to be active. The Preferences dialog box appears.

2 Deselect the

Show Form Assistant at Startup

option if you do not want Form Assistant to appear at startup. OmniForm will open a blank form instead the next time you launch it. Select the

Show Form Assistant at Startup

option if you want Form

Assistant to appear at startup.

3 Click OK.

In the Form Assistant dialog box, deselect the

Startup

option if you do not want Form Assistant to appear at startup.

Show Form Assistant at

OmniForm will open a blank form instead the next time you launch it. Select the

Show Form Assistant at Startup

option if you want Form

Assistant to appear at startup.

4-4 Views and Form Usage

The Design View Window

This section provides an overview of the Design View window. If a form is open in Fill View, click the Design button in the standard

toolbar or choose

As a handy shortcut, Control-click over a blank area in the form to open a shortcut menu. Choose

The Design View window contains four toolbars and seven menus.

Standard toolbar

Design

The Design View Window

in the View menu to switch to Design View.

Design

in this menu.

Font/text toolbar Arrange toolbar

Drawing toolbar

Status bar: displays current activity and settings.

The Design View window also contains the calculation toolbar. Choose

Calculation

in the Tools menu to display this toolbar. See Chapter 9,

Using Calculations, for detailed information. Use Design View to edit and create fields on an existing form or to create

an entirely new form. For detailed information on Design View and designing forms, see

Chapter 6, Designing a Form.

Views and Form Usage 4-5

The Fill View Window

This section provides an overview of the Fill View window. If you are in Design View, click the Fill button in the standard toolbar or

choose

in the View menu to switch to Fill View.

Fill

Standard toolbar

As a handy shortcut, Control-click to open a shortcut menu. Choose this menu.

The Fill View window contains a toolbar and seven menus.

Fill

Status bar: displays current activity and settings.

Use Fill View to enter data in fields, create a records database, import and export information to and from records, and print, mail, or fax forms.

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on how to enter text into fillable fields and move through a form.

See Chapter 8, Managing an OmniForm Database, for detailed information on database creation and management.

4-6 Views and Form Usage

Form Usage Options

This section describes form usage: how it affects the forms you scan or import as image files, how to select form usage, and how to change it.

This section contains the following topics:

• Choosing a Form Usage Option

• Where to Select Form Usage Options

• Changing Form Usage

Choosing a Form Usage Option

Form usage affects the way you can use a form once it is in OmniForm.

Form Usage Options

Decide how you will use a form in OmniForm it: as a as described below.

OmniForm uses rectangles, lines, and fillable areas when it designs a form during scanning or import.

Designed Form

Use this option if you want to be able to:

A designed form does not retain graphics during Logical Form Recognition, but you can import graphics.

Original Form

Use this option if you want to be able to:

designed

• have full control over a form’s design

• edit all form elements in Design View

• create new objects in Design View

• fill fields in Fill View

form, as an

Logical Form Recognition

original

form, or as a

(LFR) to identify text,

you scan or import

before

non-designed

form image

• have partial control over a form’s design

• maintain a form’s original look

• draw new fillable objects on the form in Design View

• fill fields in Fill View

Views and Form Usage 4-7

Form Usage Options

Non-designed Form

This type of form has no fillable fields and no editable text. Basically, it is just an image, or picture, on your computer. Use this option if you want to be able to:

• input a form of such poor quality that it would cause recognition problems

• draw new fillable objects on the form in Design View

• print or fax the form only

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for information on adding graphics, creating objects, and using other design techniques.

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for information on filling fields in Fill View.

Where to Select Form Usage Options

Different form usage options are available depending on whether you open Form Assistant or choose

Scan Form...

in the File menu.

Designed form option

Original form option

Form Assistant

If you use Form Assistant, you can choose between the designed form and original form options.

This dialog box is one of several in Form Assistant; it appears during the scanning or import process.

4-8 Views and Form Usage

Scan Form Dialog Box

Form Usage Options

If you use the

Scan Form...

designed form and non-designed form options.

Select this option for a designed form. Deselect it for a non-designed form.

Changing Form Usage

Choose form. For example:

Form Usage...

command, you can choose between the

in the View menu to change the way you can use a

•You have an

original

form but decide to change the design.

You would change the form to a designed form.

• You have a

designed

form that you have edited but want to fax the

original form to someone. You would change the form to an original form.

There is no original view for a form that you design yourself in OmniForm.

Views and Form Usage 4-9

Form Usage Options

To change form usage:

1 Choose

Form Usage...

in the View menu.

The Form Usage dialog box appears.

2 Select a form usage option.

•Select

Use Designed Form

by OmniForm on import along with any changes you have made to the form’s design.

You can edit all text and fields, and add graphics to the form.

•Select

Use Original Form

to view the form as it looked

originally, before you scanned or imported it to OmniForm. You can create, resize, move, delete, define, or change the

appearance of fillable fields with this option. Changes you make to text, graphics, and non-fillable objects are not visible until you select

Use Designed Form.

to view the form as it was designed

4-10 Views and Form Usage

3 Click

OK.

Your form changes to reflect the selected option.

You can change form usage for a

non-designed

form to a designed form. However, it will be blank except for any fillable objects you may have added.

Chapter 5

OmniForm Procedures

This chapter describes basic OmniForm procedures: how to turn your paper forms into electronic forms; how to fill, print, and fax forms; how to open forms to fill, redesign, and search for information.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• Scanning a Paper Form

• Importing an Image File

• Filling a Form

• Printing or Faxing a Form

• Searching a Form

• Opening a Form to Design

• Creating a New Form

• Opening a Form

• International Settings

• Menu Shortcuts

OmniForm Procedures 5-1

Scanning a Paper Form

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the

Form...

You can scan paper forms directly into OmniForm if you have a scanner. Forms should be blank with crisp, dark text on a white background for best results.

You can use the Sample Form included with your OmniForm package as a test page if you like.

command to turn your paper form into an electronic form.

Scanning With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder.

If OmniForm is open, click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar to open Form Assistant.

Form Assistant appears. 2 Select 3Select 4 Select a paper size in the next window.

Scan in a form

Scanner

•Select

Letter

if the form is 8.5 by 14 inches.

Legal

and then click

in the next window and click

if the form is 8.5 by 11 inches.

Next>

Scan

5-2 OmniForm Procedures

•Select A4 if the form is 21 by 29.7 centimeters (European).

5 Click

The next window only appears if a form is open already.

Proceed to step 7 if a form is not open. 6 Select whether you want the scanned page to be a new form or

to add the page to a currently open form in the next window,

and then click 7 Select form usage in the next window.

• Select the first option if you want to edit or redesign a form.

• Select the second option if you do not want to edit or redesign a form, just fill it in.

8 Click

The last window prompts you to place a page in your scanner.

Next>

Scanning a Paper Form

9 Make sure the page is aligned correctly in your scanner, and

click

Finish.

OmniForm scans the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress.

How your form appears in OmniForm depends on the form usage option you chose in Form Assistant.

10 Click the Save button in the standard toolbar or choose

Save...

in the File menu to name and save your file.

11 Begin to fill or edit your form.

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on defining, moving, resizing, and creating fields, and other design functions.

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on the kinds of fields you may find on a form and how to fill them.

OmniForm Procedures 5-3

Scanning a Paper Form

Using the

Scan Form...

1 Click the Scan button in the standard toolbar or choose

Form...

The Scan Form dialog box appears.

2Select 3 Click

brightness.

Command

in the File menu.

Scanner

Set Up Scanner...

in the

Source

pop-up menu.

to choose a page size and adjust scanning

Scan

5-4 OmniForm Procedures

• Select an option under Select Select Select A4 if the form is 21 by 29.7 centimeters (European).

• Select a scanning brightness under Select

and your form is printed on colored, shaded, or smudged paper, or if it has very small type.

if the form is 8.5 by 11 inches.

Letter

if the form is 8.5 by 14 inches.

Legal

Auto (AccuPage)

Page Size

if your scanner supports HP AccuPage

Brightness.

Scanning a Paper Form

Text on a shaded

background. Select

Auto (AccuPage).

4 Select an option in the

Select

Lighten

if the form has very thick or run-together text,

or if the background is smudged, shaded, or colored Select

Normal

if the form has crisp, black text and objects on a

white background. Select

Darken

if the form has very thin or broken text such as

with a poor-quality fax or a copy of a copy.

Thick, dark text.

Lighten.

Select

Thin, broken text.

Darken.

Select

Crisp, black text.

Select

• Click OK to return to the Scan Form dialog box. pop-up menu.

•Select

Orientation

to have OmniForm determine orientation

Auto

automatically.

•Select

Portrait Landscape

for a vertically oriented page.

for a horizontally oriented page.

Normal.

•Select

Flipped

to automatically rotate a portrait page 180

degrees during the scan.

•Select

Flipscape

to automatically rotate a landscape page 180

degrees during the scan.

The

Flipped

and

Flipscape

options are useful for scanning pages in a

book to avoid turning it upside down or sideways.

5 Select import options.

•Select

Auto Form Design

to use Logical Form Recognition to

recognize text and fillable fields in the form. This gives you full control over a form’s design. Graphics are

not retained but you can import them. See “Creating a Graphic Object” on page 6-8 for information on how to do this.

OmniForm Procedures 5-5

Scanning a Paper Form

• Deselect

Auto Form Design

to scan a form without recognizing form design. Text and fillable fields are not recognized. This results in a

non-designed

form.

This is useful if you just want to fax a form, or if the form is of such poor quality that it would cause recognition problems.

•Select

Auto Form Straightening

to have OmniForm

automatically straighten a crooked page. This is useful if you scan a page in a large, unevenly cut, or

thick document that is difficult to position correctly.

•Select

Add Page(s) to Current Form

to make the newly scanned

page the next page in the current form. This option is only available if a form is open.

6 Verify that the selected language under

Language

want for your new form.

• To change the default language for the new form, click

Preferences...

• Select a language in the

to open a modified Preferences dialog box.

Language

pop-up menu.

See “International Settings” on page 5-22 for more information on the international options.

• Click OK to return to the Scan Form dialog box.

is the one you

7Select

Allow Multiple Languages

if your form contains more than

one language that you want OmniForm to recognize. This setting does not affect the selected language for your form

set in the previous step. Do not select this setting for a single-language form as optical

character recognition (OCR) may not be as efficient.

8 Click OK in the Scan Form dialog box to begin scanning.

5-6 OmniForm Procedures

Scanning a Paper Form

OmniForm scans the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress if you selected those options.

How your form appears depends on whether or not you chose

Auto Form Design

9 Click the Save button in the standard toolbar or choose

in the Scan Form dialog box.

Save...

in the File menu to name and save your file.

10 Begin to fill or edit your form.

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on defining, moving, resizing, and creating fields, and other design functions.

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on the kinds of fields you may find on a form and how to fill them.

See “Printing or Faxing a Form” on page 5-14 if you have a non-designed form.

OmniForm Procedures 5-7

Importing an Image File

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the

Form...

form. OmniForm can import and recognize black-and-white forms in either

PICT or TIFF format. Image resolution must be 200, 300, or 400 dots per inch (dpi). If you have a fax modem, for example, you can receive a faxed form and use the fax program’s software to save the file in PICT or TIFF format. OmniForm has the same import options for image files as it does for scanned forms.

command to import an image file as a recognized OmniForm

Importing With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder.

Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open.

Form Assistant appears. 2 Select 3Select

Scan in a form

Fax or Image File

that is in a supported image format.

This could be a form created in another program or one

received as a fax file.

and then click

Scan

Next>

in the next window to recognize a form

5-8 OmniForm Procedures

4 Click 5 Select a file in the next window.

• Click

• Select a file in the Select dialog box and click Form Assistant.

6 Click

The next window only appears if a form is open already. Proceed to step 8 if a form is not open.

7 Select to have scan the page as a new form and click

to add the page to the currently open form and click

Next>

Select...

Next>.

if you need to locate a file.

Open

to return to

, or

Next>

Finish>

Importing an Image File

8 Select form usage in the last window.

• Select the first option if you want to edit or redesign a form.

• Select the second option if you do not want to edit or redesign a form, just fill it in.

9 Click

Finish>

The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress.

How your form appears in OmniForm depends on the form usage options you chose in Form Assistant.

10 Click the Save button in the standard toolbar or choose

Save...

in the File menu to name and save your file.

11 Begin to fill or edit your form.

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on defining, moving, resizing, and creating fields, and other design functions.

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on the kinds of fields you may find on a form and how to fill them.

OmniForm Procedures 5-9

Importing an Image File

Using the

Scan Form...

1 Click the Scan button in the standard toolbar or choose

Form...

The Scan Form dialog box appears.

2Select

form in a supported image format.

This could be a form created in another program or one received as a fax file.

3 Click

Command to Import

in the File menu.

Image File(s)

Select Files...

in the

to open the Select Files dialog box.

Source

pop-up menu to recognize a

Scan

• Locate and select a file.

• Click

4 Select an option in the

•Select

Add File

You can select up to 20 files from one or more folders.

Done

are done.

Auto

automatically.

Portrait Landscape Flipped

degrees during the scan.

Flipscape

degrees during the scan.

to add the file to the

to return to the Scan Form dialog box when you

to have OmniForm determine orientation

for a vertically oriented page.

for a horizontally oriented page.

to automatically rotate a portrait page 180

to automatically rotate a landscape page 180

Orientation

Files to Process

pop-up menu.

list box.

5-10 OmniForm Procedures

Importing an Image File

The

Flipped

and

Flipscape

options are useful for scanning pages in a

book to avoid turning it upside down or sideways.

5 Select import options.

•Select

Auto Form Design

to use Logical Form Recognition to

recognize text and fillable fields in the form. This gives you full control over a form’s design. Graphics are

not retained but you can import them.

• Deselect

Auto Form Design

to scan a form without recognizing form design. Text and fillable fields are not recognized. This results in a

non-designed

form.

This is useful if you just want to print or fax a form, or if the form is of such poor quality that it would cause recognition problems.

•Select

Auto Form Straightening

to have OmniForm

automatically straighten a crooked page. This is useful if you are importing a received fax file that was

skewed in the fax machine.

•Select

Add Page(s) to Current Form

to make the newly scanned

page the next page in the current form. This option is only available if a form is open.

6 Verify that the selected language under

Language

is the one you

want for your new form.

• To change the default language for the new form, click

Preferences...

• Select a language in the

to open a modified Preferences dialog box.

Language

pop-up menu.

See “International Settings” on page 5-22 for more information on the international options.

Click OK to return to the Scan Form dialog box.

7Select

Allow Multiple Languages

if your form contains more than

one language that you want OmniForm to recognize. This setting does not affect the selected language for your form

set in the previous step. Do not select this setting for a single-language form as optical

character recognition (OCR) may not be as efficient.

OmniForm Procedures 5-11

Importing an Image File

8 Click OK.

OmniForm imports the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress if you selected these options.

How your form appears depends on whether or not you chose to have OmniForm design the form during import.

9 Click the Save button in the standard toolbar or choose

Save...

in the File menu to name and save your file.

10 Begin to fill or edit your form.

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on defining, moving, resizing, and creating fields, and other design functions.

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on the kinds of fields you may find on a form and how to fill them.

See “Printing or Faxing a Form” on page 5-14 if you have a non-designed form.

5-12 OmniForm Procedures

Filling a Form

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the command to open a form and fill it.

Filling Fields With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder.

Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open.

Form Assistant appears. 2Select 3 Select which form to use in the next window.

• Select the first option and click S

• Select the second option to work with the current form.

4 Click

OmniForm opens the selected form in Fill View.

See “The Fill View Window” on page 4-6 for a description.

Fill in a form

Select a form in the Open dialog box and click to the Form Assistant dialog box.

This option is available only if a form is open.

Finish>

and click

after you select an option.

Next>.

elect...

Fill

to open a form.

to return

Open

See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on the kinds of fields you may find on a form and how to fill them.

Using the

5 Click in a field or press the Tab key to place the cursor in the

first field. 6 Type the information you want to enter. Press the Enter key to

add new lines to the current field. 7 Press the Tab key to move to the next field.

Press Shift-Tab to move to the previous field. 8 Continue to fill fields in this way.

Command

Fill

1 If you have a form open and are in Design View, click the Fill

button in the standard toolbar or choose 2 Follow steps 5–8 in ”‘Filling Fields With Form Assistant” above.

in the View menu.

Fill

OmniForm Procedures 5-13

Printing or Faxing a Form

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the command to print or fax a form.

You must have fax hardware and software installed to fax a form. Refer to your fax documentation for instructions on how to set up your equipment for faxing. Faxing uses the instructions describes both printing and faxing.

Print...

command. The word

Printing/Faxing With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder.

Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open.

Form Assistant appears. 2Select 3 Select which form to use in the next window.

• Select the first option and click Select

Print or fax a form

Select a form in the Open dialog box and click to the Form Assistant dialog box.

and click

Next>.

to open a form.

...

Open

Print...

in these

to return

5-14 OmniForm Procedures

• Select the second option to work with the current form. 4 Click 5 Select what data to print or fax in the next window.

•Select

would appear in Design View, without any information in fillable fields.

•Select

graphics, and any information in fillable fields.

•Select

information you have typed in the fillable fields. Place the

pre-printed form in your printer. 6 Click 7 Select how you would like the form to look in the next window.

after you select an option.

Next>

Print or fax blank copies of the form

Print or fax filled in copies of the form

Print the form’s data over pre-printed forms

Next>.

to print the form as it

to print all text,

to print just the

Printing or Faxing a Form

• Select the first option to print the form as it was designed by OmniForm during import or by the person who designed it in OmniForm.

• Select the second option to print the form as it appeared when it was a hard copy, without any edits or redesign.

Using the

8 Click

9 Select the desired print options and click

Print...

1 Click the Print button in the standard toolbar or choose

2 Select an option in the

Finish.

The Print dialog box appears.

OK.

See the next section for more information on print options. OmniForm prints or faxes your form with the settings you

chose. Depending on your fax software, more dialog boxes may appear after you click OK in the Print dialog box.

Command

in the File menu to open the Print dialog box.

Form/Data

are available only in Fill View.

pop-up menu. These options

Print...

•Select information in fillable fields.

•Select in the fillable fields. This is useful if you want to print data over a pre-printed form.

•Select information in fillable fields.

3 Select an option in the

This option is only available if selected in the

•Select

•Select records.

Form and Data

Data Only

Form Only

Current Record Only Current Record Set

to print just the information you have typed

to print just the form without any

Form/Data

to print all text, graphics, and any

pop-up menu.

Data

Form and Data or Data Only

pop-up menu.

to print just the current record.

to print the current found set of

OmniForm Procedures 5-15

Printing or Faxing a Form

•Select

All Records

4 Enter offset measurements under

want

to print every record in the database.

Print offsets for data

if you

This is useful if you want to position data in a specific place on the page. This option is only available if the

Form/Data

5 Click

OK.

pop-up menu.

Data Only

is selected in

OmniForm prints or faxes your form with the selected settings.

• Depending on your printer or your fax software, more dialog boxes may appear after you click OK in the Print dialog box. See your printer or fax documentation for information.

• The Print to File dialog box appears after you click selected the

Print to file

location for the file, type a file name in the and click

OK.

option in the Print dialog box. Select a

File Name

if you

text box,

5-16 OmniForm Procedures

Searching a Form

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the command to open a form and perform a search.

Searching With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder.

Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open.

Form Assistant appears. 2Select 3 Select which form to use in the next window.

• Select the first option and click

• Select the second option to work with the currently open

4 Click

The Search dialog box appears.

Search a form for information

Select a form in the Open dialog box and click to the Form Assistant dialog box.

form.

Finish>

after you select an option.

and click

Select...

to open a form.

Next>.

Open

Search...

to return

The field to search How to search What to search for

Which records to search

5 Select the field to search in the

Field Name

pop-up menu.

6 Select how to search for the information in the

up menu. 7 Type the information to find in the

Val ue

text box.

8 Select which records to search.

OmniForm Procedures 5-17

Condition

pop-

Searching a Form

See “Searching Records for Information” on page 8-7 for detailed information on searching.

Using the

•Select the current database.

•Select found set of records. This option is available after a search.

9 Click

OmniForm searches the records and finds any that contain the information you specified.

Search...

1 If you have a form open and are in Design View, click the Fill

button in the standard toolbar or choose

2 Choose

The Search dialog box appears.

3 Follow steps 5–9 in the previous section.

Search All Records in the Database

Only Search Current Record Set

OK.

Command

Search...

in the Records menu.

to search all records in

to search the current

in the View menu.

Fill

5-18 OmniForm Procedures

Opening a Form to Design

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the command to open a form in Design View.

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on designing and editing forms.

Opening a Form in Design View With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder.

Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open.

Form Assistant appears. 2Select 3 Select the form to use in the next window.

• Select the first option and click

• Select the second option to work with the currently open

4 Click

OmniForm opens the selected form in Design View.

See “The Design View Window” on page 4-5 for a description.

Work on a form’s design

Select a form in the Open dialog box and click to the Form Assistant dialog box.

form. This option is only available if a form is open already.

Finish

and click

Select...

Next>.

to open a form.

Open

Design

to return

Using the

If you have a form open and are in Fill View, click the Design button in the standard toolbar or choose

OmniForm displays the form in Design View.

Design

Command

Design

in the View menu.

OmniForm Procedures 5-19

Creating a New Form

This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the command to create a new form.

See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on form design.

Creating a New Form With Form Assistant

1 Double-click the OmniForm icon in the OmniForm folder. Click

the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open.

Form Assistant appears.

Using the

2Select 3 Click

OmniForm opens a blank form in Design View.

New

1 Click the New button in the standard toolbar or choose

the File menu. OmniForm opens a blank form in Design View.

2 Use the Design View tools to create fields and objects on your

new form.

Create a new, blank form.

Finish.

Command

New

5-20 OmniForm Procedures

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