Nuance ScanSoft OmniPage Pro - 16.0 User’s Guide
USER’S GUIDE
LEGAL NOTICES
Copyright © 2007 Nuance Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be transmitted, transcribed, reproduced, stored in any retrieval
system or translated into any language or computer language in any form or by any
means, mechanical, electronic, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, or otherwise,
without prior written consent from Nuance Communications, Inc., 1 Wayside Road,
Burlington, Massachusetts 01803-4609. Printed in the United States of America and
in Ireland.
The software described in this book is furnished under license and may be used or
copied only in accordance with the terms of such license.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Nuance Communications, Inc. provides this publication "As Is" without warranty of
any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Some states or
jurisdictions do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain
transactions; therefore, this statement may not apply to you. Nuance reserves the
right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the content
hereof without obligation of Nuance to notify any person of such revision or changes.
TRADEMARKS AND CREDITS
Nuance, ScanSoft, OmniPage, PaperPort, True Page, Direct OCR, Logical Form Recognition,
RealSpeak are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc.,
in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or
product names referenced herein may be the trademarks of their respective holders.
THIRD PARTY LICENSES/NOTICES
Please see acknowledgements/notices at the end of this guide.
Nuance Communications, Inc.
1 Wayside Road
Burlington, MA 01803-4609
U.S.A.
Nuance Communications International BVBA
International Headquarters
Guldensporenpark 32
Building D
9820 Merelbeke
Belgium
Part Number: 50-281A-10220
C ONTENTS
WELCOME 5
New features in OmniPage 16 7
INSTALLATION AND SETUP 9
System requirements 9
Installing OmniPage 10
Setting up your scanner with OmniPage 11
How to start the program 14
Registering your software 15
Activating OmniPage 15
Uninstalling the software 15
USING OMNIPAGE 17
OmniPage Documents 17
The OmniPage Desktop and Views 18
Basic Processing Steps 23
How to use OmniPage with PaperPort 24
PROCESSING DOCUMENTS 25
Processing methods 25
Defining the source of page images 29
Describing the layout of the document 32
Preprocessing Images 34
Zones and backgrounds 39
PROOFING AND EDITING 47
The editor display and views 47
Proofreading OCR results 48
Verifying text 49
The Character Map 50
OmniPage 16 User’s Guide 3
User dictionaries 51
Languages 52
Training 52
Text and image editing 54
On-the-fly editing 56
Marking and redacting 57
Reading text aloud 58
Creating and editing forms 60
SAVING AND EXPORTING 63
Saving and Exporting 63
Saving original images 64
Saving recognition results 65
Sending pages by mail 70
Other export targets 70
WORKFLOWS 71
Workflow Assistant 74
Batch Manager 76
Creating new jobs 77
Watched folders 81
Watched mailboxes 82
Barcode processing 83
File-it Assistant 85
TECHNICAL INFORMATION 87
Troubleshooting 87
INDEX 93
4 Contents
Welcome
Welcome to this OmniPage® 16 text recognition program, and thank
you for choosing our software! The following documentation has
been provided to help you get started and give you an overview of
the program.
This User’s Guide
This guide introduces you to using OmniPage 16. It includes
installation and setup instructions, a description of the program’s
commands and working areas, task-oriented instructions, ways to
customize and control processing, and technical information.
Descriptions are based on the Windows Vista
This guide is written with the assumption that you know how to
work in the Microsoft Windows environment. Please refer to your
Windows documentation if you have questions about how to use
dialog boxes, menu commands, scroll bars, drag and drop
functionality, shortcut menus, and so on.
We also assume you are familiar with your scanner and its
supporting software, and that the scanner is installed and working
correctly before it is setup with OmniPage 16. Please refer to the
scanner’s own documentation as necessary.
TM
operating system.
How-to-Guides
The How-to-Guides display on first program launch. They are a
series of mini-guides that help you get started easily by providing
concise overviews of key program areas, such as getting input,
image improvement, zoning, recognition, editing, proofreading, new
features, and the like.
Welcome 5
Online Help
OmniPage online Help contains information on features, settings,
and procedures. It also has a comprehensive glossary, with its own
alphabetical index and a table of contents. The online Help is
provided as HTML help, and has been designed for quick and easy
information retrieval. Online Help is available after you install
OmniPage.
Comprehensive context-sensitive help aims to provide just
enough assistance to let you keep working without delay.
It is available from dialog boxes. Press F1 in any dialog box
to access it, or click the help button if the dialog box has one.
Readme File
The Readme file contains last-minute information about the
software. Please read it before using OmniPage. To open this HTML
file, choose Readme in the OmniPage Installer or afterwards in the
Help menu.
Scanning and other information
The Nuance
information on the program. The Scanner Guide
(http://www.nuance.com/scannerguide/) contains up-dated
information about supported scanners and related issues; Nuance
tests the 25 most widely used scanner models. Access Nuance’s web
site from the OmniPage 16 Installer or afterwards from the Help
menu.
®
web site at www.nuance.com provides timely
Tech Notes
The web site at www.nuance.com contains Tech Notes on
commonly reported issues using OmniPage 16. Web pages may also
offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.
6 Welcome
New features in OmniPage 16
Here are some main areas of innovation compared to OmniPage 15.
If you are upgrading, you may not need to consult this guide very
much.
• Three screen views: Choose from Classic (as in OmniPage
15), Flexible and Quick Convert View (all main controls on
a single panel). See Chapter 2.
• Multiple documents. In Classic or Flexible view you can
have two or more documents open at one time, for easy
cross-document editing.
• Digital camera processing: perform OCR on digital
camera images with special algorithms. See Chapter 3.
• 2007 programs: OmniPage 16 supports the latest Word
and Excel inside Office 2007 (DOCX and XLSX), and also
provides links for SharePoint 2007 and Outlook 2007.
• PDF Enhancements: these include support for PDF
version 1.6, faster processing speed, higher accuracy,
improved output quality, and the MRC high compression
technology for certain PDF flavors.
• Legal documents: OmniPage 16 offers high-quality
handling and recognition of legal documents.
• Customizable shortcut menus in Windows Explorer:
send image files or PDFs directly to major Windows
programs, process them with your own workflows, or use
the Convert Now Wizard for easy conversion control.
• General improvements: these include faster processing,
better quality output page layout (font matching, table
detection, etc.); and a new, intuitive Workflow Assistant.
New features in OmniPage 16 7
New features unique to OmniPage Professional 16
• Extracting data from filled forms: A new workflow step
allows data to be extracted from sets of forms and exported
to databases, based on a PDF form template. The forms can
be active PDF forms, static forms in a range of image
formats or scanned paper forms.
• Marking and redacting: Text can be highlighted,
struckout or redacted (made unreadable) in the Text
Editor. Redacting is useful for legal documents or for those
with confidential content.
• File-it Assistant: A more efficient aid for creating and
using barcode cover page workflows. These allow for
automatic processing and storage of documents driven by
the push of just one scanner button.
A more complete list of features, and the differences between
various OmniPage versions (Professional - Standard) appears in
online Help.
This icon is used throughout the guide to denote features
that are available only in OmniPage Professional 16.
OmniPage 16 is supplied in Enterprise versions for network use. It is
also supplied in Special Editions for selected scanner manufacturers
and other resellers. The feature set in these editions may vary, in line
with each vendor's requirements.
8 Welcome
Installation and setup
This chapter provides information on installing and starting
OmniPage.
System requirements
The minimum requirements to install and run OmniPage 16 are:
• A computer with an Intel
equivalent. Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD X2
Dual Core 3600+ recommended.
• Windows 2000 (from Service Pack 4), Windows XP 32-
bit (from Service Pack 2), Windows XP 64-bit, and
Windows Vista 32-bit or 64-bit.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5.
• 256MB of memory (RAM), 1GB recommended.
• 150MB of free hard disk space for application and sample
files plus 70MB working space during installation.
Additionally:
• 175MB for all RealSpeak
RealSpeak
module, additional 9-11MB per RealSpeak Solo
other language modules)
• 20MB for ScanSoft PDF Create! *
• 5MB for Microsoft Installer (MSI) if not present (it is
included in most Windows operating systems).
• 1024x768 pixel color monitor with 16-bit color or greater
video card.
• A sound card and speaker for reading text aluod.
• A CD-ROM drive for installation.
®
Pentium® III processor or
®
®
Solo American English language
modules (80MB for
Installation and setup 9
• A Windows compatible pointing device.
• 4 megapixel digital camera or higher for digital camera
text capture
• A compatible scanner with its own scanner driver
software, if you plan to scan documents. See the Scanner
Guide at Nuance’s web site (www.nuance.com) for a list
of supported scanners.
• Web access is needed for product registration, Scanner
Wizard database updating and obtaining live updates for
the program.
• To save DOCX and XPSX files (for Microsoft Office 2007
Word and Excel) or to load and save XPS files (XML Paper
Specification), you should have or install Microsoft .NET
Framework 3.0. The link to the Microsoft download page
can be found in the Release Notes, or in the application
About box. Alternatively, click the OmniPage .Net
Framework balloon tooltip.
* Supplied with OmniPage Professional 16 only.
Installing OmniPage
OmniPage 16’s installation program takes you through installation
with instructions on every screen.
Before installing OmniPage:
• Close all other applications, especially anti-virus
programs.
• Log into your computer with administrator privileges if
you are installing on Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
• If you own a previous version of OmniPage, or if you are
upgrading from demonstration software or an OmniPage
Special Edition, the installer asks your consent to uninstall
that product.
10 Chapter 1
To install OmniPage:
1. Insert the OmniPage CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive. The
installation program should start automatically. If it does not
start, locate your CD-ROM drive in Windows Explorer and
double-click the
CD-ROM.
Autorun.exe program at the top-level of the
2. Choose a language to use during installation. Accept the End-
User License Agreement and enter the serial number shown on
the CD envelope.
3. Choose a complete or a custom installation. A complete
installation installs all RealSpeak
modules (currently 9). Custom installation lets you exclude or
add modules. To exclude a module, click its down arrow and
select ‘This feature will not be available’.
TM
Text-to-Speech language
4. Follow the instructions on each screen to install the software.
All files needed for scanning are copied automatically during
installation.
Setting up your scanner with OmniPage
All files needed for scanner setup and support are copied
automatically during the program’s installation, but no scanner
setup occurs at installation time. Before using OmniPage 16 for
scanning, your scanner should be installed with its own scanner
driver software and tested for correct functionality. Scanner driver
software is not included with OmniPage.
Scanner setup is done through the Scanner Setup Wizard.
You can start this yourself, as described below. Otherwise,
it appears when you first attempt to perform scanning.
Proceed as follows:
• Choose Start > All Programs > ScanSoft OmniPage 16 >
Scanner Setup Wizard
Setting up your scanner with OmniPage 11
or click the Setup button in the Scanner panel of the
Options dialog box.
or choose Scan in the Get Page drop-down list in the
OmniPage Toolbox and click the Get Page button.
• The Scanner Setup Wizard starts. If you have a web
connection, the first panel invites you to update the
scanner database supplied with the wizard. Choose Yes or
No and click on Next.
• Choose ‘Select and test scanner or digital camera’, then
click Next. If you have a single installed scanner, it
appears, along with any scanners previously set up with
OmniPage. If the required scanner is not listed, click Add
Scanner... .
• You see a list of all detected scanner drivers in the
checkmarked categories. This can include network
devices. Select one and click OK. To install a second
device, you must run the Scanner Wizard again.
• The wizard reports whether the chosen scanner model
already has settings in the scanner database. If it does, you
do not need to test it. If it does not, you should test it.
Click on Next.
• If you chose not to test, click Finish. If you chose testing,
click Next to have the scanner connection tested. If the
connection is in order, you see a menu of further tests.
Choose which testing steps you want to run. The Basic
test scan is recommended.
• By default OmniPage uses its own scanning interface,
located in the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box. If
you want to use your scanner’s own interface instead,
choose Advanced settings... and select this. Click Hint
editor... and choose Edit hints... only if you are experienced
in configuring scanners or have been advised by Technical
Support to do so.
12 Chapter 1
• Click Next to start the tests. For the Basic scan test, insert
a test page into your scanner. The wizard will scan using
your scanner manufacturer’s software. Click on Next. Your
scanner’s native user-interface will appear.
• Click on Scan to begin the sample scan.
• If necessary, click on Missing Image… or Improper
Orientation... and make the appropriate selections.
• Once the image appears correctly in the window, click on
Next.
• Move through the remaining requested tests, following the
instructions on the screen.
• When all the requested tests have been completed
successfully, the Scanner Wizard reports and invites you
to click on Finish.
• You have successfully configured your scanner to work
with OmniPage 16!
To change the scanner settings at a later time, or to setup or remove
a scanner, reopen the Scanner Setup Wizard from the Windows
Start menu or from the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box.
To test and repair an improperly functioning scanner, open the
wizard and select ‘Test the current scanner or digital camera’ in the
second panel, then work through the procedure described above,
maybe using advice received from Technical Support.
To specify a different default scanner, open the wizard to reach the
list of setup scanners. Move the highlight to the desired scanner and
be sure to close the wizard with Finish.
To get updated settings for your current scanner, open the wizard,
request a fresh database download in the first screen, then choose
‘Use current settings with current device’, click Next and then
Finish.
Setting up your scanner with OmniPage 13
How to start the program
To start OmniPage 16 do one of the following:
• Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose All
Programs > ScanSoft OmniPage 16 > OmniPage
[Professional] 16.
•Double-click the OmniPage icon in the
program’s installation folder or on the Windows
desktop if placed there.
•Double-click an OmniPage Document (OPD)
icon or file name; the clicked document is loaded
into the program. See “OmniPage Documents” in
the next Chapter.
• Right click one or more image file icons or file names for a
shortcut menu. Select Open With... OmniPage application.
The images are loaded into the program.
On opening, OmniPage’s title screen is displayed and then a view
selection panel. OmniPage has three basic view types. For details,
see The OmniPage Desktop and Views in the next chapter. It
provides an introduction to the program’s main working areas.
There are several ways of running the program with a limited
interface:
• Use the Batch Manager program. Click Start in the
Windows taskbar and choose All Programs > ScanSoft
OmniPage 16 > OmniPage Batch Manager. See the
Workflows chapter.
• Click Acquire Text from the File menu of an application
registered with the Direct OCR™ facility. See “How to set
up Direct OCR” in the Processing Documents chapter.
• Right-click on one or more image file icons or file names
for a shortcut menu. Select OmniPage 16 and choose a
target format, or the Convert Now Wizard or a workflow
from its sub-menu. The files will be processed according to
the workflow instructions. See the Workflows chapter.
14 Chapter 1
• Click the OmniPage Agent icon on the taskbar. Choose a
workflow to start the program and run the workflow.
• Use OmniPage 16 with Nuance’s PaperPort
management product, to add OCR services. See “How to
use OmniPage with PaperPort” in the Using OmniPage
chapter.
®
document
Registering your software
Nuance’s online registration runs at the end of installation. Please
ensure web access is available. We provide an easy electronic form
that can be completed in less than five minutes. When the form is
filled, click Submit. If you did not register the software during
installation, you will be periodically invited to register later. You
can go to www.nuance.com to register online. Click on Support and
from the main support screen choose Register in the left-hand
column. For a statement on the use of your registration data, please
see Nuance’s Privacy Policy.
Activating OmniPage
You will be invited to activate the product at the end of installation.
Please ensure that web access is available. Provided your serial
number is found at its storage location and has been correctly
entered, no user interaction is required and no personal information
is transmitted. If you do not activate the product at installation
time, you will be invited to do this each time you invoke the
program. OmniPage 16 can be launched only five times without
activation. We recommend Automatic Activation.
Uninstalling the software
Sometimes uninstalling and then reinstalling OmniPage will solve a
problem. The OmniPage Uninstall program will not remove files
Registering your software 15
containing recognition results or any of the following user-created
files:
Zone templates (*.zon)
Image enhancement templates (
Training files (
User dictionaries (
OmniPage Documents (
Job files
*.otn)
*.ud)
*.opd)
(*.opj)
*.ipp)
Workflow files (*.xwf)
To uninstall from Windows 2000, XP or Vista you must be logged
into your computer with administrator privileges.
To uninstall or reinstall OmniPage:
• Close OmniPage.
• Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose the
Control Panel and then Uninstall a program (in earlier
Windows versions: Add/Remove Programs).
• Select OmniPage and click Uninstall (in earlier Windows
versions: Remove).
• Click Yes in the dialog box that appears to confirm
removal.
• Select Yes to restart your computer immediately, or No if
you plan to restart later.
• Follow instructions until the process is finished.
When you uninstall OmniPage, the link to your scanner is also
uninstalled. You must setup your scanner again with OmniPage if
you reinstall the program. All RealSpeak modules that were
installed with the program will also be uninstalled.
ScanSoft PDF Create! 4 needs to be uninstalled separately.
With OmniPage 16 Professional, PaperPort must be installed and
uninstalled separately.
16 Chapter 1
Using OmniPage
OmniPage 16 uses optical character recognition (OCR)
technology to transform text from scanned pages or image files into
editable text for use in your favorite computer applications.
In addition to text recognition, OmniPage can retain the following
elements and attributes of a document through the OCR process.
Graphics
Form elements
Text formatting
Page formatting
placing of graphics).
Documents in OmniPage
A document in OmniPage consists of one image for each document
page. After you perform OCR, the document will also contain
recognized text, displayed in the Text Editor, possibly along with
graphics, tables and form elements.
OmniPage Documents
(photos, logos)
(checkboxes, radio buttons, text fields)
(character and paragraph)
(column structures, table formats, headings,
An OmniPage Document (.opd) contains the original page
images (optionally pre-processed) with any zones placed
on them. After recognition, the OPD also contains the
recognition results.
An OmniPage Document can contain an embedded user dictionary,
training file, zone template file, or an image enhancement template
file. This can increase file size considerably but makes the OPD
Using OmniPage 17
more portable. To embed a file, open the relevant dialog box from
the Tools menu, select the desired file and click Embed. Use the
Extract button to get a local copy of an embedded file inside an OPD
you have received.
When you open an OmniPage Document, its settings are applied,
replacing those existing in the program.
The OmniPage Desktop and Views
OmniPage comes with three different views to suit your task the
best.
• Classic View - This view has a similar look and feel to
previous versions of OmniPage.
• Flexible View - This view is a new alternate layout of the
OmniPage function panels stacked in a tabbed view to give
each panel more space.
• QuickConvert View - This view is designed for quick and
easy document conversion without having to learn a lot.
The most important conversion options are clearly visible
on one screen.
Use the Windows menu to switch between views and to save your
own custom view. For a custom view, arrange the panels and
toolbars as you wish, then choose Window > Custom Views >
Manage. Click Add and name your view. Your screen layouts will be
displayed in the Custom Views submenu with a checkmark beside
the active one.
Classic View
In Classic View, the OmniPage Desktop has four main working
areas, separated by splitters: the Document Manager, the Page
18 Chapter 2
Image, Thumbnails and the Text Editor. The Page Image has an
T
Image toolbar and the Text Editor has a Formatting toolbar.
OmniPage
Toolbox
humbnails
Image
toolbar
Document
Manager
Standard
Toolbar
Page Image
Formatting toolbar
Text Editor
OmniPage toolbox: This Toolbox lets you drive the processing.
Thumbnails panel: This displays page thumbnails.
Document Manager: This provides an overview of your document
with a table. Each row represents one page. Columns present
statistical or status information for each page, and (where
appropriate) document totals.
Page Image: This displays the image of the current page, together
with its zones. When a page is displayed, the Image toolbar is
available.
Text Editor: This displays the recognition results from the current
page.
The OmniPage Desktop and Views 19
Flexible View
Use this view to set up the OmniPage workspace so that it fits your
task optimally. Suggested scenarios:
Maximizing workspace (single screen)
Load a document. Open the panels you want to
use. Grab them by their captions one by one, and
drag them so that they dock behind the active
one as tabs. You can also dock online Help to
avoid handling two separate windows.
Working with recognition results (single screen)
Load a document and have it recognized. Close
all panels except the Document Manager and the
Text Editor. Maximize both horizontally, scale
down the Document Manager and dock it to the
top or bottom. You can now step through the
pages double-clicking them one by one in the Document Manager,
inspecting recognition results in the Text Editor. The number of
suspect words and reject characters in the Document Manager will
help you identify problematic pages.
Handling large documents (dual-screen)
Load the document you want to work on. Move
its Thumbnail View to your second monitor and
maximize it for a large scale overview of your
document and far more space for thumbnail
operations.
20 Chapter 2
Verifying (dual-screen)
Place the Page Image on one screen and the Text
Editor on the other. This gives you more space for
editing and proofing.
The Page Image is always available for verifying
recognition and for performing on-the-fly zoning
and editing.
The scenarios presented above are only examples to give you
an idea of what you can do in Flexible View.
QuickConvert View
Use the QuickConvert View for fast recognition and saving. You
can switch to Quick View only when you have no opened document
and it can handle only one document at a time.
Processing
buttons
Settings:
source document
output text format, formatting level
folder and file name
saving options
page range
Quick
Convert
toolbar
Page Image
The OmniPage Desktop and Views 21
The Toolbars
The program has eleven main toolbars. Use the View menu to show,
hide or customize them. Status bar texts at the bottom edge of the
OmniPage program window explain the purpose of all tools.
Standard toolbar: Performs basic functions.
Image toolbar: Performs image, zoning and table operations. Three
of its tool groups can now be handled separately (mini-toolbars):
• Zones toolbar: Offers zoning tools.
• Rotate toolbar: Provides rotating tools.
• Table toolbar: Inserts, moves and removes row and column
dividers.
Formatting toolbar: Formats recognized text in the Text Editor.
Verifier toolbar: Controls the location and appearance of the
verifier.
Reorder toolbar: Modifies the order of elements in recognized
pages.
Mark Text toolbar: Performs text marking and redacting.
Form Drawing toolbar: Creates new form elements.
Form Arrangement toolbar: Arranges and aligns form elements.
All toolbars can be moved and customized in each view to your
particular needs, including use of a secondary monitor.
The Form toolbars and the Mark Text toolbar (for details
see Chapter 4) appear only in OmniPage Professional 16.
Program Panels
OmniPage has six panels that can be handled (docked, floated,
resized) separately: Thumbnails, Page Image, Text Editor,
Document Manager, Workflow Status, and Online Help.
22 Chapter 2
To float a panel anywhere on the screen, keep CTRL pushed while
dragging. To dock it, drag the panel over the OmniPage main
window, hold down the left mouse button and start pressing space
to see all possible docking positions. To select a given position,
release the mouse button.
Basic Processing Steps
There are three ways of handling documents: with automatic,
manual or workflow processing. The basic steps for all processing
methods are broadly the same:
1. Bring a set of images into OmniPage. You can scan a
paper document with or without an Automatic
Document Feeder (ADF) or load one or more image files.
2. Perform OCR to generate editable text. After OCR, you
can check and correct errors in the document using the
OCR Proofreader and edit the document in the Text
Editor.
3. Export the document to the desired location. You can
save your document to a specified file name and type,
place it on the Clipboard, send it as a mail attachment or publish it.
You can save the same document repeatedly to different
destinations, different file types, with different settings and levels of
formatting.
Using OmniPage, you can choose from the following processing
methods: Automatic, Manual, Combined, or Workflow. You can
start recognition from other applications, using Direct OCR and can
also schedule processing to run at a later time.
Processing methods are detailed in the next chapter and in Online
Help.
Basic Processing Steps 23
Settings
The Options dialog box is the central location for OmniPage
settings. Access it from the Standard toolbar or the Tools
menu. Context-sensitive help provides information on each setting.
How to use OmniPage with PaperPort
The PaperPort® program is a paper management
software product from Nuance. It lets you link pages
with suitable applications. Pages can contain pictures,
text or both. If PaperPort exists on a computer with
OmniPage, its OCR services become available and
amplify the power of PaperPort. You can choose an
OCR program by right-clicking on a text application’s
PaperPort link, selecting Preferences and then
selecting OmniPage 16 as the OCR package. OCR settings can be
specified, as with Direct OCR.
PaperPort
digital documents that everybody in an office can quickly find and
use. PaperPort works with scanners, multifunction printers, and
networked digital copiers to turn paper documents into digital
documents. It then helps you to manage them along with all other
electronic documents in one convenient and easy-to-use filing
system.
PaperPort’s large, clear item thumbnails allow you to visually
organize, retrieve and use your scanned documents, including
Word files, spreadsheets, PDF files and even digital photos.
PaperPort’s Scanner Enhancement Technology tools ensure that
scanned documents will look great while the annotation tools let
you add notes and highlights to any scanned image.
provides the easiest way to turn paper into organized
PaperPort is included in the OmniPage Professional
package. For application information, refer to PaperPort’s
own documentation.
24 Chapter 2
Processing documents
This tutorial chapter describes different ways you can process
a document and also provides information on key parts of
this processing.
Processing methods
Using OmniPage, you can choose from the following processing
methods:
Automatic
A fast and easy way to process documents is to let
OmniPage do it automatically for you. Select
settings in the Options dialog box and in the
OmniPage Toolbox drop-down lists and then click Start. It will take
each page through the whole process from beginning to end, when
possible running in parallel. It will typically auto-zone the pages.
Manual
Manual processing gives you more precise control
over the way your pages are handled. You can
process the document page-by-page with different
settings for each page. The program also stops
between each step: acquiring images, performing
recognition, exporting. This lets you, for instance, draw zones
manually or change recognition language(s). You start each step by
clicking the three buttons on the OmniPage Toolbox.
1. Use button one to get a set of images.
Processing documents 25
Manually zone pages where you want to process only part of
2.
the page or if you want to give precise zoning instructions. Use
ignore backgrounds or zones to exclude areas from processing.
Use process backgrounds or zones to specify areas to be autozoned.
3. Use button two to have the pages recognized.
4. Do proofing and editing as desired.
5. Use button three to save your results.
The default for manual processing is to have all entered pages
automatically selected. This way you can have all new pages
recognized by a single mouse click. You can remove this default in
the Process panel of the Options dialog box.
Combined
You can process a document automatically and view results in the
Text Editor. If most pages are in order, but a few have not turned
out as expected, you can switch to manual processing to adjust
settings and re-recognize just those problem pages. Alternatively,
you can acquire images with manual processing, draw zones on
some or all of them, and then send all pages to automatic processing
by pressing the Start button and choosing to process existing pages.
Workflow
A workflow consists of a series of steps and their
settings. Typically it will include a recognition step,
but it does not have to. It does not have to conform
to the 1-2-3 pattern of traditional processing. Workflows are listed
in the Workflow drop-down list – sample workflows plus any you
create. Workflows allow you to handle recurring tasks more
efficiently, because all the steps and their settings are pre-defined.
You can choose to place the OmniPage Agent icon on your taskbar.
26 Chapter 3
Its shortcut menu lists your workflows. Click a workflow to launch
OmniPage and have it run.
Let the Workflow Assistant guide you in creating new workflows.
It provides a choice of steps and the settings they need. Click Next
after each step to add another one. You can use the Assistant just to
get more guidance when doing automatic processing. See
“Workflow Assistant” in Chapter 6.
At a later time
You can schedule OCR jobs or other processing jobs in
OmniPage Batch Manager to be performed automatically at a
later time, when you may not even be present at your
computer. This is done through the Batch Manager.
matter if your computer is turned off after the job is set up, so long as
it is running at job start time. If you are scanning pages, your scanner
must be functioning at job start time, with the pages loaded in the
ADF.
When you choose New Job, first the Job Wizard, and then the
Workflow Assistant appears - the latter with a slightly modified set
of choices and settings. In the first panel of the Job Wizard, you
define your job type and name your job; next you are to specify a
starting time, a recurring job or watched folder instructions.
A job incorporates a workflow with timing instructions added. See
“Batch Manager” in Chapter 6.
It does not
Processing from other applications
You can use the Direct OCR™ feature to call on the recognition
services of OmniPage while you work in the following applications:
Microsoft Office 2000 or higher, Corel WordPerfect 12 or X3. First
you must check the Enable Direct OCR check box under
Tools > Options > General. Then, two items in its Add-Ins
Processing methods 27
(File Menu in applications apart from MS Office 2007) open the
door to OCR facilities.
How to set up Direct OCR
Start the application you want connected to OmniPage. Start
OmniPage, open the Options dialog box at the General panel and
select Enable Direct OCR.
In the target application, go to Add-Ins (or the File menu in
applications other than Office 2007) > OmniPage > Acquire Text
Settings > Direct OCR, and specify OCR, Scanner, Output Format
and Direct OCR settings. Select process options for proofing and
zoning. These function for future Direct OCR work until you
change them again; they are not applied when OmniPage is used on
its own.
How to use Direct OCR
1.
Open your application and work in a document. To acquire
recognition results from scanned pages, place them correctly in
the scanner.
2. Use the target application’s Add-Ins (or File) Menu item
Acquire Text Settings... to review your recognition settings, if
necessary.
3. Use the Add-Ins (File) Menu item Acquire Text to acquire
images from scanner or file.
4. If you selected Draw zones automatically in the Direct OCR panel
of the Options dialog box, under Acquire Text Settings...,
recognition proceeds immediately.
5. If Draw zones automatically is not selected, each page image will
be presented to you, allowing you to draw zones manually.
Click the Perform OCR button to continue with recognition.
28 Chapter 3
If proofing was specified, this follows recognition. Then the
6.
recognized text is placed at the cursor position in your
application, with the formatting level specified by Acquire
Text Settings... .
Defining the source of page images
There are two possible image sources: from image files and from a
scanner. There are two main types of scanners: flatbed or sheetfed.
A scanner may have a built-in or added Automatic Document
Feeder (ADF), which makes it easier to scan multi-page documents.
The images from scanned documents can be input directly into
OmniPage or may be saved with the scanner’s own software to an
image file, which OmniPage can later open.
Input from image files
You can create image files from your own scanner, or receive them
by e-mail or as fax files. OmniPage 16 can open a wide range of
image file types. Select Load Files in the Get Pages drop-down list.
Files are specified in the Load Files dialog box. This appears when
you start automatic processing. In manual processing, click the Get
Page button or use the Process menu. The lower part of the dialog
box provides advanced settings, and can be shown or hidden.
The minimum width or height for an image file is 16 by 16 pixels; the
maximum is 8400 pixels (71cm or 28 inches at the resolution 201 to
600 dpi). See online Help for pixel limits.
In OmniPage Professional 16, files can also be imported
from FTP locations, Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint
2003, 2007, or ODMA sources.
Defining the source of page images 29
Input from digital camera
You can bring digital camera photos of documents for
recognition into OmniPage. First, make sure that your
device driver is installed properly. Then connect the camera and
download images. Click Load Digital Camera Files in the Get Page
drop-down list. If you use this, 3D Deskew, resolution enhancement
and straightening text lines are automatically performed on images.
You can also do manual 3D deskewing, see the section “Image
Enhancement tools” later in this Chapter.
To acquire digital camera photos containing text from Direct OCR
or PaperPort, mark the Load as digital camera image checkbox. The
above mentioned automatic enhancements will apply.
For tips and advice on working with digital camera images see the
How-to-Guides.
Input from scanner
You must have a functioning, supported scanner correctly installed
with OmniPage 16. You have a choice of scanning modes. In making
your choice, there are two main considerations:
• Which type of output do you want in your export
document?
• Which mode will yield best OCR accuracy?
Scan black and white
Select this to scan in black-and-white. Black-and-white
images can be scanned and handled quicker than others
and occupy less disk space.
Scan grayscale
Select this to use grayscale scanning. For best OCR
accuracy, use this for pages with varying or low contrast
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