Nuance ScanSoft OmniPage Ultimate User’s Guide
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TRADEMARKS AND CREDITS
Nuance, ScanSoft, OmniPage, PaperPort, True Page, Direct OCR, Logical Form Recognition, RealSpeak, Vocalizer Expressive and
DocuDirect are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc., in the United S tates 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.
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Ireland (international headquarters)
20 Merrion Road, Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4
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LID:OPU/030413
C ONTENTS
WELCOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
New Features in OmniPage Ultimate ................................................................................................. 2
Key Features in OmniPage Ultimate .................................................................................................. 4
INSTALLATION AND SETUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
System Requirements ......................................................................................................................... 6
Installing OmniPage ........................................................................................................................... 7
Setting up Your Scanner with OmniPage ...........................................................................................8
How to Start the Program ................................................................................................................... 10
Registering your Software .................................................................................................................. 12
Activating OmniPage ......................................................................................................................... 12
Uninstalling the Software ................................................................................................................... 13
USING OMNIPAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
OmniPage Documents ........................................................................................................................ 14
The OmniPage Desktop and Views .................................................................................................... 15
Basic Processing Steps .......................................................................................................................20
How to Use OmniPage with PaperPort ............................................................................................ ..21
PROCESSING DOCUMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Processing Methods ............................................................................................................................22
Defining the Source of Page Images .................................................................................................. 25
Describing the Layout of the Document ............................................................................................29
Preprocessing Images ......................................................................................................................... 31
Zones and Backgrounds ..................................................................................................................... 38
PROOFING AND EDITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Editor Display and Formatting Levels ........................................................................................ 44
Proofreading OCR Results ........................................................................................ ......................... 45
Verifying Text .................................................................................................................................... 45
The Character Map ............................................................ ................................................................. 46
User Dictionaries ................................................................................................................................ 47
Languages ........................................................................................................................................... 47
Training .............................................................................................................................................. 49
Text and Image Editing ......................................................................................................................51
On-the-Fly Editing ..............................................................................................................................53
Marking and Redacting ..................................................... ............................................. .................... 53
Reading Text Aloud ........................................................................................................................... 54
Creating and Editing Forms ....................................... ............................................. ............................ 55
O m n i P a g e U l t i m a t e U s e r ’ s G u i d e C O N T E N T S i
SAVING AND EXPORTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Saving and Exporting ....................................... .............................................. .................................... 58
Saving Original Images ............................... .......................................................................................58
Saving Recognition Results .................................................. .............................................................. 59
Sending Pages by Mail ....................................................................................................................... 64
Sending to eBook Readers ..................................................................................................................64
Other Export Targets ..........................................................................................................................66
WORKFLOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Workflow Assistant ............................................................................................................................ 70
DocuDirect ......................................................................................................................................... 72
Creating New Jobs ..............................................................................................................................72
Watched Folders ....................................................................................... ... .......................................76
Watched Mailboxes ........................................................... ................................................................. 77
Barcode Processing ............................................................................................................................ 77
File-it Assistant ...................................................................................................................................79
TECHNICAL INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Troubleshooting .................................................................................................................................. 81
Supported File Types .............................................................................................. ............................ 84
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
O m n i P a g e U l t i m a t e U s e r ’ s G u i d e C O N T E N T S i i
Welcome
W elcome to this OmniPage® Ultimate 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 Ultimate. 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 7
In line with Nuance’s environmenta l policy, the Guide is supplied a s a PDF file only. To have a
printed copy on normal sized paper, we recommend double-sided printing with two pages per
sheet.
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. Throughout the document references made to newer versions of Microsoft Office output
file types (2007, 2010, 2013) are written with the year numbers omitted.
TM
operating system.
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 Ultimate. Please
refer to the scanner’s own documentation as necessary.
How-to-Guides
The How-to-Guides can be accessed from the Help menu. 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 1
Electronic Help
OmniPage 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 HTML help system has been designed for quick and easy
information retrieval. Help is available after you install OmniPage.
Comprehensive context-sensitive help aims to provide just enough assistance to let you keep
working without delay
or click the help button if the dialog box has one.
. It is available from dialog boxes. Press F1 in any dialog box to access it,
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® web site at www.nuance.com provides timely 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 Ultimate Installer or afterwards from the Help
menu.
Tech Notes
The web site at www.nuance.com contains Tech Notes on commonly reported issues using
OmniPage. Web pages may also offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.
New Features in OmniPage Ultimate
This section summarizes the main features introduced in OmniPage Ultimate.
• Launchpad: This is a Windows 8 styled program letting you quickly set up and run
recognition tasks. Make just three basic choices to create a Go-flow, fine-tune key
settings as desired. The Go-flow runs with minimal need for your intervention. Ideal for
quick completion of similar recurring tasks without using the full OmniPage Ultimate or
the Workflow Assistant. See “How to Start the Program” on page 10.
Welcome New Features in OmniPage Ultimate 2
• DocuDirect: This is a powerful workflow management tool – previously known as the
Batch Manager . Technical improvements make lar ge-scale processing more robust, with
better reporting and separation of problematic documents and improved recovery from
critical situations. Differing default settings for Workflow Assistant and DocuDirect are
introduced to better match their purposes.
• Make PDF file searchable: A new workflow step is available inside DocuDirect. Input
See “At a later time” on page 23.
is a set of PDF files of any flavor. This step discovers image-only parts or pages, runs
OCR and adds the text to the PDF, leaving notes and annotations intact. This
functionality exists in the ‘eDiscovery Assistant for searchable PDF’, but is now
available for a job, allowing for timed, recurring and unattended job running, plus the
use of watched folders.
• Electronic book support: The widely-used ePub file type is now supported with three
See “eDiscovery Assistant for searchable PDF” on page 63.
output converter choices. Export your scanned documents or image files to your favorite
portable devices. This augments the existing ability to save texts to Amazon’s Kindle
book reader.
• Augmented audio support: The premium speech product Nuance Vocalizer Expressive
See “Sending to eBook Readers” on page 64.
is supplied with OmniPage. It provides support for exporting to mp3 files in English,
French and German – listen to your documents on the go! The existing Nuance
RealSpeak Solo remains available with language support boosted from 9 to 14
(Japanese, Polish, Russian, Turkish and Australian English). It allows recognized texts
to be read aloud, and also provides for saving to mp3 files.
See “Reading T ext Aloud” on
page 54.
• Automated handling of digital camera images: OmniPage now detects whether an
image came from a digital camera by reading the EXIF-data that digital cameras
generate. The auto-deskew option can be turned on or off. If it is on, the program applies
2D or 3D deskewing (for normal or camera images). Resolution enhancement and the
straightening of text lines are applied to images coming from a digital camera.
See
“Input from digital camera” on page 26.
• Support for Windows 8 and Office 2013: Support for Windows 8 and Office 2013.
OmniPage Ultimate runs with this latest operating system and its applications. The
updated PDF Create product (version 8) supplied with OmniPage is also Windows 8
compliant.
A more complete list of features, and the differences between various OmniPage versions
appears in Help.
Welcome New Features in OmniPage Ultimate 3
Key Features in OmniPage Ultimate
Click the links for more information.
• Customize Windows Explorer shortcut menus: The OmniPage items in the W indows
Explorer shortcut menus of input files allow direct conversion to popular file formats,
and the addition of user-defined workflows to the menu; the Convert Now Wizard
makes it easy to customize the conversion process.
• Handling multiple documents: Multiple document handling allows you to work on
more than one document at a time. Page thumbnails can be displayed from another open
document, for drag-and-drop copying or moving of pages between documents.
• Cloud support: Download input files from web storage sites and return recognition
results there. The included Nuance Cloud Connector (NCC) application provides access
to a number of cloud services including Microsoft SkyDrive, GoogleDocs, Box and
many more. The Connector integrates into Microsoft Windows providing easy drag-anddrop access directly to cloud services. OmniPage provides separate integration with
Evernote and Dropbox.
• Scanner enhancement (SET) tools: Recent innovation includes more control over
despeckling, better margin cleaning and a control for when whiteboard content is
captured by digital camera; the text and diagrams can be enhanced for maximum
readability.
See “Preprocessing Images” on page 31.
See “Input from the Cloud” on page 25.
• Asian recognition: OCR services are provided for Japanese, Korean, Simplified
Chinese and Traditional Chinese, with support for both horizontal and vertical text flow
and embedded English texts. Results can be viewed and verified in the Text Editor.
“Asian language recognition” on page 48.
• Automatic Language Detection: Allow the program assign a single language to each
incoming page during unattended processing. It chooses from the languages with
dictionary support that use a Latin-based alphabet. When this feature is enabled, no
manual language selection is possible.
• Easy Loader: This provides a Windows Explorer-like display of the file system in one
See “Languages” on page 47.
of the OmniPage windows, to keep files visible during your work and deliver full
Explorer functionality, yielding quick file selections; a dialog box with a lock facility
lets a file set be built up before loading starts. With Quick Convert View, Easy Loader
allows not only fast file loading but also 'one-click' total processing: load > recognize >
save.
See “Input via Easy Loader” on page 26.
Welcome Key Features in OmniPage Ultimate 4
See
•
Linking workflows to scanner buttons: OmniPage functions and workflows can be
associated with scanner buttons, so the whole pre-processing, recognition and storage of
documents can be launched from the scanner. See “Scanning to OmniPage and
workflows” on page 29.
Features in OmniPage Ultimate only
This icon is used throughout the guide to denote features that are available only in
OmniPage Ultimate.
• Enterprise Content Management (ECM) links are available to Hummingbird (Open
Text) and iManage (Interwoven). When using SharePoint, the server, login and
password information must be provided only once per session, and is offered in each
subsequent session.
• Extracting data from filled forms: A workflow step allows data to be extracted from
sets of forms and exported to databases, based on a PDF form template. The forms to be
processed can be active PDF forms, static forms in a range on image formats or scanned
paper forms.
• 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.
• Marking and redacting: Text can be highlighted, strikeout or redacted (made
unreadable) in the Text Editor. This can be done by selection or by searching for
specified words. Redacting is useful for legal documents or for those with confidential
content.
Welcome Key Features in OmniPage Ultimate 5
Installation and Setup
This chapter provides information on installing and starting OmniPage.
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems:
• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft Windows
• Microsoft Windows
• Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows Server 2012
The minimum hardware requirements to install and run OmniPage Ultimate are:
• A computer with a 1 GHz Intel
• 1GB of memory (RAM), 2GB recommended
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 or above
• 2.7 GB total hard drive space for all components:
• 300 MB for application components plus 100 MB during installation
• 250MB for all Nuance RealSpeak
English language module, additional 10-15MB per other RealSpeak Solo
language modules; languages can be custom installed)
• 30MB for the Nuance Cloud Connector
• 200 MB for Nuance PDF Create (Supplied with OmniPage Ultimate only).
• 700MB for PaperPort
• 1.2GB for Vocalizer Expressive
® 8TM
® 7TM
®
32-bit and 64-bit Editions
32-bit and 64-bit Editions
XPTM 32-bit Edition with Service Pack 3
®
Pentium® or higher, or equivalent processor
®
Solo (90MB for RealSpeak® Solo American
®
(Supplied with OmniPage Ultimate only).
®
speech modules (120-500 MB per language)
• 1024x768 pixel color monitor
• A DVD drive for installation, unless utilizing a digital download
• A sound card and speaker for reading text aloud.
• A Windows compatible pointing device.
Installation and Setup System Requirements 6
• 2-megapixel digital camera with auto-focus or higher for digital camera text capture.
See Help for details.
• A compatible scanner with its own scanner driver software for scanning documents
(WIA, TWAIN, or ISIS scanner driver). See the Scanner Guide at Nuance’s web site
(www.nuance.com ) for a list of supported scanners
• Web access needed for online Activation, Registration, Live Update, Nuance Cloud
Connectors, and Scanner Wizard database updating
• East Asian language handling must be installed in the operating system to view
Japanese, Chinese or Korean documents. (Control Panel / Regional and Language
Options).
Note: Performance and speed is enhanced if your computer's processor, memory, and available
disk space exceed minimum requirements. This is especially true when converting very large
color PDF files.
Installing OmniPage
OmniPage Ultimate’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 own a previous version of OmniPage, or if you are upgrading from demonstration
software or an OmniPage Special Edition, you must uninstall that product first.
To install OmniPage:
1. Download the program file and choose Run when the download is completed, or insert the
OmniPage DVD-ROM in your DVD-ROM drive. The installation program should start
automatically. If it does not start, locate your DVD-ROM drive in Windows Explorer and
double-click the Autorun.exe program at the top-level of the DVD-ROM.
2. Choose a language to use during installation. Before installing, accept the End-User License
Agreement and enter the serial number you receive by e-mail or find on the DVD envelope.
3. Choose a complete or a custom installation. A complete installation installs all RealSpeak
Text-to-Speech language modules (currently 14) and Vocalizer Expressive
®
(four voice
®
modules: British and American English, French and German). Custom installation lets you
Installation and Setup Installing OmniPage 7
exclude or add modules. To exclude a module, click its down arrow and select ‘This feature
will not be available’.
4. Follow the instructions on each screen to install the software. All files needed for scanning
are copied automatically during installation.
Unless deselected in the OmniPage Ultimate installation, Nuance PDF Create 8 installation
starts as soon the installation of OmniPage is completed. Document-to-document conversions
depend on PDF Create being present.
OmniPage Ultimate is supplied with a complimentary copy of the Nuance PaperPort
®
14
Professional document management product. This must be installed separately and has its own
system requirements.
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 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 > Nuance OmniPage Ultimate> Scanner Setup Wizard
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 selected categories. This can include
network devices. Select one and click OK. To install a second device, you must run the
Scanner Wizard again.
Installation and Setup Setting up Your Scanner with OmniPage 8
• 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.
• 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 Ultimate!
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.
Installation and Setup Setting up Your Scanner with OmniPage 9
How to Start the Program
OmniPage Ultimate features OmniPage Launchpad, a new clear-cut metro-style start
page for simplified, faster conversions. Click S
All Programs > Nuance OmniPage Ultimate>OmniPage Launchpad for accessing it.
The OmniPage Launchpad looks like this:
tart in the Windows taskbar and choose
1. The Build panel column ‘Convert’ – choose a page type that best describes the layout of the
input document.
2. The Build panel column ‘To’ – choose the output file type you desire.
3. The Build panel column ‘Save’ – choose a destination for the recognition results.
4. The currently selected ‘Convert’ tile.
5. The currently selected ‘To’ tile.
Installation and Setup How to Start the Program 10
6. The currently selected ‘Save’ tile. These three form the Go-flow in the fourth slot.
7. The Go-flow slots.
8. The currently selected Go-flow, just compiled from the selected Build Panel tiles.
9. The last unfilled Go-flow slot.
10. Run the selected Go-flow.
11. The Settings bar – collection of eight buttons (six of them with two different states) for
managing the prepared Go-flows. The buttons are the following in left to right order: Run
Go-flow , File separation, Zoning (on or off), Proofing, Language, Display results (on or of f),
Unlocked / Locked, Clear Go-flow.
To start OmniPage Ultimate do one of the following:
• Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose All Programs > Nuance OmniPage
Ultimate.
• 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” on
page 14.
• 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 V
provides an introduction to the program’
s main working areas.
iews” on page 15. It
There are several ways of running the program with a limited interface:
• Use the DocuDirect program. Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose All
Programs > Nuance OmniPage Ultimate > OmniPage DocuDirect. See “Workflows” on
page 68.
• Click Acquire Text from the File menu of an application registered with the Direct
OCR™ facility. See “How to set up Direct OCR” on page 24.
• Right-click on one or more image file icons or file names in Windows Explorer for a
shortcut menu. Select OmniPage Ultimate 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 “Workflows” on page 68.
Installation and Setup How to Start the Program 11
• Click the OmniPage Agent icon on the taskbar. Choose a workflow to start the
program and run the workflow.
• Use OmniPage Ultimate with Nuance’s PaperPort document management product, to
add OCR services. See “How to Use OmniPage with PaperPort” on page 21.
Registering your Software
Nuance’s online registration runs at the end of installation. 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. Y ou 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
• Trial User: If you downloaded a trial version of OmniPage Ultimate from the Nuance
website, no serial number is necessary for using the program until the trial period ends.
You can buy one any time during the trial period or after it. If you do not activate the
product at installation time, you are prompted to do this at the end of installation and
each time you invoke the program. Once your serial number has been entered correctly,
you can use the program without any limitations. OmniPage Ultimate can be launched
any number of times within the trial period.
• Licensed User: If you purchased a retail copy of OmniPage Ultimate either in a store or
via downloading from the Nuance website, you already have a serial number in the
packaging of your DVD disc or in your email inbox folder . Enter this when prompted by
the program. Until you activate the product, it runs in trial mode as explained above.
The program offers only automatic activation; manual activation is more cumbersome and is
only of
fered if internet access is not available. No personal information is transmitted during
activation or product use neither in trial mode nor in licensed mode.
Installation and Setup Registering your Software 12
Uninstalling the Software
Sometimes uninstalling and then reinstalling OmniPage will solve a problem. The OmniPage
Uninstall program will not remove files containing recognition results or any of the following
user-created files:
Zone templates (*.zon)
Image enhancement templates (*.ipp)
Training files (*.otn)
User dictionaries (*.ud)
OmniPage Documents (*.opd)
Job files (*.opj)
Workflow files (*.xwf)
To uninstall 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
®
and Vocalizer
Expressive® modules that were installed with the program will also be uninstalled. With
OmniPage Ultimate, Nuance PDF Create 8 and PaperPort must be uninstalled separately.
Installation and Setup Uninstalling the Software 13
Using OmniPage
OmniPage Ultimate 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 (photos, logos)
Form elements (checkboxes, radio buttons, text fields)
Text formatting (character and paragraph)
Page formatting (column structures, table formats, headings, 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 T
along with graphics, tables and form elements
.
OmniPage Documents
ext Editor, possibly
An OmniPage Document (.opd) contains the original page images (optionally preprocessed) with any zones placed on them. After recognition, the OPD also contains
the recognition results.
An OmniPage Document can contain an embedded user dictionary
template file, or an image enhancement template file. This can increase file size considerably
but makes the OPD more portable. To embed a file, open the relevant dialog box from the
T ools menu, select the desired fi le 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.
Using OmniPage OmniPage Documents 14
, training file, zone
The OmniPage Desktop and Views
OmniPage comes with three different views to suit your task.
• Classic View - This view has a similar look and feel to previous versions of
OmniPage.
• Flexible View - This view provides an alternate layout of the OmniPage function
panels stacked in a tabbed view to give each panel more space.
• Quick Convert 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 Window menu to switch between views and to save your own custom view (see later).
On starting a new session you receive the view and screen arrangement that was in force
when the program was last closed.
All three views can be reset to default values using ‘Reset Current View’ in the Windows
menu.
Program Panels
OmniPage has a set of panels that can be docked (tabbed or tiled), floated, resized, minimized
and restored separately. These include: Thumbnails, Page Image, Text Editor, Document
Manager, Easy Loader, Workflow Status, and Help. To float a panel double-click its title bar
or tab. To restore the floating panel to its previous docked position, double-click its title bar.
To dock it to a new location, drag it to that location. A colored rectangle shows the docking
position - release the mouse button to dock it. To see all possible docking positions one after
the other (tiles and tabs), drag the panel over the OmniPage main window, holding down the
left mouse button and pressing the spacebar repeatedly . When the desired location is indicated
by coloring, release the mouse button. To move a floating panel without docking displays,
keep CTRL pushed while dragging.
Classic View
In Classic View, the default OmniPage Desktop has four main tiled working areas, separated
by splitters: the Document Manager, the Page Image, Thumbnails and the Text Editor. The
Page Image has an Image toolbar and the Text Editor has a Formatting toolbar.
Using OmniPage The OmniPage Desktop and Views 15
Standard
Toolbar
Formatting toolbar
Page Image
Text Editor
Document
Manager
OmniPage
Toolbox
Thumbnails
Status bar
Image
toolbar
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 with its zones. When a page is
displayed, the Image toolbar is available.
Text Editor: Displays recognition results from the current page.
Panels can be re-arranged freely - horizontally or vertically; use the W
Easy Loader, Workflow Status or Help panels. Panels can be minimized or closed, but not
indow menu to open the
tabbed. To restore the default Classic View appearance, choose Reset Current View in the
Window menu.
Using OmniPage The OmniPage Desktop and Views 16
Flexible View
Use this view to set up the OmniPage workspace so that it fits your task optimally. By default
all panels appear. There are five tabs: Page Image (including Thumbnails), Text Editor, Easy
Loader, Workflow Status and Help. The Document Manager appears in a horizontal panel at
the base of the working area. You can undock, move, minimize, group or close panels as
already described. Drag a tab onto the working area to convert it to a Classic-type tiled panel.
Drag it back to the tab bar to revert to a tabbed panel, or use the Spacebar as already
described. If panels are grouped, the tab name shows the active one. To restore the default
Flexible View appearance, choose Reset Current View in the Window menu.
Easy Loader provides a Windows Explorer type file listing and functionality that can remain
open during the session, allowing quick file selection and assembly (see Chapter 4, page 26).
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 beside the active
one as tabs. Y
ou can also dock 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 V
iew to
your second monitor and maximize it for a large scale overview of
your document and far more space for thumbnail operations.
Using OmniPage The OmniPage Desktop and Views 17
Verifying (dual-screen)
Quick Convert Options:
document source and layout
output text format, formatting level
output folder and file name
saving options
page range
Page Image
Quick
Convert
toolbar
Processing
buttons
Page Image
panel title
Quick
Convert
Options on
toggled tab
with Easy
Loader
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.
Quick Convert View
Use the Quick Convert 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 input file and one output
document at a time.
The picture shows the default appearance.
Using OmniPage The OmniPage Desktop and Views 18
The Easy Loader is by default on a tab that toggles with the Quick Convert Options panel. A
Help panel can be added, but further panels are not available in this view . You can change tabs
to separate panels and minimize them, as in other views.
After loading a file, you should convert it before loading the next file. When an image
conversion is finished, you do not need to explicitly close the image; just load a new file.
The Easy Loader in Quick View provides an additional feature: ‘one-click’ processing.
Choose the Easy Loader sub-menu in the Process menu and choose either Load Files or Get
and Convert. When the latter is chosen, multiple files can be selected – these files are loaded,
recognized and saved using the current settings. For this, set the output file names to be the
same as the source file names. See
Chapter 4, page 26 and the Help for details.
The Quick View Page Image panel includes the Quick Convert toolbar, offering the most
useful image handling operations. T o access advanced functionality, such as image file saving,
SET tools, on-the-fly zoning, zone reordering and manual zone drawing for vertical text, a
different view should be used.
Custom views
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 V iews submenu with a checkmark beside the active one. Resetting to
a default is not available for custom views.
Changing views
Use the Window menu to change views. Panels are shown or hidden and arranged as they
were when the chosen view was last used. The Help topic on display remains unchanged
regardless of view. Easy Loader retains its file location regardless of view and the Workflow
Status continues to display information on the last workflow run. On program restart, Help
displays the Welcome topic, Easy Loader the default folder location and Workflow status is
empty.
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.
Using OmniPage The OmniPage Desktop and Views 19
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, page 53)
appear only in OmniPage Ultimate.
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
from your file system, storage sites in the Cloud, FTP and more.
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
T
ext 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. Y
ou can save the same document repeatedly to different destinations,
different file types, with different settings and levels of formatting.
Using OmniPage Basic Processing Steps 20
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 the Help.
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. Y
application’s PaperPort link, selecting Preferences and then selecting
OmniPage Professional 19 as the OCR package. OCR settings can be
specified, as with Direct OCR.
PaperPort
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 or
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.
ou can choose an OCR program by right-clicking on a text
provides the easiest way to turn paper into organized digital
ganize, retrieve and use your
PaperPort is included in the OmniPage Ultimate package. For application
information, refer to PaperPort’s own documentation. PaperPort must be installed
and uninstalled separately from OmniPage.
When PaperPort is available, its folder struc
ture is offered in OmniPage’s Load from File and
Save to File dialog boxes.
Using OmniPage How to Use OmniPage with PaperPort 2 1
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 dropdown 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 autozone 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 dif
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.
ferent
1. Use button one to get a set of images.
2. Manually zone pages where you want to process only part of 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 auto-zoned.
3. Use button two to have the pages recognized.
4. Do proofing and editing as desired.
5. Use button three to save your results.
Processing Documents Processing Methods 22
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. Its shortcut menu lists your
workflows. Click a workflow to launch OmniPage and have it run.
Let the W orkflow Assistant guide you in creating new workflows. It provi des a choice of steps
and the settings they need. Click Next after each step to add another one. Y
Assistant just to get more guidance when doing automatic processing. See “Workflow
Assistant” in Chapter 4, page 70
.
ou can use the
At a later time
You can schedule OCR jobs or other processing jobs in OmniPage DocuDirect to be
performed automatically at a later time, when you may not even be present at your
computer
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 “DocuDirect” on page 72.
Processing Documents Processing Methods 23
. This is done through DocuDirect.
It does not matter if your computer is
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 XP or higher, Corel WordPerfect 12
or X3. First you must check the Enable Direct OCR check box under Tools > Options >
General. Then, two buttons in the Office 2010 or 2013 Nuance OCR tab, or in an OmniPage
toolbar 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, use the
Acquire T ext Settings button in the OmniPage toolbar (in
Office 2010 or 2013 go to the Nuance OCR tab). Select options in the following panels:
• OCR: languages, dictionaries, layout, fonts.
• Process: Image pre-processing, choices for PDF opening, feature retention.
• Output format: Set a formatting level
• Direct OCR: Automatic or manual zoning, perform or skip proofing, image source.
• Scanner: Set-up or change scanner settings.
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
Open your application and work in a document. To acquire recognition results from
1.
scanned pages, place them correctly in the scanner.
2. Use the OmniPage toolbar button Acquire T ext Settings or the same item in the target
application’s File menu (or the Nuance OCR tab in Of
fice 2010 and 2013) to review your
recognition settings, if necessary; the Direct OCR panel lets you specify input from
scanner, image file or digital camera image files.
3. Use the OmniPage toolbar button Acquire T ext or the same item in the File menu (use
the Nuance OCR tab in Office 2010 or 2013) to acquire images from the specified source.
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.
Processing Documents Processing Methods 24
6. If proofing was specified, this follows recognition. Then the recognized text is placed at
the cursor position in your application, with the formatting level specified in the Output
Format panel under Acquire Text Settings.
Defining the Source of Page Images
There are three possible image sources: from image files, from a digital camera 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 multipage 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.
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 Help for pixel limits.
You can govern how PDF files are opened under T
layer or as image, import tag information to assist layout retention and whether to use PDF
fonts or the mapped system fonts. See the eDiscovery Assistant for searchable PDF section
on how to make image-only PDF files searchable.
ools / Options / Process: open with the text
Input from image files
You can create image files from your own scanner, or receive them by e-mail or as fax files.
OmniPage can open a wide range of image file types. Select Load Files in the Get Pages dropdown 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.
Input from the Cloud
The Get Pages drop-down list offers direct connections to the following web-based storage
sites: Evernote and Dropbox.
OmniPage Ultimate is delivered with a Nuance Cloud Connector component
that can be easily configured by choosing it from the W
the OmniPage group. Specify which further Cloud sites you wish to access, and
also which FTP sites you want to use for file input.
When taking files from the cloud you may have to provide login information.
indows Start menu in
Processing Documents Defining the Source of Page Images 25
In OmniPage Ultimate, files can also be imported from Microsoft SharePoint
2003, 2007 and 2010, Hummingbird, iManage and ODMA-compliant
Enterprise Content Management sources.
Input from digital camera
Digital camera files are auto-detected in OmniPage Ultimate, hence there is
no need to use Load Digital Camera Files button. Auto-detection of camera
files means that now they can be processed as camera files from any source,
even from the cloud. However, in case a non-camera file whose content is similar to a camera
file is to be processed, the Load Digital Camera Files button can be used. For tips and advice
on working with digital camera images see the How-to-Guides and the Help.
Input via Easy Loader
This provides the Windows Explorer interface in an OmniPage window. In Flexible and Quick
Views it appears by default. Choose Easy Loader in the Window menu to add it to Classic
V iew or to show or hide it in other views. It functions as an alternative to the File Open dialog
box; letting you browse your whole file system and efficiently select files to be loaded into
OmniPage. Choose Process / Easy Loader / Folder to view files as Lists, Thumbnails, Tiles,
Icons (arranged as desired) or Details, as you do in Explorer. The Loader can remain
displayed as you work.
Easy Loader is driven from the Process menu. Instead of selecting files to send them straight
to OmniPage you can choose Queue W
to build up and re-order a list of files, maybe coming from different folders. The lock applies
to all files collected to enter the currently open document. When the list is ready, turn the lock
off to start loading. If the lock is off from the start, files are listed only if they are selected
faster than OmniPage can load them. Practically, you can load a few files, send them to
recognition and while that is underway, build up the rest of the input list.
Turning on the menu item Show/hide Queue W
appear whenever files are listed but not yet loaded and to be closed as soon as the list is empty.
Easy Loader can be used in Classic and Flexible Views to compile files for multiple
documents. Engage the lock, make document 1 active and collect files. Then make document
2 active and collect its files, and so on. When all is ready , remove the lock. Each document has
its own lock, but the Process menu offers Lock all and Unlock all to lock or release all files
destined for all documents. You can remove selected files with Delete, or all files in the
indow to get a dialog box with a lock. Turn the lock on
indow automatically causes the window to
Processing Documents Defining the Source of Page Images 26
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