ScanSoft TEXTBRIDGE PRO 11 User Manual

LEGAL NOTICES

Copyright © 2002 by ScanSoft, 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 the Legal Departm ent at ScanSoft, Inc., 9 Centennial Drive, Peabody, Massachusetts 01960, USA. Printed in the United States of America and in the Netherlands.

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.

MPORTANT NOT ICE

ScanSoft, 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. ScanSoft reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes from time to time in the content hereof without obligation of ScanSoft to notify any person of such revision or changes.

RADEMARKS AND CREDITS

ScanSoft, TextBridge, TextBridge Pro, PaperPort, Pagis, True Page, Direct OCR, and AutoOCR are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries.

All other trademarks a nd traden ames are hereby recognized and may be registered to their respective holders.

ScanSoft, Inc.

9 Centennial Drive Peabody, MA 01960 U.S.A.

Part Number 50-631101-00A

C ONTENTS

WELCOME VII

Using this Guide viii Getting online help ix

Online HTML Help ix Context-Sensitiv e Help ix Tech Notes x Glossary x

1INSTALLATION AND SETUP 11

System requirements 12 Installing TextBridge Pro 13 Setting up your scanner with TextBridge Pro 14 How to start the program 16 Registering your software 17 New features in TextBridge Pro 11 18

2INTRODUCTION 19

What is optical character recognition 20

TextBridge Pro’ s OCR capabilities 20 Documents in TextBridge Pro 21 Basic processing steps 21

The TextBridge desktop 22

The Standard toolbar 23 The Menu bar 23 The Image toolbar 24

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE iii

The Formatting toolbar 24 The TextBridge To olbox 25

Managing documents 26

Thumbnail view 26 Detail view 27 Customizing columns in Detail view 28 Deleting pages from a document 28 Printing a document 28 Closing a document 29

TextBridge Documents 29

Why save to TXD 29 How to save to TXD 30

Settings 30

3 TUTORIAL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS 33

Quick Start Guide 34

Loading and recognizing sample image files 34

Scanning and recognizing a single page 34 Processing documents using the OCR Wizard 37 Processing documents automatically 40

Command buttons 41 Processing documents manually 42 Processing a document automatically and

finishing it manually 44

Processing from other applications 45

How to set up Direct OCR 45

How to use Direct OCR 45

How to use TextBridg e Pro 11 with

your PaperPort software 46 Processing documents with Schedule OCR 47 Defining the source of page images 48

iv CONTENTS

Input from image files 48 Input from scanner 49 Scanning with an ADF 50

Scanning long documents without an ADF 51 Describing the layout of the document 51 Manual zoning 53

Working with zones 53

Zone properties 54 Table grids in the image 56 Using zone templates 57

4 PROOFING AND EDITING 59

Proofreading OCR resul t s 60 Checking recognized text against original 62 User dictionaries 63 The editor display and views 63 Text and image editing 64 Page outline 66

5 SAVING AND EXPORTING 67

Preparing recognition results for export 68 Saving to file 69

Saving original images 69

Saving recognition results 70 Saving a document as you work 71 Copying a document to the Clipboard 72 Sending a document as a mail attachment 73

6 TECHNICAL INFORMATION 75

Troubleshooting 76

Solutions to try first 76

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE v

Testing TextBridge Pro 77

Low memory problems 78

Low disk space problems 78 Supported file types 79

File types for opening and saving images 79

File types for saving recognition results 80 OCR problems 81

Text does not get recognized properly 81

Problems with fax recognition 82

System or performance problems d uring OCR 82 Uninstalling the software 83

vi CONTENTS

Welcome

Welcome to TextBridge Pro 11TM, and thank you for using our software! The followi ng documentation has be en pro vided to help y ou get started and give you an overview of the program.

This User’s Guide

This guide introduces you to using TextBridge Pro 11. 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. The guide is presented in PDF format, allowing you to use hyperlink jumps on cross-references and other navigation tools in your PDF viewer.

Online Help

TextBridge Pro’s online Help contains information on features, settings, and proce dur es. The on line Help is pr ovi ded as HTM L help , and has been designed for quick and easy information retrieval. Comprehensive context-sensitive help aims to provide just enough assistance to let you keep worki ng without dela y. Please see the section Getting online help.

Readme File

The Readme file contains la st-minute i nformation about the s oftware. Please read it before using TextBridge Pro. To open this HTML file, choose Readme in the TextBridge Pro Installer or afterwards in the Help menu.

Scanning and other information

ScanSoft’s web site at www.scansoft.com provides timely information on the program. The Scanner Guide contains up-dated information about supported scanners and related issues. Access ScanSoft’s w eb site from the TextBridge Pro Installer or afterwards from the Help menu.

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE vii

USING THIS GUIDE

This guide is written with the a ssumption th at you kno w how to work in the Micro soft Windo ws environmen t. Please refer to your Win dows 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 TextBridge Pro 11. Please refer to the scanner’s own documentation as necessary.

The following conventions are used in this guide: Bold Introduces new terms and presents sub-headings.

Italic Names sections in this guide (unless otherwise stated,

the section is located in the same chapter as the reference). Names the main buttons used in automatic processing:

Start, Stop, Finish, Additional.

viii WELCOME

Non-serif

Note Tip

Presents file names: sample.tif Presents an item of additional information.

Pre sents ideas for using pro gram features to acco mplish specific tasks.

GETTING ONLINE HELP

In addition to using this guide, you can use TextBridge Pro’s online Help to learn about features, settings, and procedures. Online Help is available after you install TextBridge Pro.

Online HTML Help

Open TextBridge Pro’s online Help at its top level by choosing TextBridge Pro Help Topics at the top of the Help menu. This allows you to see topics arranged in a Table of Contents, search an alphabetical list of keywords or make full-text searches through the topics. Other items in the Help menu provide access to useful topics or web pages.

Press F1 as you are working with the program to see an online help topic relating to the current screen area, dialog box or warning message.

Context-Sensitive Help

You can get concise on-the-spot information in a popup window about a particular TextBridge Pro menu item, toolbar button, screen area or dialog box, in the following ways:

Click the Help tool in th e S ta ndard t oolbar t o get th e help ico n. Click this on any item on the desktop outside a dialog box or warning message.

Press Shift + F1 to get the same help icon. Click the question mark button in the upper right corner of a dialog

box and then click an item in the dialog box to see the popup window. Some dialog boxes or warning messages have their own Help button,

or a help text. Click the button or the text to get information on the dialog or message box.

Click anywhere to remove a context-sensitive popup Help window.

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE ix

Tech Notes

ScanSoft’s web site at www.scansoft.com contains Tech Notes on commonly reported issues using TextBridge Pro 11. Web pages may also offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.

Glossary

This guide does not include a glossary. The online Help has a comprehensive gl os sary, with its own alphabetica l i ndex an d a ta ble of contents. Please consult it if you want to find the meaning of a term used in this guide or in the program.

x WELCOME

Installation and setup

This chapter provides information on installing and starting TextBridge Pro 11. It presents the following topics:

u System requirements u Installing TextBridge Pro u Setting up your scanner with TextBridge Pro u How to start the program u Registering your software u New features in TextBridge Pro 11

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 11

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

You need the following minimum system requirements t o inst all and run TextBridge Pro 11:

u A computer with a Pentium or higher processor u Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows MeMe,

Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4.0

u 32MB of memory (RAM), 64MB recommended u 75MB of free hard disk spa ce for t he appli cation fi les plus 10MB

working space duri ng install ation

u 9MB for Microsoft Installer (MSI) if not present and 44MB for

Internet Explorer if not present. (These are present as part of the operating system in Windows 98, Windows Me and Windows

2000.)

u SVGA monitor with 256 colors and 800 x 600 pixel resolution u Windows-compatible pointing device u CD-ROM drive for installation u A compatible scanner if you plan to scan documents. Please see

the Scanner Guide at ScanSoft ’s web site (www.scansoft.com) for a list of supported scanners.

Note Performance and speed will be enhanced if your computer’s

processor, memory, and available disk space exceed minimum requirements.

12 INSTALLATION AND SETUP

INSTALLING TEXTBRIDGE PRO

TextBridge Pro 11’s installation program takes you through installation with instructions on every screen.

Before installing TextBridge Pro:

u Make sure your scanner is connected, turned on, and compatible

with your system.

u Close all other applications, especially anti-virus programs. u Log into your computer with administrator privileges if you are

installing on Windows 2000 or Windows NT.

t To install TextBridge Pro:

1. Insert TextBridge Pro’s CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive. The installation program should start auto matically. If it does not start, locate your CD-ROM drive in Windows Explorer and double-click

Autorun.exe program at the top-level of the CD-ROM.

the

2. Choose a language to use during installation. The program interface language is used for displays such as menu items, dialog boxes, warning messages and so on. You can change the interface language later from within TextBridge Pro 11.

3. Follow the instructions on each screen to install the software. All files needed for scanning are copied automatically during installation.

Note Sometimes uninstalling and then reinstalling TextBridge Pro will

solve a problem. See Uninstalling the software at the end of chapter 6.

INSTALLING TEXTBRIDGE PRO 13

SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH TEXTBRIDGE PRO

All files needed for scanner setup and support are copied automatically during the program’s installation. Before using TextBridge Pro 11 for scanning, your scanner should be correctly installed and tested for correct functionality. Scanner installation and se tup are done through the Scanner Wizard. You can start this yourself, as described below. Otherwise , the Scanner Wizard appears when you first try to perform scanning from TextBridge Pro 11.

Please follow these steps to use the Scanner Wizar d to setup your scanner with TextBridge Pro 11:

u Choose StartÉProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0É

Scanner Wizard or click the Setup button in the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box or choose a scan command in the Get Page drop-down list in the TextBridge Toolbox.

u Choose Select scanning source, then click Next. u Click once on your scanner’s TWAIN driver, then click Next. u Choose Yes to test your scanner configuration, then click Next. u The wizard will now test the connection from the computer to

your scanner. Click on Next.

u Insert a test page into your scanner. u The wizard is now prepared to do a basic scan using your scanner

manufacturer’s software. Click on Next.

u Your scanner’s native user-interface will appear. Click on Scan to

begin the sample scan.

u If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image… and

make the appropriate selections.

u Once the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next. u Select the item that most appropriately describes your scanner,

then click on Next.

u Click on Next to proceed to page size.

14 INSTALLATION AND SETUP

u The page sizes that the Scanner Wizard believes that your

scanner supports are listed in the window. To make any changes to the page sizes, click on Advanced, make the changes and then click on Next.

u Insert a page with text but no pictures into your scanner. Click

on Next to begin a scan in black and white mode.

u If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image… and

make the appropriate selections.

u Once the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next. u If you have a color scanner, insert a color photograph or a page

with a color picture into your scanner. Click on Next to begin a scan in color mode. If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image… and make the appropria te se lection s. O nce th e image appears correctly in the window, click on Next. If your scanner cannot scan in color, skip this step.

u Insert a photograph or a page containing a picture into your

scanner. Click on Next to begin a scan in grayscale mode. If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image… and make the appropriate selections. Once the image appe ars correctly in the window, click on Next.

u You have successfully configured your scanner to work with

TextBridge Pro 11! Click on Finish.

To change the scanner settings at a late r time, or to set up a different scanner, or to test and repair an installed scanner, please follow one of these two methods to reopen the Scanner Wizard:

u StartÉProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0ÉScanner

Wizard or

u StartÉProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0ÉTextBridge

Pro 11.0ÉTools menuÉOptionsÉScanner…ÉSetup button.

Note To test and repair an improperly functioning scanner, follow the

procedure above, selecting ‘Test and configure current scanning source’ at the start of the process.

SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH TEXTBRIDGE PRO 15

HOW TO START THE PROGRAM

To start TextBridge Pro 11 do one of the following:

u Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose

Programs

u Double-click the TextBridge Pro icon in the program’s

installation folder or on the Windows desktop if you placed it there.

u Double-click a TextBridge Document (TXD) icon or file name;

the clicked document is loaded into the program. See TextBridge Documents in chapter 2.

On opening, TextBridge Pro’s title screen is displayed and then its desktop. See chapter 2, The TextBridge desktop for an introduction to the program’s main working areas.

There are several ways of running the program with a limited interface:

u Use the Schedule OCR program. Click Start in the Windows

taskbar and choose ProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0É Schedule OCR. See Processing documents with Schedule OCR in chapter 3.

ÉScanSoft TextBridge Pr o 11.0ÉTextBridge P ro 11.0.

16 INSTALLATION AND SETUP

u Click Acquire Text from the File menu of an application

registered with the Direct OCR™ facility. See Direct OCR in chapter 3.

u Right-click an image file icon or file name for a shortcut menu.

Select a sub-menu item from ‘Convert To...’ to define a target.

u Use TextBridge Pro 11 with ScanSoft’s PaperPort

or Pagis® document management products, to add OCR services. See How to use TextBridge Pro 11 with your PaperPort software in chapter 3.

REGISTERING YOUR SOFTWARE

ScanSoft’s registration Wizard runs at the end of installation. We provide an easy electronic form that can be completed in less than five minutes.

When the form is filled, and you click Send the program will search an Internet connection to immediately perform the registration online.

If you did not register the software during installation, you will be periodically in vited to register later. You can go to www.scansoft.com to register online. Click on Support and from the main suppor t screen choose Register on the left-hand column. For a statement on the use of your registration data, please see ScanSoft’s Privacy Policy.

NEW FEATURES IN TEXTBRIDGE PRO 11

The family of TextBridge® products moves to a new level with the introduction of TextBr idge Pro 11. H ere ar e the m ain ar ea s of i nno va tion and difference compared to the TextBridge Pro Millennium release:

u Increased accuracy – multiple recognition engines working in

tandem offer significant gains i n accur acy, especially on degraded documents.

u More file formats – New image files formats for input are JPEG

and PNG and for export BMP, DCX, JPEG, PCX and PNG. See page 79. Image saving is now done from the File menu instead of from the Tools menu. See page 69.

u Working areas – Choose to display the Image and Text areas as

alternatives (as in previous TextBridge versions), or to have both visible at once, separated by a movable splitter. See page 22.

u Fully-featured Text Editor – A WYSIWYG Editor lets you

modify recognized text and tables in-place instead of just single words in an edit box . Change char acter and para graph attr ibutes, tabs, borders and shading, and edit embedded graphics. Switch

freely between four formatting levels, including True Page

for

both display and saving. See page 63 and page 64.

u Document Manager – Have a better overview of all pages in a

document and manage them more efficiently, not only with page thumbnails, but also with a table. Each table row summarizes a page and you can define which columns of informati on to view. See page 27.

NEW FEATURES IN T EXTBRIDGE P RO 11 17

u OCR Proofreader – Ju mp through the suspect words in a

document and handle them one after the other in a dialog box. Previously, suspect words were only marked. See page60.

u OCR verifie r – This lets you compare any recognized word with

its appearance in the original image as you edit and reformat the document. See page 62.

u TextBridge Documents – These TXDs open the way to deferred

or distributed processing. They store all images along with recognition results. This allows proofing, verifying , editing, additional processing and saving to be done in a later session or at any location where TextBridge Pro is installed. See page 29.

t Improv ed User Experience:

Some facilities are replaced with others , providing superior functionality.

u Instant Access

is replaced by Direct OCRTM. This provides OCR services from the File menu of word processors and other applications. See page 45. Register applications for Direct OCR with the Options pa ne l, accessed from the Tools menu.

u TextBridge Scheduler becomes Schedule OCR. See page 47. u TextBridge Assistant (Show me how) is replaced by ToolTips,

Tips of the Day, context-sensitive help, a Quick Start Guide and the OCR Wizard. See page ix, page 34 and page 37.

u Page Type is replaced by Layout Description (including C ustom

Layout). See page 51. Scanning mode (black-and-white, grayscale, color) is defined with the Get Page button. See page 49.

u Open file when done becomes Save and L a unch. See page 69.

Training is no longer provided, since the extra accuracy deriving from multi-engine recognition more than compensates for it.

18 INSTALLATION AND SETUP

Introduction

You probably use your computer for business correspondence, preparing reports, handling data and an ever-increasing number of other uses. The challenge is that, in spite of the digital revolution, certain sources of information still circulate in printed, paper form and cannot be used immediately in a computer.

For example, if you want to incorporate information from a magazine article in a report you are preparing, you somehow have to get the text from the article into your computer. Painstakingly retyping the article is not an appealing solution.

This chapter introduces you to the solution: optical character recognition (OCR). It describes how TextBridge Pro 11 uses OCR technology to transform text from scanned pages or image files into editable text fo r use in your favorite computer applications.

We present the following topics:

u What is optical cha racter recognition u Documents in TextBridge Pro u Basic processing steps u The TextBridge desktop u Managing documents u TextBridge Documents u Settings

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 19

WHAT IS OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION

Optical character recognition is the process of extracting text from an image. This image can result from scanning a paper document or opening an electronic image file. characters; they have many tiny dots (pixels) that together form character shapes. These present a picture of the text on a page.

During OCR, TextBridge Pro 11 analyzes the character shapes in an image and defines solutions to produce editable text. After OCR, you can save the resulting text to a variety of word-processing, desktop publishing or spreadsheet applications.

TextBridge Pro’s OCR capabilities

In addition to text recognition, TextBridge Pro can retain the fol lowing elements of a document through the OCR process.

Graphics

Photos, lo gos, and drawings are ex amples of graphics.

Images do not have editable text

Text formatting

Font types, sizes and styles (such as bold, italic and underlines examples of character format ting. I ndents, ta bs, margin s and line spac ing are examples of paragraph formatting.

Page formatting

Column structure, table formats, and placement o f graphics an d headings are examples of page forma tting.

The graphics, text and page formatting elements that TextBridge Pro retains are dete rmined by the settings you select. Refe r to the Settings Guidelines in the online Help for more information about selecting settings.

) are

Note TextBridge Pro only recognizes machine-generated characters

such as offset or laser-printed or typewritten text. However, it can retain handwritten text, such as a signature, as a graphic.

20 INTRODUCTION

Documents in TextBridge Pro

TextBridge Pro 11 handles documents one at a time. When you acquire your first image (from scanner or from file) a new document is started. Further acquired images are added to the same document, until you save and close it.

A document in TextBridge Pro 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 and tables. For more information on screen areas, see the section The TextBridge desktop.

Basic processing steps

There are two main ways of handling documents: with automatic processing or manual processing. See chapter 3 Processing documents automatically and Processing documents manually. The basic steps for both processing methods are broadly the same:

1. Bring a set of images into TextBridge Pro.

You can scan a paper do cument with or witho ut an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) or load one or more image files. The resulting images appear in miniature in the Document Manager’s Thumbnail view and the pages are summarized in its Detail view. The image of the current page is displayed in the Original Image area.

2. Perform OCR to generate editable text.

3. Export the document to the desired location.

During OCR, TextBridge Pro creates zones around elements on the page that will be processed, and then interprets text characters or graphics in each zone. Manual and template zoning are also possible. After OCR, you can check and correct errors in the document using the OCR Proofreader and edit the document in the Text Editor.

You can save your document to a specified file name and type, place it on the Clipboar d, or se nd it as a mail att achment. You can save it as a TextBridge Document (TXD) as described later. You can save the same document repeatedly to different destinations, different file types, with different settings and levels of formatting. See chapter 5.

WHAT IS OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION 21

Standard toolbar TextBridge

Toolbox

The current page has a pale border.

This page has been recognized.

THE TEXTBRIDGE DESKTOP

The TextBridge deskt o p ha s a tit le ba r an d a menu bar al on g th e to p an d a status bar along the bottom. It has three main working areas, separated by splitters: the Document Manager, the Original Image area and the Text Editor. The Document Manager has two tabbed panel s: Thumbnail view and Detail view. The Original Image area has an Image toolbar and the Text Editor has a Formatting toolbar.

Formatting toolbar

Thumbnail view shows a picture of each page in the document.

Page navigation buttons

Buttons to show, hide or rearrange the working areas.

Image toolbar

Original Image area:

This displays the image of the current page, together with any zones automatically or manually placed on the image.

Drag this splitter to left or right to resize the working areas.

The Text Editor view buttons offer four formatting levels.

Text Editor: This is displaying the recognition results from the current page in True Page view.

Note To control which of the three views (Document Manager,

Original Image, and Text Editor) are displayed, check or uncheck each view from the View menu or with the status bar buttons.

22 INTRODUCTION

The TextBridge Toolbox lets you control processing. It can have three states, depending which of the three tab buttons on the left is clicked. In the picture, we display its appearance for Manual OCR. We show the program wi th a thr ee-page do cument. P a ge one is the curr ent page, which has been recognized and proofed. Page two has been recognized but not proofed yet. Page three has been acquired and manually zoned, but not recognized yet. The icons at the bo ttom right of the thumbnail ima ge s show page status.

Status bar buttons let you show, hide or rearrange the main screen areas and move to other pages in the document. A right mouse click in any screen area brings up a shortcut menu with the most useful commands for that are a.

The Standard toolbar

The Standard toolbar contains buttons and a drop-down list for performing stand ard tasks. It can be floated and docked to any edge of the TextBridge desktop. All these functions can also be accessed from menus.

New start a new document.

Open a TextBridge Document

Save the current document und er the name and type of its last save.

Print images or recognition results from all or selected pages.

The Menu bar

For concise information on any menu item, click the context-sensitive help button and then click a menu item. A popup text explains the purpose of the menu item. Click anywhere to close the popup.

Proofread

the recognized text.

Cut the current selection in the Text Editor.

Copy the current Text Editor selection.

Paste selection into the Text Editor.

Undo the last editing action.

Open the Options dialog box.

Zoom the active area: Original Image or Text Editor.

Contextsensitive Help

THE T EXTBRIDGE DESKTOP 23

The Image toolbar

The Image toolbar contains buttons that allow you to zoom in or out on the current image or to rotate it. They also allow you work with zones and table dividers. See chapter 3, Manual zoning and Table grids in the image. Here we summarize the purpose of the buttons. The Image toolbar can be floated (that is, undocked and moved anywhere on the desktop). It can be docked to any edge of the Original Image area.

Draw rectangular zones.

Draw irregular zones.

Add to a zone or combine zones.

Subtract from zone or separate zones.

Tip You can also resize or rotate the original image with a shortcut

menu. Right click in the Original Image area outside a zone and select a zoom or rotation value.

The Formatting toolbar

The Formatting toolbar contains buttons that allow you to edit recognized text in the Text Editor. See chapter 4, Text and image editing. Here we summarize the purpose of the buttons. The Formatting toolbar always remains along the top of the Text Editor.

Reorder zones.

Zone properties

Move

row or column dividers in a table.

Insert column dividers in a table.

Insert row dividers in a table.

Remove row or column dividers one by one.

Remove/ replace all

row and column dividers.

Rotate images.

Zoom in on page image.

Zoom out from page image.

Paragraph styles

24 INTRODUCTION

Font name F o nt size

Bold Underline

Paragraph

alignment

BulletsItalic

Show/hide non-

printing characters.

The TextBridge Toolbox

This Toolbox lets you drive the processing. By default it is located along the top of the TextBridge desktop, just above the working areas. It can be floated and also be docked along the bottom of the desktop.

It has three tabs on the left: AutoOCR™, Manual OCR and OCR Wizard. Click one to see its controls in the Toolbox. The picture at the beginning of this section showed the TextBridge desktop with the Manual OCR to olbar. The AutoOCR toolbar looks lik e this.

Automatic processing is started, and can be stopped and re-started with the buttons on the right of the toolbar. The use of these buttons is detailed in ch apter 3, Processing documents automatically.

You can switch between automatic and manual processing any time the program is not busy with processing. That means you can switch between them while you are wor k ing within a doc ument. You can automatically process some pages, then add more pages with manual processing. After processing a stack of pages automatically, you can inspect the results and then go back to reprocess certain pages manually. This procedure is described in chapter 3, P rocessing a document automa tically and fi nishing it

manually. The use of the OCR Wizard is det ailed i n chapter 3, P rocessing doc uments

using the OCR Wizard. TextBr idge Pro must be empty wh en y ou start the

OCR Wizard. When you have used it to process and save a document, it remains in the program and can be further processed (adding more pages, rerecognizing pages etc.) with either manual or automatic processing.

THE T EXTBRIDGE DESKTOP 25

MANAGING DOCUMENTS

The Document Manager is situated on the left of the TextBridge deskt op. It has two ta bbed panels: Thumbnail view and De tail view. Click a tab to see its view. Both views summarize the pages in the document and are synchronized: the current and selected pages remain the same when you switch views. Our pictures show the two views with the same four-page document. Pa ges 1 and 2 ar e sel ected and page 4 is the current page , that is, the one shown in the Original Image area. The Document Manager shows page status with the following icons:

Page Status

1 Acquired —

2 Zoned —

3 Recognized

4 Proofed

Thumbnail icon

Detail icon

Thumbnail vi ew

This presents a vertical set of number ed thumbnail images, one for each page in the document. Scroll to see pages as necessary . The curre nt page has a paler background and its page number text appears bold. You can select multiple pages in the document; these have a ‘pushed-in’ appearance. A status icon appears at the bottom right of each page as described above.

Jump to a page: Click the icon of the desired page. Reorder a pa ge: Cl ick the thumbnail of the page you want to move and

drag it above the desired page number. Pages are renumbered automatically.

Page image has been... Acquired with no manual or template zones and has

not yet been recognized. Acquired and manual or template zones have been

placed; not yet recognized. Recognized, but not proofread, or proofing was

interrupted on the page. Recognized, and proofing has reached the end of

the page.

Delete a page: Select the thumbnail of the page you want to delete and press the Delete key.

Select multiple pages: Hold down the Shift key and click two thumbnails to select all pages between and including them. Hold down the Ctrl key as you click thumbnails to add pages to a selection one by one. Then you can move or delete the selected pages as a group, or send them to (re)recognition.

26 INTRODUCTION

Detail view

This facility is new to T extBridge Pro 11. It 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. The pictur e below sh ows the d efault columns on the left and four columns which a user has specified.

Move the cursor onto the page’s status icon to see a thumbnail of the page.

This shows the number of zones of each type on the page.

The current page is shown with a highlight. Yo u can use Detail view for page operations, as follows:

Jump to a page: Click the row of the desired page. Reorder a page: Click the row of th e pag e y ou wan t to move and drag it

to the desired location. An arrow indicator on the left shows where the page will be inserted. Pages are renumbered automatically.

Delete a page: Select the row of the page you want to delete and press the Delete key.

Select multiple pages: Hold down the Shift key and click two page rows to select all pages between and includi n g them. Hold down the Ctrl key as you click rows to add pages to a selection one by one. Then you can move or delete the selected pages as a group, or send them to (re)recognition.

When multiple pages are being selected, the page set as current does not change. All selected pages are highlighted.

Tip Get image size information by hovering the cursor over a thumbnail

or outside a zone on an original image. A popup text displays the image size in pixels and the program’s unit of measurement. Image resolution is also show n.

MANAGING DOCUMENTS 27

Customizing columns in Detail view

You can specify which columns of information you want to see in Detail view. Click Customize Details... in the View menu for the following dialog box:

is item is

highlighted. Click a checkbox

to select the item.

Image sizes are expressed in pixels.

Define a width for the highlighted item.

Highlight an item and use these arrows to change the order of columns.

Define which columns should appear, their widths, and column order. The topic Customizing Detail view columns in online Help clarifies what is presented in each column. Y ou can change column widths easily in Detail view; just drag the column dividers in the title bar.

Deleting pages from a document

Page del eti ons must be conf irmed and can be undo ne. Delete t he curr ent page only with the item Delete C urr ent P age in the Edit menu. Del ete all selected pages in the Document Manager (either view) by pressing the Delete key or using the shortcut menu command Clear.

Printing a document

You can print the document with the Print item in the File menu. Choose whether to print images or text (that is, recognition results as they appear in the Text Edi tor). You can print all pages or a range of pages. The Print button in the Standard toolbar prints images or text, depending whether the Original Image area or the Text Editor is active.

28 INTRODUCTION

Closing a document

Choose Close in the F i le menu to cl ose a documen t. You are prompted to save your document if you have not saved it or you have modified it since the last save. See the next section on saving the document as a TextBridge Document (*.TXD).

TEXTBRIDGE DOCUMENTS

The TextBridge Document is the program’s proprietary file type; it has the extension .TXD. It is one of the file types offered when saving a document to file. You save the document to the TXD file type if you want to work with it again in TextBridge Pro during a future session. Y ou can then process unfinished pages, add more pages and proof or edit recognition results.

A TextBridge Document contains the original page images with any zones placed on them. After recognition, the TXD also contains the recognition results. Recognized characters are stored along with their coordinate and confidence data. This preserves the links between image and text, so that verification and proofing remain available when the TXD is reopened in future sessions.

When you save a TextBridge Document, some settings are also saved. When you open a TextBridge Document, these settings are applied, temporarily replacing those existing in the program.

Why save to TXD

You do not have to save your documents to the TXD file type. You would typically do this for the following reasons:

 You cannot finish working with the document in the current session.  You want to pass the document to other users who have TextBridge

Pro 11. For example, you can pass a TXD file to a specialist for proofing. I n an offic e ne twork , y ou may hav e on e scanner g ene ratin g images f o r recognitio n and proofing at several works tations.

TEXTBRIDGE DOCUMENTS 29

 You want to build up an archive of recognized documents whose

original images remain accessible. The recognized texts allow searching by keywords and other document retrieval techniques.

Note Recognition results should be saved from TXD files before

installing any TextBridge Pro upgrade. These files may not be upwards compatible to newer TXD file formats, or possibly only the images will be retained when the files are upgraded.

How to save to TXD

If you intend to create a TXD, you can save it to this format at an early stage, for protection. Use the Save button to save it periodically as you work. Save it again at the end of your session.

The Save button saves the document to the name and file type of its last save. You can save your document repeatedly to different formats. If your first save was to another format (for instance .DOC), use the item Save As... from the File menu to save it as a TXD. If a document is saved as a TXD, then you later save it to another format, it is not automatically resaved as a TXD. When you close the document or exit the program, you will be prompted to save the document as a TXD.

SETTINGS

The Options dialog box is the central location for TextBridge Pro settings. It has seven panels. Context-sensitive help provides information on each setting. In overview, the settings panels are:

OCR

Use this to spec ify recognition language(s), a us er dictionary, a reject character, an OCR method (optimize for speed or accuracy) and font matching.

Scanner

Use this to define page size and orientation for scanning. You can also make brightness and contrast settings and define options for scanning

30 INTRODUCTION

multi-page documents, with or without an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). You can change scanner setup settings or install a new scanner or change the default scanner.

Direct OCR

This feature provides OCR services directly from your favorite word processor or similar application. Use this panel to register and unregister applications for D irect OCR a nd to enable or di sable this service. You can also specify automatic or manual zoning and whether proofreading is desired or not.

Process

Use this to define where new images should be placed in the document and set other preferences governing the behavior of the processing. You can change the interface l anguage here.

Proofing

Use this to define whether proofreading should begi n automatically af ter recognition.

Cust om Layout

Use this to describe the layout of your input document pages very precisely. This gives you maximum control over the auto-zoning process, instructing it to search or ignore columns, graphics and tables.

SETTINGS 31

Text Editor

Use this to show or hide some features in the Text Editor, to define the unit of measurement to be used and to turn word wrapping on or off.

Note Some settings h ave an effect only on futur e reco gnition. E xamples

are the recognition languages, a user dictionary and scanner brightness. These settings should be correctly adjusted before you start processing. To have changes in these settings applied to already recognized pages, you will have to rerecognize them. Other settings are implemented immediately in all existing pages. Examples are Text Editor settings like word wrap and measurement units.

32 INTRODUCTION

Tutorial:

Processing documents

This chapter describes different ways you can process a document and also provides information on key parts of this processing.

u Quick Start Guide u Processing documents using the OCR Wizard u Processing documents automatically u Processing documents manually u Processing a document automatically and finishing it manually u Processing from other applications (Direct OCR, PaperPort) u Processing documents with Schedule OCR

The detailed topics are:

u Defining the source of page images u Describing the layout of the document u Manual zoning u Table grids in the image u Using zone templates

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 33

QUICK START GUIDE

This topic takes you step-by-step through the basic OCR process.

Loading and recognizing sample image files

You will find sample image files in the program folder, both single-page and multi-page files. First try reading these files using the procedure presented below, except for the references to a scanner. See Input from image files for more information on acquiring the images. The results provide you with a benchmark of the recognition quality you should expect from your own files of comparable quality.

Next, try scanning a page from your scanner.

Scanning and reco gn iz ing a s ingle page

Turn your scanner on and be sure it is working correctly. Choose a page with good-qua lity clear text for this test.

We assume TextBridge Pro’s default settings are set and that your document is in the language you specified for interface language during installation. Open the Options dialog box from the Tools menu and choose Use Defaults if you are not using the program for the first time.

You will process the document automatically and save the recognition results to a file. You will proof the document but will not edit it inside TextBridge Pro 11’s Text Editor.

34 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

What you do What happens

1. Set up your scanner using the Scanner Wizard, if this is not already done.

2. Select Start Bridge Pro 11.0

3. Place the document correctly in your scanner.

4. Check the three tab buttons to the left of the TextBridge Toolbox. The AutoOCR button should be selected. If not, click on it.

5. From the Get Page drop-down menu, select a scan option for your document: black-andwhite, grayscale or color.

6. From the Describe Original drop down menu, check Automatic is selected. For a wide range of documents, this is the best choice.

7. From the Export Results drop-down menu, check that Save as File is selected.

8. Click on Start. TextBridge Pro will start to scan in your document.

9. The OCR Proofreader appears and invites you to modify words that the program suspects have not been recognized correctly.

10. Click in the Text Editor. Select Text Editor views one after another, to see how the page appears in each view. Choose the view you want for export.

Programs É ScanSoft Text-

TextBridge Pro 11.0

Configures TextBridge Pro 1 1 to work with your scanner.

Opens TextBridge Pro 11 on your computer.

Specifies that you want TextBridge Pro 11 to process the document automatically according to the given settings.

Allows you to determine how pictures or colored texts and backgrounds will look in the exported document. Color scanning needs a color scanner.

Configures T ext Bridge Pro 11 to place zones on the page and decide their properties automatically.

This means you will be able to name your export file after you have proofed the document.

The OCR Proofreader operates like a spell checker in a word processing program, but with added OCR-specific features.

Each Text Editor view defines a formating level. The view set at saving time is applied to the text in the saved file.

11. Click Resum e to restart proofing. When the message OCR Proofreading is complete appears, click on OK.

12. Choose the location and file type to save your

recognized document. Click on OK.

13. Inspect the document in your word processing program.

Tip If you suceeded in getting good results from the sample image files,

but not from the sc anned page, check you r scanner installation and settings: in particular brightness and image resolution. See Input from scanner for a model of optimum brightness. See also the online Help topics Setting up your Scanner and Scanner Troubleshooting.

This ends the OCR Proofreader process. The Save As dialog box will appear.

By default, Save and Launch is enabled, so your document will be automatically opened in the word processing program associated with the file type that you selected.

You have successfully used TextBridge Pro 11 to recognize your document and open it in your target application!

QUICK S TART GUIDE 35

Here is an ov e rview of the processing methods you can use. You will find step-by-step guidance for each of them in the following pages.

Using the OCR Wizard

The OCR Wizar d guides you th ro ugh the selection of settings and commands by asking you questions. It then launches automatic processing. This is a good way to get started if you are new to TextBridge Pro.

Automatically

The fastest and easies t way to process documents is to let Tex tBr idge Pro do it automati ca ll y f or y ou. S elect settings in th e Op tio n s dialog box and commands in the AutoOCR toolbar 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.

Manually

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 buttons on the Manual OCR toolbar.

Automatically with manual finishing

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 rerecognize just tho se problem pages.

In other applications

You can use the Direct OCR feature to call on the r ecognitio n services of TextBr idge Pro while wo rking in your usual word-proces sor or similar application. TextBridge Pro automatically links itself to ScanSoft’s PaperPort and Pagis document management programs.

At a later time

You can schedule OC R jobs to be per formed automa tically at a later time, when you may not even be present at your computer. The Add Job Wizard in Schedule OCR allows you to specify settings and a starting time.

36 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS USING THE OCR WIZARD

The OCR Wizard takes you through six settings panels, guiding you to make settings for you r document and then launching automatic processing. Context-sensitive help is available for all Wizard panels. The OCR Wizard can run only when there is no document op en in TextBridge Pro.

Click the OCR Wizard tab in the TextBridge Toolbox and click the Wizard button to see the first wizard screen:

1. The first panel lets you define your document source: scanner or

2. The second panel asks you to describe the layout of the input

image file. For more information, see the section Defining the source of page images. Answer the questions in the fi rst screen and click Next.

document, to assist the auto-zoning. For more information, see the section Describing the layout of the document.

PROCESSING DOC UMENTS USING THE OCR WIZARD 37

3. The third panel (shown below) lets you define recognition languages and decide OCR method. Languages with dictionary support have the icon .

4. The fourth panel lets you define the formatting level to be applied to your document for display and export. See chapter 4, The editor display and views, for more information.

5. The fifth panel asks if you want t o proo fread th e text befor e export. I f you choose Yes you can also edit the text before saving.

6. The last panel asks you to define the export choice: saving to file or copying to Clip board. After setting the choice, click Finish to close the Wizard and start the automatic processing .

7. If you requested proofing and the text contains suspect words, the OCR Proofreader dialog box will appear. When proofing is finished or closed, recognition results either go directly to the Clipboard, or the Save As dialog box appears so you can specify file export settings.

8. The document remains in TextBridge Pro. You can edit recognition results and save it again to other formats. You can change zones

38 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

manually or change other settings and then use manual processing to rerecognize single pages from the document. You can add pages with automatic or manu al processing.

Note The Wizard panels present settings as they were last set in the

program. Also, TextBridge Pro will remember the settings you make in the OCR Wizard panels and apply them to future automatic or manual processing, until you change them. So, if you have more documents for which your OCR Wizard settings are suitable, just switch to the AutoOCR toolbar and click Start.

Note Applicable settings not offered by the OCR Wizard take the values

last set in the program. This concerns mainly scanner settings and a user dictionary. Zone templates cannot be used with the OCR Wizard. If a template file was set when the OC R Wizard starts, it is unloaded and Automatic is set as input description. Yo u cannot export a recognized document as a mail attachment. Please use automatic or manual processing for this.

PROCESSING DOC UMENTS USING THE OCR WIZARD 39

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS AUTOMATICALLY

Automatic processing provides an efficient way of handling documents, especially larger ones. F irst you select all set tings needed, then you can use the AutoOC R™ toolbar in the TextBridge Toolbox to process a new document from start to finish or to restart and finish processing on an open document.

1. Click the AutoOCR tab in the TextBridge Toolbox to display the AutoOCR toolbar.

2. Select the desired Get Page command in the drop-down list. You define the document source, which can be fr om image files or fr om a scanner. For more detail see the section Defining the source of page images.

3. Select a c o mmand from the Describe Original drop-down list , as shown above. This guides the prog ram in auto-z oning the pag es. You describe the incoming pages or specify a zone template fil e. For more information on the choices, see the section Describing the layout of the document.

4. Select a command from the Export Results drop-down list. You can save the recognized document to file, copy it to Clipboard or send it as a mail attachment. For information on the choices, see chapter 5.

5. Choose Options in the Tools menu and check that settings are appropriate for your document. You can, for instance, specify recognition languages and whether you want to proofread the document or not. See Settings at the end of chapter 2.

40 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

6. Click Start or choose Start in the Process menu. Each page of the document is pr ocessed a nd fin ished one after the o ther. The program may perform tasks simultaneously, for instance it may start loading and recognizing a new page as you proofread the previous page.

Command buttons

Start: This lets you begin automa tic processing on a new do cument.

Stop: Th is lets you interrupt automatic proce ssing. You may do this if

you find that some settings need to be changed. Then the Start button changes to Finish.

The start button takes different values when processing is stopped or finished.

Finish: This appears if processing is incomplete. It lets you:

u Finish processing unfinished pages. u Export the document, dropping any unrecognized pages.

Additional: This appears if all existing pages are processed and have been exported once. It lets you:

u Export the document again, maybe with changes, to a

different file type, name or location, or with a different formatting level.

u Add more pages: from the same source o r a differ ent s ource,

with changed or unchanged settings.

u Re-process all pages: Discard all recognition results and

rerecognize all pag es in the document with different set tings. You can specify auto-zoning or a template file.

Tip You may reprocess all pages if an unsuitable setting caused poor

results on all pages. An example is incorrect language choice, resulting in almost all words marked suspect during proofing. ‘Re-process’ lets you perform rerecognition without having to scan or load or rezone all the images again.

PROCESSING DOCUME NTS AUTOMATICALLY 41

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS MANUALLY

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 on ea ch page. You start each step in the process by clicking the buttons on the Ma nu al OCR toolbar.

1. Click the Manual OCR tab in the TextBridge Toolbox to display the Manual OCR toolbar.

2. Click in the Standard toolbar or Options i n the Tools men u to check or make settings in the Options dialog box. See Settings at the end of chapter 2.

3. Select the desired value for the Get Page button. You define the document source, which can be from image files or from a scanner. Access the scanner settings dialog box and make settings as desired. For more detail see the section Defining the source of page images.

4. Click the Get Page button. This either bring s up the Loa d File dialog box allowing you to name images files, or initiates scanning. The result is one or more images displayed in the Document Manager and one in the Original Image area.

Now y ou can manually draw and modify zones on one or mor e images and assign properties. St atus bar button s let you mo v e to other pa ges. Any image without zones will be auto-zoned when recognition is requested. For guidance, see the section

Manual zoning

42 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

6. Select a value for the Perform OCR button. You describe the layout of the incoming pages. This value has an influence if auto-zoning runs on any pages. You can also select a template to have its zones placed on the current page. For more detail see the sections Describing the layout of the document and Using zone templates.

7. Click the Perform OCR button to have the current page recognized. To have selected pages recognized, make a multiple selection in the Document Manager (see chapter 2, Managing documents) and then click the Perform OCR button.

8. The Zoning Instructions dialog box appears, unless you disabled it.

When you choose one of its options, recognition starts.

9. If you requested proofing, the OCR Proofreader dialog box displays suspect words one after the other from the recognized page(s). You can proof and edit the recognized text. See chapter 4, Proofreading OCR results.

10. Continue loading pages, performing OCR, editing and proofing as desired.

11.

Select a value for the Export Results button. You can save the recognized document to file (including as a TextBridge Document), copy it to Clipboard or send it as a mail attachment. You can save the document more than once. For information see chapter 5.

Note If you d eselect ‘Find zones in addition to template/current zones’ in

the Process panel of the Options dialog box, the Zone Instructions dialog box will not appear and recognition will always run with cur rent zones only.

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS MANUALLY 43

PROCESSING A DOCUMENT AUTOMATICALLY AND

FINISHING IT MANUALLY

When you have a large document with only a few pages needing special attention, you do not have to manually process the whole document. Y ou can process it automatically and view results in the Text Editor. You can determine which pages are in order, and which need different settings or some manual zoning. Then you can switch to manual processing to adjust settings and zones and rerecognize just those pages.

1. Prepare the document and perform automatic processing, as already described.

2. If you close or finish proofing you will be invited to save the document. This is recommended, even if it is not in its final form.

3. Select a page needing rezoning or changed settings and click the Manual OCR tab at the left of th e TextBridg e Toolbox.

4. Delete or modify the existing zones in the Original Image area. You can also load a template to let its zones replace existing ones. Draw new zones as desired. See Manual zoning.

5. Change other settings as requir ed fo r the curr ent pag e. S ee Settings at the end of chapter 2.

6. Click the Perform OCR button to rerecognize the current page. Confirm that the previous recognition results should be overwritten. The Zoning Instructions dialog box will appear, unless disabled.

7. To rerecognize more than one page, select the required pages in the Document Manager before clicking the Perform OCR button.

8. When all pages have been rerecognized with acceptable results, save the document again.

44 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

PROCESSING FROM OTHER APPLICATIONS

You can use the Direct OCRTM feature to call on the recognition services of TextBridge Pro while you work in your usual word-processor or other application. First you must establish the direct connection with the application. Then, two items in its File Menu open the door to OCR facilities.

How to set up Direct OCR

1. Start the application you want connected to TextBridge Pro. Start TextBridge Pro, open the Options dialog box at the Direct OCR panel and select ‘Enable Direct OCR’.

2. The Unregistered panel displays running or previously registered applications. S elec t the desired one(s) and clic k A dd. You can browse for an unlisted application. Select the process options as desired, to function as preferences.

How to use Direct OCR

1. Open your registered application and work in a document. To acquire recognition results from scanned pages, place them correctly in the scanner.

2. Use the File Menu item Acquire Text Settings... to specify settings to be used during recognition. Any settings not offer ed take their v alues from those last used in TextBridge Pro. Settings changed for Direct OCR are also changed in TextBridge Pro.

3. Use the File M enu 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, or 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 start recognition.

PROCESSING FROM OTHER APPLICATIONS 45

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 by Acquire Text Settings... .

Note If T extBridge Pro is running when Direct OCR is called from a target

application, a second instance of TextBridge Pro is launched.

How to use TextBridge Pro 11 with your PaperPort software

PaperPort® is a paper management software product from ScanSoft. It lets you link pages with suitable applications. Pages can contain pictures, text or both. If PaperPort exists on a computer when TextBridge Pro is installed, its OCR services become available and amplify the pow er of PaperPort. You can choose an OCR pro gram b y right clicking on a text applications PaperPort link, selecting Preferences and then selecting TextBridge Pro 11 as the OCR package. OCR settings can be specified, as with Direct OCR.

Here TextBridge Pro 11 has been selected as the OCR package for MS Word 2000. Then you can drag page images from the PaperPort desktop onto the MS Word link on the PaperPort. While the text is being recognized, only a progress monitor is displayed. TextBridge Pro’s m anu al zoning window or proofing facility will appear if requested. The recognition results are placed in a new unnamed document in the target application.

46 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS WITH SCHEDULE OCR

You can schedule OCR jobs to be performed automatically at any time within the following 24 hours. Each job handles one document. The document pages can come from a scanner with an ADF or from image files. You do not have to be present at your computer at job start time, nor does TextBridge Pro have to be running. It does not 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. Here is how to set up a job:

1. Click Schedule OCR in the Process menu or in the Windows Start menu: select ProgramsÉScanSoftÉTextBridge Pro 11.0ÉSchedule OCR.

2. The Schedule OCR dialog box appears. Click Add Job... to get the Add J ob W i zard. It t ak es yo u th r ough six pan el s , s imila r to the OCR Wizard.

3. In the first panel you define image source. An additional feature lets you process all supported image files in a defined folder.

4. The next three panels are similar to those in the OCR Wizard, but you can also specify a user dictionar y.

5. The fifth panel lets you specify an export file name, type, location and a file separation choice.

The last panel lets you define the job start time, retain or delete input files after processing and specify use of a log file to note job completion and any problems encountered. Click Finish to close the Wizard

Note The Schedule OCR dialog box lists all jobs, with status Waiting,

Running, Error or Complete. Use Modify Job... to change settings for a waiting job. You ca n modify and reuse finished jobs to process new jobs needing similar settings. You can delete completed jobs when they are no longer needed.

For more information, please see Scheduling OCR in the online Help.

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS WITH SCHEDULE OCR 47

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 TextBridge Pro or may be saved with the scanner’s own software to an image file, which TextBridge Pro can later open.

Input from image files

You can create image files from your own scanner, or receive them by email or as fax files. TextBridge Pro can open a wide range of image file types; see a listing in chapter 6, File types for opening and saving images. Image files are specified in the Load File dialog box. This appears when you start automatic processing. In manual process i ng, click the Load File button or use the Process menu. The lower part of the dialog box provides advanced settings, and can be shown or hidden. Here it is displayed.

This is the current folder.

Specify the file type(s) you want listed.

This can be used for multipage TIFF and DCX files.

This is a blank image file for the saving option: "New file for each blank page".

48 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

Use Shift+ clicks or Ctrl+clicks to place more than one file in the File name text box.

Click Advanced to open the lower panel and Basic to close it.

Use this to add files one by one from different folders and to control file order precisely.

Normally the Add button places each file at the bottom of the file list. To place a file at a different location, highlight a file in the list. The new file will be added immediately below the lowest highlighted file.

Input from scanner

You must have a functioning, supported scanner correctly installed with TextBridge Pr o. See chapter 1, Setting up your scanner with TextBridge Pro for more information. You ha ve a choi ce of sca nning modes. In making your choice, there are two main considerations:

u Which type of output do you want in your export document? u Which mode will yield best OCR accuracy?

Scan black and white

Select this to scan in black-and-white. This is not suitable if you want color in your output document, nor if you want pictures to look like socalled ‘black-and-white’ photographs: they need grayscale scanning. For best OCR accuracy, use this for crisp black texts on a white or light background. 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 . Choose this to keep ‘black-and- white’ photograp hs in the outp ut docum ent. F o r best OCR accura cy, use this for pages with varying or lo w cont ras t (not much difference betw een light and dark) and with text on colored or shaded backgrounds.

Scan color

Select this to scan in color. Available only with color scanners. Choose this if you want colored graphics, texts or backgrounds in the output document. For OCR accuracy, it offers no more benefit than grayscale scanning (for a given resolution), but will require much more time, memory resources and disk space.

DEFINING THE SOURCE OF PA GE IMAGES 49

Brightness and contrast

Good brightness and contrast settings play an important role in OCR accuracy. Set these in the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box. The diagram illustrates an optimum brightness setting. After loading an image, check its appearance. If characters are thick and touc hing, lighten the brightness. If characters are thin and broken, darken it. Then rescan the page.

Unsuitable

Tolerable

Good

Best

Good

Tolerable

Unsuitable

Scanning with an AD F

The best way to scan multi-page documents is with an Automa tic Document Feeder (ADF). S imply load pages in t he corr ect or der into the ADF. Place blank pages if you want to save your document to multiple output files using the ‘Create a new file at each blank page’ option. See Saving to file in chapter 5.

If you have a document longer than the capacity of your ADF, select ‘Automatically prompt for more pages’ in the Process panel of the Options dialog box. Then a dialog box lets you add further page batches and signal when all pages are scanned.

50 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

You can scan double-sided documents with an ADF. A duplex scanner will manage this automatically. For non-duplex scanners, select ‘Scan double-sided pages ’ in the Scanner panel of the Options dialog box. Then you can scan the document in just a few passes, with even pages grouped together and odd pages also gr ouped. TextBr idge P ro wil l merge the pages for you.

Scanning long documents w ithout an ADF

You can scan multi-page documents efficiently from a flatbed scanner, even without an ADF. Select ‘Automatically scan pages’ in the Scanner panel of the Op tions dialog box, and define a paus e value in seconds. Then the scanner will make scanning passes automatically, pausing between each scan by the defined number of seconds, giving you time to place the next page. A dialog box allows you finish the pause early or request a longer pause and to specify when the last page is scanned.

DESCRIBING THE LAYOUT OF THE DOCUMENT

Before starting recognition you are requested to describe the layout of the incoming pages to assist the auto-zoning process. When you use the OCR Wizard, auto-zoning always runs. When you do automatic processing, auto-zoning always runs unless you specify a template to be used on its own. When you do manual processing, auto-zoning sometimes runs. See online Help for more detail.

Here are your input description choi c es:

Automatic

Choose this to let the program ma ke all a u to -zoning decision s. It decides whether text is in columns or not, whether an item is a graphic or text to be recognized and whether to place tables or not. Choose Automatic if your document contains pages with different or unknown layouts. Choose it for a page with multiple columns and a table, and fo r any pag es with more than on e table.

DESCRIBING THE LAYOUT OF TH E DOCUMENT 51

Single column, no table

Choose this setting if yo ur pages conta in only one column of text and no table. Business letters or pages from a book are normally like this. Choose it also for a page with words or numbers arranged in columns if you do not want these placed in a table or decolumnized or treated as separate columns. Graphics may be detected.

Multiple columns, no table

Choose this if some of your pages contain text in columns and you want this decolumnize d or kept in separa te columns, similar to the original layout. Columns can be retained in the output document, either with frames (if True Page is set) or without frames (if Retain Flowing Columns is set). If tabular data is encountered, it is likely to be treated as flowing text. Graphics may be detected.

Single column with table

Choose this if your page contains only one column of text and a table. Auto-zoning will not look for columns but will try to find a table and place it in a grid in the Text Editor. You can l ater specify whether to export it in a grid or as tab separated text columns. Graphics may be detected.

Spreadsheet

Choose this if your whole page consists of a table which you want to export to a spreadsheet program, or have treated as single table. No flowing text or graphics zones will be detected.

Custom

Choose this for maximum control over auto-zoning. You can prevent or encourage the detection of columns, graphics and tables. Make your settings in the Custom Layout panel of the Options dialog box.

Template

Choose a zone template file if you wish to have its zones and properties applied to all acquired pages from now on. In manual processing the template zones ar e also a pplied to t he curr ent pa ge, re pla cing an y exi sti ng zones. Other z ones ar e permi tted in a ddition to templa te zones . F or mo re detail, see the section U sing zone templates.

If auto-zoning yielded unexpected recognition results, use manual processing to rezone individual pages and rerecognize them.

52 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

MANUAL ZONING

Zones define areas on the page to be processed. Zones are rectangular or irregular (with sides formed by vertical and horizontal lines). Zones cannot overlap. They have a zone number in the top left corner and a zone type icon top right. Click in a zone to select it. Use Shift+clicks for a multiple selection. Current and selected zo nes are shaded. Click outside a zone to remove the selection. Zones appear on an original image in the following cases:

u The page has been recognized. u A zone template file was specified in manual processing while the

page was current.

u You have drawn manual zones on the image.

Working with zo nes

The Image toolbar provides zone editing tools. One is always selected. When you no longer want the service of a tool, click a different tool. Normally this will be the Draw Rectangular Zones tool.

Draw rectangular zones

Click this and drag the cursor to define rectangular zones. The new zone takes its properties from the last drawn or selected zone. You can also move or resize existing zones when this tool is active.

Draw irregular zon e s

Click this for a tool allowing you to draw irregular zones. Click and drag to draw a single line. Repeat until only one line remains undrawn. Double-click to close the shape. Irregular zones snap to rectangles if you set them as table type zones. You can also move or resize existing zones when this tool is active.

Add to zone

Click this to make irregular additions to an existing zone or combine separate zones into one. You cannot move or resize existing zones when this tool is acti ve. You cannot use this with a table type zone.

MANUAL ZONING 53

Subtr act from zone

Click this to subtract irregular parts from an existing zone or split a zone into smaller ones. Y ou cannot move or resize existing zones when this tool is active. You cannot use this with a table ty pe zone.

Reorder zones

Click this for th e z o ne reorderi ng to ol. Th en click in zones i n the des i red reading order. For your order to be respected, ch oose ‘Use current zones only’ and avoid having multiple-column or auto-detect zones types on the page.

Zone properties

Click this for the Zone Properties dialog box. This lets you define zone type and content for the currently selected zone(s) on the page. You can also do this from a zone’s shortcut menu. See the next section.

Zone properties

Each zone has a zone type. Zones containing text can also have a zone contents setting: alphanumeric or numeric. The zone type an d zone contents together consti tute the zon e properties. Rig ht-cli ck in a zone for a shortcut menu allowing you to change the zone’s properties. Select multiple zones to change their properties in one move. The zone properties button in the I m age to ol bar can be used for the same purpose. The following types are available:

Single-column flowing text zone

Use this to have zone contents treated as flowing text, without colu mns being found.

Multiple-column flowing text zone

Use thi s to hav e z on e con tents tr eat ed as flo w ing tex t. The pr og ram will try to detect columns inside the zone. Text will be decolumnized or retained in columns, depending on the Text Editor view. During recognition, a multicolumn zone may be replaced by separate zones for each column. To do this, auto-zoning must run, which may also result in changed zone order.

54 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

Table zone

Use this to have the zone contents treated as a table. Table grids can be automatically detected, or placed manually as described in the next section. Table zones must be rectangular. The Text Editor displays the table in an editable grid. You can choose whether to export tables in grids or in columns separated by tabs.

Auto-detect zone

Use this to let the program deci de the zone type. To do this, auto-zoning runs, which may also result in changed zone order on the page. After recognition you can see the type that was applied. If you use an autodetect zone to cover a page area with varied contents, the program may replace the auto-detect zone with a n umber of smaller zones.

Graphic zo ne

Use this to enclose a picture , diagram, drawing, sign ature or anythin g you want transferred to the Text Editor as an embedded image, and not as recognized text. A graphics zone has a green border. Embedded images can be exported with the document to target applications supporting graphics.

Igno re zone

Use this to define a page area you do not want in the Text Editor. Autozoning will not place zones here. To exclude a given page area from many pages (for example a header or page numbers), place ignore zones in a template and select ‘Find zones in addition to template/current zones’ in the Process panel of the Options dialog b ox.

Zone contents

This is available for zone types containing text. Alphanumeric contents validates all characters needed for your language choice. Recognition results from a numeric zone will contain only numbers and numberrelated punctuation. No letters will be pla c ed.

Note Right-click outside a zone for a shortcut menu tailored for the whole

image. It allows you to zoom in or out or rotate the image. When an image is rotated, all zones on it are deleted.

MANUAL ZONING 55

TABLE GRIDS IN THE IMAGE

After automatic processing you may see table zones placed on a page. They are denoted with a table zone icon in the top right corner o f the zone. To change a zone to or from a table zone, use its shortcut menu. You can also draw a table type zone. If there is already a table zo ne on the page, select it, then draw the new rectangular zone. It will inherit the table type. Otherwise draw a rectangula r zone and use its shortcut menu to change it to a table type.;

You draw or move table dividers t o det ermine wher e gridlines will appear when the table is placed in the Text Editor. You can use the Add or Subtract tools to enla rge or reduce a table zone, but it must remain rectangular. You can do this to discard unneeded columns or rows from a table.

The five table handlin g tool s on the I magin g toolb ar become ac tiv e if the current page contains a table type zone. Use them as follows:

Move row or column dividers

Click the tool and mo v e the cursor to t he div ider t o be m o ved . I t disp lays a double-headed arrow. Drag the border as desired. You cannot drag it beyond its neighbor. Avoid placing dividers so they overlap one another or cut through text. Press the Ctrl key as you drag a column divider, to move it in the cur rent row only.

Insert column divide rs

Click the tool then click at the location in a table zone where you want to place a column divider. Press the Ctrl key as you click to place the divider in the cu rrent row only.

Insert row dividers

Click the tool then click at the location in a table zone where you want to place a row di vider. Avoid pla cing a divid er on to p of another one or s o it cuts through text.

Remove column or row dividers

Click the tool then c lick on a singl e divide r yo u want to delet e. D o this if a divider is wrongly located, or if you want to change the appearance of the table in the final d ocument. For example, you can place two columns of data in a single column by deleting the divider between the columns.

56 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

Remove/replace all dividers

Click this tool and cli ck i nside a table zone. Its dividers will al l disappear. Click again to have dividers automatically (re)detected. Divid e r placement usually occurs du ring recogni tion; clicking twice with this tool lets you see and edit the dividers before recognition.

USING ZONE TEMPLATES

A template is a set of zones, their properties and reading order, stored in a file. A zone template file can be loaded to have template zones used during recognitio n. Loa d a templat e file in th e Perform OCR drop-down list or from the Tools menu.

When you load a template with the Manual OCR toolbar, its zones appear immediately on the current page, replacing any already there. Existing pages are not affected. The template zones are placed on all further acquired pag es until the templa te is unloaded. You can modify th e template zones and add new zones before performing recognition.

When you load a template with the AutoOCR toolbar, it does not affect the current or existing pages. The template zones are placed on all further acquired pages until the template is unloaded. The Process panel of the Options dialog box presents the option ‘Find zones in addition to template/current zones’. If this is turned on during automatic processing, auto-zoning will run on page areas ou tside the templa te zo nes.

How to save a zone template

Prepare zones on a page. Check their locations, properties and reading order. Click Zone Template File... in the Tools menu. In the dialog box, select

page]

and click Save.

[zones on

How to modify a zone template

Load the template and acquire a suitable image with manual processing. The template zones appear. Modify the zones and/or properties as desired. Open the Zone Template File dialog box. The current template is selected. Click Save and then Close.

USING ZONE TEMPLATES 57

How to unload a template

Select a non-templat e setting for layout description in the Perform OCR drop-down list. The template zones are not removed from the current or existing pages, but template zones will no longer be used for future processing. You can also open the Zone Template Files dialog box, select

[none] and click th e Set As Current b u tton. In this case, the layo ut

description setting returns to Automatic.

How to replace one template with another

Select a different template in the Perform OCR drop-down list, or open the Zone Template Files dialog box, select the desired template and click the Set As Current button. When the AutoO CR toolbar is active, no existing zones are ch anged and the ne w template is used f or future processing. When the Manu al OCR tool bar is acti ve, zo nes from the new template are applied to the current page, replacing any existing zones.

How to delete a template file

Open the Zone Template Files dialog box. Select a template and click the Delete button. Zones already placed by this template are not removed.

Tip Templates accept ignore and auto-detect type zones. A template can

therefore be useful to define which parts of the page to read, and which parts to ignore.

Note Auto-detect type zones from a template may be replac ed during

recognition by smaller ones; specific zone types will be assigned to these zones. Multi-column zones may also be split into smaller single-column zones, one for each de tected column.

Note Templates and the additional auto-zoning feature are available in

Schedule OCR and Direct OCR, but not in the OCR Wizard.

58 TUTORI AL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS

3URRILQJDQGHGLWLQJ

Recognition results are placed in the Text Editor. This newly developed WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor offers the following features, detailed in this chapter:

u Proofreading OCR results u Checking recognized text against original (Verifying text) u User dictionaries u The editor display and views u Text and image editing u Page outline

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 59

The Text Editor offers four views for displaying its pages. You can switch freely from one view to another. These provide different levels of formatting. The views are:

No Formatting view

This displays plain decolumnized text in a single font and font size.

Retain Fonts and Paragraphs view

This displays decolumnized text with font and paragraph styling.

True Page view

This view tries to conserve as much of the formatting of the original document as possible. Character and paragraph styling is retained. All page elements, including columns, are placed in frames.

Retain Flowing Columns view

This view is identical to True Page view, except that the reading order of zones is shown by arrows. This view’s diffe rence from True Page relates mainly to export, as explained in the section Preparing recognition results for export in chapter 5.

PROOFREADING OCR RESULTS

After a page is recogn ized, the recognition results appear in the Text Editor. Proofreading starts automatically if that was requested in the Proofing panel of the Options dialog box or in the OCR Wizard. You can start proofing manually any time th e program is not busy. Work as follows:

1. Click the Proofread OCR button in the Standard toolbar, or choose

Proofread OCR... in the Tools menu.

2. Proofing starts from the beginning of the document, but skips text

already proofed. If a suspected error is detected, the OCR Proofreader dialog box displays the error and a picture of how it originally looked in the image.

60 PROOFING AN D EDITING

This tells why the word is suspected.

This window shows the relevant part of the original image. Click inside it to enlarge or reduce the display .

This is what TextBridge Pro thought the word was.

The image of the suspect word is highlighted.

Drag a corner or the bottom of the dialog box to resize it.

3. If the recognized word is correct, click Ignore or Ignore All to move

to the next suspect word. Click Add to add it to the cu rrent user dictionary an d move to the next suspect wo rd.

4. If the recognized word is not correct, edit the word in the Change to

edit box, or type in the desired word or select a dictionary suggestion. Click Change or Change All to implement the change and move to the next suspect word. Click Add to add the word in the Change to edit box to the current user dictionary and move to the next suspect word.

5. Color markers are removed from words i n the Text Edit or as t h ey are

proofread. You can switch to the Text Editor during proofing to make corrections there. Use the Resume button to restart proofing. Click Close to stop proofreading before the end of the document is reached.

Note $SDJHLVPDUNHGZLWKWKHSURRIHGLFRQV DQG LQWKH

'RFXPHQW0DQDJHULISURRILQJUDQWRWKHHQGRIWKHSDJH

PROOFREADING OCR RESULTS 61

This is the original image of the word you are verifying.

HECKING RECOGNIZED TEXT AGAINST ORIGINAL

After performing OCR, you can compare any part of the recognized text against the cor re s ponding part of the origina l image, to verify that the text was recognized correctly. Work as follows:

1. Double-click any word in the T ext Editor or select a word and choose

Verify Te xt in the Tools menu. The Verify Text window opens and shows a picture of the original wor d and its surrounding ar ea. Mo dify the word in the Text Editor as necessary.

2. Click inside the window to enlarge or reduce the picture. The picture

is enlarged on the first two clicks and reduced on the next two clicks.

Close button

This is the word you doubleclicked in the Text Editor.

3. Continue double-clicking words that you want to verify, and

4. Click the Close button to close the verifier window.

Tip <RXVKRXOGSURRIUHDGDQGYHULI\WH[WVEHIRUHGRLQJODUJHVFDOH

HGLWLQJ,I\RXFXWDQGSDVWHODUJHEORFNVRIWH[WWKHOLQNVEHWZHHQWH[W DQGLPDJHPD\EHGLVWXUEHG

62 PROOFING AN D EDITING

correcting them as necessary. The display changes as you select new words.

USER DICTIONARIES

The program has built-in dictionaries for many languages. These assist during recognition and may offer suggestions during proofing. They can be supplemented by user dictionaries. You can save any number of user dictionaries, but only one can be loaded at a time. Your user dictionaries from Microsoft Word are also available; a dicti onary called Cust om is the default user dictionary for Microsoft Word.

Starting a user dictionary

Click Add in the OCR Proofreader dialog box with no user dictionary loaded or open the User Dictionary Files dialog box from the Tools menu and click New. Y o u will be asked to name the dictionary immediately.

Loading or unloading a user dictionary

Do this fro m th e OCR pan el of the Options d ialog box or fro m th e User Dictionary Files dialog box. Select a dictionary file to load it or unload a user dictionary.

Editing a user dictionary

Add words by loading a user dictionary and then clicking Add in the OCR Proofreader dialog box. You can add and delete words in the User Dictionary Files dialog box.

[none] to

Tip :KLOHHGLWLQJDXVHUGLFWLRQDU\\RXFDQLPSRUWDZRUGOLVWIURPD

WH[WILOHWRDGGZRUGVWRWKHGLFWLRQDU\TXLFNO\

THE EDITOR DISPLAY AND VIEWS

The editor displays recognized texts and can mark words that were suspected during recognition. Marking is done with a wavy underline; red underlines for words not found in a dictionary (this applies only to languages with dictionary support) and blue underlines for words containing suspect or reject characters. These markers can be shown or hidden as selected in the Text Editor panel of the Options dialog box. You can also show or hide non-printing characters and h eader/footer indicators. The Text Editor panel also lets you define a unit of

USER DICTIONARIES 63

measurement for the program and a word wrap setting for use in all Text Editor views except No Formatting view.

Here are the main differences between the views:

No Formatting view

This displays plain decolumnized left-aligned text in a single font and font size, with the same line breaks as in the original document. Most formatting buttons and dialog boxes are disabled. Rulers ar e not displayed. You may find this view convenient for verifying and editing the text.

Retain Fonts and Paragraphs view

This displays decolumnized text with font and paragraph styling. The horizontal ruler is displayed. You ma y find this view convenient for verifying, editing a nd modifying the text together with its styling.

True Page view

This view tries to conserve as much of the formatting of the original document as possible. Character and paragraph styling is retained. All page elements, including columns, are placed in frames. It may be more difficult to verif y and ed it text in this view; y ou may need to scr oll wi thin a frame to see all the frame contents. A row of arrows denote contents extending beyond frame borders.

Retain Flowing Columns view

This view is identical to True Page view, except that the reading order of zones is shown by arrows. This view differs from True Page during export, see the section Preparing recognition results for export in chapter 5.

Select a view with the four buttons at the bottom left of the Text Editor or from the View menu. Graphics and tables can appear in all four views.

TEXT AND IMAGE EDITING

This is a WYSIWYG Text Editor, providing many editing facilities. These work very similarly to those in leading word processors.

Editing character attributes

In all views except No Formatting view, you can change th e font t ype, size and attributes (bold, italic, underlined) for selected text. Use the

64 PROOFING AN D EDITING

Formatting toolbar or the Font dialog box from the Format menu. The latter also offers subscripts, superscripts and colored text or backgrounds.

In No F ormatting view you can use the Formatting toolbar to specify one font type and size to be applied to the whole document. This is not transferred to other views; their previous settings are restored.

Open the F o nt Ma tchin g dia log bo x f ro m the OCR pa nel o f th e Opt ion s dialog box to specify which fonts to use for text s enteri ng the Text Editor.

Editing paragraph attributes

In all views except No F ormatting view, you can change the alignment of selected paragraphs and apply bulleting to paragraphs. Use the Formatting toolbar or the Paragraph dialog box from the Format menu. The latter allows you to modify indents, line spacing and spacing between paragraphs. The Text Editor’s horizontal ruler lets you define indent and tab positions easily. Advanced tab settings are done in the Tabs dialog box from the Format menu.

Paragraph styles

Paragraph styles are auto-detected during recognition. A list of styles is built up and presented in a selection box on the left of the Formatting toolbar. Use this to assign a style to selected paragraphs. Use the Style dialog box from the Format menu to rename or modify a style and to define a new style. When you save a document to file, you can choose whether to export the paragraph styles wi th t he document or not. This is valid only if the target application supports paragraph styles.

Graphics

You can edit the contents of a selected graphic zone if you have an image editor in your computer. Click Edit Picture in the Tools menu. This will activate the image editor associated with BMP files in your Windows system, and load the graphic. Edit the graphic, then close the editor to have it reembedded in TextBridge Pro’s Text Editor. Do not change the graphic’s size, resolution or type, because this will prevent the reembedding.

Tables

Tables are displayed in the Text Editor in grids. Move the cursor into a table area. I t changes appearanc e, allowing yo u to move gri dlines. You can also use the Text Editor’s rulers to modify a table. Modify the placement

TEXT AND IMAGE EDITING 65

of text in t able cells with t he alig nment butt ons in the Formattin g toolba r and the tab controls in the ruler. When saving the document to file, you can choose whether to have the tables exported in grids or as tab separated columns.

PAGE OUTLINE

The Page outline window lets you change the order of areas on a page or of paragraphs inside areas. It also lets you define how text should flow if you export with Retain Flowing Columns view. Open the page outline window from the View menu. The areas correspond to the zones used during recognition and also to frames used in the Text Editor. Click and drag an item to the desired location. Reordered paragraphs display immediately in the Text Editor and are exported. Reordered ar eas display and are exported in No Formatting View and Retain Fonts and Paragraphs view. In True Page view they have no practical effect. In Retain Flowing Columns view, arrows show the order of text flow. Move areas to change this order. The positions of the areas do no t change, but the arrows show the changed text flow.

66 PROOFING AN D EDITING

5 Saving and exporting

Once you have acquired at least one image for a document, you can export the image(s) to file. Once you have recognized at least one page, you can export recognition results to a target application by:

1. Savi ng to file

2. Copying a docume nt to the Clipb oard

3. Sending a document as a mail attachment.

The document remains in TextBridge Pro after export. This allows you to save, copy or send it repeatedly, for example with different formatting levels, using different file types, names or locations. You can also add or rerecognize pages or modify the recognized text.

With automatic p rocessing and using the OCR Wizard, you specify the first saving destination before processing starts. When the last available page is recognized (or proofread, if that was requested), the exporting occurs.

You can specify export any time the program is not busy. If you ask to export a document with unrecognized pages, you will be asked whether they should be re cognized first. If you answer No, only results from recognized pages will be exported. If zones have been modified on recognized pages, you will be invited to rerecognize those pages before exporting.

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 67

PREPARING RECOGNITION RESULTS FOR EXPORT

Text is exported to file, Clipboard or mail with the formatting level defined by the view set in the Text Editor at expor t time, if that is possible. However, some export file types and target applications cannot support all f ormatting elements. You may be warned if there is a mismatch and of fered the highest permissible view. You can acc ept that, or cancel export, set a different view and restart the export.

The table in the section File types for saving recognition results in chapter 6 tells you which file typ es support which formatting levels.

Here is how you can use the views for export:

No Formatting view

This view is needed when exporting to ASCII, Unicode or other formats with extension .T XT. These fi le types cannot acce pt graphics or tables. Of course, you can export plain text to any file type and target application.

Retain Fonts and Paragraphs view

This is suitable for all formats except those with the TXT extensions. These formats can all handle graphics and tables.

True Page view

This is suitable on ly for file types and target applications capable of handling frames or text boxes. The reading order of zones, or areas reordered in the Page outline window have no influence when True Page is used for export.

Retain Flowing Columns view

Set this at export time to keep the original layout of the pages, including columns. This is done wherever possible with column settings, not with frames. Text will then flow from one column to the other, which does not happen when frames are used. Arrows show the text flow order. You can change this order with the Page outline window, as described at the end of chapter 4, in Page outline.

68 SAVING AND EXP ORTING

SAVING TO FILE

You can save recognized pages and original images to disk in a wide variety of file types. For tables of file types, see chapter 6, File types for opening and saving images and File types for saving recognition results.

Saving origina l im ages

1. Choose Save Image... in the File menu. In the dialog box that

appears, select a folder location and a file type for your images. Type in a file name.

2. Select to save the current image only or all images in the document.

In the second case you can have all images in a single multi-page image file, providing you set TIFF or DCX as file type. Otherwise each image is placed in a sep arate file. TextB ridge Pro adds numerica l suffixes to the file name you provide, to generate unique file names.

3. Click OK to save the image(s) as specified. Zones and recognize d text

are not saved with the file. If possible, the file is saved as displayed: that is black-and-white, grayscale or color. Black-and-white images are saved at their original resolutions. Grayscale and color images are reduced to approximately 150 dpi.

Tip To see the image size and original resolution of an image, hover the

cursor over it in the Original Image area or over its thumbnail in the Document Manager.

SAVING TO FILE 69

Select this to automatically open the saved file in its target application.

Select this to have the paragraph styles from the Text Editor export ed with the recognized text.

Saving recog nition resul t s

1. Choose Save As... in the File menu, or click the Export Results

button in the Manual OCR toolbar with Save as File selected in the drop-down list.

2. The Save As dialog box appears, as shown in its expanded form.

Click Advanced to open the lower panel and Basic to close it.

Choose from: Create one file for all pages

Create one file per page Create a new file at each blank page.

3. Select a folder location and a file type for your document. The special

4. Type in a file name. Click the Advanced button to see all the saving

5. Click OK. The document is saved to disk as specified. If ‘Save and

70 SAVING AND EXP ORTING

TXD file type is the last in the file type list.

options. Select these as desired .

Launch’ is selected, the exported file will appear in its target application; that is the one associated with the selected file type in your Windows system.

Note Graphics and formatting are saved in the document o n ly if the

selected file type supports them. The formatting level for export is the Editor view set at saving time. You will be warned if the formatting level is not supported by the export file type.

Note If more than one export file is created, TextBridge Pro will

append a numerical suffix to your file name to create unique file names. If you select ‘Create a new file at each bla nk p age’ with input from image files, see how to place blank images in the section Input from image files in chapter 3.

SAVING A DOCUMENT AS YOU WORK

Click the Save button in the Standard toolbar or choose Save in the File menu to save changes to the current document as you work. If you do this with an untitle d d ocument, the Save As dialog b ox appears.

With a named document, the Save command saves it to the name and format of its last save, as displayed in the title bar. If the document was last saved as a TextBridge Document, the save command updates this document: new or changed images, changed zoning, recognition results and some settings are all saved. If the document was last saved to a textbased file type, only changes to the recognition results are saved.

If you want to work with your document again in TextBridge Pro in a later session, save it as a TextBridge Document. This is a special output file type. I t sav es th e o rig inal images together with the r e co gnit io n r esult s and some settings. See the section TextBridge Documents in chapter 2. The Save As dialog box lists available file types in its Save as Type dropdown list. The TextBridge Document is the last format in the list.

SAVING A DOCUMENT AS YOU WORK 71

If you first save the document as a TextBridge Document (for instance as

memo.txd), then modify it and later save it to a text file (for instance as memo.txt), then modify it again and click Save, the recent changes are

saved to the

memo.txt file, not to the TXD. When you close the document

or exit the program, you will be prompted to save the document if it has not been saved as a TextBridge Document, or there are changes since the last TXD save.

COPYING A DOCUMENT TO THE CLIPBOARD

You can copy the recognition results from every recognized page of a document to the Clipboard. The copying is reported by a progress monitor. You can then paste the Clipboard contents into another application.

Text formatting, such as bold and italics, is retained when you paste into an application that supports RTF information. Otherwise, only plain text will be pasted. Graphics are retained if the application supports insertion of images.

t To copy a document to the Clipboard

• With automatic processing, select Copy to Clipboard as the

• With manual processing, select the Copy to Clipboard command in

72 SAVING AND EXP ORTING

command in the Export Results drop-down list on the AutoOCR toolbar or in the OCR Wizard. The text is sent to Clipboard as soon as the last available page is recognized or proofed.

the Export Results drop-down list and then click its button on the Manual OC R toolbar. Copying starts immediately.

SENDING A DOCUMENT AS A MAIL ATTACHMENT

You can send recognition results as one or more files attached to a mail message if you have install ed a MAPI- compliant mai l applicat ion, such as Microsoft Outlook.

t To send a document by e-mail

• With automatic processing, select Send as Mail as the command in

the Export Results drop-down list on the AutoOC R toolbar. The Send Mail dialo g bo x ap pea rs as soon as th e last available page in the document is recognized or proofed.

• With manual processing, select Send as Mail as the command in the

Export Results drop-down list and then click its button on the Manual OCR toolbar. The Send Mail dialog box appears immediately.

At any time the program is not busy, choose Send as Mail in the File menu to call up the Send Mail dialog box.

1. The Send Mail dialog box lets you specify a file type and attachment

2. Log into your mail application if you are prompted to do so.

options: one attachment for all pages, one attachment per page, new attachment at each bla nk page. Set all options an d click OK.

SENDING A DOCUMENT AS A MAIL ATTACHMENT 73

3. Your mail application appears with the attachment(s) in a new empty

message. Attachments take the name used for the last save of the document in TextBridge Pro, or ‘Untitled from TextBridge’. The suitable file exten sion is added, and nu merical suffixes for multiple attachments.

4. Address your mail message, add message text as desired and click the

Send button.

74 SAVING AND EXP ORTING

6 Technical information

This chapter provides troublesh ooting and other technical information about using TextBridge Pro 11.

Please also read the online Readme file and other help topics, or visit the ScanSoft web pages. The Scanner Information web page contains detailed and regularly updated information about scanner setup and support. The Readme file contains last-minute information relating to TextBridge Pro. Access to the Readme file and to ScanSoft’s web pages is provided in the Help menu.

This chapter contains the following information:

u Troubleshooting

• Solutions to try first

• Testing TextBridge Pro

• Low memory problems

• Low disk space problems

u Supported file types

• File types for opening and saving images

• File types for saving recognition results

• OCR problems

u OCR problems

• Text does not get recognized properly

• Problems with fax re cognition

• System or performance problems during OCR

u Unin stalling the software

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 75

TROUBLESHOOTING

Although TextBridge Pro is designed to be easy to use, problems sometimes occur. Many of the error messages contain self-explanatory descriptions of what to do – check connections, close other applications to free up memory, and so on. Sometimes that is all the troubleshooting help you need.

Please see your Windows documentation for information on optimizing your system and application performance.

Solutions to try first

Try the s e solutions if you experience proble ms starting or using TextBridge Pro:

u Make sure that your system meets all requirements listed under

System requirements in chapter 1.

u Make sure that your scanner is plugged in and that all cable

connections are secure.

u Visit the support section of ScanSoft’s web site at

www.scansoft.com. It contains Tech Notes on commonly reported issues using TextBridge P ro 11. O ur web pages may also offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.

76 TECHNIC AL INFORMATION

u Turn off your computer and your scanner, turn your scanner

back on, and then restart your computer. Make sure other applications are functioning properly.

u Use the software that came with your scanner to verify that the

scanner works p roperly before usi ng it with TextBr idge Pro.

u Make sure you have the correct drivers for your scanner, printer,

and video card. Visit the ScanSoft’s Scanner Information web page through the Help menu for more information.

u Run ScanDisk for Windows 95, 98 or Me, or Check Disk for

Windows NT and Windows 2000 to check your hard disk for errors. Se e Windows online Help for more information.

u Defragment your hard disk. See Windows online Help for more

information.

u Uninstall and reinstall TextBridge Pro, as described in the last

section, Uninstalling the software.

Testing TextBridge Pro

Restarting Windows 95, 98, 2000 or Me in safe mode or Windows NT in VGA mode allows you to test TextBridge Pro on a simplified system. This is recommended when you cannot resolve crashing problems or if TextBridge Pro has stopped running altogether. See Windows online Help for more information.

Note Your scanner will not ru n with TextBridge Pro in safe mode or

VGA mode, so do not test scanner problems in this configuration.

t To test TextBridge Pro in safe mode (Windows 95, 98, 2000 or Me):

1. Restart your computer in safe mode by pressing F8 immediately a fter

you see the ‘Starting Windows’ message.

2. Launch TextBridge Pro and t ry perfor mi ng OCR on an image. Use a

known image file, for insta nce one of t he suppl ied sampl e imag e fi les.

• If TextBridge Pro does not launch or run properly in safe mode, then there may be a problem wi th the installation. Uninstall and reinstall TextBridge Pro (see the end of this chapter), and then run it in Windows safe mode.

• If TextBridge Pro runs in safe mode, then a device driver on your system may be interfe ring with TextBridge Pro operation. Troubleshoot the proble m by restarting Windows in Step-by-Step Confirmation mode. See Windows online Help for more information.

t To test TextBridge Pro in VGA mode (Windows NT):

1. Restart your computer.

2. Select Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode] and

press Enter.

3. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager.

4. In the Task Manager dialog box, select all background applications

and click End Process. See Wind ows online Help for more information.

TROUBLESHOOTING 77

5. Launch TextBridge Pro and t ry perfor mi ng OCR on an image. Use a known image file such as one of the supplied sample files.

Note You can also r un TextBridge Pro 11 from a command line in its

own safe mode. Choose Start

É Run, browse for the file TextBridge.exe

and add the command line option /safe. This starts the program, but ignores previously stored settings and does not try to recover a document from an abnormal termination.

Low memory problems

TextBridge Pro may run poorly under low-memory conditions. This may be indicated by various error messages or if TextBridge Pro works slowly and accesses the hard drive often. Try these solutions for low memory conditions:

u Restart your computer. u Close other open applications to release memory. u Close unnecessary TextBridge Pro applications. u Defragment your hard disk to free up contiguous blocks of disk

space. See Windows online Help for instructions.

u Increase the amount of free hard disk space. u Increase your computer’s physical memory (RAM).

Low disk space pr o bl ems

Problems may occur if yo ur syst em runs low on free disk space. Try these solutions for low disk space problems:

78 TECHNIC AL INFORMATION

u More memory optimizes OCR performance. See System

requirements in chap ter 1 for more information.

u Empty the Windows Recycle Bin. u Close all open applicatio ns and delet e th e *.tmp files in the Temp

folder. This folder is usually located in your Windows folder.

u Run ScanDisk for Windows 95, 98 or Me, or Check Disk for

Windows NT or Windows 2000 to check for errors that may be using disk space. See Windows online Help for instructions.

u Back up unneeded files onto floppy disks or other media and

delete them from your hard disk.

u Remove Windows applications that you do not use. u Defragment your hard disk. See Windows online Help for

instructions.

u Clear the cache for your web browser and limit its size.

SUPPORTED FILE TYPES

The program supports a wide range of file types, as detailed below.

File types for opening and saving images

File type Extension

BMP, Bitmap *.bmp No Open and Save All DCX *.dcx Yes Open and Save All JPEG *.jpg No Open and Save Grayscale, color PCX *.pcx No Open and Save All PNG *.png No Open and Save All TIFF Compressed G3 *.tif Yes Open B/W TIFF Compressed G4 *.tif Yes Open and Save B/W TIFF PackBits *.tif Yes Open and Save All TIFF Uncompressed *.tif Yes Open and Save All

Multipage

Open / Save

B/W, Grayscale, Color

Input image files can have resolutions up to 600 dpi, but 300 dpi (both horizontally and vertically) is r ecommended for optimum OCR accuracy. The program stores black-and-white images at their original resolution, but grayscale and color images are not usually saved above 150 dpi. Hover the cursor ov er an image for a popup window sho wing the size a nd resolution of the original image.

Note If you try to save a black-and-white image to JPEG format, the

program will offer conversion to grayscale. With TIFF G3 and G4 it will offer conversion to black-and-whi t e.

SUPPORTED FILE TYPES 79

File types for saving recognition results

File type

ASCII text Excel (3.0 to 7.0, 97, 2000) *.xls NFV, RFP (Spreadsheet) Yes FrameMaker (5.5.3) *.mif All Yes Freelance Graphics *.txt No Formatting view (NFV) No Harvard Graphics *.txt No Form atting view (NFV) No

HTML 3.2 PowerPoint 97 *.rtf All Yes Microsoft Publisher 98 *.rtf All Yes Word for Windows (6.0, 97, 2000) *.doc All Yes PageMaker 6.5.2 *.doc All Yes Quattro Pro for Windows 4.0, 8 *.xls NFV, RFP (Spreadsheet) No

Rich Text Format (RTF) 6.0/95 Unicode Text 1

Ventura Publisher *.doc All Yes WordPad *.rtf WordPerfect (5.1,5.2,6.0,6.1,8,9,10) *.wpd All Yes

TextBridge Document *.txd All Yes

Extension

*.txt/.csv No Formatting view (NFV) No

*.htm All

*.rtf All Yes *.txt/.csv No Formatting view (NFV) No

Format levels (Text Editor views)

NFV, RFP

Supports graphics

Yes

1 ASCII and Unicode text can be with flowing text, with line breaks or comma

2 When saving to HTML, all graphics are saved as separate image files using

3 Recognition results are sent to Clipboard in this format and will be pasted in

4 Unicode text can handle the widest range of accented characters. 5 True Page or Retain Flowing Columns (RFC) views will not be refused, but

80 TECHNIC AL INFORMATION

separated. The latt er have the ext ension .cs v and are used for pla in text input of tables into spreadsheet programs.

JPEG format.

RTF if possible, and as Unicode or ASCII text if not.

will appear as Retain Fonts and Paragraphs (RFP) view, this is, without columns.

OCR PROBLEMS

This section contains information and solutions for possible OCR problems. First we provide suggestions for improving recognition accuracy, second on getting good results from fax input and finally on system or performance problems arising during OCR.

Text does not get recognized properly

Try thes e solutions if any part of the origin al document is not co nve rted to text properl y during OCR:

u Look at the original page image and ensure that all text areas are

enclosed by text zones. If an area is not enclosed by a zone, it is generally ignored during OCR. See the section on creating and modifying zones, Working with zones, in chapter 3.

u Make sure text zones are identified correctly. Reidentify zone

types and contents, if necessary, and perform OCR on the document again. See Zone properties in chapter 3.

u Be sure you do not have an unsuitable template loaded by

mistake. If zone borders cut through text, recognition is impaired.

u Adjust the brightness and contrast sliders in the Scanner panel of

the Options dialog box. You may need to experi me nt with different settings combinati ons to get the desired results.

u Check the resolution of the original image. Ho ver the cursor over

the Original Image area for a popup display. If the resolution is significantly above or below 300 dpi, recognition is likely to suffer.

u Make sure the correct document languages are selected in the

OCR panel of the Options dialog box. Only languages included in the document should be selected.

u If you use True Page as the Text Editor view or for export,

recognized text is put into frames (fo rmatting boxes). Some text may be hidden if a frame is too small. To view the text, place the cursor in the te xt frame and us e the arr o w keys on y our keybo ar d to scroll to the top, bottom, left, or right of the frame.

OCR PROBLEMS 81

u Check the glass, mirrors, and lenses on your scanner for dust,

smudges, or scratches. Clean if necessary.

Note TextBridge Pro only recognizes machine printed-text characters

such as typewritten or laser -printed text. It can handle dot-matrix characters, though accura cy may be lower on draft-qualit y texts. It cannot read handprint or handwriting. H owev er, it can retain signatures or other handwritten text as a graphic.

Problems with fax recognition

Try these soluti ons to improve OCR accuracy on fax images:

u Ask senders to use clean, original documents if possible. u Ask senders to select Fine or Best mode when they send you a

fax. This produces a resolution of 200 x 200 dpi.

u Ask senders to transmit files directly to your computer via fax

modem if you both have one. You can save fax images as image files and then load them into TextBridge Pro. See the section Input from image files in chapter 3.

System or performance problems during OCR

Try these solutions if a crash occurs during OCR or if processing takes a very long time:

82 TECHNIC AL INFORMATION

u Resolve low memory problems. See Testing TextBridge Pro. u Resolve low disk space problems. See Testing TextBridge Pro. u Minimize all applicat ions or click Alt +Tab to check for Window s

error messages.

u Check the quality of the image you are recognizing. u Consult your scanner documentation on ways to improve the

quality of scanned images.

u Break complex p age images (lo ts of te xt and gra phics or el aborate

formatting) into smaller jobs. Draw zones manually or modify automatically cre ated zones and per form OCR on one pa ge area at a time. See th e sect io n in ch ap ter 3 o n c r eat in g an d mod ifyi ng zones, Working with zones.

u Restart Windows 95, 98 and Me and 2000 in safe mode, or

Windows NT and in VGA mode and test TextBridge Pro by performing OCR on the included sample image files

. See the

section Testing TextBridge Pro.

If you are performing multiple tasks at once, such as recognizing and printing, OCR may take longer.

UNINSTALLING THE SOFTWARE

Sometimes uninstalling and then reinstalling TextBridge Pro will solve a problem. TextBridge Pro’s Uninstall program will not remove any of the following user-created files:

Zone templates ( User dictionaries ( TextBridge Documents (

*.zon)

*.ud)

*.txd)

To uninstall from Windows NT or Windows 2000, you must be logged into your computer with administrator privileges.

t To uninstall or reinstall TextBridge Pro:

u Close TextBridge Pro. u Click Start in the Window s taskbar and choose Settings É

Contro l Panel É Add/Remove Programs.

u Select TextBridge Pro and click C hange. u Click Next in the dialog box that appears. u Select Remove or Repair, then Next. u Follow instructions until the process is finished.

UNINSTALLING THE SOFT WARE 83

84 TECHNIC AL INFORMATION

I NDEX

Accuracy

improvement, 31, 49 influence of brightness, 50 influence of OC R method,

scanning mode influence, 49 Acquire Text menu item Acquire Text Settings Acquired page Acquiring images Add Job Wizard Adding

pages to a document, 41

to zones, 53

words to a user dictionary, 61 ADF

, 31, 48, 50 Alignment of paragraphs Alphanumeric zone Area reordering ASCII text output Attachments to mail messages

73 Auto-detect zone Automatic Document Feeder

(ADF) Automatic processing AutoOCR AutoOCR toolbar Auto-zoning

, 26

, 21, 42

, 47

, 66

, 80

, 51, 55

, 30, 48, 50

, 25, 40

, 31, 40, 51

, 45

, 24

, 54

, 25, 40

Basic processing steps Black-and-white

, 21

images, 69

scanning, 49 Bold text Brightness

, 24, 64

, 50, 81

Changing

paragraph order, 66

text flow between columns,

66 the order of areas, 66 zone types, 55

Character attribu tes Checking OCR results Clipboard Closing a document Color

images, 69 markers, 61 scanning, 49

Columns

changing text flow, 66 in tables, 56

Command buttons for automatic

processing

Comparing recognized words

with originals

Contents of TextBridge

Documents

Context-Sensitive Help

Contrast Control over processing Conversion of images

, 72

, 50, 81

, 65

, 62

, 29

, 41

, 62

, 71

, ix, 23,

, 42

, 79

Copying

and pasting text, 23 document to Clipboard, 38,

72 Custom Layout Customizing columns in Deta il

view

, 28

Cutting and pasting text

, 31, 52

, 23

Deferred processing Deleting

a zone template, 57 pages, 26, 28

Describing document layout

51 Desktop Detail view

Direct OCR Disk space Dividers, placing in tables Document

, 22

customizing colum ns in, 28

description of, 27

in Document Manager, 22

, 31, 45

, 12, 78

closing, 29

copying to Clipboard, 38, 72

double-sided, 51

export, 21

finishing, 41

in TextBridge Pro, 21

layout description, 51

managing, 26

overview, 26

, 29

, 40,

, 24

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 85

saving, 67 saving as you work, 30, 71 unfinished, 29

with varied layout, 51 Document Manager Dot-matrix texts Double-sided documents Drawing zones Drivers for scanners Dropping graphics from export

70 Duplex scanners

, 22, 26

, 82

, 51

, 46

, 14

, 51

Editing

a user dictionary, 63

character attributes, 64

graphics, 65

paragraph attributes, 65

recognized text, 24, 65

table dividers, 24, 56

table grids, 56

tables, 65 Effect of settings Export Results button Exporting

file types for, 80

graphics, 70

preparing for, 68

repeated, 67, 71

to a target application, 21,

42, 67 to Clipboard, 72 to file, 70

, 32

, 40, 43

Fax recognition Features new to version 11 of

TextBridge Pro

File

as export target, 69 as image source, 48 retained on uninstalling, 83

, 82

, 18

separation options, 70, 73 types, 70 types for export, 68, 80 types, supported, 79

Finding

non-dictionary words, 60

suspect words, 60 Finishing a doc ument Formatting levels

80 Formatting levels for export Formatting toolbar Frames

in export document, 68

recognized text in, 81

Generating table dividers Get Page butt o n Getting online Help Graphic zone Graphics

editing, 65

in export, 70, 80

in JPEG files, 80 Grayscale

images, 69

scanning, 49

, 55

Help

Context-Sensitive, ix, 23, 30

online, ix Hiding or showing markers

Ignore zon e Image

acquiring, 21, 42

black-and-white, 69

color, 69

conversion, 79

, 55

, 41

, 38, 47, 60, 64,

, 68

, 22, 24

, 57

, 40, 42

, ix

, 63

grayscale, 69 quality, 50 resolution, 27, 69, 79, 81 rotating, 24 saving, 69, 79 size, 27

Image file

input, 20, 48 opening, 79 reading order, 48 samples, 77

types, 79 Image toolbar Improving accur acy Incomplete automatic

processing Input

from image file, 48

from scann e r, 49 Inserting table dividers Installing

a scanner, 14

TextBridge Pro, 13 Interface language Interrupting automatic

processing Irregular zones Italic text

, 22, 24

, 31, 49

, 41

, 56

, 31

, 41

, 24, 53

, 24, 64

Jobs in Schedule OCR Joining zones

, 53

, 47

Language

for recognition, 31, 38, 81

for user interface, 31 Launch target application Layout description Load File dialog box Loading

a user dictionary, 63

a zone template, 52, 57

, 37, 40, 51

, 48

, 70

86 INDEX

Low disk space problems Low memor y problems

, 78

Mail

as export target, 73

attachments, 73 Managing documents Manual processing Manual zoning Marked words in Text Editor Markers Matching editor view with file

Memory requirements Menu bar Minimum system requirements

Modifying a zone template Moving

MS Outlook Multi-page image files

Multiple column page s Multiple column zone

, 61, 63

type

, 68, 80

between pages, 26

table dividers, 56

, 24, 42, 53

, 23

, 73

, 26

, 25, 42

, 63

, 12, 78

, 57

, 48, 69,

, 52

, 54

New features in version 11 of

TextBridge Pro New file on blank page No Formatting view Non-dictionary words in

proofing Non-printing characters Numeric zone

, 60

, 18

, 48

, 60, 64, 68

, 24

, 54

OCR

, 81 AutoOCR, 25, 40 AutoOCR toolbar, 25, 40

checking OCR results, 62 definition, 20 Direct OCR, 31, 45 jobs in Schedule OCR, 47 method, 31, 38 performing OCR, 21 poor performance during, 82 proofreadin g results, 60 register applications for

Direct OCR, 45 Schedule OCR, 47 settings, 30 settings for Direct OCR, 45 Wizard, 36, 37, 39

Online

HTML Help, ix

registration, 17

Opening

image files, 48, 79 TextBridge Documents, 16,

Optical character recognition Optimizing brightness Options

proofing, 31

Options dialog box Original Image

area, 22 saving, 69, 79

Overview

of document, 26 of processing steps, 21

Page

acquired, 26 adding to a document, 41 deleting, 26, 28 Get Page button, 40, 42 moving between pages, 26 multi-page image files, 48,

69, 79 multiple column, 52

, 30

, 50

, 20

navigation, 22 new file on blank page, 48 outline, 66 proofed, 26 recogniz ed, 26 reordering, 26 rerecognizing all, 41 selectin g multiple , 26 single column, 52, 54 single co lumn page s with

tables, 52 spreadsheet pages, 52 status, 26 zoned, 26

PaperPort Paragraph

alignment, 24 changing order, 66 editing attributes, 65 reordering, 66 retaining paragraph styles, 70 styles, 24, 65, 70

Perform OCR button Performance problems during

OCR

Performing

OCR, 21 recognition, 43

Placing dividers in tables Preparing recognition results for

export

Printing

a document, 28 images, 2 3 recognition results, 23

Problems with fax recognition

Process options Processing

automatically, 25, 40 basic steps of, 21 documents automatically, 40

, 46

, 40, 43

, 82

, 24

, 68

, 31

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 87

documents in future sessions,

29 documents manually, 42 from other applications, 45 incomplete automatic

processing, 41 interrupting automatic

processing, 41 manually, 25, 42 restarting automatic

processing, 41 step-by-step, 42 steps, over vi ew, 21 stopping automatic

processing, 41 switching between manual

and automatic processing,

25, 44 with OCR Wizard, 37

Proofed page Proofing

in later sessions, 29 options, 31, 38, 60

Proofreading

OCR results, 60 Proofreader dialog box, 38,

Properties of zones Purpose of TXD files

, 26

, 24, 54

, 29

Quality of images

, 50

Reading

order of imag e files, 48

Recognition

languages, 31, 38, 81 performing, 42 preparing re sults for expor t,

68 problems with fax

recognition, 82

saving results, 70

speeding up, 82 Recognized page Rectangular zones Registering

applications for Direct OCR,

TextBridge Pro, 17 Reinstalling Textbridg e Pro Remote proofing Removing table dividers Reordering

area, 66

pages, 26

paragraph, 66

zones, 24, 54 Repeated exporting Replacing a zone template Rerecognizing all pages Resizing Resizing zones Resolution

Restarting automatic processing Retain Flowing Columns view Retain Fonts and Paragraphs Retaining paragraph styles

Rotating images Rows in tables

, 24

images, 27, 69, 79, 81

saved images, 69

60, 64, 68

view

, 60, 64, 68

, 26

, 53

, 83

, 29

, 56

, 67, 71

, 57

, 41

, 53

, 70

, 24

, 56

Safe mode Sample images files Saving

as TextBridge Document,

documents, 67

documents as you work, 71

images, 69

, 77

30, 71

original images, 69, 79 recognition results, 70 Save and Launch, 70 text, 70 to file, 38, 69 to TXD format, 30 zone template, 57

Scanner

Scanning

Schedule OCR Selecting multiple p ag e s Send Mail dialog box

Sending a document as a mail

Setting up a scanner Setting up Direct OCR Settings

Shortcut Single-column

Slow recognition Solutions for poor performance

, 49, 82 drivers, 14 duplex, 51 setting up, 14

black-and-white, 49 brightness, 30, 50 color, 49 contrast, 30 grayscale, 49 input from, 4 9 installi ng, 14 picture, 49 Wizard, 14

, 47

, 26

, 73

attachment

acquire Text, 45 effect of settings, 32 for Direct OCR, 45 in Options dialog box, 30 settings in OCR Wizard, 39 zone types, 56

pages, 52, 54 pages with tables, 52 zone, 54

, 73

, 14

, 45

, 55

, 82

88 INDEX

Speed maximised Splitting zones Spreadsheet pages Standard toolbar Starting a user dictionary Starting the program Step-by-step processing Stopping automatic processing

41 Subtracting from zones Suggestion from dictionaries for

proofing Supplementing template zones

57 Supported file types Suspect words in proofing Switching between manual and

automatic processing Switching between Text Editor

views

, 64

System or performance problems

during OCR System requirements

, 31

, 54

, 52

, 22, 23

, 63

, 14

, 42

, 54

, 61

, 79

, 60

, 25, 44

, 82

, 12

Tables

columns in, 56

dividers, placing in tables, 24

editing, 65

editing dividers, 24, 56

editing grid s, 56

generating dividers, 57

in single column pages, 52

inserting dividers, 56

moving dividers, 56

placing dividers in, 24

removing dividers, 56

rows in, 56

table handling in Text

Editor, 65

zones, 24, 55, 56 Task Manager Technical information

, 77

, 75

Templates, zone Testing TextBridg e Pro Text

Acquire Text Settings, 45 ASCII output, 80

attributes text, 24 Text Editor Text saving TextBridge desktop TextBridge Document

contents of, 71

definition, 29

opening, 16, 48

opening from icon, 16

purpose of TXD files, 29

saving as, 29, 71 TextBridge Pro

documents in, 21

earlier version, 1 3

installi ng, 13

new features of, 18

registering, 17

reinstalling, 83

starting, 14

testing, 77

uninstalling, 83 TextBridge Toolbox Thumbnail view TIFF images files Troubleshooting True Page view TWAIN TXD files

, 14

definition, 29

purpose of, 29

saving to, 30

, 52, 57, 81

, 77

, 22, 32, 60, 63

, 70

, 22

, 22, 25, 40

, 22, 26

, 79

, 75, 76

, 60, 64, 68

Underlined text Unfinished documents Unicode text output Uninstalling TextBridge Pro Unit of measurement

, 24, 64

, 29

, 80

, 32

, 83

Unloading a user dict iona ry Unloading a zone templa te User dictionaries

adding words, 61 editing, 63 loading, 63 starting, 63 unloading, 63

Using Direct OCR

, 61, 63

, 45

Verifying text VGA mode Views

Customizing columns in

Detail view, 28 Detail view, 22, 27 Detail view columns, 28 Matching editor view with

file type, 68, 80 No Formatting view, 60, 64,

68 Retain Flowing Columns

view, 60, 64, 68 Retain Fonts and Paragraphs

view, 60, 64, 68 Switching between Text

Editor views, 64 Thumbnail view, 22, 26 True Page view, 60, 64, 68 Views in Editor, 60, 64

, 62

, 77

Wizard

for processing, 37 for scanner instal lation, 14

Word wrapping Working with zones

, 32

, 53

Zones

adding to, 53

, 63

, 57

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’S GUI DE 89

alphanumeric, 54 auto-detect, 51, 55 changing types, 55 deleting a t e mplate, 5 7 drawing, 46 graphic, 55 ignore zone, 55 irregular, 24, 53 joining, 53 manual, 24, 53, 81, 82 modifying a template, 57

multiple column, 54 numeric, 54 on page, 26 properties, 24, 54 rectangular, 53 reordering, 24, 54 replacing a template, 57 resizing, 24, 53 saving a template, 57 setting types, 56 single-column, 54

splitting, 54 subtracting from, 54 supplementing templates, 57 table, 24, 55, 56 table zone tools, 24 templates, 52, 57, 81 types, 54, 81 unloading a template, 58 working with, 53

Zoning Instructions Zooming displays

, 43

, 23

90 INDEX

ScanSoft TEXTBRIDGE PRO 11 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual