Xerox PE16i-3113 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 Departme nt at ScanSoft, Inc., 9 Cent ennial Drive, Peabody, Massachusetts 01960, United States of America.
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 NOTI CE
I
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
T
ScanSoft, OmniPage, OmniPage SE, OmniPage Pro, PaperPort, Pagis, True Page, Direct OCR, AutoOCR, OCR Proof reader are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc., in the
United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and tradenames are hereby recognized and may be registered to their
respective holders.
ScanSoft, Inc.
9 Centennial Drive Peabody, MA 01960, United States of America
Part Number 58-28001-05A
C ONTENTS
WELCOME VII
Using this guide viii Getting online help ix
Online HTML Help ix Context-Sensitive H e lp ix Tech Notes x Glossary x
OmniPage SE x
1INSTALLATION AND SETUP 11
System requirements 12 Installing OmniPage SE 13 Setting up your scanner with OmniPage SE 14 How to start the program 16 Registering your software 17 New features in OmniPage Pro 11 18 OmniPage SE and OmniPage Pro 11 19
2INTRODUCTION 21
What is optical character recognition 22
OmniPage SE’s OCR capabilities 22 Documents in OmniPage SE 23 Basic processing steps 23
The OmniPage SE desktop 24
The Standard t oolbar 25
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE iii
The Menu bar 25 The Image toolbar 26 The Formatting toolbar 26 The OmniPage Toolbox 27
Managing documents 28
Thumbnail view 28 Detail view 29 Customizing columns in Detail view 30 Deleting pages from a document 30 Printing a document 30 Closing a document 31
OmniPage Documents
Why save to OPD 32 How to save to OPD 32
Settings 33
31
3 TUTORIAL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS 35
Quick Start Guide 36
Loading and recognizing sample image files 36
Scanning and recognizing a single page 36 Processing documents using the OCR Wizard 39 Processing documents automatically 42
Command buttons 43 Processing documents manually 44 Processing a document automatically and
finishing it manually 46
Processing from other applications 47
How to set up Direct OCR 47
How to use Direct OCR 47
iv CONTENTS
How to use OmniPage SE with your
PaperPort software 48
Processing documents with Schedule OCR 49 Defining the source of page images 50
Input from image files 5 0
Input from scanner 51
Scanning with an ADF 52
Scanning long documents without an ADF 53 Describing the layout of the document 53 Manual zoning 55
Working with zones 55
Zone properties 56 Table grids in the image 58 Using zone templates 59
4 PROOFING AND EDITING 61
Proofreading OCR results 62 Checking recognized text against original 63 User dictionaries 64 IntelliTrain 65 The editor display and views 68 Text and image editing 69 Reading text aloud 70 Page outline 72
5 SAVING AND EXPORTING 73
Preparing recognition results for export 74 Saving to file 75
Saving original images 75
Saving recognition results 76 Saving a document as you work 77 Copying a document to the Clipboard 78 Sending a document as a mail attachment 79
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE v
6 TECHNICAL INFORMATION 81
Troubleshooting 82
Solutions to try first 82
Testing OmniPage SE 83
Low memory problems 84
Low disk space problems 84 Supported file types 85
File types for opening and saving images 85
File types for saving recognition results 86
Saving to PDF 87 OCR problems 88
Text does not get recognized properly 88
Problems with fax recognition 89
System or perform ance problems duri ng OCR 89 Uninstalling the software 90
INDEX 91
vi CONTENTS

Welcome

Welcome to OmniPage SETM, and thank you for using our software! The following documentation has been provided to help you get started and give you an overview of the program.
This User’s Guide
This Guide introduces you to using OmniPage SE. 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
OmniPage SE’s online Help contains information on features, settings, and proced ures . The on line H elp is pr o vided as HTML he lp , and has been designed for quick and easy information retrieval. Comprehensive context-sensitive help aims to provide just enough assistance to let y ou keep working wi thout delay. Please see the se ction Getting online help.
Readme File
The Readme file cont ains last -minute info rmation about the softwa re. Please read it before using OmniPage SE. To open this HTML file, choose Readme in the OmniPage SE 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 web site from the OmniPage SE Installer or afterwards from the Help menu.
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE vii

USING THIS GUIDE

This Guide is written with the assumption that you know how to work in the Microsoft Windows environment. Please refer to your Windows documentation if you have questions about how to use dialog boxes, menu commands, scroll bars, drag and drop functionality, shortcut menus, and so on.
We also assume you are familiar with your scanner and its supporting software, and that the scanner is installed and working correctly before it is setup with OmniPage SE. 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 accompl ish specific tasks.

GETTING ONLINE HELP

In addition to using this Guide, you can use OmniPage SEs online Help to learn about features, settings, and procedures. Online Help is available after you install OmniPage SE.

Online HTML Help

Open OmniPage SE’s online Help at its top level by choosing OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE menu item, toolbar button, screen area or dialog box, in the following ways:
Click the Help button in the Standard toolbar to get the help icon. Click this on any item on the deskto p outside a di alog bo x or warnin g 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.
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE ix

Tech Notes

ScanSoft’s web site at www.scansoft.com contains Tech Notes on commonly reported issues using OmniPage SE. 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 oss ary, with its own alphabetical i ndex an d a table of contents. Please consult it if you want to find the meaning of a term used in this Guide or in the program.

OMNIPAGE SE

The product you have is a Special Edition of the world-renown OmniPage ProTM software. This edition has been developed for distribution by selected scanner manufacturers and contains a subset of the features of the OmniPage Pro 11 product. This Guide and the online Help de s cri be th e features of the ful l p ro duct, us ing a n SE ic on to document the differences between the two products.
x WELCOME
If you find the additional features of the professional product would be of benefit to you, you can use online facilities to upgrade your Special Edition to OmniPage Pro 11.
1

Installation and setup

This chapter provides information on installing and starting OmniPage SE. It presents the following topics:
u System requirements u Installing OmniPage SE u Setting up your scanner with OmniPage SE u How to start the program u Registering your software u New features in OmniPage Pro 11 u OmniPage SE and OmniPage Pro 11
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 11

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

You need the following minimum system requirements to inst all and run OmniPage SE:
u A computer with a Pentium or higher processor u Microsoft Windows 95, Window s 98, Windows ME, Windows
2000, or Windows NT 4.0
u 32MB of memory (RAM), 64MB recommended u 75MB of free hard di sk space for the applica tion files plus 10MB
working sp ace during installation
u 9MB for Microsoft Inst aller (MSI) if n ot present and 44M B 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.
12 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
Note Performance and speed will be enhanced if your computer’s
processor, memory, and available disk space exceed minimum requirements.

INSTALLING OMNIPAGE SE

OmniPage SEs installation program takes you through installation with instructions on every screen.
Before installing OmniPage SE:
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.
u If you have previous OmniPage software on your system, the
installer will ask for your consent to uninstall that software first.
t To install OmniPage SE:
1. Insert OmniPage SE’s CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive. The installation program sho uld start automatically. 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. This language will be used for the Text-to-Speech system and as the program’s interface language. 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 OmniPa ge SE, but your choice at installation time determines which Text-to-Speech system will be installed with the program. References to the Text-to­Speech faciliy do not apply to OmniPage SE.
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 OmniPage SE will
solve a problem. See Uninstalling the software at the end of chapter 6.
INSTALLING OMNIPAGE SE 13
Note In OmniPage Pro 11, Text-to-Speech is available for English
(British and US), French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish. This is not available in OmniPage SE. See also the section Reading text aloud in chapter 4.

SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH OMNIPAGE SE

All files needed for scanner setup and support are copied automatically during the program’s installation. Before using OmniPage SE for scanning, your scanner should be correctly installed and tested for correct functionality.
Scanner installa tion and setup ar e done throug h the Scan ner W izar d. You can start this yourself, as described belo w. Otherwise, the Scanner Wizard appears when you first attempt to perform scanning from OmniPage SE.
Please follow these steps to use the Scanner Wizard to setup your scanner with OmniPage SE:
u Choose StartÉProgramsÉScanSoft OmniPage SEÉ 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 OmniPage Tool box.
14 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
u Choose Select scanning source, then click Next. u Click once on your scanners TWAIN driver to select it, 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 approp riate 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. 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 approp riate 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 s electi ons. O nce the 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 approp riate selections. Once the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next.
u You have successfully configured your scanner to work with
OmniPage SE! Click on Fi nish.
SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH O MNIPAGE SE 15
To change the scanner settings at a later 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 OmniPage SEÉScanner Wizard or u StartÉProgramsÉScanSoft OmniPage SEÉOmniPage
SE
ÉTools menuÉOptionsÉScannerÉSetup 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.

HOW TO START THE PROGRAM

To start OmniPage SE do one of the following:
u Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose
Programs
u Double-click the OmniPage SE icon in the program’s installa tion
folder or on the Windows desktop if you placed it there.
ÉScanSoft OmniPage SEÉOmniPage SE.
16 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
u Double-click an OmniPage Document (OPD) icon or file name;
the clicked document is loaded into the program. See OmniPage Documents in chapter 2.
On opening, OmniPage SE’s title screen is displayed and then its desktop . See chapter 2 for a n introduction to OmniPage SE’s desktop.
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 OmniPage SEÉ Schedule OCR. See Processing documents with Schedule OCR in chapter 3.
u Click Acquire Text from the File menu of an application
registered with the Direct OCR facility. See How to set up 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 OmniPage SE with ScanSoft’s PaperPort
®
or Pagis® document management products, to add OCR services. See How to use OmniPage SE 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 fi ve m inutes.
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 invi ted to register later. You can go to www.scansoft.com to register online. Click on Support and from the main support screen choose Register on the left-hand column.
For a statement on the use of your registration data, please see ScanSoft’s Privacy Policy.
REGISTERING YOUR SOFTWARE 17

NEW FEATURES IN OMNIPAGE PRO 11

The OmniPage® product family i s augmented by OmniPage Pro 11 and OmniPage SE. This section lists enhancements introduced in the professional product OmniPage Pro 11. Some of these are incorporated in OmniPage SE, as detailed in the next section.
New features in OmniPage Pro 11 compared to OmniPage Pro 10 are:
u Greater accuracy - redeveloped recognition engines make
OmniPage Pro 11 the most accurate OmniPage ever.
u Improved page layout - OmniPage Pro 11 will allow you to retain
formatting that is true to the original, even on pages with non­gridded table s, headers and foote rs and dropped capitals.
u More intellige nt proofread ing - new IntelliTrain feature
automatically u ses previous corrections to generate better OCR results.
u PDF capability - now you can import PDF files (even read-only
files) and convert them to your favorite program files (Word, Excel, etc.). You can also create PDF files from any paper document or image files.
18 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
u Better HTML - new WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) HTML output will handle graphics, text, and backgrounds to keep your web output l ooking like the origi nal document.
u Language support - OmniPage Pro 11 now supports over 100
languages and extends to the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets.
u Detail view - this pro vides mor e custo mizable infor mati on about
each page, making it easier to handle pages in a document.
u Text Editor - a new fully-featured WYSIWYG editor for
recognition results, with a wide range of editing tools, color support, and a choice of four formatting levels for display and export.
u Better results on degraded text - a new despeckle module
significantly reduces errors on spotty, shaded and color backgrounds.

OMNIPAGE SE AND OMNIPAGE PRO 11

This list documents features which are not incorporated in OmniPage SE, but which can become available by upgrading to OmniPage Pro 11:
u Significant improvement in recognition accuracy. u Access to the IntelliTrain character training facility. u Abitity to open and read the contents of PDF files. u Ability to save recognized documents to PDF format. u Ability to open TIFF FX image files. u Handling LZW TIFF and GIF image files for input and output. u Support for WYSIWYG HTML 4.0 output. u Language support rises from about 50 to over a hundred. u Access to text-to-speech software, allowing recognized texts to be
read aloud.
For more information or to upgrade, please visit www.scansoft.com, make a selection from the country/continent list if you prefer a different language, then click on the OmniPage icon.
OMNIPAGE SE AND OMNIPAGE PRO 11 19
20 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
2

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 OmniPage SE uses OCR technology to transform text from scanned pages or image files into editable text for use in your favorite computer applications.
The chapter includes the following sections:
u What is optical character recognition
u Documents in OmniPage SE u Basic processing steps
u The OmniPage SE desktop u Managing documents u OmniPage Documents u Settings
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 21

WHAT IS OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION

Optical charac ter 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, OmniPage SE 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.

OmniPage SE’s OCR capabilities

In addition to text recog n ition, OmniPage SE can retain the following elements of a document through the OCR process.
Graphics
Photos, logos, and drawings are examples of graphics.
Text formatting
Font types, sizes and styles (such as bold, italic and underlines examples of character formatti ng. Inden ts, tabs, margi ns and lin e spacin g are examples of paragraph formatting.
Images do not have editable text
) are
22 INTRODUCTION
Page formatting
Column structure, table format s, and placement of gr aphics and h eadings are examples of page formatting.
The graphics, text and page formatting elements that OmniPage SE retains are deter m ined by the settin gs you select. Refer to the Settings Guidelines in the online Help for more information about selecting settings.
Note OmniPage SE 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.

Documents in OmniPage SE

OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE.
You c an scan a paper document with or without 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.
During OCR, OmniPage SE creates zones around elements on the page that will be p rocessed, and then int erprets 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.
3. Export the document to the desired location.
You can save your document to a specified file name and type, place it on the Clipboar d, or se nd it as a mai l attac hment. You can save it as an OmniPage Document (OPD) 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 23
Standar d toolbar OmniPage
Toolbox
The current page has a pale border.
This page has been recognized.
Thumbnail view shows a picture of each page in the document.

THE OMNIPAGE SE DESKTOP

OmniPage SEs desktop has a title bar and a menu bar along the top and 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 M anager has two tabbed pa nels: Thumbnail view and Detail view. The Original Image area has an Image toolbar and the Text Editor has a Formatting toolbar.
Formatting toolbar
Page navigation buttons
Buttons to show, hide or rearrange the working areas.
24 INTRODUCTION
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.
The OmniPage 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 docum ent. P ag e one is t he curre nt 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 botto m right of the thu m bnail images 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 area.

The Standard toolbar

The Standard toolbar contains buttons and a drop-down list for performing standa rd tasks. It can be floated and docked to any e dge of the OmniPage SE desktop. All these functions can also be accessed from menus.
New start a new document.
Open an OmniPage Document
Save the current document under 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 t hen 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.
THE O MNIPAGE SE DESKTOP 25
Zoom the active area: Original Image or Text Editor.
Context­sensitive Help

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 on the page. See chapter 3, Manual zoning and Table grids in the image. Here we summarize the purpose of the buttons. The Image toolbar can be f loated (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 Text and image editing in chapter
4. 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
26 INTRODUCTION
Font name Font size
Bold Underline
Paragraph
alignment
BulletsItalic
Show/hide non-
printing characters.

The OmniPage Toolbox

This Toolbox lets you drive the processing. By default it is located along the top of the OmniPage SE 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 le ft: 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 OmniP ag e desktop wi th the Ma nual OCR toolbar. The AutoOCR toolbar looks like 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 explained in Processing documents automatically in chapter 3. The effects of other settings are also described in chapter 3, Tutorial: Processing
documents
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 working within a docu me nt. 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 in the section Processing a document automatically and finishing it manually.
OmniPage SE must be empty when you start the OCR Wizard. See the section Processing documents using the OCR Wizard in chapter 3. When you have used the OCR Wizard 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 O MNIPAGE SE DESKTOP 27

MANAGING DOCUMENTS

The Document Manager is situated on the left of the OmniPage SE desktop. It has two tabbed panels: Thumbnail view and Detail 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. Pages 1 and 2 are selected and page 4 is the current pag e, 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 view

This presents a vertical set of numbered 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 page: Click 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.
28 INTRODUCTION
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 cli ck 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.

Detail view

This facility is new to OmniPage SE. 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 sho ws the defaul t columns on t he 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. You ca n use Deta il v iew for page operations, as follows:
Jump to a page: Click the row of the desired page. Reorder a page: Click the row of the page you want to mov e an d dra g 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 be tween and including 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 shown.
MANAGING DOCUMENTS 29

Customizing columns in Detail view

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

Deleting pages from a document

Page del etions must be confirmed and c an be undone. Dele te the cu rrent page only with the item Delete C urren t P age in the Edi t 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 t h e Text Editor ). 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.
30 INTRODUCTION

Closing a document

Choose Close in the F ile m enu to clos e a document . 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 an OmniPage Document (*.opd). Y ou will also be prompted to save unsaved training data if you selected Prompt to save IntelliTrain data when closing document in the Proofing pa nel of the Options dial og box.
The last sentence does not apply to OmniPage SE.

OMNIPAGE DOCUMENTS

The OmniPage Document is the program’s proprietary file type; it has the extension .opd. It is one of the file types offered when saving a document to file. You save the document to the OPD file type if you want to work with it again in OmniPage SE during a future session. You can then process unfinished pages, add more pages and proof or edit recognition results.
An OmniPage Document contains the original page images with any zones placed on them. After recognition, the OPD 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 OPD is reopened in future sessions.
When you save an OmniPage Document, the current settings (and unsaved training) are also saved. When you open an OmniPage Document, its settings are applied, tempo rarily replacing thos e existing in the program.
OMNIPAG E DOCUMENTS 31

Why save to OPD

Y o u do not have to save your documents to the OPD file type. You would typically do thi s 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 OmniPage
SE or OmniPage Pro 11. For example, you can pass an OPD file to a specialist for proofing. In an office network, you may have one scanner generating images for recognition and proofing at several workstations.
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 away from OPD files before
installing any OmniPage upgrade. These files may not be upwards compatible to newer OPD file formats, or possibly only the images will be retained when the files are upgraded.

How to save to OPD

32 INTRODUCTION
If you intend to create an OPD, 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 d ocument 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 an OPD. If a document is saved as an OPD, then you later save it to another format, it is not automatically resaved as an OPD. When you close the document or exit the program, you will be prompted to save the document as an OPD.

SETTINGS

The Options dialog box is the central location for OmniPage SE settings. It has seven panels. Context-sensitive help provides information on each setting. In overview, the settings panels are:
OCR
Use this to specify recognition languag e(s), a user 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 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 disable this service. You can also specify automatic or manual zoning and whether proofreading is desired or not.
SETTINGS 33
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 language here.
Proofing
Use this to define whether proo freading should begin automatically after recognition. Define also whether IntelliTrain should run, and use it to load or work with a training file. For more detail, see chapter 4, Proofreading OCR results.
The references to IntelliTrain and training files d o not apply to OmniPage SE.
Custom 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.
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.
34 INTRODUCTION
Note Some settings have an effec t only on futur e r ecognitio n. Exa mples
are the recognition languages, a training file and scanner brightness. These settings should be correctly adjusted before you start processing. To have changes in these settings app li ed to already recogni z ed 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.
3
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 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 tem plates
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 35

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 fil es 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 recogn iz ing a s in g le page

Turn your scanner on and be sure it is working correctly. Choose a page with good-quality clear text for this test.
We assume OmniPage SE’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 OmniPage SEs Text Editor.
36 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
What you do What happens
1. Set up your scanner using the Scanner Wizard, if this is not already done.
2. Select Start OmniPage SE
3. Place the document correctly in your scanner.
4. Check the three tab buttons to the left of the OmniPage T oolbox. 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. OmniPage SE 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.
11. Click Resume 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.
É
Programs É ScanSoft
É
OmniPage SE
Configures OmniPage SE to work with your scanner.
Opens OmniPage SE on your computer.
Specifies that you want OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE 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 T ext Editor view defines a formating level. The view set at saving time is applied to the text in the saved file.
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 OmniPage SE to recognize your document and open it in your target application!
Tip If you suceeded in getting good results from the sample image files,
but not from the scanned page, check your 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.
QUICK STA RT GUIDE 37
Here is an ove 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 OC R Wizard
The OCR Wizard 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 OmniPa ge SE.
Automatically
The fastest and easiest wa y to process documents is to let OmniPage SE do it automatica lly for you. Selec t settings in the Option 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-pa ge 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 those problem page s.
In other a ppli cations
You can use the Direct OCR feature to call on the recognitio n services of OmniPage SE while working in your usual word-processor or similar application. OmniPage SE automatically links itself to ScanSoft’s PaperPort and Pagis document management programs.
At a later time
You can schedule OCR jobs to be performed automatically 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.
38 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS USING THE OCR WIZARD

The OCR Wizard takes you through six settings panels, guiding you to make settings for your 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 open in OmniPage SE.
Click the OCR Wizard tab in the OmniPage Toolbox and click the Wizard button to see the first wizard screen:
1. The first panel lets you define your document source: scanner or image file. For more information, see the section Defining the source of page images. Answer the questions in the first screen and click Next.
2. The second panel asks you to describe the layout of the input document, to assist the auto-zoning. For more information, see the section Describing the layout of the document.
PROCESSING DOCUMENTS USING TH E OCR WIZARD 39
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 The editor display and views in chapter 4 for more information.
5. The fifth panel asks if you want to proofr ead the t ext befor e export. If you choose Yes you can also edit the text before saving. You also decide whether to create and use IntelliTrain data during proofing. See chapter 4 for more information. The reference to IntelliTrain does not apply to OmniPage SE.
6. The last panel asks you to define the export choice: saving to file or copying to Clipb oard. After setting the c hoice, click Finish to close the Wizard and start the automatic processing.
40 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
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 OmniPage SE. You can edit recognition results and save it again to other formats. You can change zones manually or change other settings and then use manual processing to rerecognize single pages from the document. You can add pages with automatic or manua l processing.
Note The Wizard panels present settings as they were last set in the
program. Also, OmniPage SE 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 Wiza rd take the values
last set in the program. This concerns mainly scanner settings, a user dictionary or a training file. Zone templates cannot be used with the OCR Wizard. If a templ ate file was set when the OCR Wiz ard starts, it is unloaded and Automatic is set as input description. You cannot export a recognized document as a mail attachment. Please use automatic or manual processing for this.
PROCESSING DOCUMENTS USING TH E OCR WIZARD 41

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS AUTOMATICALLY

Automatic processing provides an efficient way of handling documents, especially larger ones. Fi rst you select all settings needed, then you can use the AutoOCR toolbar in the OmniPage 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 OmniPage Toolbox to display the AutoOCR toolbar.
2. Select the desired Ge t Page command in the drop-down list. You define the document source, which can be from image files or fr om a scanner. For more detail see the section Defining the source of page images.
3. Select a com mand from t he Describe Original drop- down list, as shown above. This guides the prog ram in auto-zoning t he 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.
42 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
6. Click Start or choose Start in the Process menu. Each page of the document is proc essed a nd fini shed one af ter 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 yo u begin automatic processing on a new document.
Stop: This lets you interrupt automatic processing. 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 or a di ffer ent sour ce,
with changed or unchanged settings.
u Re-process all pages: Discard all recognition results and
rerecognize all pages in the document with differ ent setting s. 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 DOCUMENTS AUTOMATICALLY 43

PROCESSING DOCUMENTS MANUALLY

Manual processing gives you more precise control over the way your pages are handled. You can process the document page-by-pa ge 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 each page . You start each step in the process by clicking the b uttons on the Manual OCR toolbar.
1. Click the Manual OCR tab in the OmniPage Toolbox to display the Manual OCR toolbar.
2. Click in the Standard toolbar or Options in the Tools menu 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 butt on. This eit her brings up t he Loa d F il e dialo g 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.
5.
Now you can man ually draw and modify zones on one or mor e images and assign properties. Status bar button s let you mo v e to other pages. Any image without zones will be auto-zoned when recognition is requested. For guidance, see the section
44 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
Manual zoning
.
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 Docume nt Ma na ge r (s e e Managing doc uments in chapter 2) 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 Proofreading OCR results in chapter 4.
10. Continue loading pages, performing OCR, editing and proofing as desired.
11.
Select a value for the Export Results button. Y ou can save the recognized document to file (including as an OmniPage Document), copy it to Clipboard or send it as a mail attachment. You can save the document more than once; see
Saving recognition results
in chapter 5.
Note If you deselect 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 current zones only.
PROCESSING DOCUMENTS MANUALLY 45
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 the OmniPage 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 required 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.
46 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS

PROCESSING FROM OTHER APPLICATIONS

You can use the Direct OCR feature to call on the recognitio n services of OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE. Start OmniP age SE, open t he Options dialog box a t the Dir ect OCR pan el and select En able Direct OCR’.
2. The Unregistered panel displays running or previously registered applications. Selec t th e desi r e d one( s) a nd cl ic 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 offere d take their values from those last used in OmniPage SE. Settings changed for Direct OCR are also changed in OmniPage SE.
3. Use the File Me nu item Acquir e Text to acquire images from scanner or file.
4. If you selected ‘Draw zones autom atically 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 47
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 OmniPage SE is running when D irect OCR is called from a target
application, a second instance of OmniPage SE is launched.

How to use OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE is installed, its OCR services become available and amplify the pow er of PaperPort. You can choose an OCR progra m by right clicking on a text applications PaperPort link, selecting Preferences and then selecting OmniPage SE as the OCR package. OCR settings can be specified, as with Direct OCR.
:
Here OmniPage SE has been selected as the OCR package for MS Wo rd 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. OmniPage SE’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.
48 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING 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 OmniPage SE 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 ProgramsÉScanSoftÉOmniPage SEÉSchedule OCR.
2. The Schedule OCR dialog box appears. Click Add Job... to get the Add Job W i z ar d . It takes you thr ough s ix pane l s, sim ila r to th e 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 dictionary. In OmniPage Pro 11 you can specify a training file and/or run IntelliTrain. These are not available in OmniPage SE.
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
6.
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 can modify and reuse finished jobs to process ne w 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 49

DEFINING THE SOURCE OF PAGE IMAGES

There are two possible image sources: from image files and from a scanner. There are two main types of scanners: flatbed or sheetfed. A scanner may have a built-in or added Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), which makes it easier to scan multi-page documents. The images from scanned documents can be input directly into OmniPage SE or may be saved with the scanners own software to an image file, which OmniPage SE 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. OmniPage SE can open a wide range of image file types; see Supported file types in chapter 6. Image files are specified in the Load File dialog box. This appears when you start automatic processing. In manual processing, click the Load F ile button or use t he Proce ss 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".
50 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING 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. T o 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 scanne r correctly installed with OmniPage SE. See Setting up your scanner with OmniPage SE in chapter 1 for more information. You have a choice 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 accura cy, use this for crisp black te xts 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. C hoose this to keep ‘black-and- white photographs in the outp ut documen t. For best OCR accuracy , use this for pages with varying or lo w contrast (not much differen c e between 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 PAGE IMAGES 51
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 touching, lighten the brightness. If characters are thin and broken, darken it. Then rescan the page.
Unsuitable
Tolerable
Good
Best
Good
Tolerable

Scanning with an ADF

The best way to scan multi-page documents is with an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). Simp ly load pages in the correct 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 chap ter 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.
52 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
Unsuitable
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 grouped. OmniPage SE will merge the pages for you.

Scanning long documents without 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 Opti ons dialog box, and define a pause valu e 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 descript ion choices :
Automatic
Choose this to let th e pr ogram make all auto -zoning decisions. 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 wit h multiple co lumns and a ta ble, and fo r any pages with more than one table.
DESCRIBING THE LAYOUT OF THE DOCU MENT 53
Single column, no table
Choose this setting if your pages contain only one colum n 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 decolumnized or kept in separate columns, similar to the original layout. Columns can be retained in the output document, either with frames (if T rue 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 later specify wheth er 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 are also appl ied to th e curr ent page, r e placi ng any exi sting zones. Other zo nes ar e permitt ed in addi tion to templat e zones. For more detail, see the section Using zone templates.
If auto-zoning yielded unexpected recognition results, use manual processing to rezone individual pages and rerecognize them.
54 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING 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 zone s 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 c urrent.
u You have drawn manual zones on the image.

Wor ki ng with zones

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 zones
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. Yo u cannot move or resize existing zones when this tool is active. You cannot use this with a table type zon e.
MANUAL ZONING 55
Subtract 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 the z o ne reordering tool. Then click in z o nes in the desired reading order. For your order to be respected, choose 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 shortcu t menu. See the ne xt 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 and zone contents together consti tute the zone pr operties. Rig ht-click in a zo ne 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 Im 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 columns being found.
Multiple-column flowing text zone
Use this to have zone contents t r eat ed as flowing text. The prog ram wi ll 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.
56 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING 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 decide the zone type. To do thi s , au to-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 numb e r of smaller zones.
Graphic zone
Use this to enclo se a picture, dia gram, drawing, signatur e or anything y ou 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.
Ignore 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 box.
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 placed.
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 57

TABLE GRIDS IN THE IMAGE

After automatic processing you may see table zones placed on a page. They are denoted with a tab le zone icon in the top right corner of 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 zon e on the page, select it, then draw the new rectangular zone. It will inherit the table type. Otherwise draw a rect angular zone and use its shortcut menu to change it to a table type.
You draw or move table dividers to 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 enlar ge 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 handling to ols on the Imagi ng to olbar bec ome acti ve if t he current page contains a table type zone. Use them as follows:
Move row or column dividers
Click the tool an d mo v e t he cur sor to t he divid er to be mo v ed. I t displa ys 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 current row only.
Insert col u mn dividers
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 pl ace the divid er in the current row only.
Insert row dividers
Click the tool then click at the location in a table zone where you want to place a row divi der. Avoid pla cing a div ide r on top of anot her one or so i t cuts through text.
Remove column or row dividers
Click the tool then cli ck on a si ngle divide r you want to delet e. Do t his 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.
58 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
Remove/replace all dividers
Click this tool and cli ck in side a t abl e zone. Its divi ders will all disappear. Click again to have dividers automaticall y (re)detected. Divider placement usually occurs durin g recogniti on; 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 recognition. Load a template file in the 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 pages until the template i s unloaded. You can modify the 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 outside the template zone s.
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.
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 59
[zones on
How to unload a template
Select a non-template se tting 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 the Set As Current button. 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 butt on. When the AutoOCR toolbar is active, no existing zones are changed and the new template is used for f u ture processing. When th e Manual OCR toolbar i s activ e, zon es from th e new template are applied to the current page, replacing any existing zones.
How to delete a template file
Open the Zone T emplate 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- de tect 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 repl aced 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 detec t ed column.
Note Templates and the additional auto-zoning feature are available in
Schedule OCR and Direct OCR, but not in the OCR Wizard.
60 TUTORIAL: P ROCESSING DOCUMENTS
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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 thi s chapter:
u Proofreading OCR results u Checking recognized text against original (Verifying text) u User dictionaries u IntelliTrain u The editor display and views u Text and image editing u Reading text aloud u Page outline
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 difference from True Page relates mainly to export, as explained in the section Preparing recognition results for export in chapter 5.
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 61
This tells why the word is suspected.
This window shows the relevant part of the original image. Cl ick inside it to enlarge or reduce the display.

PROOFREADING OCR RESULTS

After a pag e is recognize d, 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 manu ally any time the pro gram 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 beginni n g 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.
This is what OmniPage SE 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
4. If the recognized word is not correct, edit the word in the Change to
62 PROOFING AND EDITING
to the next suspect word. Click Add to add it to the current user dictionary and move to the next suspect word.
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 remo ved f ro m words in the Text Editor as th ey are
proofread. You can switch to the Text Editor during proofing to make corrections there. Use the Resume button to restar t proofing. Click Close to stop proofreading before the end of the document is reached.
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HECKING RECOGNIZED TEXT AGAINST ORIGINAL
After performing OCR, you can compare any part of the recognized text against the corres ponding part of the original 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 Text in the Tools menu. The Verify Text window opens and shows a picture of the original wor d and its surr ounding area. M odif y the word in the Text Editor as necessary.
This is the original image of the word you are verifying.
2. Click inside the window to enlarge or reduce the picture. The pictur e
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
correcting them as necessary. The display changes as you select new words.
CHECKING RECOGNIZED TEXT AGAINST ORIGINAL 63
4. Click the Close button to close the verifier window.
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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 dictionary called C ustom is t he 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. Yo u will be asked to name the dictionary immediately.
Loading or unloading a user dictionary
Do this from th e OCR pan el of the Options d ial og box or from th e User Dictionary Files dialog box. Select a dictionary file to load it or unload a user dictionary.
Editing a user dicti onary
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 dial og box.
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64 PROOFING AND EDITING
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INTELLITRAIN

IntelliTrain is a newly develop ed and automated form of tra ining. I t takes input from the correct ions y ou make durin g pro ofing . When yo u make a change, it remembers the character shape involved, and your proofing change. It searches other similar character shapes in the document, especially in suspect words. It assesses whether to apply the user correction or not.
IntelliTrain and training files are not supported in OmniPage SE. This section applies only to OmniPage Pro 11. Any training data in an OPD file will be ignored when it is opened in OmniPage SE.
You can turn IntelliTrain on or off in the OCR panel of the Options dialog box. It is useful for uniformly degraded documents or when an unusual typeface is used throughout a document. IntelliTrain will be less useful for texts with random distortions. Here is an example, based on the letter “g”, which can be pr inted in different wa ys:
The first two examples do not need IntelliTrain, because both shapes are normal for the letter “g and the program can handle them. The third example could benefit from IntelliTrain because the shape of “g” is unusual, and all instances of “g” in the text are likely to look like this. The fourth example is not good for IntelliTrain, because the first “g” is poorly printed, and this shape is unlikely to appear again in the document.
INTELLITRAIN 65
OmniPage Pro read this as bcnefit.
You changed it during proofing to benefit.
The following shows how IntelliTrain works, using the original image. Our example involves the letters c and e. With some typefaces and scanning settings, the horizontal line in e can become very thin, leading to OCR errors that IntelliTrai n can repair.
IntelliTrain remembers this shape and the rule:
This is not c.
e
This is e.
IntelliTrain changes:
thcrc to there likc to like Whcncvcr to Whenever
etc.
IntelliTrain rem embers the training data it collects, and yo u can sav e th i s to a training file for future use with similar documents. If you want to be prompted to save your un saved training data when you close the document, select that option in the Proofing panel of the Options dialog box. Unsaved training data is stored in an OmniPage Document.
Saving training to file, l oading, edit ing and unload ing traini ng files ar e all done in the Training Files dialog box. Open this from the Proofing panel of the Options dialog box or the Tools menu.
66 PROOFING AND EDITING
Select this, click Save and type in a name to save a new training file.
Click this to edit the selected training file (see below).
Select this to unload a training file.
Use this also to save new training into a loaded training file. It is listed as: File name [modified]
Unsaved training can be edited in the Edit Training dialog box, an asterisk is displayed in the title bar in place of a training file name. It remains unsaved when you close the dialog box.
A training file can be also edited; it s name appea rs in the ti tle bar. If it has unsaved training added to it, an asterisk appears after its name. Both the unsaved and the modified training are saved when you close the dialog box.
The dialog box displays fra mes containi ng a charac ter shape and an OCR solution assigned to that shape. Click a frame to select it. Then you can delete it with the Delete key, or change the assignation. Use arrow keys to move to the next or previous frame.
You are editing your unsaved training.
This frame is grayed. It has been deleted. To undelete it, select it again and press the Delete key. Characters marked as deleted are really deleted when you close the dialog box.
This frame is selected. The top part shows the shape from the image. The bottom part shows the assigned OCR solution.
Double-click a frame or press Enter to change its OCR solution. Enter the new solution in the text box that appears and press Enter. Changed assignations appear in red.
INTELLITRAIN 67

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 ap plies only t o 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 header/footer indicators. The Text Editor panel also lets you define a unit of 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 may find this view convenient for verifying, editing and modifyin g 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 edit text in th is vi ew; you may need to scro ll with in 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 re sults 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.
68 PROOFING AND EDITING

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 Formatt ing v iew, you can change the font type, size and attributes (bold, italic, underlined) for selected text. Use the Formatting toolbar or the Font dialog box from the Format menu. The latter also offers subscripts, superscripts and colored text or backgrounds.
In No Formatting 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 Matc hing dialog bo x f rom t he OCR panel of the O pti ons dialog box to specify which fonts to use for text s enteri ng the Text Editor.
Editing paragraph attributes
In all views except N o Formatting 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.
Parag raph 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 with t he document or not. This is valid only if the target application supports paragraph styles.
TEXT AND IMAGE EDITING 69
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 OmniPage SEs 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 appearance, al lowing you to move gridli nes. You can also use the Text Editor’s rulers to modify a table. Modify the placement of text in table cells with t he alig nment butt ons in t he F ormat ting t oolbar 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.

READING TEXT ALOUD

The Text-to-Speech facility is enabled or disabled with the Tools menu item Speech Mode or with the F5 key. A second menu item Speech Settings... allows you to select a voice (for example, male or female for a given language), a reading speed and the volume.
This speech facility is designed for the visually impaired, but it can also be useful to anyone during text checking and verification. The speaking is controlled by movements of the insertion point in the Text Editor which can be mouse or keyboard driven.
The Text-to-Speech facility is not included in OmniPage SE. It is available in OmniPage Pro 11.
70 PROOFING AND EDITING
To hear text: Use these keys:
One character at a time, forward or back
Current word Ctrl + Numpad 1 One word to the right Ctrl + right arrow * One word to the left Ctrl + left arrow * A single line Place the insertion point in the line Next line Down arrow Previous line Up arrow Current sentence Ctrl + Numpad 2 From insertion point to end of sentence Ctrl + Numpad 6 From start of sentence to insertion point Ctrl + Numpad 4 Current page Ctrl + Numpad 3 From top of current page to insertion point Ctrl + Home From insertion point to end of current page Ctrl + End Previous, next or any page Ctrl + PgUp, PgDown or navigation buttons
Typed characters
* If the cursor is in the middle of a word, you will first hear a word fragment, but from the second keystroke you will hear whole words.
Right or left arrow. Letter, number or punctua­tion names are spoken.
Each typed character is pronounced, one by one, including punctuation.
The three basic speech keys are grouped together on the numeric keypad.
+
1 2 3
Speak current word
Speak current sentence
Speak current page
READING TEXT ALOUD 71
You also have the following keyboard controls:
To do t his: Use this:
Pause/Resume Ctrl + Numpad 5 Set speed higher Ctrl + Numpad + Set speed lower Ctrl + Numpad - Restore speed Ctrl + Numpad *
It is planned to provide speech prog rams for the following langu ages: English, F rench, German, I talian, Portuguese and Spanish. Please consult the Readme file for the latest information. Only one speech system will be installed with OmniPage Pro, depending on your language choice at the start of installation. If you specify a language with no speech system available, English is installed.
If you have other SAPI-compliant speech systems on your computer, they will be detected and available. Their vo ices will be av ailabl e in the S pe ech Settings dialog box. Once you have associated a voice with a language, OmniPage Pro will remember this, and switch voices according to the recognition language of your document.

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 areas 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 not change, but the arrows show the changed text flow.
72 PROOFING AND 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. Saving to file
2. Copying a document to the Clipboard
3. Sending a document as a mail attachment
The document remain s in Omn iPage SE 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 proc essing and using the O CR 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 recognized 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.
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 73

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 Ed itor at export time , if that is possible. However, some export file types and target applications cannot support all formatting elements. You may be warned if there is a mismatch and offered the highest permissible view. You can accept 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 types 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 .TXT. These file types cannot accept gr aphics 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 or PDF extensions. These formats can all handle graphics and tables.
True Page view
This is suitable onl y for file types and target applicati ons capable of handling frames or text boxes. When you export to PDF, True Page is used as source, regardless of your editor view (Not applicable to OmniPage SE). 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 in Page outline in chapter 4.
74 SAVING AND EXPORTI NG

SAVING TO FILE

You can save recognized pages and original images to disk in a wide variety of file types. See ch apter 6 for a comple te list of supported file types: File types for opening and saving images and File types for saving recognition results.

Saving original 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 na me.
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 separate file. OmniPage SE adds numerical suffixes to the file name you provide, to generate unique file names.
3. Click OK to save the image(s) as specified. Zones and recognized 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.
Note In OmniP age P ro you can save your document to four variants of
PDF, including image only. This is saving th e recognition results as image, not the original images. PDF saving is not available in OmniPage SE.
SAVING TO FILE 75
Select this to automatically open the saved file in its target application.
Select this to have the paragraph styles from the Text Editor ex p orted with the recognized text.

Saving recognition result s

1. Choose Save As... in the File menu, or click the Export Results
button in the Man ual 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
76 SAVING AND EXPORTI NG
OPD 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 only 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 fi le type.
Note If more than one export file is created, OmniPage SE will append
a numerical suffix to your file name to create unique file names. If you select Create a new file at each blank page 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 i n the File menu to save changes to the current document as you work. If you do this with an untitled document, the Save As dialog box 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 an OmniPage Document, the save command updates this document: new or changed imag es, changed zoning, recognition results and training are all saved. If the document was last saved to a text-based file type, only changes to the recognition results are saved.
If you want to work with your document again in OmniPage SE in a later session, save it as an OmniPage Document. This is a special output file type. It saves the original images together with the recognition results, settings and training. See the section OmniPage Documents in chapter 2. The Save As dialog box lists available file types in its Save as Type drop­down list. The OmniPage Document is the last format in the list.
Your OmniPage Documents can be passed between OmniPage SE and OmniPage Pro 11. In OmniPage SE any training data in the OPD is ignored and training cannot be done.
SAVING A DOCUMENT AS YOU WORK 77
If you first save the document as an OmniPage Document (for instance as
memo.opd), 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 OPD. When you close the document
or exit the program, you will be prompted to save the document if it has not been saved as an OmniP age Document, or t here are changes since the last OPD 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
78 SAVING AND EXPORTI NG
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 OCR 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-co mpliant mail ap plicatio n, 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 AutoOCR toolbar. The Send Mail dialog bo x ap pea rs as soon as th e last av ai la ble pag e 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
options: one attachment for all pages, one attachment per page, new attachment at each blank page. Set all options and click OK.
2. Log into your mail application if you are prompted to do so.
SENDING A DOCUMENT AS A MAIL ATTACHMENT 79
3. Y our 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 OmniPage SE, or Untitled from OmniPage. The suitable file extens ion is added, and numerical suffixes for multiple attachments.
4. Address your mail message, add message text as desired and click the
Send button.
80 SAVING AND EXPORTI NG

6 Technical information

This chapter provides troubleshoo ting and other technical in formation about using OmniPage SE.
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 OmniPage SE. 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 OmniPage SE
Low memory problems
Low disk space problems
u Supported file types
File types for opening and saving images
File types for saving recognition results
Saving to PDF
u OCR problems
Text does not get recognized prope rly
Problems with fax recognition
System or performance problems during OCR
u Uninstalling the software
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 81

TROUBLESHOOTING

Although OmniPage SE 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 these solutions if you experience problems starting or using OmniPage SE:
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 OmniPage SE. Our web pages may also offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.
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 properly before using it with OmniPage SE.
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. See Windows onli ne Help for mo re informa t ion.
u Defragment your hard disk. See Windows online Help for more
information.
u Uninstall and r einstall OmniP age SE, as described in Uninstalling
the software at the end of this chapter.
82 TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Testing OmniPage SE

Restarting Windows 95, 98, 2000 or Me in safe mode or Windows NT in VGA mode allows you to test OmniPage SE on a simplified system. This is recommended when you cannot resolve crashing problems or if OmniPage SE has stopped running altogether. See Windows online Help for more information.
Note Your scanner will not run with OmniPage SE in safe mode or
VGA mode, so do not test scanner problems in this configuration.
t To test OmniPage SE in safe mode (Windows 95, 98, 2000 or Me):
1. Restart your computer in safe mode by pressing F8 immediately after
you see the Starting Windows message.
2. Launch OmniPage SE and try performing OCR on an image. Use a
known image file, for instance one of t he suppl ied sampl e imag e fi les.
If OmniPage SE does not launch or run properly in safe mode, then there may be a problem with the installation. Uninstall and reinstall OmniPage SE (see Uninstall ing the software), and then run it in Windows safe mode.
If OmniPage SE runs in safe mode, then a device driver on your system may be interfering with OmniPage SE operation. Troubleshoot the problem by r estarting Windows in Step-by-Step Confirmation mode. See Windows online Help for more information.
t To test OmniPage SE 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 Windows online Help for more information.
TROUBLESHOOTING 83
5. Launch OmniPage SE and try performing OCR on an image. Use a known image file such as one of the supplied sample files.
Note You can also run OmniPage SE from a command line in its own
safe mode. Choose Start add the command line option previously stored settings and does not try to recover a document from an abnormal termination.
É Run, browse for the file OmniPage.exe and
/safe. This starts the program, but ignores

Low memory problems

OmniPage SE may run poorly under low-memory conditions. This may be indicated by various error messages or if OmniPage SE 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 OmniPage SE 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 computers physical memor y (RAM). u More memory optimizes OCR performance. See System
requirements in chapter 1 for more infor mation.

Low disk space pro bl ems

Problems may occur if your syst em runs low o n fr ee disk sp ace. Try these solutions for low disk space problems:
84 TECHNICAL INFORMATION
u Empty the Windows Recycle Bin. u Close all open applications 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. Several important types have been added in OmniPage SE.

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 GIF *.gif N/A N/A N/A JPEG *.jpg No Open and Save Grayscale, color PCX *.pcx No Open and Save All PDF *.pdf N/A N/A (see note) N/A 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 Compressed LZW *.tif N/A N/A N/A TIFF FX *.xif N/A N/A N/A 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 re commended 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 curso r ove r an image for a popup windo w sho wing the size a nd resolution of the original im age.
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-white.
SUPPORTED FILE TYPES 85
Note Saving to PDF fo rmat is supported in OmniPage Pro 11, with
four options. One of these is to export image only. But this exports the recognition results as images, not the original images, through the Save As dialog box. This is not available in OmniPage SE. Also, OmniPage SE cannot handle GIF, LZW TIFF and TIFF FX files.

File types for saving recognition results

File type
ASCII text Adobe PDF, normal *.pdf N/A N/A Adobe PDF with image substitutes *.pdf N/A N/A Adobe PDF with image on text *.pdf N/A N/A Adobe PDF, image only *.pdf N/A N/A 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 Formatting view (NFV) No
HTML (3.2 or 4.0) 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 Te xt Form at (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
OmniPage Document
1
2
4
6
Exten­sion
*.txt/.csv No Formatting view (NFV) No
*.htm All
3
*.rtf All Yes *.txt/.csv No Formatting view (NFV) No
*.opd All Yes
Format levels (Text Editor views)
NFV, RFP
5
Supports graphics
Yes
Yes
2
1 ASCII and Unicode text can be with flowing text, with line breaks or comma
86 TECHNICAL INFORMATION
separated. The latt er have the extens ion .csv an d are used for plain tex t input of tables into spreadsheet programs.
2 When saving to HTML, all graphics are saved as separate image files using
JPEG format. HTML 4.0 is supported only in OmniPage Pro 11, OmniPage SE support is limited to HTML 3.2.
3 Recognition results are sent to Clipboard in this format and will be pasted in
RTF if possible, and as Unicode or ASCII text if not.
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
will appear as Retain Fonts and Paragraphs (RFP) view, that is, without columns.
6 Om niPage Docum ents created by O mniPage SE or OmniPag e Pro 11 can be
reopened by OmniPage SE. It can al so open O PD files c reated by O mniPage Pro 10 and the similar ME T fil es from Om ni Page Pro 9. These files remain in their old format and a copy is converted to OmniPage SE.

Saving to PDF

This section does not apply to OmniPage SE. In OmniPage Pro 11, you have four choices when saving recognition
results to Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
Normal:
Pages are exported as they appeared in the Text Editor in True Page view. The PDF file can be viewed and searched in a PDF viewer and edit ed in a PDF editor.
With image substitutes:
As above, but reject and suspect characters have image overlays, so these uncertain characters display as they were in the original document. The PDF file can be viewed, searched and edited.
Imag e only:
The PDF file is viewable only and cannot be modified in a PDF editor and text cannot be search ed.
Imag e on text:
The PDF file is viewable only and cannot be modified in a PDF editor. But there is a linked text file behind each image, so the text can be searched. A found word is highlighted in the image.
SUPPORTED FILE TYPES 87

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 these solutions if any par t of the original document is not converted to text properly 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 Manual zoning 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 experiment with different settin gs combinations to get the desired re sults.
u Check the resolution of the original image. H over t he 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 th e Options dialog box. Only languages included in the document should be selected.
u Turn IntelliTrain on an d make some proo fing corr ections. T his is
most likely to help with stylized fonts or uniformly degraded documents. If IntelliTrain was running, try turning it off – on some types of degraded documents it may not be able to help. This does not apply to OmniPage SE.
88 TECHNICAL INFORMATION
u If you use True Page as the Text Editor view or for export,
recognized text is pu t into frames (formatting boxes). Some text may be hidden if a frame is too small. To view the text, place the cursor in the te xt fra me and us e t he arr o w ke ys on yo ur keybo ar d to scroll to the top, bottom, left, or right of the frame.
u Check the glass, mirrors, and lenses on your scanner for dust,
smudges, or scratches. Clean if necessary.
Note OmniPage SE only recognizes machine printed-text characters
such as typewritten or laser- pr inted text. It can handle dot-matrix characters, though accuracy may be lo wer on draf t-quality tex ts. It ca nnot read handprint or handwriting. H owever, it can retain signatures or other handwritten text as a graphic.

Problems with fax recognition

Try these solutions 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 lo ad them into OmniPage SE. 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:
u Resolve low memory problems. See Testing OmniPage SE. u Resolve low disk space problems. See Testing OmniPage SE. u Minimize all applicatio ns or click Alt+Tab to check for W indows
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.
OCR PROBLEMS 89
u Break complex page images (lot s of text and graph ics or elabo rate
formatting) into smaller jobs. Draw zones manually or modify automatically crea te d zones and perform O CR on one page area at a time. See Worki ng with zones in chapter 3 on creating and modifying zones.
u Restart Windows 95, 98 and Me and 2000 in safe mode, or
Windows NT and in VGA mode and test OmniPage SE by performing OCR on the included sample image files
. See the
section Testing OmniPage SE.
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 OmniPage SE will solve a problem. You should uninstall OmniPage SE bef ore i nstalli ng OmniPage Pro 11 or any OmniPage evaluation software. OmniPage SE’s Uninstall program will not remove any of the following user-created files:
Zone templates ( Training files ( User dictionaries ( OmniPage Documents (
*.zon)
*.otd) (Not applicable to OmniPage SE)
*.ud)
*.opd)
To uninstall from Windows NT or Windows 2000, you must be logged into your compute r with administrator privileges.
t To uninstall or reinstall OmniPage SE:
90 TECHNICAL INFORMATION
u Close OmniPage SE. u Click Start in the Windows ta skbar and choose Settings É
Control Panel É Add/Remove Programs.
u Select OmniPage SE and click Change. u Click Next in the dialog box that appears. u Select Remove or Repair, then Next. u Follow instructions until the process is finished.

I NDEX

A
Accuracy
brightness influence, 52 improvement, 33, 51, 65 OCR method influence, 33
scanning mode influence, 51 Acquire Text menu item Acquire Text Settings Acquired page Acquiring images Add Job Wizard Adding
pages to a document, 43
to zones, 55
words to a user dictionary, 62 ADF
, 33, 50, 52 Alignment of paragraphs Alphanumeric zone Area reordering ASCII text output Attachments to mail messages
79 Auto-detect zone Automatic Document Feeder
(ADF) Automatic processing AutoOCR AutoOCR toolbar Auto-zoning
, 28
, 23, 44
, 49
, 72
, 53, 57
, 33, 50, 52
, 27
, 34, 42, 53
, 47
, 47
, 26
, 56
, 86
, 27, 42
, 27, 42
B
Basic processing steps Black-and-white
images, 75
scanning, 51 Bold text
, 26, 69
, 23
Brightness
C
Changing
Character attributes Checking OCR results Clipboard Closing a document Color
Columns
,
Command buttons for automatic Comparing recognized words Contents of OmniPage Context-Sensitive Help Contrast
Control over processing Conversion of images Copying
Creating training data
, 52, 88
paragraph order, 72 text flow between columns,
72 the order of areas, 72 zone types, 57
, 69
, 63
, 78
, 31
images, 75 markers, 63 scanning, 51
changing text flow, 72 in tables, 58
processing with originals Documents 33
and pasting text, 25 document to Clipboard, 40,
, 43
, 63
, 77
, ix, 25,
, 52, 88
, 44
, 85
78
, 67
Custom Layout Customizing columns in Detail
view
, 30
Cutting and pasting text
, 34, 54
, 25
D
Deferred processing Deleting
a zone template, 59 pages, 28, 30
Describing document layout
53 Desktop Detail view
Direct OCR Disk space Dividers, placing in tables Document
Document Mana ger Dot-matrix texts
, 24
customizing columns in, 30
description of, 29
in Document Manager, 24
, 33, 47
, 12, 84
closing, 31
copying to Clipboard, 40, 78
double-sid ed, 53
export, 23
finishing , 43
in OmniPageSE, 23
layout description, 53
OmniPage Document, 28
overview, 28
saving, 73
saving as you work, 32, 77
unfinished, 31
with varied layout, 53
, 31
, 42,
, 26
, 24, 28
, 89
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 91
Double-sided documents Drawing zones Drivers for scanners Dropping graphics from export
76
Duplex scanners
, 48
, 53
, 53
, 14
E
Earlier OmniPage versions Editing
a training file, 67 a user dictionary, 64 character attributes, 69 graphics, 70 paragraph attributes, 69 PDF output, 87 recognized text, 26, 69 table dividers, 26, 58 table grids, 58
tables, 70 Effect of settings Export Results button Exporting
file types for, 86
graphics, 76
preparing for, 74
repeated, 73, 77
to a target application, 23,
44, 73 to Clipboard, 78 to file, 76
, 34
, 13
, 42, 45
F
Fax recognition Features new to versi o n 11 o f
OmniPage Pro
Features of OmniPage SE File
as export target, 75 as image source, 50 retained on uninstalling, 90 separation options, 76, 79 types, 76
, 89
, 18
, 19
types for export, 74, 86 types, supported, 85, 86
Finding
,
non-dictionary words, 62
suspect words, 62 Finishing a document Formatting levels
86 Formatting levels for export Formatting toolbar Frames
in export document, 74
recognized text in, 68, 89
G
Generating table dividers Get Page button Getting online Help Graphic zone Graphics
editing, 70
in export, 76, 86
in JPEG fil e s, 87 Grayscale
images, 75
scanning, 51
, 57
H
Hearing texts rea d aloud Help
Context-Sensitive, ix, 25, 33
online, ix Hiding or showing markers
I
Ignore zone Image
acquiring, 23, 44
black-and-white, 75
color, 75
conversion, 85
grayscale, 75
, 57
, 43
, 40, 49, 61, 68,
, 74
, 24, 26
, 59
, 42, 44
, ix
, 70
, 68
quality, 52 resolution, 29, 75, 85, 88 rotating, 26 saving, 75, 85 size, 29 substitutes in PDF, 87
Image file
input, 22, 50 opening, 85 reading order, 50 samples, 83
types, 85 Image toolbar Improving accura cy Incomplete automatic
processing Input
from image fi le, 50
from scanner, 51 Inserting table dividers Installing
a scanner, 14
OmniPage SE, 13 IntelliTrain Interface language Interrupting automatic
processing Irregular zones Italic text
, 24, 26
, 51, 52, 65
, 43
, 58
, 31, 34, 49, 65, 88
, 34
, 43
, 26, 55
, 26, 69
J
Jobs in Schedule OCR Joining zones
, 55
, 49
K
Keyboard commands for hearing
texts
, 71
L
Language
for installation, 13
for recognition, 33, 40, 88
92 INDEX
for Text-to-Speech, 13, 72
for user interface, 13, 34 Launch target application Layout description Load File dialog box Loading
a training file, 67
a user dictionary, 64
a zone template, 54, 59 Low disk space problems Low memory problems
, 76
, 39, 42, 53
, 50
, 84
, 84
M
Mail
as export target, 79
attachments, 79 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 temp late Moving
MS Outlook Multi-page image files
Multiple column pages Multiple column zone
, 63, 68
type
, 74, 86
, 25
12
between pages, 28
table dividers, 58
, 79
85
, 28
, 27, 44
, 26, 44, 55
, 68
, 12, 84
, 59
, 50, 75,
, 54
, 56
N
New features in version 11 of
OmniPage Pro New file on blank page No Formatting view
, 18
, 50
, 61, 68, 74
Non-dictionary words in
proofing Non-printing characters Numeric zone
, 62
O
OCR
AutoOCR, 27
AutoOCR toolbar, 27, 42
checking OCR results, 63
definition, 22
Direct OCR, 33, 47
jobs in Schedule OCR, 49
method, 33, 40
performing OCR, 23
poor performance during, 89
problems, 88
proofreading OCR results,
62
register applications for
Direct OCR, 47 Schedule OCR, 49 settings, 33 settings for D irect OCR, 47 Wizard, 38, 39, 41
,
OmniPage Document
contents of, 77 definition, 31 purpose of OPD files, 32 saving as, 32, 77
OmniPage Pro
new features of, 18
OmniPage SE
desktop, 24 documents in, 23 earlier OmniPage vers ions,
13 features, 19 installin g, 13 registering, 17 reinstalling, 90 starting, 14 testing, 83
, 56
, x, 19
, 26
uninstalling, 90 OmniPage Toolbox Online
HTML Help, ix
registration, 17 OPD files
definition, 31
purpose of, 32
saving to, 32 Opening image files Opimizing brightness Optical character recognition Optimizing image quality Options dialog box Original Image
area, 24
saving, 75, 85 Overview
of document, 28
of processing step s, 23
, 24, 27, 42
, 50, 85
, 52
, 52
, 33
P
Page
acquired, 28
adding to a document, 43
deleting, 28, 30
Get Page button, 42, 44
moving between pages, 28
multi-page image files, 50,
75, 85 multiple column, 54 navigation, 24 new file on blank page, 50 outline, 72 proofed, 28 recognized, 28 reordering, 28 rerecognizing all, 43 selecting multiple, 28 single column, 54, 56 single column pages with
tables, 54 spreadsheet pages, 54
, 22
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 93
status, 28
zoned, 28 PaperPort Paragraph
PDF
Perform OCR button Performance problems during
Performing
Placing dividers in tables Preparing recognition results for
Printing
Problems with fax recognition Process options
Processing
, 48
alignment, 26
changing order, 72
editing attributes, 69
reordering, 72
retaining paragraph styles, 76
styles, 26, 69, 76
editing PDF output, 87
image substitutes in, 87
PDF file input, 50, 85
PDF output, 87
saving to, 87
searching PDF output, 87
viewing PDF output, 87
, 42, 45
OCR
, 89
OCR, 23
recognition, 45
, 26
export
, 74
a document, 30
images, 25
recognition results, 25
,
89
, 34
automatically, 27, 42
basic steps of, 23
documents automatically, 42
documents in future sessions,
31 documents manually, 44 from other applications, 47
incomplete automatic
processing, 43
interrupting automatic
processing, 43 manually, 27, 44 restarting automatic
processing, 43 step-by-step, 4 4 steps, overview, 23 stopping automatic
processing, 43 switching between manual
and automatic processing,
27, 46
Proofed page Proofing
in later sessions, 31 options, 34, 40, 62
Proofreading
OCR results, 62 Proofreader dialog box, 41,
Properties of zones Purpose of OPD files
, 28
62
, 26, 56
, 32
Q
Quality of images
, 52
R
Reading
order of image files, 50 text aloud, 70
Recognition
languages, 33, 40, 88 performing, 44 preparing resu lts for export,
74 problems with fax
recognition, 89 saving results, 76 speeding up, 89
Recognized page Rectangular zones
, 28
, 55
Registering
Direct OCR applications, 47
OmniPage SE, 17 Reinstalling OmniPage SE Remote proofing Removing table dividers Reordering
areas, 72
pages, 28
paragraph, 72
zones, 26, 56 Repeated exporting Replacing a zone template Requirements 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
, 26
images, 29, 75, 85, 88
saved images, 75
43
61, 68, 74
view
, 61, 68, 74
, 31
, 73, 77
, 12
, 55
, 26
, 58
, 90
, 58
, 59
, 43
, 76
S
Safe mode Sample images files Saving
, 83
, 83
as OmniPage Document, 32,
77 documents , 7 3 documents as you work, 77 images, 75 original images, 75, 85 recognition results, 76 Save and Launch, 76 text, 76
,
,
94 INDEX
to file, 40, 75 to OPD format, 32 to PDF, 87 training file, 67 zone template, 59
Scanner
Scanning
Schedule OCR Searching PDF output Selecting multiple pag es 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
Special Edition OmniPage
, 51, 89 drivers, 14 duplex, 53 setting up, 14
black-and-white, 51 brightness, 33, 52 color, 51 contrast, 33, 52 grayscale, 51 input from, 51 installing, 14 picture, 51 Wizard, 14
, 49
, 87
, 28
, 79
attachment
acquire Text, 47 effect of settings, 34 for Direct OCR, 47 in OCR Wizard, 41 in Options dialog box, 33 zone types, 58
pages, 54, 56 pages with tables, 54 zone, 56
82
, 79
, 14
, 47
, 57
, 89
, x
Speed maximised Splitting zones Spreadsheet pages Standard toolbar Starting a user dictionary Starting the program Step-by-step processing Stopping automatic processing
43 Subtracting from zones Suggestion from dictionaries for
proofing Supplementing template zones
59 Supported file types Suspect words in proofing Switching between manual and
automatic processing Switching between Text Editor
views
, 68
System or performance problems
during OCR System requirements
, 33
, 56
, 54
, 24, 25
, 62
, 89
T
Tables
columns in, 58
editing, 70
editing divide rs, 26, 58
editing grids, 58
generating dividers, 59
in single column pages, 54
inserting dividers, 26, 58
moving dividers, 58
removing dividers, 58
rows in, 58
table handling in Text
Editor, 70
zones, 26, 57, 58 Task Manager
,
Technical information Templates, zone Testing OmniPage SE
, 83
, 54, 59, 88
, 64
, 14
, 44
, 56
, 85, 86
, 27, 46
, 12
, 81
, 83
, 62
Text
Acquire Text Settings, 47 ASCII output, 86
attributes text, 26 Text Editor Text saving Text-to-Speech facility
,
Thumbnail view TIFF images files Toolbars
image, 26
standard, 25
,
Training
creating training data, 67
editing a training file, 67
loading a training file, 67
saving a training file, 67
traning files, 65, 67
unloading a training file, 67
unsaved training data, 31 Troubleshooting True Page view TWAIN
, 24, 34, 61, 68 , 76
, 14
U
Underlined text Unfinished documents Unicode text output Uninstalling OmniPage SE Unit of measurement Unloading a trai ning file Unloading a user dictiona ry Unloading a zone templat e Unsaved training data Upgrading to Om niPa ge Pr o User dictionaries
adding words, 62
editing, 64
loading, 64
starting, 64
unloading, 64
user dictionaries, 62, 64 Using Direct OCR
, 14, 70
, 24, 28
, 85
, 81, 82
, 61, 68, 74
, 26, 69
, 31
, 86
, 90
, 34
, 67
, 64
, 59
, 31
, 19
, 47
OMNIPAG E SE USERS GUIDE 95
V
Verifying text VGA mode Views
Customizin g columns i n Detail view, 24, 29
Detail view columns, 30 Matching editor view with
No Formatting view, 61, 68, Retain Flowing Columns Retain Fonts and Paragraphs Switching between Text Thumbnail view, 24, 28
True Page view, 61, 68, 74 Viewing PDF output, 87 Views in Editor, 61, 68
, 63
, 83
Detail view, 30
file type, 74, 86 74 view, 61, 68, 74 view, 61, 68, 74 Editor views, 68
W
Word wrapping Working with zones
, 34
, 55
Z
Zones
adding to, 55 alphanumeric, 56 auto-detect, 53, 57 changing t ypes, 57 deleting a template, 59 drawing, 48 finding additional, 45 graphic, 57 ignore zone, 57 irregular, 26, 55 joining, 55 manual, 26, 55, 88, 90 modifying a template, 59 multiple column, 56 numeric, 56 on page, 28
properties, 26, 56
rectangular, 55
reordering, 26, 56
replacing a template, 59
resizing, 26, 55
saving a template, 59
setting types, 58
single-column, 56
splitting, 56
subtracting from, 56
supplementing templates, 59
table, 26, 57, 58
table zone tools, 26
templates, 54, 59, 88
types, 56, 88
unloading a template, 60
using or discarding, 45
working with, 55 Zoning Instructions Zooming displays
, 45
, 25
96 INDEX
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