OmniWare Pro 12 ScanSoft User Manual

10 WelcomeTech NotesScanSoft’s web site at www.scansoft.com contains Tech Notes on commonly reported issues using OmniPage Pro 12. Web pages may also

100 IndexScanningblack-and-white, 49books, 31brightness, 31, 50color, 49contrast, 31grayscale, 49input from, 49pictures, 49Wizard, 14Schedule OCR, 47i

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 11Chapter 1Installation and setupThis chapter provides information on installing and starting OmniPage Pro 12. It presents t

12 Installation and setupSystem requirementsYou need the following minimum system requirements to install and run OmniPage Pro 12:X A computer with a

Chapter 1Installing OmniPage Pro 13Installing OmniPage ProOmniPage Pro 12’s installation program takes you through installation with instructions on e

14 Installation and setupSetting up your scanner with OmniPage ProAll files needed for scanner setup and support are copied automatically during the p

Chapter 1Setting up your scanner with OmniPage Pro 15X Click on Scan to begin the sample scan.X If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image

16 Installation and setupHow to start the programTo start OmniPage Pro 12 do one of the following:X Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose Prog

Chapter 1Registering your software 17Registering your softwareScanSoft’s registration Wizard runs at the end of installation. We provide an easy elect

18 Installation and setupsaved to zone templates. See page 53. Irregular zones can be drawn and zones split and joined more simply, without the need f

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 19Chapter 2Introduction You probably use your computer for business correspondence, preparing reports, handling data and an

L EGAL NOTICESCopyright © 2002 ScanSoft, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted, transcribed, reproduced, stored in

20 IntroductionWhat is optical character recognitionOptical character recognition is the process of extracting text from an image. This image can resu

Chapter 2What is optical character recognition 21Documents in OmniPage ProOmniPage Pro 12 handles documents one at a time. When you acquire your first

22 IntroductionThe OmniPage DesktopThe OmniPage Desktop has a title bar and a menu bar along the top and a status bar along the bottom. It has three m

Chapter 2The OmniPage Desktop 23We show the program with a three-page document. Page one is the current page, which has been recognized and proofed. P

24 IntroductionThe Image PanelWhen this displays the current page image, the Image toolbar is available. All page images have a background value: proc

Chapter 2The OmniPage Desktop 25The OmniPage ToolboxThis Toolbox lets you drive the processing. By default it is located along the top of the OmniPage

26 IntroductionManaging documentsDocument management can be done by thumbnails in the Image Panel or by the Document Manager, situated along the botto

Chapter 2Managing documents 27the Ctrl key as you click thumbnails to add pages to a selection one by one. Then you can move or delete the selected pa

28 IntroductionWhen multiple pages are being selected, the page set as current does not change. All selected pages are highlighted.Customizing Documen

Chapter 2OmniPage Documents 29Printing a documentYou can print the document with the Print item in the File menu. Choose whether to print images or te

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide iiiC ONTENTSWELCOME 7 Using this Guide 8Getting online Help 9Online HTML Help 9Context-Sensitive Help 9Tech Notes 10Glossa

30 IntroductionWhy save to OPDYou do not have to save your documents to the OPD file type. You would typically do this for the following reasons:x You

Chapter 2Settings 31SettingsThe Options dialog box is the central location for OmniPage Pro settings. Access it from the Standard toolbar or the Tools

32 IntroductionProofingUse this to define whether proofreading should begin automatically after recognition. Define also whether IntelliTrain should r

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 33Chapter 3Processing documentsThis tutorial chapter describes different ways you can process a document and also provides

34 Processing documentsQuick Start GuideThis topic takes you step-by-step through the basic OCR process.Loading and recognizing sample image filesYou

Chapter 3Quick Start Guide 35If you succeeded in getting good results from the sample image files, but not from the scanned page, check your scanner

36 Processing documentsProcessing overviewThe following flow diagram summarizes the processing steps:Here is an overview of the processing methods you

Chapter 3Processing overview 37Using the OCR WizardThe OCR Wizard guides you through the selection of settings and commands by asking you questions.

38 Processing documentsAutomatic processingAutomatic processing provides an efficient way of handling documents, especially larger ones. First you sel

Chapter 3Automatic processing 394. Choose in the Standard toolbar or Options in the Tools menu and check that settings are appropriate for your doc

iv ContentsThe Text Editor 24The OmniPage Toolbox 25Managing documents 26Thumbnails 26Document Manager 27Customizing Document Manager columns 28Delet

40 Processing documentsManual processingManual processing gives you more precise control over the way your pages are handled. You can process the docu

Chapter 3Combined processing 416. Select a value for the Perform OCR button. You describe the layout of the incoming pages. This value has an influen

42 Processing documentsdetermine which pages are in order, and which need different settings or some manual zoning. After adjusting settings and/or mo

Chapter 3Processing with the OCR Wizard 433. Manually zone pages where you want to process only part of the page or if you want to give precise zonin

44 Processing documents5. The last panel asks you to define the export choice: saving to file or copying to Clipboard. After setting the choice, click

Chapter 3Processing from other applications 45How to set up Direct OCR1. Start the application you want connected to OmniPage Pro. Start OmniPage Pro

46 Processing documentsHow to use OmniPage Pro with PaperPortPaperPort® is a paper management software product from ScanSoft. It lets you link pages w

Chapter 3Processing with Schedule OCR 47Processing with Schedule OCRYou can schedule OCR jobs to be performed automatically at any time within the fo

48 Processing documentsDefining the source of page imagesThere are two possible image sources: from image files and from a scanner. There are two main

Chapter 3Defining the source of page images 49Normally the Add button places each file at the bottom of the file list. To place a file at a different

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide vInput from scanner 49Scanning with an ADF 50Scanning without an ADF 51Describing the layout of the document 51Zones and ba

50 Processing documentsBrightness and contrastGood brightness and contrast settings play an important role in OCR accuracy. Set these in the Scanner p

Chapter 3Describing the layout of the document 51You can scan double-sided documents with an ADF. A duplex scanner will manage this automatically. Fo

52 Processing documentsSingle column, no tableChoose this setting if your pages contain only one column of text and no table. Business letters or page

Chapter 3Zones and backgrounds 53Zones and backgroundsZones define areas on the page to be processed or ignored. Zones are rectangular or irregular,

54 Processing documentsAuto-zone a page backgroundAcquire a page. It appears with a process background. Draw a zone. The background changes to ignore.

Chapter 3Zones and backgrounds 55Automatically drawn zones and template zones have solid borders:Manually drawn or modified zones have dotted borders

56 Processing documentsprocess zones on an ignore background. Draw a process zone to enclose columns of text to have them handled automatically. They

Chapter 3Zones and backgrounds 57Working with zonesThe Image toolbar provides zone editing tools. One is always selected. When you no longer want the

58 Processing documentsJoin two zones of the same typeDraw an overlapping zone of the same type.Make an irregular zone by subtractionDraw an overlappi

Chapter 3Table grids in the image 59The following zone shapes are prohibited:To expand a zone more quickly than using its resizing handles, draw a zo

vi Contents5SAVING AND EXPORTING 77Saving original images 78Saving recognition results 79Saving a document as you work 80Selecting a formatting leve

60 Processing documentsUse the table tools and their cursors as follows:Insert row dividersClick the tool then click at the location in a table zone w

Chapter 3Using zone templates 61Using zone templatesA template contains a page background value and a set of zones and their properties, stored in a

62 Processing documentsHow to unload a templateSelect a non-template setting in the Layout Description drop-down list. The template zones are not remo

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 63Chapter 4Proofing and editingRecognition results are placed in the Text Editor. These can be recognized texts, tables and

64 Proofing and editingThe editor display and viewsThe Text Editor displays recognized texts and can mark words that were suspected during recognition

Chapter 4Proofreading OCR results 65Tr ue Pa ge v ie wTr u e Pa g e® view tries to conserve as much of the formatting of the original document as poss

66 Proofing and editing3. If the recognized word is correct, click Ignore or Ignore All to move to the next suspect word. Click Add to add it to the c

Chapter 4Verifying text 67The verifier tool is in the Formatting toolbar. The verifier can also be controlled from the Tools menu. Hover the cursor ov

68 Proofing and editingUser dictionariesThe program has built-in dictionaries for many languages. These assist during recognition and may offer sugges

Chapter 4Training 69TrainingTraining is the process of changing the OCR solutions assigned to character shapes in the image. It is useful for uniforml

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 7WelcomeWelcome to OmniPage Pro®, and thank you for using our software! The following documentation has been provided to hel

70 Proofing and editingfinds candidate words to change, the Check Training dialog box lists these. Incorrect words should be re-trained before the lis

Chapter 4Training 71IntelliTrain remembers the training data it collects, and adds it to any manual training you have done. This training can be saved

72 Proofing and editingText and image editingOmniPage Pro has a WYSIWYG Text Editor, providing many editing facilities. These work very similarly to t

Chapter 4Text and image editing 73between paragraphs. The Text Editor’s horizontal ruler lets you define indent and tab positions easily. Advanced tab

74 Proofing and editingFrames have gray borders and enclose one or more boxes. They are placed when a visible border is detected in an image. Format f

Chapter 4Reading text aloud 75Click the on-the-fly tool with a green signal. The zoning changes will cause changes in the Text Editor.Click the Perfor

76 Proofing and editingThe Text-to-Speech facility is enabled or disabled with the Tools menu item Speech Mode or with the F5 key. A second menu item

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 77Chapter 5Saving and exportingOnce you have acquired at least one image for a document, you can export the image(s) to file

78 Saving and exportingpage is recognized (or proofread, if that was requested), an exporting dialog box appears.You can specify export any time the p

Chapter 5Saving recognition results 79Saving recognition resultsYou can save recognized pages to disk in a wide variety of file types. See “File types

8 WelcomeUsing this GuideThis guide is written with the assumption that you know how to work in the Microsoft Windows environment. Please refer to you

80 Saving and exporting5. Click OK. The document is saved to disk as specified. If Save and Launch is selected, the exported file will appear in its t

Chapter 5Saving recognition results 81The Save As dialog box lists available file types in its Save as Type drop-down list. The OmniPage Document is t

82 Saving and exportingTr ue Pa ge ( TP )This keeps the original layout of the pages, including columns. This is done with text, picture and table box

Chapter 5Saving recognition results 83Click Defaults to have all settings returned to the default values for the current file type.Click Save to have

84 Saving and exportingSaving to PDFYou have five choices when saving to Portable Document Format (PDF) files.PDF (Normal): Pages are exported as they

Chapter 5Sending pages by mail 85plain or Unicode text will be pasted. Graphics are retained if the application supports insertion of images.W To copy

86 Saving and exportingAt any time the program is not busy, choose Send as Mail in the File menu to call up the Send as Mail dialog box.1. This dialog

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 87Chapter 6Technical informationThis chapter provides troubleshooting and other technical information about using OmniPage P

88 Technical informationTroubleshootingAlthough OmniPage Pro is designed to be easy to use, problems sometimes occur. Many of the error messages conta

Chapter 6Troubleshooting 89Testing OmniPage ProRestarting Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP in safe mode or Windows NT in VGA mode allows you to test OmniPa

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 9Getting online HelpIn addition to using this guide, you can use OmniPage Pro’s online Help to learn about features, settin

90 Technical information5. Launch OmniPage Pro and try performing OCR on an image. Use a known image file such as one of the supplied sample files.You

Chapter 6Troubleshooting 91Text does not get recognized properlyTry these solutions if any part of the original document is not converted to text pro

92 Technical informationOmniPage Pro only recognizes machine printed-text characters such as type-written or laser-printed text. It can handle dot-mat

Chapter 6ODMA support 93ODMA supportIf your local network includes a Document Management System (DMS) that supports ODMA clients, OmniPage Pro may be

94 Technical informationSupported file typesThe program supports a wide range of file types for images and text.File types for opening and saving imag

Chapter 6Supported file types 95File types for saving recognition resultsThis table shows which formatting levels are available for each file type.Gr

96 Technical informationTables● File type supports tables in grids, no table handling choices at export time●● File type supports tables, choose to us

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 97I NDEXAAccuracyimprovement, 49, 69, 91influence of brightness, 50influence of training, 69scanning mode influence, 49Acqui

98 Indexto target applications, 21, 40, 78True Page, 82FFax recognition, 92Features, new, 17Filesas export target, 78as image source, 48retained on un

OmniPage Pro User’s Guide 99ODMA support, 93OmniPage Desktop, 22OmniPage Documentscontents of, 80definition, 29purpose of OPD files, 30saving as, 30,