OmniPage® Pro Users Manual CAERE CORPORATION 100 Cooper Court Los Gatos, California 95032 European Offices: Caere GmbH Innere Wiener Strasse 5 81667 Munich Germany Please Note In order to use this program, you should know how to work in the Microsoft Windows environment. Please refer to Windows documentation if you have questions about how to use menu commands, dialog boxes, scroll bars, edit boxes, and so on. OmniPage Pro for Windows Version 8 Copyright© 1997 Caere Corporation. All rights reserved. CAERE®, OmniPage®, OmniPage Pro®, Language Analyst®, 3D OCR®, AutoOCRTM, and True Page® are trademarks of Caere Corporation Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Such designations appearing in this manual have been printed in initial caps. PD 802-0584-030A 2 Welcome Welcome to OmniPage Pro, and thank you for buying our software! The following documentation has been provided to help you learn about OmniPage Pro. This Users Manual This manual introduces you to the basics of using OmniPage Pro. It includes an introduction to OmniPage Pro, installation and setup instructions, task-oriented instructions, ways to customize processing, settings guidelines, and technical information. Online Help OmniPage Pro's online help contains detailed information on features, settings, and procedures. The online help conforms to Windows online help conventions and has been designed for quick and easy information retrieval. Please see "Getting Online Help" on page 12 for more information. Release Notes The Release Notes booklet contains last-minute information about OmniPage Pro. Please read this before installing the application. Scanner Setup Notes The Scanner Setup Notes booklet contains the latest information about supported scanners and scanner setup. Welcome ­ 3 Using This Manual Using This Manual This manual is written with the assumption that you know how to work in the Microsoft Windows environment. Please refer to your Windows user's manual or online help if you have questions about how to use dialog boxes, menus, and so on. The following conventions are used in this manual. Convention Italicized text Purpose · Emphasizes menu commands, dialog box options, labeled buttons, and file names For example: "Choose Open... in the File menu." · Emphasizes new terms the first time they are used · Emphasizes important words in a sentence Note symbol Introduces a tip or an item of note Introduces cautionary text Warning symbol Welcome ­ 4 Chapter 1 Introduction to OmniPage Pro You probably use your computer for most business correspondence and other written projects. The problem is that certain sources of information cannot be immediately used on a computer. For example, if you want to incorporate information from a magazine article into a document in your word processor, you somehow have to get the text from the article into your computer. Painstakingly retyping the article is not an appealing solution. OmniPage Pro offers a smart solution to increase your work productivity. OmniPage Pro's optical character recognition (OCR) technology accurately and easily converts scanned paper documents and image files into editable text for use in your favorite computer applications. OmniPage Pro does the retyping for you. Please continue reading this chapter for information on these topics: · What Is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)? · The OmniPage Pro Desktop · Getting Online Help · Product Support Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 5 What Is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)? What Is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)? Optical character recognition (OCR) is the process of turning an image into computer-editable text. An image is an electronic picture of text such as a scanned paper document or an electronic fax file. Images do not have editable text characters; they have many tiny dots (pixels) that together form a picture of text. During OCR, OmniPage Pro analyzes an image and defines characters to produce editable text. After OCR, you can export the resulting text to a variety of word-processing, page layout, and spreadsheet applications. OmniPage Pro OCR In addition to text recognition, OmniPage Pro can retain the following elements of a document during OCR. Graphics Photos, logos, and drawings are examples of graphics. Text formatting Font types, font sizes, and font styles (such as bold or italic) are examples of text formatting. Page formatting Column structure, paragraph spacing, and placement of graphics are examples of page formatting. The graphics, text formatting, and page formatting elements that OmniPage Pro retains are determined by the settings you select. See "Settings Guidelines" on page 54 for more information. OmniPage Pro only recognizes machine-printed characters such as laser-printed or typewritten text. However, it can retain handwritten text, such as a signature, as a graphic. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 6 What Is Optical Character Recognition (OCR)? Basic Steps of OmniPage Pro OCR These are the basic steps of OmniPage Pro's OCR process. 1 Bring a document image into OmniPage Pro. You can scan a paper document, load an image file, or load a fax from Microsoft. The resulting image appears in OmniPage Pro's image viewer. See "Bringing Document Images into OmniPage Pro" on page 23 for more information. 2 Create zones to identify areas you want to recognize as text or retain as graphics. Zones are borders that enclose the parts of a document image that will get processed. You can create zones manually, automatically, or with a template. Any areas not enclosed by zones are ignored during OCR. See "Creating Zones for OCR" on page 26 for more information. 3 Perform OCR to convert text information into editable text characters. During OCR, OmniPage Pro defines text characters in an image. After OCR, you can check and correct errors in the text. See "Performing OCR on a Document" on page 27 for more information. 4 Export the document to the desired location. You can save your document to a specified file format, place it on the Clipboard, or send it as a mail attachment. See "Exporting Documents" on page 39 for more information. There are different ways to start the OCR process in OmniPage Pro. See "Ways to Process Documents" on page 21 for more information. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 7 The OmniPage Pro Desktop The OmniPage Pro Desktop OmniPage Pro's desktop displays the pages of a document in its thumbnail viewer, image viewer, and text viewer. You can use buttons in the Standard, AutoOCR, and Zone toolbars to perform various tasks on the document. Zone toolbar Standard toolbar AutoOCR toolbar The thumbnail viewer displays a picture of each page in the document. The current page has a box around it. The image viewer displays the current pages original image. Drag this splitter to the left or right to resize a viewer. The text viewer displays the current pages recognized text and retained graphics. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 8 The OmniPage Pro Desktop AutoOCR Toolbar The AutoOCR toolbar contains buttons that can activate each step of the OCR process. AUTO button Image button Zone button OCR button Export button Click the down arrow to display the commands in a buttons drop-down list. Set commands in the AutoOCR toolbar buttons for the operations you want to perform. You can choose commands in a buttons's drop-down list. · The AUTO button allows you to activate automatic processing or use the OCR Wizard. · The Image button allows you to bring in images by scanning or loading pages. · The Zone button allows you to automatically create zones on images based on their original page layouts or predefined templates. · The OCR button allows you to perform OCR or train characters for OCR. · The Export button allows you to save, copy, or send your recognized document as a mail attachment. Please see "Setting AutoOCR Toolbar Commands" on page 43 for more information on each toolbar button. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 9 The OmniPage Pro Desktop Standard Toolbar The Standard toolbar contains buttons and drop-down lists for performing various tasks. New Save Check Recognition Copy Undo Image Editor Rotate Image Zoom Open Print Cut Paste View Options Straighten Image Help Zone Toolbar The Zone toolbar contains buttons that allow you to draw and define zones on a page image. Draw Rectangular Zones Add to Zone Reorder Zones Draw Irregular Zones Subtract from Zone Zone Properties See "Customizing Zones" on page 65 for more information. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 10 The OmniPage Pro Desktop Options Dialog Box You can select settings for OmniPage Pro in the Options dialog box. To open it, click the Options button or choose Options... in the Tools menu. Click the tabs in the Options dialog box to view and select different settings. See Chapter 4, OmniPage Pro Settings, for more information on settings. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 11 Getting Online Help Getting Online Help After installing OmniPage Pro, you can use its online help system to get information on features and procedures. Please refer to your Windows documentation to learn more about using Windows online help systems. Help Menu Use commands in the Help menu to open topics that provide information on features and procedures. · Choose OmniPage Pro Help Topics to get contents and index listings for OmniPage Pro help topics. · Choose Getting Started to get introductory topics to OmniPage Pro, including tutorial exercises. · Choose Product Support to find out how to get product support services for OmniPage Pro. · Choose Tip of the Day to get hints for using OmniPage Pro. Context-Sensitive Help You can get on-the-spot information about a particular OmniPage Pro command, toolbar button, or dialog box option in the following ways. · Click the Help button in the Standard toolbar and then click any toolbar button, menu command, or area of the OmniPage Pro desktop to display information about that item. · Click the question-mark button in the upper-right corner of a dialog box and then click an item in the dialog box to get an explanation of that item. · Some dialog boxes have a Help button. Click Help to get information about that dialog box. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 12 Product Support Product Support For the fastest and easiest way to get help, please look for solutions in this manual or in the online help. For troubleshooting tips, see "General Troubleshooting Solutions" on page 86. If you need additional help, product support and information are available to registered users through the services listed in this table. Service World Wide Web home page (common Q&A, patches, updates, troubleshooting procedures, and product information) Download Service (BBS) (patches, updates) Automated Fax Response Service (common Q&A, updates) Telephone Support in North America (fee-based troubleshooting) For international telephone numbers, please refer to the insert in your OmniPage Pro package. Caere Product Support +1 408 395-1631 (8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit) +1 408 354-8471 (US fax numbers only) +1 408 395-8319 How to Contact http://www.caere.com Please have the following information ready for the best service if you call Caere Product Support: · OmniPage Pro version and serial number · The make and model of your computer system, scanner, and other peripheral devices (printer, monitor, and so on) · The names and version numbers of any other scanning software you use · The amount of memory (RAM) on your system To get memory information, choose Start Settings Control Panel in the Windows taskbar. Double-click the System icon in the Control Panel to open the System Properties dialog box. On Windows 95, click the Performance tab to see memory information. On Windows NT, click the General tab to see memory information. · The amount of free hard disk space on your system To get disk space information, open Windows Explorer and select the drive letter for your hard disk. The status bar will report how much free hard disk space is available. Introduction to OmniPage Pro - 13 Chapter 2 Installation and Setup This chapter provides installation and setup information for OmniPage Pro and the Scan Manager. For technical and troubleshooting information, please read Chapter 6, Technical Information. For specific scanner information, please read the Scanner Setup Notes included in your OmniPage Pro package. This chapter contains the following topics: · Minimum System Requirements · Installing OmniPage Pro · Setting Up Your Scanner with OmniPage Pro · Starting OmniPage Pro · Registering OmniPage Pro Installation and Setup - 14 Minimum System Requirements Minimum System Requirements You need the following setup, at minimum, to install and run OmniPage Pro: · Computer with a 486 or higher processor · Microsoft W ...