COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Copyright © 1995­2000 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 the prior written consent of ScanSoft, Inc., 9 Centennial Drive, Peabody, Massachusetts 01960. 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. IMPORTANT NOTICE 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. TextBridge is a registered trademark, and Smart Zones, Instant Access OCR, and Custom Proof are trademarks, of ScanSoft, Inc. Excel and Word are trademarks; Windows and FrontPage are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corp. Other terms used in this manual are the trademarks of their respective holders. Animated character designed by Dreamlight Incorporated. www.dreamlight.com. Portions of this product copyright © 1994­2000, Inso Corporation. Authors: Lois West and Beth Paddock © SCANSOFT, INC. 9 Centennial Drive Peabody, Massachusetts 01960 TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition User's Guide Part Number 00­009733­00 April 2000 TRADEMARKS AND CREDITS CONTENTS PREFACE About This User's Guide ............................... vii Organization of this user's guide..................... viii Documentation conventions ......................... ix Related Documentation ................................ ix Technical Support ..................................... x 1 INTRODUCTION TO TEXTBRIDGE Basic OCR Concepts ................................. 1­1 Features and Benefits ................................ 1­3 New Features ................................... 1­3 Enhanced Features............................... 1­4 Other Features .................................. 1­7 Documents TextBridge Can Recognize ................ 1­8 Input Image File Formats ............................. 1­9 Output Text File Formats ............................ 1­10 Output Image File Formats ........................... 1­12 Where to Go From Here.............................. 1­13 TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition User's Guide iii 2 INSTALLING AND SETTING UP TEXTBRIDGE What Comes with TextBridge .......................... 2­1 Supported Scanners.................................. 2­2 Installing and Testing Your Scanner ..................... 2­3 System Requirements ................................ 2­4 Before Installing TextBridge ........................... 2­4 Uninstalling a Previous Version of TextBridge .......... 2­4 Using TextBridge with Pagis ....................... 2­6 Learning about TextBridge before you install it ......... 2­6 Installing TextBridge ................................ 2­7 Scanner Setup ...................................... 2­8 Setting Up Instant Access to TextBridge .................. 2­9 Updating your TextBridge Software .................... 2­10 Uninstalling TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition ... 2­10 Where to Go From Here.............................. 2­11 3 OCR AND BASIC TEXTBRIDGE OPERATIONS What is TextBridge OCR? ............................. 3­1 Page types ..................................... 3­2 Page sources .................................... 3­3 Recomposition .................................. 3­4 Running TextBridge Standalone and Instant Access ......... 3­5 Standalone Program .............................. 3­5 Instant Access .................................. 3­6 Improving Page Recognition with Settings ................ 3­7 Page Type Settings ............................... 3­7 Text Document Settings .......................... 3­11 Recognizing Other Languages ......................... 3­13 Language Installation............................ 3­13 Language Processing ............................ 3­13 Where to Go From Here.............................. 3­15 iv TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition User's Guide 4 LEARNING TO USE TEXTBRIDGE Before Beginning to Process a Document.................. 4­1 Using TextBridge to Process a Document ................. 4­2 Starting TextBridge.................................. 4­3 Using Automatic Processing ........................... 4­4 Using Manual Processing ............................. 4­6 Performing Basic Operations........................... 4­8 Selecting the Page Source.......................... 4­8 Selecting the Page Type ........................... 4­9 Previewing the Page ............................. 4­10 Zoning the Page ................................ 4­12 Proofreading the Document ....................... 4­14 Saving the Document ............................ 4­16 Getting Help While Using TextBridge ................... 4­17 Using the Welcome Window ....................... 4­18 Using the Show Me How Window ................... 4­18 Using Tips .................................... 4­20 Getting Information from Help ..................... 4­20 Using the TextBridge Web Site..................... 4­21 Where to Go From Here.............................. 4­22 5 SAMPLE SESSIONS WITH TEXTBRIDGE Using the Sample Documents .......................... 5­1 Session 1: Recognizing a Simple Document Using Auto Processing .............................. 5­6 Session 2: Using Instant Access to TextBridge ............ 5­12 Session 3: Recognizing a Complex Document Using Manual Processing........................... 5­17 Session 4: Processing Text, Pictures, and a Table .......... 5­25 Where to Go From Here.............................. 5­32 Table of Contents v 6 ADVANCED SAMPLE SESSIONS Session 1: Processing a Document to Use in a Database ...... 6­1 Session 2: Using Zone Templates and Page Types ........... 6­6 Session 3: Training TextBridge OCR .................... 6­11 Where to Go From Here.............................. 6­16 INDEX vi TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition User's Guide PREFACE ScanSoft, Inc. welcomes you to TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition for Windows® 95, 98, 2000, and Windows NT® 4.0. The documentation that comes with TextBridge provides you with the information you need to operate TextBridge. The documentation includes this user's guide, a Help system, and Release Notes. ScanSoft invites your comments about the information provided in the documentation. The documentation is part of an extensive user assistance program designed to provide you with information you may need to understand and use TextBridge. The section "Getting Help while using TextBridge" provides further information about user assistance. Before going on to find out more about TextBridge, please read this preface because it describes these important items: N N N About this user's guide Related documentation Technical support ABOUT THIS USER'S GUIDE This user's guide is a reference tool that provides information about TextBridge. It is for users with a wide range of computer experience. It assumes that you are familiar with the management and operation of your computer and Windows. This manual is provided both in print and electronic form. The entire user's guide is provided as a digital document in Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF). TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition User's Guide vii To view the user's guide in PDF format you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is installed with TextBridge, unless you already have it on your PC. You can access the user's guide from the installation menu and the TextBridge Help menu, or you can open it from Adobe Acrobat Reader. After you open it, you can view it on your PC and print all or part of it using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Organization of this user's guide The user's guide organization is as follows: The Table of Contents at the beginning of the user's guide describes the basic information in this book and helps you to find general information quickly. This Preface describes the documentation provided with TextBridge and technical support. Chapter 1 "Introduction to TextBridge" discusses TextBridge features. It also describes basic OCR concepts, documents TextBridge can recognize, supported scanners, and input file formats TextBridge can read and output file formats to which TextBridge can save the recognized text. Chapter 2 "Installing TextBridge" describes what comes with TextBridge; system requirements, installation, Instant Access set up, and TextBridge uninstall. Chapter 3 "OCR and TextBridge" explains the basic TextBridge functions that enable it to recognize and OCR your documents. Chapter 4 "Learning to Use TextBridge" describes the basic processes of using TextBridge. Chapter 5 "Sample Sessions with TextBridge" walks you through several practice sessions designed to help you to learn and use the important features of TextBridge. Chapter 6 "Advanced Sample Sessions" describes more complex and less frequent uses of TextBridge. The Index provides a comprehensive list of topics to assist you in quickly locating the specific information you need. viii TextBridge Pro Millennium Business Edition User's Guide Documentation conventions TextBridge documentation uses certain graphical elements and formatting to emphasize information and give more meaning to text. Table 1: Documentation Conventions bold Introduces a new term or the first use of an important term in a chapter. It is sometimes used to denote strong emphasis. Denotes titles of other user's guides or books and generic representations of file name entries in examples; for example, filename Denotes text that appears on the computer screen such as examples, menu text, and messages plus actual file names. Denotes titles of chapters and sections in this user's guide. Introduces tips that provide useful information about a procedural step or system function. Introduces information of note about the current subject. italic monospace " " (quotes)  Note RELATED DOCUMENTATION TextBridge provides a comprehensive set of printed and digital documentation designed to assist you in learning and operating the product. The documentation provided with TextBridge covers all aspects of installation and operation. Note Information provided in individual documents is not duplicated in other documents except for basic information about TextBridge. If you do not find the information you want in a particular document, please check another. For example, if you do not find information you want in this user's guide, look for it in the Help system Preface ix Refer to the documentation in the following list for information: N Online Release Notes. Before or after you install TextBridge, read the Release Notes. These provide the most up-to-date information about TextBridge. They describe technical information, including specifics about using a particular scanner. Release Notes also include information unavailable at the time that the user's guide and Help were finalized. During installation you can access the Release Notes from the installation menu. After installation you can access the Release Notes from the TextBridge Program menu in the Start menu. Help. The Help system provides you with detailed information about using TextBridge. It includes instructions on how to get started in TextBridge, step-by-step procedures for most operations and user tips. Context-sensitive Help is always available by pressing F1 from any menu command or dialog box. Online User's Guide. An online version of the complete user's guide is provided in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf). You can access the user's guide from the installation menu and the TextBridge Help menu, or you can open it from Adobe Acrobat Reader. Printed User's Guide. A printed version of the user's guide is provided. The user's guide provides you with basic information about OCR and how TextBridge performs OCR, information about installing TextBridge, information about how to run TextBridge and improve its performance, and tutorials to help you learn the basic-to-advanced use of TextBridge. You may also need to refer to additional publications, such as the manufacturer's documentation for your scanner. N N N Note TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you should experience problems with TextBridge that you cannot resolve on your own using the documentation and software, contact Te ...