TextBridge PRO User's Guide 8.5 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Copyright © 1996-1999 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. Printed in the United States. 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. This program was written with MacApp®: Copyright © 1985--1999 Apple Computer, Inc. The MacApp software is proprietary to Apple Computer, Inc. and is licensed to ScanSoft for distribution only for use in combination with TextBridge Professional for Macintosh. This program was written with PowerPlant library © 1993--1999 Metrowerks. IMPORTANT NOTICES ScanSoft 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 with-out obligation of ScanSoft to notify any person of such revision or changes. Apple Computer, Inc. makes no warranties whatsoever, either express or implied regarding this product, including warranties with respect to its merchantability or its fitness for any particular purpose. TRADEMARKS AND CREDITS TextBridge is a registered trademark and Smart Zones and Instant Access OCR, are trademarks, of ScanSoft, Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, AppleScript, Macintosh, and OneScanner are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Excel, Word, and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corp. Other terms used in this manual are trademarks of their respective holders. Portions of this product copyright © 1994--1997 Inso Corp. Designed by Jim Cahill; written by Sadie DeSimone, Jim Cahill, and Beth Paddock; illustrated by Sadie DeSimone and Beth Paddock. © SCANSOFT, INC. 9 Centennial Drive Peabody, Massachusetts 01960 TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide June 1999 (v8.5) CONTENTS PREFACE About This Manual ..................................ix Organization of this manual ........................ x Documentation conventions........................ xii Other Reading Material..............................xiii Customer Support ..................................xiv 1 INTRODUCTION TextBridge Pro Features and Benefits.................. 1­2 Productivity features unique to TextBridge Pro ........ 1­3 Other TextBridge Pro features..................... 1­3 Documents TextBridge Pro can recognize ............ 1­6 Supported Text Formats ............................ 1­7 Scanner Support .................................. 1­8 On-Line Help for TextBridge Pro...................... 1­9 Where to Go From Here............................ 1­11 2 INSTALLATION System Configuration and Performance................. 2­1 Installing and Testing Your Scanner ................... 2­2 Basic scanner installation steps.................... 2­3 Installing TextBridge Pro Software .................... 2­3 Run the TextBridge Pro Installer................... 2­4 Select a scanner driver .......................... 2­9 Where to Go From Here............................ 2­12 Un-installing TextBridge Pro........................ 2­13 TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide iii 3 TEXTBRIDGE PRO TOOLS Main Window .................................... 3­1 Main toolbar .................................. 3­2 Preferences panel .............................. 3­2 View area .................................... 3­2 Toolbars ........................................ 3­3 Main toolbar .................................. 3­4 Preview toolbar ................................ 3­6 Training toolbar ............................... 3­9 Preferences Panel ................................ 3­11 Menus and Commands ............................ 3­12 File menu ................................... 3­12 Edit menu ................................... 3­15 View menu .................................. 3­18 Process menu ................................ 3­20 Recognize menu............................... 3­22 Scanner menu ................................ 3­28 Where to Go From Here............................ 3­31 4 USING TEXTBRIDGE PRO Preparing the Job ................................. 4­1 Setting job preferences .......................... 4­3 Setting scanning preferences ...................... 4­9 Scanning and Converting a Document................. 4­12 Scanning a single-sided document ................. 4­12 Scanning a double-sided document ................ 4­15 Scanning Pages for Deferred Processing ............... 4­16 Recognizing and Converting Image Files ............... 4­20 Previewing Pages Before Processing .................. 4­23 Training TextBridge Pro During Recognition............ 4­28 Using TextBridge Instant Access OCR................. 4­32 Where to Go From Here............................ 4­35 iv TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide 5 TUTORIALS TextBridge Pro Interface ............................ 5­1 Sample Documents ................................ 5­3 Tutorial Session 1: Automatic Operation ................ 5­5 Tutorial Session 2: Capturing Parts of a Document ........ 5­7 Tutorial Session 3: Interactive Training ............... 5­12 Tutorial Session 4: Instant Access OCR ................ 5­15 Tutorial Session 5: Document Recomposition............ 5­17 Notes About Document Recomposition.............. 5­18 Where to Go From Here............................ 5­20 6 TIPS AND TECHNIQUES Getting the Best Document Recognition ................ 6­1 Use and maintain your scanner properly ............. 6­2 Adjust scanner brightness ........................ 6­3 Adjust for colors ............................... 6­5 Use the fax filter ............................... 6­5 Process multiple documents separately .............. 6­6 Create a custom dictionary ....................... 6­8 Use interactive training tools ..................... 6­9 Use Smart ZonesTM ............................ 6­11 Tips for Efficient Processing ........................ 6­12 Use job preferences to define your document ......... 6­12 Zone to capture only the data you want ............. 6­17 Save and load zone templates .................... 6­18 Save and load training data...................... 6­19 Use deferred processing for long documents.......... 6­20 Table of Contents v A TROUBLESHOOTING AND ERROR CORRECTION What To Do if You Have a Problem .................... A­2 Error messages and possible solutions.................. A­3 Installation Problems ............................. A­22 Basic Troubleshooting for Installation Problems ...... A­22 Scan Problems................................... A­23 Basic Troubleshooting for Scan Problems ........... A­23 Problems using a TWAIN driver .................. A­24 Assorted scanner driver problems ................. A­26 Expected scan options are grayed out-- (TWAIN or Adobe Photoshop Import Plug-in) ........... A­26 Scan problems after Clicking GO.................. A­27 Crash Problems.................................. A­29 Basic Troubleshooting for Crashes................. A­29 TextBridge-Specific Crash Problems ............... A­30 Processing image files created by other applications ... A­30 Instant Access OCR Problems .................... A­31 TextBridge Instant Access OCR Problems ........... A­31 Problems with TextBridge Pro or Instant Access OCR .. A­33 Final Check for Unresolved Problem .................. A­34 B SAMPLE DOCUMENTS Markplan ....................................... Zonepic ......................................... Plexis .......................................... Resume ......................................... 3col ............................................ B­2 B­3 B­4 B­5 B­6 vi TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide C APPLESCRIPT INTERFACE Writing TextBridge Scripts .......................... C­2 Writing TextBridge Scripts .......................... C­2 Record a script................................. C­2 Sample scripts................................. C­4 TextBridge Pro Objects ............................. C­5 application.................................... C­5 docFormatter.................................. C­6 imageSource .................................. C­7 Recognizer................................... C­10 TBDictionary................................. C­15 TBLanguage ................................. C­16 TBTrainingData .............................. C­17 TBZones .................................... C­18 Zone ..................................... C­19 TextBridge Pro Commands ......................... C­20 CancelPage .................................. C­20 ContinueJob ................................. C­21 DeskewImage ................................ C­21 InvertImage ................................. C­22 Rescan ..................................... C­23 SaveTraining................................. C­23 SaveZones ................................... C­24 StartJob .................................... C­25 StopJob ..................................... C­25 Synchronize.................................. C­26 GLOSSARY OF TERMS INDEX Table of Contents vii PREFACE ScanSoft Inc. welcomes you to TextBridge® Pro 8.5 for MacintoshTM. TextBridge Pro incorporates powerful optical character recognition (OCR) technology and an easy-to-use interface so you can quickly convert paper documents into fully-editable text files, complete with the original layouts. Files produced by TextBridge Pro are compatible with a variety of word processing, desktop publishing, data base, and spreadsheet applications. Before going on to find out more about TextBridge Pro, please read this preface as it describes these important items: x x x x About this manual Documentation conventions Other reading material Customer support ABOUT THIS MANUAL This user's guide includes introductory, procedural, and tutorial information designed primarily for non-technical users. However, you should be familiar with the management and operation of your Macintosh computer. Note This manual should provide all the information you need to operate TextBridge Professional Edition. However, ScanSoft invites your comments about the information provided here. Please make sure to register your software, and provide any comments to ScanSoft as directed. TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide ix Organization of this manual This manual is designed both as a training tool and a reference tool. It includes practical tips and techniques, troubleshooting and error correction, sample documents, and AppleScript information. It is organized as follows: x Chapter 1, "Introduction," discusses TextBridge Pro features and benefits, lists the supported scanners, lists the supported output text formats, and discusses the AppleGuide online Help system. Chapter 2, "Installation," provides step-by-step instructions to install TextBridge Pro software and link it with your scanner or other input device. This chapter also provides information about System Configuration and System Requirements. If you want to get started immediately, go directly to this chapter for full installation instructions. Chapter 3, "TextBridge Pro Tools," provides a complete reference to menus, commands, toolbars, and other components of TextBridge Pro's user interface. Chapter 4, "Using TextBridge Pro," provides step-by-step procedures to process paper documents and online page images to usable text files on your Macintosh. It describes how to use TextBridge Pro in both automatic and interactive modes. x x x x TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide x Chapter 5, "Tutorials," walks you through several practice sessions designed to provide a firm basis on which to learn and use the important features of TextBridge Pro. Chapter 6, "Tips and Techniques," provides practical suggestions for getting the best performance from TextBridge Pro. Appendix A, "Troubleshooting and Error Correction," lists the error messages that can be generated during TextBridge Pro operation and suggests ways for correcting the errors. Appendix B, "Sample Documents," describes the online sample documents that are provided with TextBridge Pro. Appendix C, "Apple Script Interface," describes the Apple events supported by TextBridge Pro and expla ...