ScanSoft OMNIPAGE PRO 11 User manual

LEGAL NOTICES
Copyright © 2001 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 Department at ScanSoft, Inc., 9 Centennial Drive, Peabody, Massachusetts 01960.
Printed in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom.
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.
TRADEMARKS AND CREDITS
ScanSoft, OmniPage, OmniPage Pro, PaperPort, Pagis, True Page, DirectOCR, AutoOCR, OCR
Proofreader 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.
ScanSoft, Inc.ScanSoft, Inc.
ScanSoft, Inc.
9 Centennial Drive
Peabody, MA USA 01960
Part Number 50-28001-00A

MANUAL OMNIPAGE PRO iii
CONTENTS
WELCOME VII
Using this manual viii
Getting online help ix
Online HTML Help ix
Context-Sensitive Help ix
Tech Notes x
Glossary x
1I
NSTALLATION AND SETUP 11
System requirements 12
Installing OmniPage Pro 13
Setting up your scanner with OmniPage Pro 14
How to start the program 16
Registering your software 17
New features in OmniPage Pro 11 18
2I
NTRODUCTION 19
What is optical character recognition 20
OmniPage Pro’s OCR capabilities 20
Documents in OmniPage Pro 21
Basic processing steps 21
The OmniPage Pro desktop 22
The Standard toolbar 23
The Menu bar 23
The Image toolbar 24

iv CONTENTS
The Formatting toolbar 24
The OmniPage Toolbox 25
Managing documents 26
Thumbnail view 26
Detail view 27
Customizing columns in Detail view 28
Deleting pages from a document 28
Printing a document 28
Closing a document 29
OmniPage Documents 29
Why save to OPD 30
How to save to ODP 30
Settings 31
3T
UTORIAL: PROCESSING DOCUMENTS 33
Quick Start Guide 34
Loading and recognizing sample image files 34
Scanning and recognizing a single page 34
Processing documents using the OCR Wizard 37
Processing documents automatically 40
Command buttons 41
Processing documents manually 42
Processing a document automatically and
finishing it manually 44
Processing from other applications 45
How to set up Direct OCR 45
How to use Direct OCR 45
How to use OmniPage Pro 11 with your
PaperPort software 46
Processing documents with Schedule OCR 47
Defining the source of page images 48

MANUAL OMNIPAGE PRO v
Input from image files 48
Input from scanner 49
Scanning with an ADF 50
Scanning long documents without an ADF 51
Describing the layout of the document 51
Manual zoning 53
Working with zones 53
Zone properties 54
Table grids in the image 56
Using zone templates 57
4 P
ROOFING AND EDITING 59
Proofreading ocr results 60
Checking recognized text against original 61
User dictionaries 62
IntelliTrain 63
The editor display and views 66
Text and image editing 67
Reading text aloud 68
Page outline 70
5 S
AVING AND EXPORTING 71
Preparing recognition results for export 72
Saving to file 73
Saving original images 73
Saving recognition results 74
Saving a document as you work 75
Copying a document to the Clipboard 76
Sending a document as a mail attachment 77

vi CONTENTS
6 T
ECHNICAL INFORMATION 79
Troubleshooting 80
Solutions to try first 80
Testing OmniPage Pro 81
Low memory problems 82
Low disk space problems 82
Supported file types 83
File types for opening and saving images 83
File types for saving recognition results 84
Saving to PDF 85
OCR problems 86
Text does not get recognized properly 86
Problems with fax recognition 87
System or performance problems during OCR 87
Uninstalling the software 88

MANUAL OMNIPAGE PRO vii
Welcome
Welcome to OmniPage Pro 11, 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 Manual
This manual introduces you to using OmniPage Pro 11. 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.
Online Help
OmniPage Pro’s online Help contains information on features,
settings, and procedures. The online Help is provided as HTML help,
and has been designed for quick and easy information retrieval.
Comprehensive context-sensitive help aims to provide just enough
assistance to let you keep working without delay. Please see the section
Getting online Help.
Readme File
The Readme file contains last-minute information about the software.
Please read it before using OmniPage Pro. To open this HTML file,
choose Readme in the OmniPage Pro 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 Pro Installer or afterwards from the Help menu.

viii WELCOME
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 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 Pro 11. Please refer to the scanner’s own
documentation as necessary.
The following conventions are used in this manual:
Bold Introduces new terms and presents sub-headings.
Italic Names sections in this manual (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.
Non-serif Presents file names: sample.tif
Note
Presents an item of additional information.
Tip
Presents ideas for using program features to accomplish
specific tasks.

MANUAL OMNIPAGE PRO ix
GETTING ONLINE HELP
In addition to using this manual, you can use OmniPage Pro’s online
Help to learn about features, settings, and procedures. Online Help is
available after you install OmniPage Pro.
Online HTML Help
Open OmniPage Pro’s online Help at its top level by choosing
OmniPage Pro 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 Pro 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 desktop outside a dialog box or warning
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.

xWELCOME
Tech Notes
ScanSoft’s web site at www.scansoft.com contains Tech Notes on
commonly reported issues using OmniPage Pro 11. Web pages may
also offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.
Glossary
This manual does not include a glossary. The online Help has a
comprehensive glossary, with its own alphabetical index and a table of
contents. Please consult it if you want to find the meaning of a term
used in this Manual or in the program.

MANUAL OMNIPAGE PRO 11
1
Installation and setup
This chapter provides information on installing and starting OmniPage
Pro 11. It presents the following topics:
◆System requirements
◆Installing OmniPage Pro
◆Setting up your scanner with OmniPage Pro
◆How to start the program
◆Registering your software
◆New features in OmniPage Pro 11

12 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
You need the following minimum system requirements to install and run
OmniPage Pro 11:
◆A computer with a Pentium or higher processor
◆Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows
2000, or Windows NT 4.0
◆32MB of memory (RAM), 64MB recommended
◆75MB of free hard disk space for the application files plus 10MB
working space during installation
◆9MB for Microsoft Installer (MSI) if not present and 44MB for
Internet Explorer if not present. (These are present as part of the
operating system in Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows
2000.)
◆SVGA monitor with 256 colors and 800 x 600 pixel resolution
◆Windows-compatible pointing device
◆CD-ROM drive for installation
◆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.
Note
Performance and speed will be enhanced if your computer’s
processor, memory, and available disk space exceed minimum
requirements.

INSTALLING OMNIPAGE PRO 13
INSTALLING OMNIPAGE PRO
OmniPage Pro 11’s installation program takes you through installation
with instructions on every screen.
Before installing OmniPage Pro:
◆Make sure your scanner is connected, turned on, and compatible
with your system.
◆Close all other applications, especially anti-virus programs.
◆Log into your computer with administrator privileges if you are
installing on Windows 2000 or Windows NT.
◆If you own a previous version of OmniPage Pro, or if you are
upgrading from OmniPage Limited Edition, the installer will ask
for your consent to uninstall that product first.
▼To i n s t a l l O m n i Pa g e Pr o :
1. Insert OmniPage Pro’s CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive. The
installation program should start automatically. If it does not start,
locate your CD-ROM drive in Windows Explorer and double-click
the Setup.exe program at the top-level of the CD-ROM.
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 OmniPage Pro 11,
but your choice at installation time determines which Text-to-Speech
system will be installed with the program. See the second note below.
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 Pro will
solve a problem. See Uninstalling the Software at the end of chapter 6.

14 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH OMNIPAGE PRO
All files needed for scanner setup and support are copied automatically
during the program’s installation. Before using OmniPage Pro 11 for
scanning, your scanner should be correctly installed and tested for correct
functionality.
Scanner installation and setup are done through the Scanner Wizard. You
can start this yourself, as described below. Otherwise, the Scanner Wizard
appears when you first attempt to perform scanning from OmniPage Pro
11.
Please follow these steps to use the Scanner Wizard to setup your scanner
with OmniPage Pro 11:
◆Choose Start➤Programs➤ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 11.0➤
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 Toolbox.
◆Choose Select scanning source, then click Next.
◆Click once on your scanner’s TWAIN driver to select it, then
click Next.
◆Choose Yes to test your scanner configuration, then click Next.
◆The wizard will now test the connection from the computer to
your scanner. Click on Next.
◆Insert a test page into your scanner.
◆The wizard is now prepared to do a basic scan using your scanner
manufacturer’s software. Click on Next.
Note
It is planned to provide Text-to-Speech for English (British and
US), French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. This may vary
depending on region or version. Please check in the Readme file for latest
information. A speech system for only one language can be installed with
OmniPage Pro. See also the section Reading text aloud in chapter 5.

SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH OMNIPAGE PRO 15
◆Your scanner’s native user-interface will appear. Click on Scan to
begin the sample scan.
◆If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image… and
make the appropriate selections.
◆Once the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next.
◆Select the item that most appropriately describes your scanner,
then click on Next.
◆Click on Next to proceed to page size.
◆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.
◆Insert a page with text but no pictures into your scanner. Click
on Next to begin a scan in black and white mode.
◆If necessary, click on Inverse Image… or Missing Image… and
make the appropriate selections.
◆Once the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next.
◆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 appropriate selections. Once the
image appears correctly in the window, click on Next. If your
scanner cannot scan in color, skip this step.
◆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 appropriate selections. Once the image appears
correctly in the window, click on Next.
◆You have successfully configured your scanner to work with
OmniPage Pro 11! Click on Finish.

16 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
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:
◆Start➤Programs➤ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 11.0➤Scanner
Wizard or
◆Start➤Programs➤ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 11.0➤OmniPage
Pro 11.0➤Tools menu➤Options➤Scanner…➤Setup button.
HOW TO START THE PROGRAM
To start OmniPage Pro 11 do one of the following:
◆Click Start in the Windows taskbar and choose
Programs➤ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 11.0➤OmniPage Pro 11.0.
◆Double-click the OmniPage Pro icon in the program’s
installation folder or on the Windows desktop if you placed it
there.
◆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 Pro’s title screen is displayed and then its
desktop. See chapter 2 for an introduction to OmniPage Pro’s desktop.
There are several ways of running the program with a limited interface:
◆Use the Schedule OCR program. Click Start in the Windows
taskbar and choose Programs➤ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 11.0➤
Schedule OCR. See Schedule OCR in chapter 3.
◆Click Acquire Text from the File menu of an application
registered with the Direct OCR™ facility. See Direct OCR in
chapter 3.
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.

REGISTERING YOUR SOFTWARE 17
◆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.
◆
Use OmniPage Pro to provide OCR services in ScanSoft’s
PaperPort
®
or Pagis
®
document management products. See 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 five minutes.
You are asked to enter OmniPage Pro 11’s serial number, which appears
on a sticker on the CD sleeve.
When the form is filled, and you click Send the program will search an
Internet connection to immediately perform the registration online. If
this does not succeed, it will guide you to offline registration choices.
If you did not register the software during installation, you will be
periodically invited 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.

18 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
NEW FEATURES IN OMNIPAGE PRO 11
If you are upgrading, you may not need to consult this Manual very
much. Here are some main areas of innovation compared to OmniPage
Pro 10:
◆Greater accuracy - redeveloped recognition engines make
OmniPage Pro 11 the most accurate OmniPage
®
ever.
◆Improved page layout - OmniPage Pro 11 will allow you to retain
formatting that is true to the original, even on pages with non-
gridded tables, headers and footers and dropped capitals.
◆More intelligent proofreading - new IntelliTrain feature
automatically uses previous corrections to generate better OCR
results.
◆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.
◆Better HTML - new WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) HTML output will handle graphics, text, and backgrounds
to keep your web output looking like the original document.
◆Language support - OmniPage 11 now supports over 100
languages and extends to the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets.
◆Detail view - this provides more customizable information about
each page, making it easier to handle pages in a document.
◆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.
◆Better results on degraded text - a new despeckle module
significantly reduces errors on spotty, shaded and color
backgrounds.

MANUAL OMNIPAGE PRO 19
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 Pro 11 uses OCR technology to
transform text from scanned pages or image files into editable text for use
in your favorite computer applications.
We address the following questions:
◆What is optical character recognition
◆What is a document in OmniPage Pro
◆Which are the main steps in processing a document
◆What are the functions and facilities in the main screen areas
◆How can documents be managed at page level
◆What is an OmniPage Document (OPD)

20 INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION
Optical character 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. Images do not have editable text
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 Pro 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 Pro’s OCR capabilities
In addition to text recognition, OmniPage Pro 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) are
examples of character formatting. Indents, tabs, margins and line spacing
are examples of paragraph formatting.
Page formatting
Column structure, table formats, and placement of graphics and headings
are examples of page formatting.
The graphics, text and page formatting elements that OmniPage Pro
retains are determined by the settings you select. Refer to the Settings
Guidelines in the online Help for more information about selecting
settings.
Note
OmniPage Pro 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.