ScanSoft TEXTBRIDGE PRO 11 User manual

LEGAL NOTICES
Copyright © 2002 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,
USA. Printed in the United States of America and in the Netherlands.
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, TextBridge, TextBridge Pro, PaperPort, Pagis, True Page, Direct OCR, and AutoOCR
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.
9 Centennial Drive
Peabody, MA 01960
U.S.A.
Part Number 50-631101-00A

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

iv CONTENTS
The Formatting toolbar 24
The TextBridge 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
TextBridge Documents 29
Why save to TXD 29
How to save to TXD 30
Settings 30
3 TUTORIAL: 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 TextBridge Pro 11 with
your PaperPort software 46
Processing documents with Schedule OCR 47
Defining the source of page images 48

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’SGUIDE 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 PROOFING AND EDITING 59
Proofreading OCR results 60
Checking recognized text against original 62
User dictionaries 63
The editor display and views 63
Text and image editing 64
Page outline 66
5 SAVING AND EXPORTING 67
Preparing recognition results for export 68
Saving to file 69
Saving original images 69
Saving recognition results 70
Saving a document as you work 71
Copying a document to the Clipboard 72
Sending a document as a mail attachment 73
6 TECHNICAL INFORMATION 75
Troubleshooting 76
Solutions to try first 76

vi CONTENTS
Testing TextBridge Pro 77
Low memory problems 78
Low disk space problems 78
Supported file types 79
File types for opening and saving images 79
File types for saving recognition results 80
OCR problems 81
Text does not get recognized properly 81
Problems with fax recognition 82
System or performance problems during OCR 82
Uninstalling the software 83

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’SGUIDE vii
Welcome
Welcome to TextBridge Pro 11TM, 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 Guide
This guide introduces you to using TextBridge 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. The
guide is presented in PDF format, allowing you to use hyperlink
jumps on cross-references and other navigation tools in your PDF
viewer.
Online Help
TextBridge Pro’s online Help contains information on features,
settings, and procedures. The online Help is provided as HTMLhelp,
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 TextBridge Pro. To open this HTML file,
choose Readme in the TextBridge 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 TextBridge Pro Installer or afterwards from the Help menu.

viii WELCOME
USING THIS GUIDE
This guide is written with the assumption that you know how to work
intheMicrosoftWindowsenvironment.PleaserefertoyourWindows
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 TextBridge Pro 11. Please refer to the scanner’s own
documentation as necessary.
The following conventions are used in this guide:
Bold Introduces new terms and presents sub-headings.
Italic Names sections in this guide (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 Presentsideasforusingprogramfeaturestoaccomplish
specific tasks.

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’SGUIDE ix
GETTING ONLINE HELP
In addition to using this guide, you can use TextBridge Pro’s online
Help to learn about features, settings, and procedures. Online Help is
available after you install TextBridge Pro.
Online HTML Help
Open TextBridge Pro’s online Help at its top level by choosing
TextBridge 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 TextBridge Pro menu item, toolbar button, screen
area or dialog box, in the following ways:
Click the Help tool 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 TextBridge Pro 11. Web pages may
also offer assistance on the installation process and troubleshooting.
Glossary
This guide 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 guide or in the program.

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’SGUIDE 11
1 Installation and setup
This chapter provides information on installing and starting TextBridge
Pro 11. It presents the following topics:
uSystem requirements
uInstalling TextBridge Pro
uSetting up your scanner with TextBridge Pro
uHow to start the program
uRegistering your software
uNew features in TextBridge Pro 11

12 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
You need the following minimum system requirements to install and run
TextBridge Pro 11:
uA computer with a Pentium or higher processor
uMicrosoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows MeMe,
Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4.0
u32MB of memory (RAM), 64MB recommended
u75MB of free hard disk space for the application files plus 10MB
working space during installation
u9MB 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.)
uSVGA monitor with 256 colors and 800 x 600 pixel resolution
uWindows-compatible pointing device
uCD-ROM drive for installation
uA 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 TEXTBRIDGE PRO 13
INSTALLING TEXTBRIDGE PRO
TextBridge Pro 11’s installation program takes you through installation
with instructions on every screen.
Before installing TextBridge Pro:
uMake sure your scanner is connected, turned on, and compatible
with your system.
uClose all other applications, especially anti-virus programs.
uLog into your computer with administrator privileges if you are
installing on Windows 2000 or Windows NT.
tTo install TextBridge Pro:
1. Insert TextBridge 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 Autorun.exe program at the top-level of the CD-ROM.
2. Choose a language to use during installation. 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 TextBridge Pro 11.
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 TextBridge Pro will
solve a problem. See Uninstalling the software at the end of chapter 6.

14 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH TEXTBRIDGE PRO
All files needed for scanner setup and support are copied automatically
during the program’s installation. Before using TextBridge 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 try to perform
scanning from TextBridge Pro 11.
Please follow these steps to use the Scanner Wizard to setup your scanner
with TextBridge Pro 11:
uChoose StartÉProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0É
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 TextBridge Toolbox.
uChoose Select scanning source, then click Next.
uClick once on your scanner’s TWAIN driver, then click Next.
uChoose Yes to test your scanner configuration, then click Next.
uThe wizard will now test the connection from the computer to
your scanner. Click on Next.
uInsert a test page into your scanner.
uThe wizard is now prepared to do a basic scan using your scanner
manufacturer’s software. Click on Next.
uYour scanner’s native user-interface will appear. Click on Scan to
begin the sample scan.
uIf necessary, click on Inverse Image…or Missing Image…and
make the appropriate selections.
uOnce the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next.
uSelect the item that most appropriately describes your scanner,
then click on Next.
uClick on Next to proceed to page size.

SETTING UP YOUR SCANNER WITH TEXTBRIDGE PRO 15
uThe 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.
uInsert a page with text but no pictures into your scanner. Click
on Next to begin a scan in black and white mode.
uIf necessary, click on Inverse Image…or Missing Image…and
make the appropriate selections.
uOnce the image appears correctly in the window, click on Next.
uIf 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 theappropriate selections. Oncethe
image appears correctly in the window, click on Next. If your
scanner cannot scan in color, skip this step.
uInsert 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.
uYou have successfully configured your scanner to work with
TextBridge Pro 11! Click on Finish.
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:
uStartÉProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0ÉScanner
Wizard or
uStartÉProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0ÉTextBridge
Pro 11.0ÉTools menuÉOptionsÉScanner…ÉSetup button.
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.

16 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
HOW TO START THE PROGRAM
To start TextBridge Pro 11 do one of the following:
uClick Start in the Windows taskbar and choose
ProgramsÉScanSoftTextBridgePro 11.0ÉTextBridgePro 11.0.
uDouble-click the TextBridge Pro icon in the program’s
installation folder or on the Windows desktop if you placed it
there.
uDouble-click a TextBridge Document (TXD) icon or file name;
the clicked document is loaded into the program. See TextBridge
Documents in chapter 2.
On opening, TextBridge Pro’s title screen is displayed and then its
desktop. See chapter 2, The TextBridge desktop for an introduction to the
program’s main working areas.
There are several ways of running the program with a limited interface:
uUse the Schedule OCR program. Click Start in the Windows
taskbar and choose ProgramsÉScanSoft TextBridge Pro 11.0É
Schedule OCR. See Processing documents with Schedule OCR in
chapter 3.
uClick Acquire Text from the File menu of an application
registered with the Direct OCR™facility. See Direct OCR in
chapter 3.
uRight-click an image file icon or file name for a shortcut menu.
Select a sub-menu item from ‘Convert To...’to define a target.
uUse TextBridge Pro 11 with ScanSoft’s PaperPort®or Pagis®
document management products, to add OCR services. SeeHow
to use TextBridge Pro 11 with your PaperPort software in 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.

NEW FEATURES IN TEXTBRIDGE PRO 11 17
When the form is filled, and you click Send the program will search an
Internet connection to immediately perform the registration online.
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.
NEW FEATURES IN TEXTBRIDGE PRO 11
The family of TextBridge
®
products moves to a new level with the
introduction of TextBridge Pro 11. Here are the main areas of innovation
and difference compared to the TextBridge Pro Millennium release:
uIncreased accuracy –multiple recognition engines working in
tandem offersignificant gains in accuracy, especially on degraded
documents.
uMore file formats – New image files formats for input are JPEG
and PNG and for export BMP, DCX, JPEG, PCX and PNG. See
page 79. Image saving is now done from the File menu instead of
from the Tools menu. See page 69.
uWorking areas – Choose to display the Image and Text areas as
alternatives (as in previous TextBridge versions), or to have both
visible at once, separated by a movable splitter. See page 22.
uFully-featured Text Editor – A WYSIWYG Editor lets you
modify recognized text and tables in-place instead of just single
words in an edit box. Change character and paragraph attributes,
tabs, borders and shading, and edit embedded graphics. Switch
freely between four formatting levels, including True Page
®
for
both display and saving. See page 63 and page 64.
uDocument Manager –Have a better overview of all pages in a
document and manage them more efficiently, not only with page
thumbnails, but also with a table. Each table row summarizes a
page and you can define which columns of information to view.
See page 27.

18 INSTALLATION AND SETUP
uOCR Proofreader –Jump through the suspect words in a
document and handle them one after the other in a dialog box.
Previously, suspect words were only marked. See page 60.
uOCR verifier –This lets you compare any recognized word with
its appearance in the original image as you edit and reformat the
document. See page 62.
uTextBridge Documents –These TXDs open the way to deferred
or distributed processing. They store all images along with
recognition results. This allows proofing, verifying, editing,
additional processing and saving to be done in a later session or at
any location where TextBridge Pro is installed. See page 29.
tImproved User Experience:
Some facilities are replaced with others, providing superior functionality.
uInstant AccessTM is replaced by Direct OCRTM. This provides
OCR services from the File menu of word processors and other
applications. See page 45. Register applications for Direct OCR
with the Options panel, accessed from the Tools menu.
uTextBridge Scheduler becomes Schedule OCR. See page 47.
uTextBridge Assistant (Show me how) is replaced by ToolTips,
Tips of the Day, context-sensitive help, a Quick Start Guide and
the OCR Wizard. See page ix, page 34 and page 37.
uPage Type is replaced by Layout Description (including Custom
Layout). See page 51. Scanning mode (black-and-white, gray-
scale, color) is defined with the Get Page button. See page 49.
uOpen file when done becomes Save and Launch. See page 69.
Training is no longer provided, since the extra accuracy deriving from
multi-engine recognition more than compensates for it.

TEXTBRIDGE PRO USER’SGUIDE 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 TextBridge 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 present the following topics:
uWhat is optical character recognition
uDocuments in TextBridge Pro
uBasic processing steps
uThe TextBridge desktop
uManaging documents
uTextBridge Documents
uSettings

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, TextBridge 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.
TextBridge Pro’s OCR capabilities
In addition to text recognition, TextBridge 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
Columnstructure,tableformats, and placementof graphicsandheadings
are examples of page formatting.
The graphics, text and page formatting elements that TextBridge 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 TextBridge 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.