Nuance TextBridge PRO 8.5 User manual

User's Guide

PRO

TextBridge

8.5

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.

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.

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.

Designed by Jim Cahill; written by Sadie DeSimone, Jim Cahill, and Beth

Paddock; illustrated by Sadie DeSimone and Beth Paddock.

9 Centennial Drive

Peabody, Massachusetts 01960

TextBridge Professional Edition User’s Guide (v8.5)

June 1999

TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide iii

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.................. 1–2

Productivity features unique to TextBridge Pro........ 1–3

Other TextBridge Pro features..................... 1–3

Documents TextBridge Pro can recognize ............ 1–6

Supported Text Formats ............................ 1–7

Scanner Support .................................. 1–8

On-Line Help for TextBridge Pro...................... 1–9

Where to Go From Here............................ 1–11

2 INSTALLATION

System Configuration and Performance................. 2–1

Installing and Testing Your Scanner ................... 2–2

Basic scanner installation steps.................... 2–3

Installing TextBridge Pro Software .................... 2–3

Run the TextBridge Pro Installer................... 2–4

Select a scanner driver .......................... 2–9

Where to Go From Here............................ 2–12

Un-installing TextBridge Pro........................ 2–13

iv TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

3 TEXTBRIDGE PRO TOOLS

Main Window .................................... 3–1

Main toolbar .................................. 3–2

Preferences panel .............................. 3–2

View area .................................... 3–2

Toolbars ........................................ 3–3

Main toolbar .................................. 3–4

Preview toolbar ................................ 3–6

Training toolbar ............................... 3–9

Preferences Panel ................................ 3–11

Menus and Commands ............................ 3–12

File menu ................................... 3–12

Edit menu ................................... 3–15

View menu .................................. 3–18

Process menu ................................ 3–20

Recognize menu............................... 3–22

Scanner menu ................................ 3–28

Where to Go From Here............................ 3–31

4 USING TEXTBRIDGE PRO

Preparing the Job ................................. 4–1

Setting job preferences .......................... 4–3

Setting scanning preferences...................... 4–9

Scanning and Converting a Document................. 4–12

Scanning a single-sided document ................. 4–12

Scanning a double-sided document ................ 4–15

Scanning Pages for Deferred Processing ............... 4–16

Recognizing and Converting Image Files ............... 4–20

Previewing Pages Before Processing .................. 4–23

Training TextBridge Pro During Recognition............ 4–28

Using TextBridge Instant Access OCR................. 4–32

Where to Go From Here............................ 4–35

Table of Contents v

5 TUTORIALS

TextBridge Pro Interface ............................ 5–1

Sample Documents ................................ 5–3

Tutorial Session 1: Automatic Operation ................ 5–5

Tutorial Session 2: Capturing Parts of a Document ........ 5–7

Tutorial Session 3: Interactive Training ............... 5–12

Tutorial Session 4: Instant Access OCR................ 5–15

Tutorial Session 5: Document Recomposition............ 5–17

Notes About Document Recomposition.............. 5–18

Where to Go From Here............................ 5–20

6 TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Getting the Best Document Recognition ................ 6–1

Use and maintain your scanner properly............. 6–2

Adjust scanner brightness ........................ 6–3

Adjust for colors ............................... 6–5

Use the fax filter ............................... 6–5

Process multiple documents separately .............. 6–6

Create a custom dictionary ....................... 6–8

Use interactive training tools ..................... 6–9

Use Smart Zones™ ............................ 6–11

Tips for Efficient Processing ........................ 6–12

Use job preferences to define your document ......... 6–12

Zone to capture only the data you want ............. 6–17

Save and load zone templates .................... 6–18

Save and load training data...................... 6–19

Use deferred processing for long documents.......... 6–20

vi TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

A TROUBLESHOOTING AND ERROR CORRECTION

What To Do if You Have a Problem .................... A–2

Error messages and possible solutions.................. A–3

Installation Problems ............................. A–22

Basic Troubleshooting for Installation Problems ...... A–22

Scan Problems................................... A–23

Basic Troubleshooting for Scan Problems ........... A–23

Problems using a TWAIN driver .................. A–24

Assorted scanner driver problems ................. A–26

Expected scan options are grayed out— (TWAIN or

Adobe Photoshop Import Plug-in) ........... A–26

Scan problems after Clicking GO.................. A–27

Crash Problems.................................. A–29

Basic Troubleshooting for Crashes................. A–29

TextBridge-Specific Crash Problems ............... A–30

Processing image files created by other applications ... A–30

Instant Access OCR Problems .................... A–31

TextBridge Instant Access OCR Problems ........... A–31

Problems with TextBridge Pro or Instant Access OCR.. A–33

Final Check for Unresolved Problem .................. A–34

B SAMPLE DOCUMENTS

Markplan ....................................... B–2

Zonepic ......................................... B–3

Plexis .......................................... B–4

Resume ......................................... B–5

3col ............................................ B–6

Table of Contents vii

C APPLESCRIPT INTERFACE

Writing TextBridge Scripts .......................... C–2

Record a script................................. C–2

Sample scripts................................. C–4

TextBridge Pro Objects ............................. C–5

application.................................... C–5

docFormatter.................................. C–6

imageSource .................................. C–7

Recognizer................................... C–10

TBDictionary................................. C–15

TBLanguage ................................. C–16

TBTrainingData .............................. C–17

TBZones .................................... C–18

Zone ..................................... C–19

TextBridge Pro Commands ......................... C–20

CancelPage .................................. C–20

ContinueJob ................................. C–21

DeskewImage ................................ C–21

InvertImage ................................. C–22

Rescan ..................................... C–23

SaveTraining................................. C–23

SaveZones ................................... C–24

StartJob .................................... C–25

StopJob ..................................... C–25

Synchronize.................................. C–26

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

INDEX

TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide ix

PREFACE

ScanSoft Inc. welcomes you to TextBridge® Pro 8.5 for

Macintosh™.

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:

◆ 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.

x TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

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:

◆ 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.

Preface xi

◆ 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 explains how to use them in

scripts.

◆ The “Glossary of Terms” defines words, phrases, and concepts

used in TextBridge Pro documentation.

◆ The “Index” provides a comprehensive index for quickly locating

the information you need.

xii TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

Documentation conventions

As described in Table P–1, TextBridge Pro documentation uses

certain graphical elements and formatting to emphasize

information and denote meaning in text.

Table P–1. Documentation Conventions

bold Introduces a new term, or the first use of an

important term in a chapter; also sometimes

used to denote strong in-line emphasis.

italic Denotes titles of other manuals or books. Also

used to denote generic representations of file

name entries in examples, for example,

filename

monospace Denotes examples, menu text, actual file names

or messages that appear on the computer

screen.

“ ” (quotes) Denotes titles of chapters and sections in this

manual.

☞

Introduces tips that provide useful information

about a procedural step or system function.

Note

Introduces information of note about the

current subject.

Preface xiii

OTHER READING MATERIAL

TextBridge Pro provides a comprehensive set of documents

designed to help you in fully learning and operating the product.

In addition to this User’s Guide, refer to the following

documentation for more information:

◆ ReadMe—After you install TextBridge Pro, please read the online

ReadMe document, which automatically appears in the

TextBridge Pro Folder:

Simply double-click the ReadMe icon to view important, up-to-

date information that is not in the standard documentation set.

◆ ReadMe—Support—The online Support document provides

customer support information for TextBridge Pro:

☞ TextBridge Pro works with a number of popular desktop

scanners. Refer to the scanner manufacturer’s documentation for

information on your scanner.

xiv TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

If you should experience problems with TextBridge Pro that you

cannot resolve, consult Appendix A, "Troubleshooting and Error

Correction," for a list of error messages and ways to correct them.

If you cannot resolve a problem on your own using the

documentation and software, refer to the following Web site:

www.scansoft.com

The ScanSoft web site provides a link to TextBridge pages,

including Frequently Asked Questions, and technical information

bulletins. Please refer to the ReadMe–Support document on your

installation CD-ROM or in the TextBridge Pro Folder for more

information about Customer Support.

TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide 1–1

1

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to ScanSoft’s TextBridge® Professional Edition, the

premier OCR software for Macintosh®.

OCR stands for optical character recognition, the capability

to recognize paper documents and output formatted, fully-

editable data (text and graphics) to a word processor,

spreadsheet, or web browser format. OCR can also recognize on-

line page images from fax modems, scanners, and other sources.

In addition to OCR, TextBridge Pro offers advanced capabilities

such as interactive training and full document

recomposition.

TextBridge Pro combines ScanSoft’s industry-leading document

recognition technology (DocuRT™) with a familiar, easy-to-use

Macintosh interface. Figure 1–1 shows the main window of

TextBridge Pro.

Figure 1–1. Main window

1–2 TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

TEXTBRIDGE PRO FEATURES AND BENEFITS

Using ScanSoft’s latest document recognition technology,

TextBridge Pro is the first and only OCR software that can pro-

duce a fully-editable electronic document that retains the original

document layout, complete with text and pictures (Figure 1–2).

Original document

Recomposed document

in word processor

Figure 1–2. TextBridge Pro document recomposition

Whether you need to capture a simple one-page office document, a

spreadsheet, or a long transcript, TextBridge Pro can save you

valuable time and effort.

Introduction 1–3

Productivity features unique to TextBridge Pro

TextBridge Professional Edition is the first and only desktop

document recognition software product to offer these major

features:

◆ Instant Access OCR™. You can run TextBridge Pro from within

virtually any Macintosh text application. It then automatically

pastes recognized document data (text and pictures) directly into

the host application’s open document.

◆ Dynamic Training. For difficult documents, such as faxes or

multi-generation photocopies, TextBridge Pro enables you to

interact with the OCR process to view and accept (or correct) its

recognition decisions; thus training it to improve recognition

accuracy as the job progresses.

◆ Document recomposition. TextBridge Pro is the first and only

desktop document recognition software product to offer true

document recomposition. When you specify output to Microsoft

Word™ or WordPerfect® format, TextBridge Pro can retain the

original document layout in fully-editable form, even for pages

containing tables and pictures.

◆ With the Smart Zones™ feature, you can manually identify line

art and other graphics and have TextBridge Pro place them in

their original position in the electronic output document.

Other TextBridge Pro features

In addition to the ground-breaking features listed in the previous

section, TextBridge Pro provides these other productivity

features:

◆ Broad scanner support. TextBridge Pro supports virtually all

popular desktop scanners using the TWAIN device interface

standard, Adobe Photoshop Import Plug-ins, or ISIS scanner

drivers.

1–4 TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

◆ Image processing. TextBridge Pro provides the widest support

of images from a variety of sources. Specifically, the program

imports and recognizes on-line document images in TIFF and

PICT formats originating from fax modems and other sources.

◆ Deferred processing. TextBridge Pro enables you to scan all

pages of a document to TIFF or PICT image files, then later

queue up the image files for document recognition.

◆ AppleScript interface. With AppleScript, you can run

TextBridge Pro from scripts, without using the keyboard or

mouse. Thus, you can automate repetitive tasks, such as

detecting and recognizing fax files as they are received on your

system. TextBridge Pro is fully scriptable and recordable. It not

only responds to Apple events, but also allows you to write your

own scripts by recording the events as they occur.

◆ Output text formats. TextBridge Pro supports a number of

output text formats, including word processor, spreadsheet,

desktop publishing, HTML, and database formats.

◆ Preview with manual zoning. TextBridge Pro provides a set of

tools for previewing page images before processing them. In

preview mode, you can manually identify areas of page images to

be processed, capturing only the data you need. With TextBridge

Pro’s exclusive Smart Zones™ feature, you can identify graphics

on the page image and still have the program perform document

recomposition.

☞ Smart Zones are especially useful for line art or halftones

that also contain text. TextBridge Pro cannot always

automatically detect such graphics and might therefore try to

process them as text.

Introduction 1–5

◆ Zone Templates (re-usable). After you create a set of zones in

the preview window, TextBridge Pro enables saving and

reloading of these zone templates for subsequent jobs.

◆ Dynamic Training Data (re-usable). After you interactively

train TextBridge Pro during OCR, you can save the training data.

Later, you can reload this training file for documents of the same

type to assure the highest recognition accuracy without having to

repeat the training.

◆ Custom Dictionaries. To further improve recognition accuracy,

you can create specialized word lists (scientific terminology,

proper names, acronyms, and so on) in ASCII files and load them

into TextBridge Pro. A custom dictionary aids in recognition of

documents containing that terminology.

◆ Two-sided document processing. If your scanner has a sheet

feeder, you can scan the fronts (odd-numbered pages) of the

document first, then flip the stack and scan the reverse (even-

numbered pages). When scanning and recognition are complete,

TextBridge Pro automatically collates the pages in the correct

order.

With this feature set, you can import virtually any paper

document or on-line page image to your computer. TextBridge Pro

assures you of the highest degree of OCR accuracy and provides

the output in fully editable form for use in a variety of text

applications.

1–6 TextBridge Professional Edition User's Guide

Documents TextBridge Pro can recognize

TextBridge Pro includes a number of advances developed by

ScanSoft and by the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

(PARC) where modern computer interfaces were born.

Consequently, the program provides the most accurate OCR and

format retention results on the widest range of documents:

◆ documents printed on typewriters, phototypesetters, and impact,

ink-jet, dot-matrix, and laser printers

◆ photocopied, degraded, or dirty documents

◆ documents with single- or multiple-column layouts

◆ documents containing halftone photos and color artwork

◆ on-line single- or multiple-page images from fax modems and

other sources

◆ hardcopy faxes

◆ documents with point sizes ranging from 5-point to 72-point type

in practically any typeface

☞ To obtain the highest recognition accuracy for documents with

type smaller than 8-points, it is recommended that you provide

TextBridge Pro with page images scanned at 400 dots per inch

resolution.

◆ documents composed in English, French, Italian, German, or

Spanish

☞ TextBridge Pro versions shipped in international markets can

recognize an even greater number of languages.

Introduction 1–7

SUPPORTED TEXT FORMATS

TextBridge Pro can convert recognized text to a number of word

processing and other formats for both Macintosh and PC

platforms:

Ami Pro Microsoft Excel

dBase Microsoft Word (RTF)

DisplayWrite (DCA-RFT) MultiMate

Formatted ASCII PCL/PostScript

FrameMaker WordPerfect 1.0

HTML WordPerfect 3.1

Interleaf (ILF) WordPerfect DOS 5.x

Lotus 1-2-3 WriteNow

MacWrite 4.x, 5.0 WYSIWYG Text

MacWrite II XDOC

☞ Microsoft Word (RTF) format is also accepted by a number of

other applications, including ClarisWorks

®

and Adobe

®

PageMaker

®

. See the documentation for your particular applica-

tion for more information about importing files in RTF format.

Two of these formats are text-only.

Note This list is subject to change. Refer to the on-line ReadMe for the

latest information available when this document was published or

visit our website at www.scansoft.com for ongoing updates and

related information.

Formatted ASCII puts a carriage return at the end of each

paragraph and wraps text continually within it. This format does

not retain any font information such as bold or italic.

WYSIWYG Text attempts to look as much like the original

document as possible without retaining any font information. It

uses spaces to delimit columns and a carriage return at the end of

every line.

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