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User's Guide
PRO
TextBridge
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 (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
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.
/
