Nuance TextBridge Pro Millenium User manual

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 of America.

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.

I

MPORTANT 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.

T

RADEMARKS AND CREDITS TextBridge is a registered trademark, and Smart Zones, Instant Access

OCR, and Custom Proof are trademarks, of ScanSoft, Inc.

Excel and Word are trademarks; Windows and FrontPage are registered

trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corp.

Other terms used in this manual are the trademarks of their respective

holders.

Animated character designed by Dreamlight Incorporated.

www.dreamlight.com.

Authors: Lois West and Beth Paddock

9 Centennial Drive

Peabody, Massachusetts 01960

TextBridge Pro Millenium User’s Guide

Part Number 00-09682-00

February 2000

TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide iii

CONTENTS

PREFACE

About This User’s Guide ............................. vii

Organization of this user’s guide ....................viii

Documentation conventions.........................ix

Related Documentation ............................... x

Technical Support ...................................xi

1 INTRODUCTION TO TEXTBRIDGE

Basic OCR Concepts ............................... 1–1

Features and Benefits .............................. 1–3

New Features ................................. 1–4

Enhanced Features ............................. 1–4

Other Features ................................ 1–8

Documents TextBridge Can Recognize................. 1–10

Input Image File Formats .......................... 1–11

Output Text File Formats .......................... 1–12

Output Image File Formats......................... 1–13

Where to Go From Here............................ 1–14

iv TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

2 INSTALLING AND SETTING UP TEXTBRIDGE

What Comes with TextBridge ........................ 2–2

Supported Scanners................................ 2–2

Installing and Testing Your Scanner ................... 2–4

System Requirements .............................. 2–5

Before Installing TextBridge ......................... 2–6

Uninstalling a Previous Version of TextBridge ........ 2–6

Using TextBridge with Pagis...................... 2–8

Learning about TextBridge before you install it........ 2–8

Installing TextBridge .............................. 2–9

Scanner Setup................................... 2–10

Setting Up Instant Access to TextBridge ............... 2–11

Updating your TextBridge Software .................. 2–12

Uninstalling TextBridge Pro Millennium............... 2–13

Where to Go From Here............................ 2–14

3 OCR AND BASIC TEXTBRIDGE OPERATIONS

What is TextBridge OCR? ........................... 3–2

Page types.................................... 3–2

Page sources .................................. 3–4

Recomposition ................................. 3–4

Running TextBridge Standalone and Instant Access ....... 3–6

Standalone Program ............................ 3–6

Instant Access ................................. 3–7

Improving Page Recognition with Settings .............. 3–8

Page Type Settings ............................. 3–8

Text Document Settings ........................ 3–13

Recognizing Other Languages ....................... 3–15

Language Installation .......................... 3–16

Language Processing........................... 3–16

Where to Go From Here............................ 3–18

Table of Contents v

4 LEARNING TO USE TEXTBRIDGE

Before Beginning to Process a Document................ 4–2

Using TextBridge to Process a Document ............... 4–2

Starting TextBridge................................ 4–3

Using Automatic Processing ......................... 4–5

Using Manual Processing ........................... 4–8

Performing Basic Operations......................... 4–9

Selecting the Page Source ....................... 4–10

Selecting the Page Type......................... 4–10

Previewing the Page ........................... 4–12

Zoning the Page............................... 4–14

Proofreading the Document...................... 4–17

Saving the Document .......................... 4–18

Getting Help While Using TextBridge ................. 4–20

Using the Welcome Window ..................... 4–20

Using the Show Me How Window ................. 4–21

Using Tips................................... 4–22

Getting Information from Help ................... 4–23

Using the TextBridge Web Site ................... 4–25

5 SAMPLE SESSIONS WITH TEXTBRIDGE

Using the Sample Documents ........................ 5–2

Session 1: Recognizing a Simple Document Using Auto . . . . . . 5–7

Session 2: Using Instant Access to TextBridge........... 5–14

Session 3: Recognizing a Complex Document Using Manual

Processing ................................ 5–20

Session 4: Processing Text, Pictures, and a Table ........ 5–29

Where to Go From Here............................ 5–38

vi TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

6 ADVANCED SAMPLE SESSIONS

Session 1: Processing a Document to Use in a Database..... 6–1

Session 2: Using Zone Templates and Page Types ......... 6–7

Session 3: Training TextBridge OCR .................. 6–14

Where to Go From Here............................ 6–20

INDEX

TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide vii

PREFACE

ScanSoft, Inc. welcomes you to TextBridge Pro Millennium for

Windows

®

95, 98, 2000, and Windows NT

®

4.0.

The documentation that comes with TextBridge provides you with

the information you need to operate TextBridge. The

documentation includes this user’s guide, a Help system, and

Release Notes. ScanSoft invites your comments about the

information provided in the documentation.

The documentation is part of an extensive user assistance

program designed to provide you with information you may need

to understand and use TextBridge. The section “Getting Help

while using TextBridge” provides further information about user

assistance.

Before going on to find out more about TextBridge, please read

this preface because it describes these important items:

◆ About this user’s guide

◆ Related documentation

◆ Technical support

ABOUT THIS USER’S GUIDE

This user’s guide is a reference tool that provides information

about TextBridge. It is for users with a wide range of computer

experience. It assumes that you are familiar with the

management and operation of your computer and Windows.

viii TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

This manual is provided both in print and electronic form. The

entire user’s guide is provided as a digital document in Adobe

®

Portable Document Format (PDF).

To view the user’s guide in PDF format you need Adobe Acrobat

Reader which is installed with TextBridge unless you already

have it on your PC. You can access the user’s guide from the

installation menu and the TextBridge Help menu, or you can

open it from Adobe Acrobat Reader. After you open it, you can

view it on your PC and print all or part of it using Adobe Acrobat

Reader.

Organization of this user’s guide

The user’s guide organization is as follows:

The Table of Contents at the beginning of the user’s guide

describes the basic information in this book and helps you to find

general information quickly.

This Preface describes the documentation provided with

TextBridge and technical support.

Chapter 1 “Introduction to TextBridge” discusses TextBridge

features. It also describes basic OCR concepts, documents

TextBridge can recognize, supported scanners, and input file

formats TextBridge can read and output file formats to which

TextBridge can save the recognized text.

Chapter 2 “Installing TextBridge” describes what comes with

TextBridge, system requirements, installation, Instant Access set

up, and TextBridge uninstall.

Chapter 3 “OCR and TextBridge” explains the basic

TextBridge functions that enable it to recognize and OCR your

documents.

Chapter 4 “Learning to Use TextBridge” describes the basic

processes of using TextBridge.

Preface ix

Chapter 5 “Sample Sessions with TextBridge” walks you

through several practice sessions designed to help you to learn

and use the important features of TextBridge.

Chapter 6 “Advanced Sample Sessions” describes more

complex and less frequent uses of TextBridge.

The Index provides a comprehensive list of topics to assist you in

quickly locating the specific information you need.

Documentation conventions

TextBridge documentation uses certain graphical elements and

formatting to emphasize information and give more meaning to

text.

Table 1: Documentation Conventions

bold Introduces a new term or the first use of an

important term in a chapter. It is sometimes

used to denote strong emphasis.

italic Denotes titles of other user’s guides or books

and generic representations of file name entries

in examples; for example, filename

monospace Denotes text that appears on the computer

screen such as examples, menu text, and

messages plus actual file names.

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

user’s guide.

☞

Introduces tips that provide useful information

about a procedural step or system function.

Note Introduces information of note about the

current subject.

x TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

RELATED DOCUMENTATION

TextBridge provides a comprehensive set of printed and digital

documentation designed to assist you in learning and operating

the product. The documentation provided with TextBridge covers

all aspects of installation and operation.

Note Information provided in individual documents is not duplicated

in other documents except for basic information about

TextBridge. If you do not find the information you want in a

particular document, please check another. For example, if you do

not find information you want in this user’s guide, look for it in

the Help system

Refer to the documentation in the following list for information:

◆ Online Release Notes. Before or after you install TextBridge,

read the Release Notes. These provide the most up-to-date

information about TextBridge. They describe technical

information, including specifics about using a particular scanner.

Release Notes also include information unavailable at the time

the user’s guide and Help were finalized. During installation you

can access the Release Notes from the installation menu. After

installation you can access the Release Notes from the TextBridge

Program menu in the Start menu.

◆ Help. The Help system provides you with detailed information

about using TextBridge. It includes instructions on how to get

started in TextBridge, step-by-step procedures for most

operations and user tips. Context-sensitive Help is always

available by pressing F1 from any menu command or dialog box.

Preface xi

◆ Online User’s Guide. An online version of the complete user’s

guide is provided in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf). You can access

the user’s guide from the installation menu and the TextBridge

Help menu, or you can open it from Adobe Acrobat Reader.

◆ Printed User’s Guide. A printed version of the user’s guide is

provided. The user’s guide provides you with basic information

about OCR and how TextBridge performs OCR, information about

installing TextBridge, information about how to run TextBridge

and improve its performance, and tutorials to help you learn the

basic-to-advanced use of TextBridge.

Note You may also need to refer to additional publications, such as the

manufacturer’s documentation for your scanner.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

If you should experience problems with TextBridge that you

cannot resolve on your own using the documentation and

software, contact TextBridge Technical Support at the following

Web site:

www.scansoft.com

The ScanSoft Web site provides a link to TextBridge pages,

including Technical Support with Frequently Asked Questions,

technical information bulletins, and a problem report form.

Before sending a problem report form to ScanSoft Technical

Support, be sure to visit FastTrack, ScanSoft’s electronic support

system on the web site. Using an Intelligent Expert Reasoning™

methodology, FastTrack delivers intuitive self-service via the

Internet and allows you to successfully resolve your problems

online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Software downloads,

product upgrades and product updates are also available in

FastTrack.

xii TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

Additional information about contacting TextBridge Technical

Support is provided in the TextBridge Help menu.

If you must contact ScanSoft Technical Support, the following

information will help in solving the problem:

◆ Your software version number

(This is on the back of the CD envelope and in the Help menu

under About TextBridge.)

◆ Your software serial number

(This is the serial number on the back of the TextBridge CD-ROM

envelope and in the Help menu under About TextBridge.)

◆ Your scanner make and model

◆ A description of the steps that led up to the problem

◆ If TextBridge generated an error message, a verbatim description

of the error message or its number and when it appeared.

TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide 1–1

1

INTRODUCTION TO TEXTBRIDGE

Welcome to ScanSoft’s TextBridge Pro Millennium, optical

character recognition (OCR) software for Microsoft Windows

®

95,

98, 2000 and Windows NT

®

4.0.

This chapter provides an introduction to TextBridge including:

◆ Basic OCR concepts

◆ Features and benefits

◆ Characteristics of documents TextBridge can recognize

◆ Input image file formats

◆ Output text file formats

◆ Output image file formats

BASIC OCR CONCEPTS

OCR technology enables you to convert paper documents into

fully editable text with images on your computer. Originally, OCR

technology performed simple character recognition of text

characters, numbers, and symbols. Today, TextBridge OCR

includes full document recognition including recognizing text

plus formatting such as headlines, multiple columns, tables, and

running headers and footers and capturing photographs and line

drawings. TextBridge even retains the layout of the original

document as much as possible.

1–2 TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

You can use TextBridge to scan and convert printed pages to

text documents for your word processor, spreadsheet program,

web browser, database program, or other text application. Pages

may be from most sources, including computer printers, fax

machines, photocopiers, magazines, and newspapers. Pages can

be black and white or color. TextBridge can also recognize

standard page image files from fax modems, image applications,

and other sources.

Using the latest document recognition technology from ScanSoft,

TextBridge OCR uses its recomposition capability to produce a

fully-editable electronic document with the original pictures and

document layout (Figure 1–1).

Original document

Recomposed document

in word processor

Figure 1–1. TextBridge document recomposition

Introduction to TextBridge 1–3

In most cases, TextBridge understands your original document’s

format and maintains the layout, including columns, headers,

footers, pictures, and picture captions. Pictures can be black and

white, grayscale, or color.

Recomposition is possible only if your text program supports

pictures and layout. For example, recomposition is supported in

Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect but not in Notepad. Forms

and documents created in desktop publishing programs are

usually too complex for recomposition by TextBridge as well as

your word processor. As a result, the text and pictures are

retained but the full layout is not.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS

TextBridge offers many features designed to make it easy to use

and increase your productivity. Whether you need to capture a

simple one-page letter, a magazine article, a spreadsheet, or a

long transcript, TextBridge can save you valuable time and effort.

In addition, TextBridge provides all the capabilities that

experienced OCR users expect.

With TextBridge, you can import most paper documents or

document image files to your computer. TextBridge attains the

highest degree of OCR accuracy and provides the output in fully

editable form in your favorite program. Many of these features

and benefits are described in more detail in the user’s guide and

Help.

1–4 TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

New Features

TextBridge Pro Millennium offers these new features to increase

your productivity:

◆ Windows 2000 Certification. Makes use of latest Windows

technology to assure a consistent user experience and a more

reliable and manageable application.

◆ Updated scanner support. Includes latest Scanner Wizard hint

file for easy setup of popular scanners.

◆ Live updates. Stay up-to-date with the latest product changes

from the ScanSoft, Inc. web site.

◆ Instant Access

™

to FrontPage

®

2000

and The Print Shop

®

ProPublisher 2000. Use TextBridge Instant Access to scan,

recognize, and paste text and pictures directly into your

FrontPage and Print Shop documents.

Enhanced Features

In addition to the new features, TextBridge offers enhanced

features that were available in previous versions. These features

were available before and are even better now. They are described

in the following list:

◆ Instant Access. Start TextBridge within most Windows text

programs such as Word or Excel. After recognizing and

converting the page, TextBridge then automatically pastes

recognition data (text and pictures) directly into the program’s

open document.

◆ OCR accuracy. Dramatically save time and eliminate retyping.

◆ Color and grayscale pictures and text. Recognition and

output of color and grayscale pictures. Recognition of color text

and text on a color or shaded background and output of black on

white or white on black.

Introduction to TextBridge 1–5

◆ Table recomposition. Advanced analytical capability results in

very accurate table reformatting. Ability to edit the entire table

as well as individual cells for improved recognition. Cell table

recomposition is supported even if you do not choose to retain

layout.

◆ Flexible multi-page document handling. Ability to view and

manipulate the pages of a document using the page thumbnails.

Zone multiple pages before recognition. Process the pages of a

document in any order. Delete, rearrange, and re-recognize

individual pages. You can also control the output.

◆ Extensive language recognition. Ability to recognize many

Eastern, Central, and Western European languages.

◆ Multiple language recognition. Ability to recognize multiple

languages on the same page if all languages belong to the same

language group.

◆ Usability and user assistance. Enhanced ease of use including

a redesigned user interface and extensive user assistance. User

assistance includes a multimedia assistant, information screens,

context-sensitive tips, status area messages, Help system, and

printed and online documentation.

◆ TextBridge Assistant. An easy-to-use assistant guides you

through each step of the most common TextBridge activities, such

as how to scan a page and send it to Word, recognize an image

file, and recognize just part of a page.

◆ Convenient batch processing. The ability to select multiple

files and process each file separately plus the ability to schedule

processing for a specific time in the future.

◆ Integration with e-mail programs. Input to popular programs

such as Lotus cc:Mail, Microsoft Outlook, and America Online

(AOL).

1–6 TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

◆ Integration with the latest scanners. TextBridge works with

the most recent scanners. The Release Notes and the ScanSoft

Web site at www.scansoft.com provides the latest information

about supported scanners and getting your scanner to work with

TextBridge.

◆ HTML 4.0 output and WYSIWYG capability. Output files in

the latest version of HTML and preserve the original look using

cascading style sheets.

◆ Dual page scanning. Scan both pages of an open book at the

same time but handle them as two separate pages.

◆ Easy database importing. Use of standard delimited text file

output that allows you to import data into many databases.

◆ ToolTips. Instant context-sensitive information about

commands, dialog boxes, and buttons on the interface.

◆ Document recomposition. TextBridge offers true document

recomposition to retain your original page layout. It reproduces

multiple columns, tables, and pictures and keeps them in the

same location as they are in your original document.

For example, when you specify output to the Microsoft Word

™

or

Corel WordPerfect

®

format, TextBridge can retain the original

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

tables, line art, reverse video, drop caps, insets, and pictures.

When you edit the document, the original text flow is maintained.

When you specify output to the Microsoft Excel

™

or Lotus 1-2-3

format, spreadsheets and cell tables retain their original layout

as cell tables, not tabbed columns. When you edit the table

information, the lines move to fit.

Introduction to TextBridge 1–7

TextBridge supports formats for the programs that retain page

layout in the following list:

◆ Internet Explorer

◆ Netscape

◆ Word 6.0, 7.0, 97, and 2000

◆ Word Perfect 6.0, 6.1, 7.0, 8.0, and 9.0

◆ Any word processor that supports RTF

Retaining pictures is independent of retaining layout. Some text

programs retain pictures even though they do not retain layout.

◆ Page Types. TextBridge provides many predesigned Page Types

to make processing easier and more efficient. You do not have to

go through a complicated process of determining and specifying

settings for common types of pages. These Page Types

automatically provide appropriate settings for the type of page

you want to process. For example, there is a Letter page type and

a Magazine page type that automatically activate settings for

improved results for letters and pages from magazines.

◆ Automatic zoning. TextBridge automatically zones your page

into text, picture, and table zones. You do not need to zone the

page manually.

◆ Zone editing. You can edit the automatically recognized zones to

further refine the zoning. Use zone editing to increase the

accuracy and efficiency of page processing by reshaping zones,

specifying the language, and renumbering zones.

◆ Built-in Proofreader

™

. After document recognition, you can use

the built-in proofreader to view and accept or correct any words

that TextBridge suspects may not be recognized accurately. The

proofreader provides suggestions from which you may choose.

1–8 TextBridge Pro Millennium User’s Guide

◆ Dynamic OCR training. You can train TextBridge’s OCR to

improve recognition accuracy as the job progresses. Use dynamic

training with difficult documents, such as faxes or multi-

generation photocopies. TextBridge enables you to interact with

the OCR process by viewing then accepting or correcting its

automatic recognition decisions. The software actually learns

special symbols and words.

◆ Output files to the latest version of programs. These include

Microsoft Word 2000, Excel 2000, FrontPage 2000, WordPerfect

9.0, and Adobe FrameMaker 5.0.

◆ Custom dictionaries. To improve recognition accuracy further,

you can create specialized word lists (scientific terminology,

proper names, acronyms, and so on) within TextBridge or in

ASCII text files and load them into TextBridge. You can also use

your Microsoft Word or Office custom dictionary with TextBridge.

Other Features

In addition to the features listed in the previous sections

TextBridge provides these other features.

◆ Broad scanner support. TextBridge supports most popular

desktop scanners with TWAIN device interface standard.

◆ Image processing. TextBridge accepts a wide range of images

from a variety of sources for processing. Specifically, the program

imports and recognizes online document images in BMP, PCX,

DCX, TIFF, and XIF formats that originate from fax modems and

other sources. For more information, see the “Input Image File

Formats” section in this chapter.

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