OmniPage Professional 17 Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had OmniPage 17 Professional for five months and use it to convert printed trial transcripts into scannable pdf documents. I previously used ReadIris Pro 9 but with it, there is a 50-page limit in one file and you can't and append documents or delete pages without totally destroying the search capabilities. With OmniPage, I can use my Adobe Acrobat to delete pages, insert pages, join files and the search capabilities remain intact.
Legal transcripts have line numbers along the left and when I do a search for a phrase that word wraps from one line to the other, I don't want an imbedded line queering the search. Both ReadIris Pro and OmniPage can get around that but with ReadIris Pro, you have to define areas you don't want included whereas with OmniPage, it has a Legal pleading option that does it all automatically.
Parts of the interface with OmniPage are quite nice, but most of it is so incredibly non-intuitive that I have not a clue how to make it work. The Help is worse than useless, obviously written by people who presume you already know things you don't, and I just finished searching for cottage industry books on how to use it and they don't exist, except for one for a very old version. So learning to use the features is going to be a very long and tedious trial and error experience. I for the life of me don't understand why software companies even bother putting in features that 99% of the users will never be able to find to use.
The accuracy of the OCR scans is amazingly accurate. However, when it does the conversion, it asks your input when it doesn't recognize something and it highlights something then gives you strange choices, for example "Ignore" and "Ignore All." One would think if you select "Ignore All," it would ignore it every time if finds it but it doesn't. It stiff stops at every occurrence. It offers you some guesses it makes and another option is "Change." But just clicking on change doesn't put the suggestion in. The suggestion is highlighted, but you have to click on it before clicking on change or it moves on without doing anything. You can also type in what you want it to be, but half the time, the "Change" button is deselected so once you type in what you want, you can't do anything with it. It is terribly non-intuitive.
It allows you to add something to the dictionary, but if you try doing that, it tells you that you have to create your own dictionary and name it and so on so I tried that and apparently that somehow screws the whole thing up because the OCR results became utterly awful after that, almost like it created a dictionary where every letter combination is a valid word.
So, if I click on Scan, then click on Recognize using the Legal Pleading option, then click on Create Document (or something like that), it does fine, but if I try to change anything, it generates total garbage. Oh, and when it creates documents, you have a choice of "Text" "Image" or "Multiple." Well, I want my original scanned image, but with text I can search buried in there somewhere, so I have to go with "Multiple," but when it does that, it creates both a pdf file and a Word file. I detest Word so don't want that, but I can't stop it, so it creates a lot of extra documents I don't want.
Oh, something I discovered (simply by trying it) is if you find a page didn't scan correctly or got missed, you can go to the thumbnail of the page before it and rescan the page that is screwed up, and it puts it right after the page you highlighted. You can also delete a page. The only thing to remember when you do this is when done, click in the area of the thumbnails, then press Ctrl A to select all pages, then click on your Recognition. If you don't do this, when you click on Recognition, it recognizes only the one page. Again I had to discover this by trial and error.
And one last thing. This is the slowest loading program I have ever used. It takes several minutes to get going, literally. And on my particular computer (XP Home), when I click on the icon to launch it, my cursor shows it is busy and the splask screen comes up, then the cursor returns to normal and I sit there wondering if anything is happening or has it locked up.
So, in summary, its accuracy (on printed text) is incredible, and it is easy to use when you stay with defaults, but if you want to use anything other than defaults or use some of the features it has, heaven help you in figuring out how to do it. Powerful - yes. User friendly? No.

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OmniPage Professional 17 is the fastest, most precise way to convert paper, PDF files and forms with 99%+ accuracy into files you can edit in your favorite PC applications or archive in a document repository.OmniPage can recreate a 20 page paper document as a fully editable digital document in your favorite word processor in less than 2 minutes.It would take a person with normal typing skills about 2 1/2 hours to recreate that same document.Don't waste your time and let OmniPage do all the work for you.

OmniPage Professional does so much more than scanning and recognizing text.Superior accuracy and formatting combine with easy-to-use workflow technology to automate all your conversion needs. Whether you want to make paper digital, create batches of PDF files, or collect data from filled electronic forms, OmniPage is up to the task.It can even scan, convert and send documents directly to your Amazon Kindle through email with the push of a single button.

OmniPage Professional also includes PaperPort desktop document management software and PDF Create software.PaperPort is seamlessly integrated with OmniPage Professional and makes Microsoft Windows better by allowing you to visually organize and manage all your documents. PDF Create allows you to create 100% industry-standard PDF file from any application.

Why use OmniPage?
Save time by automatically recreating documents without retyping them
Scan and send documents to your Amazon Kindle
Always find your documents by turning paper documents into searchable PDF electronic archives
Share documents broadly and quickly via email, Web, SharePoint or FTP
Create PDF files in batch
Use your connected network multi-function printer as a high speed scanner
Automate the collection and conversion of forms and data

What problems does OmniPage solve? The continued use of paper slows organizations down and frequently leads to "knowledge re-creation." This wasted time, where workers have to re-create information from existing paper documents or search for misplaced documents, is a drain on both productivity and profits:
Editing or updating information requires the time consuming task of retyping the paper document--filling out forms and then collecting the data can be the most time consuming component
Filing information and retrieving it requires time spent searching through paper files, manila folders and file cabinets
Sharing information is limited to inefficient and costly processes such as postal mail, courier or fax machines--keeping information confidential is often a deterrent to sharing information digitally
Critical documents are not backed up electronically for effective disaster recovery.
Currently available OCR software included with a scanner, All-in-One or MFP device does not produce the quality required
Re-formatting or re-editing of converted documents may be as time consuming as re-typing especially for documents with images, columns and tables

It all comes down to a single question for paper or electronic documents--"How do I get the document into the format I want without having to do extensive re-typing or re-editing?"
OmniPage eliminates paper and digital inefficiency by improving productivity, enhancing responsiveness and reducing storage and material costs. Organizations save significant time and money by leveraging the superior OCR and document formatting accuracy of OmniPage to instantly convert documents into the format of their choice. Retyping is eliminated, tasks are automated, information is easily accessed and productivity soars.
What's New in OmniPage Professional 17?
New Send paper & PDF to Amazon Kindle with optimized formatting for reading and navigation
New Hyper-Binary Conversion delivers 42% accuracy increase for scanned documents
23% overall accuracy increase for PDF and digital documents
200% faster launch speed
21% faster processing and support for quad-core computers
New OmniPage One-Click Toolbar in Microsoft Office puts conversion at your fingertips
Dramatic improvements in document layout retention to reduce or eliminate corrections
Easy Loader allows you to quickly view, find and open multiple documents at a time
New support for Chinese, Japanese and Korean documents added to over 120 other languages
New support for iPhone and 2-Megapixel phone cameras
12% accuracy improvement for 3D-Capture using digital and mobile phone cameras
Improved OmniPage Batch Processing with new unattendedprocessing option
New direct connection to Microsoft SharePoint 2007 web-repositories
New direct connection to OpenText Hummingbird and Interwoven iManage ECM systems
PDF/A compliance, and PDF 1.7 support

Key Features
Superior OCR accuracy Improved OCR engines deliver 99%+ accuracy for document conversion and archiving business critical documents.
Maintain perfect formatting Converted documents look exactly like the original and are easier to edit than ever before, complete with columns, tables, bullets and graphics.
Send to Amazon Kindle Scan a document, automatically convert into a readable format and send it to the Kindle electronic book reader in one easy step.
Mobile document capture Capture text with a digital camera or iPhone. Quickly convert your pictures to text documents with the most accurate 3D Correction technology available.
Works with any scanner If your device can scan then it can work with OmniPage.Mobile scanners, desktop scanners, All-in-one and Multi-function printers all work more productively and with better accuracy using OmniPage
Supports all your favorite applications Supports the widest range of output formats including PDF, HTML, Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 plus many more formats.
Batch processing, amazing value Schedule large volumes of files for batch processing from folders or email with unattended automation for real time processing of documents.
Complete forms processing Convert paper forms to fillable and distribute electronically. OmniPage can collect data from PDF or paper forms and export to a spreadsheet or database.
Built-in automatic redaction and highlight Redact or black out confidential text or quickly locate information with highlights. OmniPage can recognize and automatically mark up your text based on a list of key words.
Recognizes over 120 languages Process, edit and store documents from anywhere in the world. Now includes Chinese, Japanese and Korean recognition.

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