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From
TNPC issue #3.11...
Windows 2000 3rd Party Utilities (OCR): Part 2
by Al Gordon
May 25, 2000
I recently have been testing the definitive OCR and scanning
suite: Pagis Pro Millennium Scanning Suite from ScanSoft.
What, I hear you say, has TNPC suddenly joined the ranks of
computer publications that focus on keeping manufacturers and
their PR departments happy? Well, although we may or may not be
as willing to be seduced as the next guy, in this case there is
no real issue. ScanSoft, the Peabody MA-based Xerox spin-off,
pretty much IS the OCR/scanning software leader.
Having previously acquired the PaperPort software from Visioneer
(which made the primary rival for Pagis in document management),
ScanSoft now has bought out Caere, makers of OmniPage, which
battled ScanSoft's TextBridge in the OCR realm. If you need
products in this category, they most likely will come from
ScanSoft.
For now, the company says it intends to maintain all three
product lines. A new version of PaperPort has just been released,
and previously announced new editions of OmniPage still are on
the market as is PageKeeper, Caere's document manager. Company
officials would not be pinned down on their exact intentions, but
it looks as if Pagis will be positioned as the mainstream product
for end-user and small office business use, while PaperPort will
be focused on home use and the Caere line will be aimed at larger
corporate users.
Happily, the consolidation looks promising. Typically, the
software that is bundled with their scanner dictates what users
employ for these purposes. Hence, Visioneer customers got
PaperPort, HP customers got software from whatever company had
most recently cut a deal with HP, and so on. My last HP scanner
came bundled with de-contented Caere software, plus an upgrade
offer for the "pro" versions, and so I became a Caere user.
Frankly, I was never much enchanted by those products, finding
them buggy and clunky. In the end, I yearned for the elegant
simplicity of the PaperPort software I used in the past.
The Pagis Pro Suite in my testing looks to have a nice blend
between simplicity and capability. It installs as a sub-folder of
your Windows "My Documents" folder, and nicely integrates with
Windows Explorer. It has the usual capabilities you want in a
document management program such as the capability to move
content to other applications, preview document contents, and do
extensive searching. The suite also includes a very good Forms
Fill-In software, which solves the age-old problem: how do you
"type" in information on a paper form when there is no typewriter
in the house? In the examples I tried, it correctly identified
where it should place its fields that allow the user to "type" in
data.
Less critical is a Copier utility, which did an OK job of making
direct scanner-to-printer copies, but didn't match the quality of
HP's own utility. Kai's PhotoSoap 2, a basic graphics editing
program, also is in the package, and ScanSoft earned points with
me by arranging the setup routine so that you can easily skip
that installation--much appreciated for users who already have
preferred graphics software in place.
And--the centerpiece of the bundle--there is the latest version
of TextBridge. I was very impressed with it. Accuracy was
noticeably better than I had seen with OmniPage. Remember, of
course, that "accuracy" for OCR is always a relative term: even
very good software will make errors. But TextBridge made
relatively few. It also did a good job of passing documents along
to Word 2000 and other applications for editing. I particularly
liked TextBridge's ability to convert magazine and other
publication pages into Word documents or HTML while preserving
much of the original layout and graphics. The biggest obstacle
here turned out not to be the software, but the current fashions
in layout design, which seem to demand ridiculously busy
graphics.
The software is not without flaws, especially in the realm of
interfaces. For example, since Pagis uses a proprietary file
format, it must translate its items into standard formats before
it can pass a document along to other software, and you have to
struggle to set that intermediary format. Similarly, TextBridge
would make me a lot happier if it didn't open up another instance
of Word every time it sent a document to it, and had a simple
setting for putting all scanned information into a single font
size and style (for when you want pure, raw text entry, free of
formatting).
But all in all, this is a very nice package, and one that I use
regularly.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/
B00004S3C6/tnpcnewsletter
You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:algordon@TheNakedPC.com
Copyright © 2000, PRIME Consulting Group, Inc. and Dan Butler.
All Rights Reserved.
The Naked PC is a trademark of PRIME Consulting Group, Inc.
ISSN: 1522-4422
You may reprint an article from TNPC as long as you show the
entire article and include the authors byline, excerpt and
subscription information as shown:
Windows 2000 3rd Party Utilities (OCR): Part 2
by Al Gordon
(This article originally appeared in The Naked PC
newsletter #3.11, subscribe at http://www.TheNakedPC.com)
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