OCR: Optical Character Recognition

Scanning text to make it editable in a word processor:

1. Go to a computer with a scanner.

2. If the scanner is not on, turn it on (power switch is in the back right) and restart the computer.

3. Open OmniPage. (Go to the Apple Menu, Select Applications, and select OmniPage Pro).

4. Put your text document on the scanner. Make sure it's facing down and correct side up. (The 0,0 corner of the ruler on the scanner's bed corresponds with the top left corner of the page).

5. Click Auto or, if you prefer to do it manually, click the Scan Image button and let the scanner scan the text on the page. Then click the Perform OCR button and let the scanner identify the text.

6. Choose File/Save As... and pick a word processor file format (Word 5 or 6, Word Perfect, RTF, Plain Text, etc.). Click Desktop to select save locations such as the hard disk, a floppy disk, or Zip disk.

7. If scanning multiple pages, just put the next page on the scanner and click Auto or Scan Image again. At the bottom of the document, it should now indicate that this is the second of two pages... If you wish to examine a previously scanned page, click the triangles to move forward and back. Continue to select File/Save as each page is scanned. Tell the program to overwrite the original file and create one page for all files, as shown above.

8. Open the converted file in a word processor and proofread it. Run the spell checker to search for typos. OCR software is good, but it does make mistakes!

9. Don't forget to remove your original document from the scanner. Please throw away temporary files when done.

Troubleshooting tips: If the OCR program gives you complete garbage, make sure the text is right-side up! You don't read very well upside down either! OCR software works best when you have high quality original documents. Dark colored paper and paper with visible grain often creates problems. Try a white or light colored original if possible. Sometimes a faded or lightly printed document can be darkened by photocopying first and then running the OCR program. Erase stray marks and handwriting from the original, since they sometimes confuse the program. The OCR program may also have problems with complex formatting such as text found in tables, multiple columns, and text that wraps around images. Sometimes masking all but one column improves performance. Documents printed with a dot-matrix printer are difficult for the OCR program to read, but some OCR programs have a special setting for documents printed on a dot-matrix printer. Checking this box will improve the OCR's "reading" ability.