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Anyone Using OmniPage and PaperPort?

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J-Mac:
Just when I thought I was weened of of most Scansoft/Nuance programs, they sent me one of those "too good to pass up" upgrade offers.

I had previously used their PDF Converter Pro 3 and had a real love/hate relationship with it. When it works, it is pretty amazing.  However it has a way of throwing errors of the "Must Terminate" variety and usually does that just when you really do not have the time to deal with it.  I also use Dragon Naturally Speaking 9 Professional and get by with it even though they tend not to support any of their products, except for enterprise versions, and then only with a paid support plan.

But a couple of weeks ago I received a promotion offer from Nuance that may be too good to ignore:  OmniPage 16 Professional, with PaperPort 11, PDF Create 4, and a throw-in called MediaRecover. The whole package will cost me $99.99.  I checked Nuance's web site and the full prices for each are OmniPage 16 Pro:  $499.99; PaperPort (but not the Pro version): $99.99; PDF Create 4:  $49.99; and MediaRecover, which I never heard of before: $29.99.  They total $679.96. All for $99.99.

Unbelievable price.  But are the programs worthwhile?  If not, then even at that price, why bother?  The product pages read great, but of course that's Nuance tooting their own horn.  PC Magazine wrote them up pretty good, but I would prefer to hear from someone who has used these applications.

Thanks.

Jim

mouser:
I haven't used OmniPage but it's gotten good reviews i think.

I am, however, a big fan of PaperPort.  Now i have to warn you i haven't really compared it against other programs, so take this with a grain of salt, but it's one of those programs that just feels right to me.  I don't do too much scanning but everything seems intuitive to me, and i've been very happy with it.  Nice basic tools for straightening scans, organize scans, etc.

Recently i found an abandoned scanner with an ADF (automatic document feeder), and ScanSoft handles it so wonderfully that i wanted to hug the program.  Scans in some sheets, lets you then reverse the stack and scans in the other side while properly collating it, etc.  very nice.

Here's an image of the multiple (ADF) interface:


Last caveat: I do *not* do heavy duty and frequent scanning.. there are a ton of features in PaperPort i never use.  I imagine that if you do a ton of scanning then you'd really want to test other programs and find the one with the most efficient workflow for you.

Carol Haynes:
I have OmniPage Pro 11 (though it isn't installed now) ... I "upgraded" to version 12 and was so appalled I asked for a refund.

I got their upgrade off you mentioned but personally I won't be looking at Scansoft (Nuance) again. Their tech support sucks  - I have TextBridge before OmniPage too - and every version has been bug ridden but updates to fix bugs are non-existent and each new version doesn't seem to add much new apart from a few bug fixes (and a pile of new ones). They always claim that accuracy and speed impove - but their marketing is pretty much like MS and Windows hype - each version gets more bloated and slower, with bigger demands on hardware. Yes things get faster if you upgrade your computer to a higher spec ... and why wouldn't it but the basic products installed on the same system degrade in performance version by version as far as I can see.

I also use PaperPort for a while - but that was a long time ago and it seemed to me to crash more than it worked - I haven't bothered with any version since. Maybe it is time for me to re-evaluate that as it is a good idea but I can't bring myself to buy an upgrade.

edbro:
PDF Converter 4 is scheduled to show up on Bits du Jour tomorrow. I don't know what the discount will be.

My question is for basic text, what does this converter offer that a copy/paste doesn't. I have a Sony Ereader that I love but it's PDF display capabilities are limited. I'm looking for something that will convert a pdf to editable text that I can work with in Word.

I was looking to give it a go but they don't seem to offer a trial version.

Carol Haynes:
It converts documents into PDF format - you can use it like a printer to output PDF files. See http://www.nuance.com/pdfconverter/professional/

There are other free utilities that work just as well, and other rival products that work better (IMHO) such as JawsPDF and NitroPDF.

My one experience with PDF Converter is that it told me I had to uninstall another application before it would install !!

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