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Anyone Using OmniPage and PaperPort?

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Carol Haynes:
It converts documents into PDF format - you can use it like a printer to output PDF files.
-Carol Haynes (August 28, 2007, 05:03 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think it is more than that. From their website:
Edit PDF documents directly just like working in the original file
--- End quote ---

This is the part I'm interested in.
-edbro (August 28, 2007, 05:06 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yep - but if you order the upgrade mentioned you don't get that version - you just get a PDF Maker - and there are plenty of free ones out there.

Here is the current offer:



This is not the Pro version.

[ed... sorry if there is some confusion I was looking at the upgrade offer from Nuance ... having said that I still wouldn't buy it from Bits du Jour ... There are a lot of options on the web (eg. http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/pdf-editor-free.html) or if you want a good professional solution that is a lot cheaper than Adobe have a look at http://www.jawspdf.com/desktopsuite/index.html which is excellent reliable software and provides PDF creator and editor]

katykaty:
I use Omnipage 15 Pro at work. The OCR seems to work pretty well, though its page formatting is pretty rough.

I still haven't really got my head around the interface so it's possible I could do things to improve the formatting, but then that's the software's fault for having a rubbish interface, not mine for not knowing how to use it  :)

It runs pretty quick too.

But the best thing about it - and what I wouldn't even have known about if I hadn't delved into the installation CD - is PDF Converter and PDF Create (both version 3). Every time Acrobat fouls up someone else's machine I can't help sniggering  :P


The big question is: what do you actually want it for? If you just want OCR, then you might find that the freebie software that gets thrown in with scanners does the job - my Canon 70 had a cut down version of .... Omnipage  ;)

Darwin:
OmniPage Pro 16 comes with PDF Create and PDF Converter 4 (which are essentially PDF Converter Professional 4) and I am much happier with the GUI over version 15 - they've improved it a lot (I too found OP 15 confusing to navigate around).

J-Mac:
It converts documents into PDF format - you can use it like a printer to output PDF files.
-Carol Haynes (August 28, 2007, 05:03 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think it is more than that. From their website:
Edit PDF documents directly just like working in the original file
--- End quote ---

This is the part I'm interested in.
-edbro (August 28, 2007, 05:06 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yep - but if you order the upgrade mentioned you don't get that version - you just get a PDF Maker - and there are plenty of free ones out there.

Here is the current offer:
 (see attachment in previous post)
This is not the Pro version.

[ed... sorry if there is some confusion I was looking at the upgrade offer from Nuance ... having said that I still wouldn't buy it from Bits du Jour ... There are a lot of options on the web (eg. http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/pdf-editor-free.html) or if you want a good professional solution that is a lot cheaper than Adobe have a look at http://www.jawspdf.com/desktopsuite/index.html which is excellent reliable software and provides PDF creator and editor]
-Carol Haynes (August 29, 2007, 04:37 AM)
--- End quote ---

Carol.

edpro was the one who asked about this, and he/she DID ask about PDF Converter Pro 4.

However the offer I initially mentioned in the first post of this thread does include PDF Create 4.  However I am fairly certain the OmniPage 16 Pro does all the conversions that PDF Converter Pro does.

Jim

Carol Haynes:
The trouble with OmniPage (and all OCR software really) is that it just isn't accurate enough. If it is 99% accurate (and it isn't unless you have a scanner that makes perfect copies of ideal fonts) then there will be 1% error rate - that is roughly a wrong character on every line in a document - by the time you manually edit the errors out for a fast typer it probably would be quicker to have retyped the text in the first place.

The other, and biggest problem, is formatting - one of the reason's I got interested in OmniPage (back in version 10/11 days, I forget which) they pushed the idea of maintaining formatting and outputting perfectly formed Word documents. This never worked (even on simple documents) and one of the reasons I demanded a refund on version 15 was that it had got no better. My experience was documents full of OCR errors - formatting pretty much all over the place and new styles created for practically every line of text which meant the only way to edit the file was to go through and change all the styles.

Formatted output never worked at all in my experience in automatic mode - you had to spend time telling it which parts of the page were text and graphics by drawing different colour boxes. The auto correction (using a dictionary) was a joke as half the time it OCRed text so badly it couldn't make an intelligent guess.

Sorry - but if others are reading this thread they shouldn't be led into thinking OmniPage is a good solution for all OCR needs. It claims to be be the industry leader and of professional standard but the latter at least is just not true.

Anyone interested in this sort of software should try the demo version first and make sure they are happy with what it does. Also try out the opposition before comitting good money to OmniPage!

If you want to 'read' PDF files then Adobe do a free plugin with Adobe Acrobat (not sure if it works with the free reader version - but it works well with the full version).

Also if you have Microsoft Office it has rudimentary OCR capability that may be enough for your needs. See http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/word/HA010703331033.aspx?pid=CL100636481033

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