Text scraping: instructions

[moshepack]

Hi,

Can someone point me to instructions on how to do text scraping?  I would like to extract text from a dialog box.

Thanks!

[mouser]

the help file definitely needs an update.
to do text scraping, do windows capture mode, select the text object, hit ctrl+t (or use redbox menu to see preview of text and capture to clipboard).

[Jaysee]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but my noob question is the same as the original poster's:  I'm trying to capture editable text from a Windows Explorer screen which scrolls in both the X and Y directions.  Launching SC (v2.32.01) from the tray with "Grab windows Object or Scrolling window," I can get a perfect .PNG capture of the full contents using Red Box, but I never see a text preview ("Capture Text to Clipboard" on Red Box's menu is always grayed-out) and I can't get any text to copy (ctrl+t doesn't seem to do anything) to the Clipboard.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[mouser]

I'm afraid that screenshot captor can't handle such complicated text capture -- it can only handle simple cases of text boxes, etc.

The one program i know of which is really good at capturing text in such complicated cases is a shareware program called Kleptomania: http://www.structurise.com/kleptomania/

[lanux128]

or try this freeware: WinScraper..

As a developer, I wanted a simple, free tool that would do all of the following:
    * 'Scrape' the text off a dialog box control or message box, so that it can be pasted as text into an email or whatever. (How often have I dismissed the error box without accurately noting down its contents?)
    * Capture images of controls or windows from my application for documentation purposes etc..
    * Resize my application or web browser windows to a specific size for testing alternate screen resolutions or consistent documentation of my application.

That's what the tool presented in this article sets out to do. As a full time developer I expect to make a lot of use of it from now on!

[mouser]

winscraper will grab text like sc will; kleptomania is capable of advanced stuff.

[lanux128]

yes, i understand kleptomania's potential now after a trip to its website..

[app103]

I use Snagit (shareware) for getting scrolling text captures...and it does work in Explorer. It exports to a .txt file and can even append new captures to the file.

There is also a number of formatting options.

<hint for mouser> If Screenshot Captor could do the same text capturing, I'd probably ditch Snagit in favor of that. </ hint for mouser>

[tomos]

the help file definitely needs an update.
to do text scraping, do windows capture mode, select the text object, hit ctrl+t (or use redbox menu to see preview of text and capture to clipboard).

-mouser (March 06, 2006, 07:08 AM)

I'm afraid i still dont understand -
specifically
"do windows capture mode" = Alt+PrtScr ?

I tried under Edit > Copy text to clipboard
but got the Title of the (Error)window & the name of the originating programme & date
as opposed to the text of the actual window


Am i making sense - am i understanding the text scraping thingy at all ??

[mouser]

grab windows object hotkey in SC is Ctrl+Shift+PrtScr i think.
Bring that up and then select the object and hit Ctrl+T.

[Jaysee]

The one program i know of which is really good at capturing text in such complicated cases is a shareware program called Kleptomania: http://www.structurise.com/kleptomania/

Thanks for the suggestion.  Looking at their offering gave me an idea for solving my immediate need:  I took the Explorer image file from SC and fed it to my OmniPage OCR app, which gave me back an editable text file (sans some formatting).  Crude, but it did the job...

RE SnagIt:  Looks like a great app, but perhaps a bit of overkill for most of what I need from a capture program.  If complex text scraping was only a little easier in SC... (but you've heard this already!)

[tomos]

grab windows object hotkey in SC is Ctrl+Shift+PrtScr i think.
Bring that up and then select the object and hit Ctrl+T.

-mouser (April 16, 2007, 01:53 PM)

dunno ..

maybe I'm still misunderstanding?

"grab windows object",
then in main window I click & drag to select text,
then Ctrl+T
then paste in Notepad - well whatever

I just get the date & time of capture.


When I select then go Edit/Copy text to clipboard
as said above, I get the Title of the window & the name of the originating programme & date
as opposed to the text in the actual window/selected area

I notice I'm still using Version 2.25.03
Will bring up to date & see any diff.

[rjbull]

A few alternatives:

If using Win2K, with the focus on an error box, you can just press Control-C to have Windows send the text to the clipboard.

Or try CopyMessageBox by Thyante Software.  The older, smaller version just keeps text, the newer one keeps images as well.

Lastly, Nir Sofer's SystemExporter:

SysExporter utility allows you to grab the data stored in standard
list-views, tree-views, list boxes, combo boxes, text-boxes, and
WebBrowser/HTML controls from almost any application running on your
system, and export it to text, HTML or XML file.
Here's some examples for data that you can export with SysExporter:
* The files list inside archive file (.zip, .rar, and so on) as
  displayed by WinZip or 7-Zip File Manager.
* The files list inside a folder.
* The event log of Windows.
* The list of emails and contacts in Outlook Express.
* The Registry values displayed in the right pane of the Registry
  Editor.
* The data displayed by SysInternals utilities (Registry Monitor, File
  Monitor, Process Explorer, and others.)

[tomos]

A few alternatives:

If using Win2K, with the focus on an error box, you can just press Control-C to have Windows send the text to the clipboard.

-rjbull (April 17, 2007, 04:35 AM)

that sounds like the way to go!

Lastly, Nir Sofer's SystemExporter:

SysExporter utility allows you to grab the data stored in standard
list-views, tree-views, list boxes, combo boxes, text-boxes, and
WebBrowser/HTML controls from almost any application running on your
system, and export it to text, HTML or XML file.
Here's some examples for data that you can export with SysExporter:
* The files list inside archive file (.zip, .rar, and so on) as
  displayed by WinZip or 7-Zip File Manager.
* The files list inside a folder.
* The event log of Windows.
* The list of emails and contacts in Outlook Express.
* The Registry values displayed in the right pane of the Registry
  Editor.
* The data displayed by SysInternals utilities (Registry Monitor, File
  Monitor, Process Explorer, and others.)

-rjbull (April 17, 2007, 04:35 AM)

& that sounds very good