[bksvol-discuss] Fw: Scanning with FineReader, long

Reposting for Jana...hope this helps, its what showed up in my archive
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Smith" <donnafsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 9:57 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Scanning with FineReader, long


> Hi all, and a very happy new year!  I was out of pocket yet again, having
> house guests for a week and then there was all that holiday cheer to
share,
> but I have mostly caught up with messages and am ready to present
> scanning with FineReader 101.  Excuse me just a minute while I don my
> Mistress of FineReader gear.  Ah yes, spike-heeled boots in place...now
> where did I put that whip??  <grin>
>
> My standard disclaimer:  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a software
> developer, a technology specialist, or a student in any formal sense of
> computers.  So to all you computer geeks out there, and you know who you
> are, don't get excited when I use lay terms to discuss something instead
of
> geek lingo.  Don't make me have to find my whip!
>
> As with other scanning software, it's all in the options and how you set
> them.  What I describe below are my typical settings for scanning in
> two-page mode, regular print, straight text, with the book fitting nicely
on
> the scanner bed.  Any setting can be changed or tweaked to produce
slightly
> different results, but this is the base from which I usually start.
>
> Open FineReader and go to the tools menu by pressing alt for menus and
then
> T for tools.  This will probably put you on the spell-check selection.
> Press O for options and you will find yourself in a dialogue box with six
> groups of settings to muck around with.  These six groups are:  1. general
> page; 2. view page; 3. scan open image page; 4. recognition page; 5. check
> spelling page; and 6. formatting page.  Now the fun begins.
>
> In each group of settings above, you have choices to make, check boxes to
> check or uncheck, a myriad of little things that will fine tune the scan
you
> get, and when you learn what they all can do for you, you will find that
> your life as a scanner and the lives of all of our validator friends will
> suddenly become much better.  I urge you to really explore all of these
> options on numerous occasions until they begin to make sense and you begin
> to understand their purpose.  There's nothing that can be done in this
> dialogue box that can't be undone.  The worst thing that will happen is
that
> you get a really lousy scan because you chose the wrong combination of
> settings for that particular book.  The best thing that can happen is that
> you learn your software and produce really excellent scans.
>
> So now I'll go through each group of settings one at a time, giving the
> settings I use for the typical scan mentioned above.  Under each group,
I'll
> list the options available and then the settings that I use.
>
> 1.  General page:
> A.  Interface language, English
> B.  Show image during scanning, check box checked
> C.  Show tips during recognition, check box not checked
> D.  Open last batch at start-up, check box checked
> E.  Adjust image to fit printable area while printing, not checked
> F.  Show welcome dialogue at start-up, not checked
> G.  Enable ABBYY community news channel, not checked
> H.   Save button
> I.  Load button
> J.  Use defaults button
> K.  Close button.
> (Note:  For now, we'll do nothing with H through K.)
>
> 2.  View Page
> A.  Appearance item, Uncertain character
> B.  None button.
> C.  Block frames width, 1
> D.  Show black and white images in image window, not checked
> E.  Show black and white images in zoom window, not checked
> F.  Show zoom windows scroll bars, checked
> G.  Show scale black and white images as gray, checked
> H.  Highlight uncertain characters, checked
> I.  Show nonprinted characters in window, not checked
> J.  Switch to full page mode, checked.
> K.  Drafter editor font size, 12
> L.  Close button.
>
> 3.  Scan Open Image Page
> A.  Scanner twain driver, Epson Twain 5 (of course needs to be set for
your
> scanner)
> B.  Use FineReader interface, checked, (very important)
> C.  Display options dialogue before scanning, not checked
> D.  Scanner settings button (pressing enter here will open yet another
> dialogue box, but one that is pretty important.  So press enter and here
are
> my settings)
> I.  Image orientation, landscape
> II.  Measure units, inches
> III.  Paper size, letter
> IV.  Brightness automatic, checked
> V.  Pictures scanning mode, black and white pictures
> VI.  Resolution, 300
> VII.  Pause between pages, checked (and for some reason, this has to be
> checked every time you scan no matter how you save the settings.)
> VIII.  Edit box for seconds to pause, 5
> IX.  Show this dialogue box before scanning, not checked
> X.  Okay button
> XI.  Cancel button
> (Note; pressing okay after setting your options will return you to the
> original dialogue box and back to the D. option of scanner settings
button.
> So now we'll resume going through the third group of options under scan
open
> image page.)
> E.  Invert image, not checked
> F.  Despeckle image, not checked
> G.  Split dual pages, checked (very important)
> H.  Detect image orientation during scanning, checked
> I.  Convert color and gray images to black and white, not checked
> J.  Ask for page number before adding page to batch, not checked
> K.  Open image during scanning, checked
> L.  Close button.
>
> 4.  Recognition Page
> A.  Recognition language, English
> B.  Edit languages
> C.  Auto detect layout, checked
> D.  Clear background noise, checked
> E.  Look for bar codes, not checked
> F.  Auto detect, checked
> G.  One line of text per cell, not checked
> H.  No merged cells in table, not checked
> I.  Do not use user patterns, checked
> J.  Pattern editor button
> K.  Close button
>
> 5.  Check Spelling Page
> A.  Stop at words with uncertain characters, checked
> B.  Stop at words not found in dictionary, checked
> C.  Stop at compound words, not checked
> D.  Ignore words with digits and other non-alphabetic characters, checked
> E.  Skip prompting for word forms (English dictionary only), checked
> F.  Correct spaces before and after punctuation marks, checked
> G.  Error display level set before recognition, standard
> H.  View dictionaries button
> I.  Browse button
> J.  Close button
>
> 6.  Formatting Page
> A.  Retain font and font size, checked
> B.  Keep pictures, not checked
> C.  Serif, Times New Roman
> D.  Sans seriff, Arial
> E.  Monospaced, Courier New
> F.  Format settings button, (this is another important one, so press enter
> and here's what you get)
> I.  RTF docs word xml tab
> II.  Default paper size, letter
> III.  Automaticly increase paper size, checked
> IV.  Keep page breaks, checked, (super-mega important)
> V.  Keep line breaks, not checked (also pretty darn significant)
> VI.  Retain text color, not checked
> VII.  Remove optional hyphens, checked (another major time-saver)
>
> VIII.  Enable FineReader zoom Window in Microsoft Word 2003 only for word
> xml format, not checked
> IX.  With text color, not checked
> X.  With background color, not checked
> XI.  Save in Word 97 or later format, checked
> XII.  JPEG, checked
> XIII.  JPEG quality, 50
> XIV.  Reduce picture resolution to, 150
> XV.  Okay button
> XVI.  Cancel button
> (Note:  after making selections, press OK and you will be returned to the
> regularly scheduled program which was the formatting page.)
> G.  Close button
>
> At this point, use control-tab to take you back to the general page where
we
> started this odyssey.  Tab over until you get to save.  Press enter and
name
> this settings file, preferably something that will make sense when you try
> to remember it later.  Then tab over to the nearest close button and press
> enter.  You will now be ready to scan, or you can close out FineReader and
> return later with the settings saved.
>
> When you open FineReader again and are ready to scan a book in two-page
mode
> with no extra frills, press alt, T and O to get back to the options under
> the tools menu, control-tab until you land on general page, tab over to
the
> load button, press enter and type in the name of the settings file you
> created, and press enter.  You will then need to control tab to the scan
> open image page, tab to the scanner settings button, press enter, tab over
> and check pause between pages and tab again to set the number of seconds
to
> 5.  Tab to close and press enter, tab to close again and press enter, and
> then you're ready to scan.
>
> Taken all at once like this it might appear a lot to do, but it's really
not
> once you get the settings in place.  I've created similar settings for
> one-page scanning for that occasional book that is too large for two-page
> mode, and another one for retaining line breaks for the occasional book of
> poetry or some other text where saving the line breaks might be important.
> But the one I use the most is the two-page mode settings.  The other
> frequent change I make is for paper size.  If the book really fills up the
> scanner bed, then A4 is a better setting than letter, but I make this
> adjustment for each scan.
>
> Control-shift-K starts continuous scanning and pressing space interrupts
it.
>
> Control-shift-R starts the recognition process.
>
> When you're done with scanning and recognition, and it's time to save your
> work, here's how to do it:
>
> Press alt and then F to get to the file menu.  Press E to go to the save
> text as dialogue box.  This is a baby dialogue box compared to the options
> one, so pressing tab will get you through it.  Set your options for saving
> text as follows:
>
> 1.  Filename, type in what you want.  The default is Untitled0.
> 2.  Save as type, rich text format RTF.  (This is crucial if for no other
> reason than to keep the volunteers on this list happy!  <smile>  Seriously
> though, it is the best option and it is the second selection as you arrow
> down the combo box.)
> 3.  Save button
> 4.  Cancel button
> 5.  All pages, checked, this is the second option in this combo box.
> 6.  File options, create a single file for all pages, checked, fourth
option
> in the combo box.
> 7.  Retain layout, retain font and font size, checked, second option in
the
> combo box.
> 8.  Keep pictures, not checked.
> 9.  Open document after saving, not checked
> 10.  Format settings button, this is a repeat of the format settings you
set
> in the earlier tools menu settings.  You can press space here to check
your
> settings, but it's really not necessary.
> 11.  Save in, select whatever folder you choose for saving scans, I use my
> ebooks.
> 12.  List view, let's you select files or folders, but nothing to set.
>
> Once you've made the selections above, tab over to the save button and
press
> space to save.  Now you have a lovely scanned book in RTF to submit to
> BookShare.  Once you've set these options in the save text as dialogue
box,
> they remain the same until you change them again, so in future, you only
> have to put in the filename and tab over to save.
>
> Happy scanning!  I still say FineReader is the best scanning software out
> there!  And remember, it's not wise to disagree with the Mistress of
> FineReader!  <smile>
>
> Peace and Hope,
>
> Donna
>
>

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