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Subject:Re: dreaded part of the job - and OCR software Q From:dwiltshire -at- pnmt -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:38:21 -0500
Since I'm the only person in our office with a scanner, I get handed all the
scan jobs. I don't really mind the task or responsibility itself, but it does
erode the time available for working on projects. While the scanning function is
quick and easy, the OCR (optical character recognition) phase isn't anywhere
near 100% accurate. This means there is always significant clean-up needed.
Also, most formatting goes out the window too. The other option is to scan the
page(s) as graphic files, which results in huge file sizes.
By the way, I'm thinking of upgrading the OCR software to ScanSoft OmniPage Pro
11. Cost is almost $500!!! Does anybody have experience with this package? Does
it do a better job of retaining formatting or speeding up the clean-up stage of
text-scanned documents? If it saves a lot of time, it will pay for itself
quickly.
Thanks,
Dan
Dan Wiltshire
Senior Technical Writer
Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.
--------original message:--------
Subject: Re: dreaded part of the job
From: "Kathy Li" <kathyli -at- attbi -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 20:28:24 -0600
X-Message-Number: 56
I appreciate the chance to discuss this, as I am the lone TW in my group.
Dick Margulis and others bring up valid points about discerning the manner
in which the requested task was made, not the task itself. Though I have to
say that even my engineer colleagues pitch a fit on occasion if our manager
asks them to perform non-engineering tasks, such as preparing cubicles and
phone connections for visiting vendors. I guess everyone's got their
molehills to conquer ... The key is to try to do it graciously!
Kathy
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