How to Scan Text Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with OmniPage Pro Software on the MicroTek (Color) Scanner

1. Make sure that the Microtek scanner is on. The power switch is along the back side of the scanner, in the right hand corner.

2. Place your document onto the scanner with the text you wish to scan face-down on the glass. For best results, place the upper left corner of the document in the corner of the glass marked with a red arrow.

3. Select the "OmniPage Pro" command from the Applications section of the menu that drops down under the Apple in the upper left corner of the display.

4. The simplest way to get text scanned in from a document is by clicking on the Auto button.

5. The Auto button will engage the scanner, scan the image, load the image into memory so that it can be evaluated and then check the image for occurrences of misspelled words or words that it may not have scanned in correctly. If you want more control of the process, you can issue these commands separately by using the three menus that are to the right of the Auto button.

   The software is somewhat tolerant of deviations in how individual letters are supposed to look. However, it is not foolproof. For example, a smudged "a" may not be recognized or a sample of handwriting may feature a number of different characters that are not recognized. The proofreading/recognition function of OmniPage works in the same way that spell checking works in word processing applications. OmniPage will identify what it thinks are questionable character interpretations or misspelled words. Unknown letters will be represented by the tilde (~) character. The "Proofread OCR" window will allow you to edit questionable words by editing the text in the "Change to" section of the window or ignore the word with the "Ignore" button. If OmniPage has any entries in its dictionary that resemble the word in question, the "Suggestions" pop-up menu will be available so you can select one of the suggestions rather than type in every correction.

   To skip the proofreading, click the close box in the upper left corner of the "Proofread OCR" window. To bring up this window, select the "Proofread OCR" command under the Edit menu.

6. The image of the text from the scan will appear on the OmniPage display as an untitled window.

   This window can perform some editing and other word processing functions such as minor formatting (bold, italics, etc...) as well as setting tabs and margins. However, if you plan to do major work on text that is scanned, you should make only minor modifications in this window and then save the document to be used in a larger, more complex word processing program such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect.

7. At this point you can save your text in a file by selecting the "Save As" command under the File menu. The "Format" pop-up menu in the in the Save As window will allow you to save the scanned text in a familiar format such as Microsoft Word. You can also scan in additional pages by changing the hard copy on the scanner bed and clicking on the Auto button again. OmniPage will not discard the text that you have previously scanned and will actually allow you to save the text from 255 separate scans as separate files or as part of one file. A good piece of advice, however, is to use the "Save As" command after each page has been saved and proofread. Continue to save the entire document as the same file name, replacing old versions as you go along. Make sure to click the box for "create one file for all pages selected." Using this method, you will have a file containing all of the pages saved in case the machine suddenly loses power or freezes.

8. Once you are satisfied with a page or pages of text that have been scanned, use the "Save As" command and exit from OnmiPage Pro.