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Job aid · Northern Illinois University

OmniPage Quick Reference

How to scan a printed page into editable, accessible text with OmniPage Pro, from Microsoft Word or within OmniPage.

What it is: A two-page job aid for scanning printed documents into accessible text with OmniPage Pro, written for Northern Illinois University's computer lab staff. It is also part of the AT Station Quick Reference Guide.

Using OmniPage from Microsoft Word

  1. Open Microsoft Word and begin working in a document.
  2. Place the page face down in the scanner.
  3. Verify the correct settings by going to the File menu item Acquire Text Settings (this only has to be done once).
    • Under the Format tab:
      • Choose Auto for the input format.
      • Choose Retain font and paragraph formatting for the output format.
    • Under the Direct OCR tab:
      • Check Draw zones automatically.
      • Uncheck Proofread OCR (if proofing is specified, it will follow recognition).
      • Select Scan B&W in the Image Source combo box.
    • Note: Any settings not offered take their values from those last used in OmniPage Pro (see Settings to check within OmniPage).
  4. Go to the File menu item Acquire Text to scan a document.
  5. The recognized text is placed at the cursor position in your Microsoft Word document.

Scanning within OmniPage

  1. Open OmniPage.
  2. Verify the correct settings (see Settings to check within OmniPage).
  3. Go to the View menu (Alt+V), then OmniPage Toolbox. Select OCR Wizard.
  4. Go to the Process menu (Alt+P). Select Start. This will open a dialog box which will walk you through 6 steps. After choosing the desired settings on each page, select Next.
    1. Step 1: Choose whether you would like to scan in Black and White, Grayscale or Color (or choose to perform OCR on an image file).
    2. Step 2: Choose what the original document is like. Let OmniPage Pro decide (auto) is the recommended setting.
    3. Step 3: Choose the OCR method. More Accurate is the recommended setting. You can also identify the languages that the document contains. English should be selected by default.
    4. Step 4: Choose the level of formatting to retain from the original document. I want to retain font and paragraph formatting is recommended.
    5. Step 5: Choose whether to proofread the finished text. No is the recommended setting. You can also choose whether to apply IntelliTrain or not.
    6. Step 6: Choose whether to save the finished file, or copy it to the clipboard and select Finish. If you have chosen Save it as a file on my computer, you will be prompted for a file name and location after scanning and recognition is complete.

Settings to check within OmniPage

  1. Open OmniPage.
  2. Go to the Tools menu, then Options, and select All.
  3. Under the Direct OCR tab:
    1. Check Enable Direct OCR.
    2. Check Draw Zones Automatically.
    3. Uncheck Proofread OCR.
  4. Under the Process tab:
    1. Check Automatically Correct Page Orientation.
  5. Under the Proofing tab:
    1. Uncheck Automatically proofread results after OCR.
  6. Under the Custom Layout tab:
    1. Set Flowing text to Auto.
    2. Set Tables to Auto.
    3. Set Graphics to No Graphics.