ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 12 Office review

Scheduled batch processing of documents isn't new to OmniPage Pro 12, but this has been extended to include Wizard-configured automatic processing. You can, for example, configure OmniPage Pro 12 to automatically process a document image once it arrives in a nominated folder and deliver the resulting editable document to a specified destination. It could be in a different folder, or even delivered by email to a nominated person.

We were surprised to see PDF conversion in OmniPage Pro 11, although it seems so obvious now that we realise its benefits. However, Pro 11's PDF-conversion capabilities were only the start. Development in this area now means that OmniPage Pro 12 can process both bitmap-based PDFs and searchable text PDFs. For example, now you're able to convert a bitmap PDF page into editable text and then republish that document as a searchable PDF. It's even possible to retain the original document's bitmap representation and overlay the searchable text. The result looks like you've magically been given the ability to search text inside a graphic.

Apart from word-processing format, HTML and PDF, OmniPage Pro 12 provides export to XML-format documents and Open eBook formats. The latter includes specific support for Microsoft Pocket PC and Tablet PC platforms.

It's old news that good-quality source documents can be recognised with near enough perfect accuracy. However, more complex documents, and ones that aren't scanned so neatly, will require a degree of proofing. The proofing stage is often the most time consuming and OCR is no help if proofing takes as long as retyping the page.

Luckily, ScanSoft has added some valuable features to speed up the overall process. You can now re-zone parts of a page on the fly, without the need to rescan it. A feature called IntelliTrain Proofing will apply a correction to the same errors throughout a document, minimising repetition. Context checking is now implemented, and whenever a suspect word is found you see it as it was scanned so you're able to dynamically verify it. Especially troublesome characters or symbols can be identified, and OmniPage Pro 12 can be trained to deal with them correctly in future. RealSpeak Text-to-Speech also refines the proofing process .

While OmniPage Pro has always been targeted at the higher end of the market, there are plenty of enhancements in version 12 to attract potential enterprise customers. A new network install provision makes deployment of OmniPage Pro 12 easier for system administrators. There's also a new volume seat pricing structure for network customers. ODMA connectivity is supported, making it easier to integrate OmniPage Pro 12 with corporate document management systems. ScanSoft has even provided OLE hooks, for developers to complete the relatively simple task of integrating OmniPage Pro 12 with enterprise applications.

All these improvements mean that OmniPage Pro 12 Office is an impressive and significant addition to the long OmniPage ancestral line. Much less expensive alternatives like ABBYY FineReader 6 were beginning to make older OmniPage versions look very ordinary, but OmniPage Pro 12 has built on its strengths and added carefully targeted new features to make it a package to be reckoned with. The retail box price remains an astonishing £369, but remember that you can upgrade from any OCR package (say, the one bundled with your scanner) for the considerably discounted price of £130.

Author: Ian Burley