OCR forms -> Conditional formatting?

[ddrueding]

A client receives printed forms in similar but not identical formats from many customers. I need a way to scan it in, identify the fields, and then enter the data in a similar format Excel spreadsheet used internally.

I'm pretty sure this will be a multi-step workflow, but it will have to be done by an "information worker" (temp), so it needs to be reproduceable.

Any thoughts?

 

[Bozo]

Doesn't Open Office mimic various different office products.
Open the document in Open Office, save as Excel?

Bozo :joker:

 

[Mercutio]

OK.

What formats? Plain text? MS Word? PDF? Punch cards?

 

[ddrueding]

Sorry for the confusion.

Some are old-school carbon copies done on typewriter or dot-matrix, some are printed out of DOS programs or Windows. They all contain the same fields and the same information (e.g. "Supervisor: Bob Dole"), but the layout is different. All are hard-copies, so the first step is scanning them in. I need to identify the fields and then re-order them into our own internal format.

 

[Howell]

Are you looking for a process or software?

I would suggest categorizing the forms that come in by adding a form number or template type. Then the OCR software can select an appropriate template.

 

[ddrueding]

I don't know of any software out there that can do it all, so I was looking for software and a process.

 

[Pradeep]

http://www.irislink.com/c2-532-189/OCR-Software---Product-list.aspx

or more likely something like this:

http://www.abbyy.com/flexicapture/?param=132539

You would need to define the fileds you want for each unique form type, no matter what software you use.

 

[ddrueding]

Thanks guys.

You would need to define the fileds you want for each unique form type, no matter what software you use.

What I was hoping for was for the OCR software to look for fields (e.g. "supervisor") and grab the text in the next box as field "supervisor". I guess I should stop hoping and get to work...

 

[Santilli]

David:
Don't know if it would help, but I use Onmiform 5.1, from formly Scansoft, now Nuance for documents I want to fill in areas on a computer repeatedly.

As it starts, it has a wizard that might allow you to scan the forms the way you would like.

It does scan forms, sense areas that are to be filled in, regardless if they are or not, and create both a master, and or
copy the form, scan wise, if you'd like.

HOpe this helps. Only part I didn't like was it limited you to 100 fillable form documents, then you are supposed to buy another sort of license to scan more. Never did that many documents, and, with a defunct company, not sure what would happen when I reached that point.

Everytime I've come close, a drive has been replaced, wiped and cleaned, and the os reinstalled.

Greg