Wizcom SuperPen Professional

Rating:
Summary: Wizcom SuperPen Professional Not So Easy to Operate
Review: The Wizcom SuperPen Professional because it could scan many pages of text and had an on-board dictionary that can pronounce words. The SuperPen Professional concept is fantastic, but it did not work as easily as I would have liked. (...), I would expect the SuperPen not to be so cumbersome to operate.

My first problem was getting the SuperPen Professional to link to my computer using the included Serial connector cable so I could upload scanned text to my computer. Although I loaded the software from the included CD-ROM on to my new Windows XP computer which had very few other applications or devices loaded on it, the computer could not connect to the pen. I followed the instructions to set both the pen and computer's baud rate to 115200, but this didn't resolve the problem. The Wizcom website suggested downloading the latest software version, but I couldn't find a link to download the applicable software. An email to Tech Support explained that the lastest software version is available at:

http://www.wizcomtech.com/Wizcom/support/updates.asp?fid=139&pfid=177&mid=10
and scroll down to Install or upgrade your Desktop by downloading and running the QuickLink Desktop installation program (4.9 Mb). Click on the link and save the file to your hard drive.

Once the file is saved to your hard drive, double-click it's icon and follow the instructions.

A call to Tech Support resolved my connection problem. It turned out that I needed to have the flow control on my computer's serial port set to hardware flow control. This was easy enough to do. I just wish that this advice had been published in the manual or on the web site. Ultimately, I did get the computer connection to work with the included serial port.

When connecting, I got an error in the Quicklink Desktop software until I disabled an option for Microsoft Outlook on the QuickLink Desktop application.

I'm having difficulty getting accurate scans with this pen when scanning articles in trade magazines. The articles have fairly small text that is divided into three narrow columns. Since I have to scan each short line separately, it is quite time-consuming to scan selections from an article. I often have to scan three lines to capture a complete sentence. When I couple the slowness of the scanning process with the effort needed to correct mis-spelled or incorrectly read scans, it becomes faster to use a computer to re-type my notes than it is to scan them. The user interface on the pen for making corrections on this device is awkward.

The dictionary feature is nice, but it was more of a hassle to properly scan the word in question than what I wanted to go to to get a definition. Perhaps a separate electronic dictionary where you could type in the word would be easier.

I got the best results when holding the SuperPen at a 90 degree angle to the text.

I used the scanner to scan content from a book, and found that the scanner was more efficient when scanning pages with longer lines of text than it did when I scanned magazine articles.

The SuperPen Professional is a great concept, but I prefer that it was easier to operate.