OmniPage(R) Pro 11.0 Upgrade

Rating:
Summary: Better than before, but not the best OCR software
Review: I scan books that are in the public domain, which is a demanding task for OCR software. The bottom line is that the Abbyy FineReader Pro v5.0 is THE BEST OCR software on the market right now. It far surpasses Scansoft's Textbridge Millennium. The only thing that even gives FineReader Pro 5.0 any competition is Scansoft's OmniPage Pro 11, but FineReader is still far better. Since Scansoft bought out Textbridge (from Xerox) and bought out OmniPage (from Caere), you would think they could develop a superior product, but that's not so. Omnipage appears to be billed as an upgrade to Textbridge (I'm guessing that Scansoft is sending Textbridge to the graveyard). Scansoft claims in an advertisement that they spent a YEAR combining the programs. However, Scansoft did not even include rudimentary features of Textbridge in OmniPage 11. For instance, if you scan a book two pages at a time with the binding flat against the scanner (this is very common for older books that need to remain intact), Textbridge Millennium could split apart the pages using a dual-page mode. This was an extremely helpful if not critical feature for scanning books. However, this feature does not exist in OmniPage 11. FineReader on the other hand, can do this and more. It works great with Auto Document Feeders and it is far more accurate than OmniPage 11. Finally, FineReader's error/spell checker is once again far superior to OmniPage 11. The only single advantage that OmniPage 11 has over FineReader 5.0 is that it can import/output Adobe PDF documents. Otherwise FineReader Pro 5.0 is the way to go.

Rating:
Summary: OmniPage Pro 11.0-A Lifesaver!
Review: I upgraded my copy of OmniPage Pro 10 to OmniPage Pro 11, and haven't had any regrets since. One of the nicest features in this version of OmniPage, is the ability to work with Adobe PDF files. PDF files are great, but have little editing ability. With OmniPage Pro 11, this is no longer an issue. All I need to do now, is convert my PDF file to an Office file and edit away! This feature is almost worth the full price. In addition, OmniPage Pro 11 is far more accurate than OmniPage 10 ever was, and with added features OmniPage Pro 11 will work better than ever before. If you are a qualifying user, this is an upgrade that you should look into.

Rating:
Summary: Better than before, but not the best OCR software
Review: I upgraded my copy of Omnipage Pro 10.0 Scan Suite, which is a qualifying product to upgrade to OmniPage Pro 11.0. It was one of the smartest moves I've made. Not that there was anything terribly wrong with OmniPage Pro 10, but the added features and performance of version 11 is plain phenomenal. Optical character recognition (OCR) is dramatically more accurate in this new version, and it also recognizes and converts columns and tables. It also produces a virtually identical converted page, with graphics, tables and columns where they should be, instead of in unexpected places like the previous version sometimes did.

It imports Adobe Acrobat files, which is a major plus, and exports them into Microsoft Office format files - an even bigger plus. It will also turn a scanned document into an Acrobat PDF file. This does not supplant Adobe's Acrobat 5.0, though, because that product has capabilities that OmniPage doesn't have. See the Acrobat 5.0 product page on Amazon for more information.

Another plus is the ability to scan a page, have it accurately converted and save it as an HTML file, complete with graphics, which can then be uploaded to your web site. It can also be used to create documentation on a CD ROM that can be read using a browser. The possibilities here are endless and adds considerably to the value of this upgrade.

ScanSoft did a remarkable job with features and usability with this version. If you are using a qualifying product this upgrade is worth every penny.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth upgrading to this new version
Review: I upgraded my copy of Omnipage Pro 10.0 Scan Suite, which is a qualifying product to upgrade to OmniPage Pro 11.0. It was one of the smartest moves I've made. Not that there was anything terribly wrong with OmniPage Pro 10, but the added features and performance of version 11 is plain phenomenal. Optical character recognition (OCR) is dramatically more accurate in this new version, and it also recognizes and converts columns and tables. It also produces a virtually identical converted page, with graphics, tables and columns where they should be, instead of in unexpected places like the previous version sometimes did.

It imports Adobe Acrobat files, which is a major plus, and exports them into Microsoft Office format files - an even bigger plus. It will also turn a scanned document into an Acrobat PDF file. This does not supplant Adobe's Acrobat 5.0, though, because that product has capabilities that OmniPage doesn't have. See the Acrobat 5.0 product page on Amazon for more information.

Another plus is the ability to scan a page, have it accurately converted and save it as an HTML file, complete with graphics, which can then be uploaded to your web site. It can also be used to create documentation on a CD ROM that can be read using a browser. The possibilities here are endless and adds considerably to the value of this upgrade.

ScanSoft did a remarkable job with features and usability with this version. If you are using a qualifying product this upgrade is worth every penny.

Rating:
Summary: Worth it for Omnipage 10 users!
Review: If you have Omnipage 10 already, this upgrade is definitely worth the price! It adds features such as "Despeckle" which greatly reduces the reading of stray marks on paper as weird characters. (as you often see from fax or copies). This was my main complaint with Omnipage 10 and its fixed in the new version. There's also definitely a greater accuracy with reading columns and translating them into Excel (often with Omnipage 10 I'd get text scanned into one long column instead of 2 short ones...no problem with that here!). Also, the ability to translate PDF files into office documents...that alone makes the software worthwhile...the drag and drop feature in this software is VERY handy. Definitely buy if you have Omnipage 10 already.

Rating:
Summary: Worth it for Omnipage 10 users!
Review: If you have Omnipage 10 already, this upgrade is definitely worth the price! It adds features such as "Despeckle" which greatly reduces the reading of stray marks on paper as weird characters. (as you often see from fax or copies). This was my main complaint with Omnipage 10 and its fixed in the new version. There's also definitely a greater accuracy with reading columns and translating them into Excel (often with Omnipage 10 I'd get text scanned into one long column instead of 2 short ones...no problem with that here!). Also, the ability to translate PDF files into office documents...that alone makes the software worthwhile...the drag and drop feature in this software is VERY handy. Definitely buy if you have Omnipage 10 already.

Rating:
Summary: Worth it for Omnipage 10 users!
Review: If you have Omnipage 10 already, this upgrade is definitely worth the price! It adds features such as "Despeckle" which greatly reduces the reading of stray marks on paper as weird characters. (as you often see from fax or copies). This was my main complaint with Omnipage 10 and its fixed in the new version. There's also definitely a greater accuracy with reading columns and translating them into Excel (often with Omnipage 10 I'd get text scanned into one long column instead of 2 short ones...no problem with that here!). Also, the ability to translate PDF files into office documents...that alone makes the software worthwhile...the drag and drop feature in this software is VERY handy. Definitely buy if you have Omnipage 10 already.