How to use the open-access scanners 1. Basic instructions (pg 2) 2. How to scan a document and perform OCR (pg 3 7) 3. How to scan a document and

Transcription

1 How to use the open-access scanners 1. Basic instructions (pg 2) 2. How to scan a document and perform OCR (pg 3 7) 3. How to scan a document and save it directly into Microsoft Word (pg 8 9) 4. How to scan a document and save it directly as Portable Document Format (PDF) (pg 10 11) 5. How to scan a picture and open it for editing (pg 12 13) 6. How to scan a picture and save it (pg 14-15) 1

2 1. Basic instructions Lift the lid of the scanner and place the document to be scanned face down on the scanner glass, with the top corner of the document at the top right corner of the scanner glass (see diagram), and then close the lid. All scanning must be done using the software on the cluster PC adjacent to the scanner and not using the buttons on the front of the scanner. Pressing the buttons on the front of the scanner will have no effect. 2

3 2. How to scan a document and perform OCR Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the recognition of printed or written characters by computer. Each page of text is converted to a digital image using a scanner and OCR is then applied to this digital image to produce a text file. The operation involves complex image processing algorithms and rarely achieves 100% accuracy so manual proof-reading is recommended. 2.1 Launch ABBYY FineReader by double-clicking the ABBYY FineReader icon on the desktop. 2.2 Click the Scan&Read button to launch the Scan&Read Wizard. If the button doesn't say Scan&Read, click the drop-down arrow on the right-hand side of the button and choose Scan&Read Wizard from the menu (see below). 3

4 2.3 Choose From scanner when asked how you will get your image. Click Next twice. The HP scanning tool launches and the scanner performs a preview scan. 2.4 Set the resolution by clicking Resolution and selecting 300 dots per inch. 2.5 Set the output type by clicking Output Type on the menu bar and selecting an appropriate option. If you have a colour document then choose Millions of Colors. If you have a black and white document then choose Black & White or 256 Gray Shades. 4

5 2.6 If necessary, alter the scan area by clicking on one of the black squares surrounding the preview scan and dragging it while holding down the left mouse button. This process can be repeated using other black squares until the scan area is the required shape and size. 2.7 Click Accept and the scanner will perform a final scan. 2.8 Choose a language in which to perform character recognition (OCR). The default is English, but if scanning a document in another language then select the appropriate language from the drop-down box. Click Next. ABBYY FineReader then performs OCR on the document. 2.9 Look at the resulting OCR text in the right-hand window and select whether there are a few errors or a lot of errors. Click Next If you wish to check the text in a text editor before saving then choose Yes when asked, otherwise choose No. 5

6 2.11 If you are checking the text, go through the document making corrections where necessary and then choose Close When prompted to save, you can save the document in a number of formats. Choose the required format (usually this is Microsoft Word) and click Next. 6

7 If the file type you want is not listed, choose Save Pages and this gives you a dialog box where you can choose the file type using the Save as type drop-down box. Once you have named your document, click Save. Be sure to save your document to your U: drive or to a removable storage device such as a USB memory stick. Any documents saved locally on the PC will be lost once you log off Finally the Wizard asks you if you want to load another page or quit. If you have additional pages to be scanned, choose Load next page and click Next. Place the next page to be scanned on the scanner glass as described in Section 1, then follow the instructions from Section 2.3 onwards If you have finished scanning, choose Quit and then Next. Once you have left the Wizard and have finished with ABBYY FineReader, choose File from the menu bar and then Exit to close the program. 7

8 3. How to scan a document and save it directly into Microsoft Word 3.1 Launch ABBYY FineReader by double-clicking the ABBYY FineReader icon on the desktop. 3.2 Choose Process from the top menu bar, then choose Automated tasks and then Scan to Word from the drop-down menus that appear. 3.3 The HP scanning tool launches and the scanner performs a preview scan. Set the resolution and output type options if required, as described in Sections 2.4 and 2.5 above. If necessary, resize the scanning area as described in Section Click Accept and the scanner will perform a final scan. The Scan to Word dialog box updates you on progress. When the scan and OCR is complete, Word opens with your scanned document displayed. 3.5 To scan additional pages, switch back to ABBYY FineReader by clicking its button on the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen. If the Scan to Word box is still open, click Close. Then click the Scan to Word button on the toolbar in the upper left portion of the screen. This starts the scanning process all over again. FineReader adds each additional page to the current batch and each page in the batch is shown as a small thumbnail image in the sidebar down the left of the screen. 8

9 3.6 Each page is opened in a separate Word document but you can combine them into one by clicking the Save button on the toolbar menu, choosing Microsoft Word as the saving mode, selecting All pages under Save Pages and then clicking OK. 3.7 Once you have finished scanning and editing, close both Word and FineReader using File and Exit from each respective menu bar. 9

10 4. How to scan a document and save it directly as Portable Document Format (PDF) 4.1 Launch ABBYY FineReader by double-clicking the ABBYY FineReader icon on the desktop. 4.2 Choose Process from the top menu bar, then choose Automated tasks and then Scan to PDF from the drop-down menus. 4.3 The HP scanning tool launches and the scanner performs a preview scan. Set the resolution and output type options if required, as described in Sections 2.4 and 2.5 above. If necessary, resize the scanning area as described in Section Click Accept and the scanner will perform a final scan. The Scan to PDF dialog box updates you on progress. When the scan and OCR is complete, Adobe Reader opens with your scanned document displayed. 4.5 To scan additional pages, switch back to ABBYY FineReader by clicking its button on the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen. If the Scan to PDF box is still open, click Close. Then click the Scan to PDF button on the toolbar in the upper left portion of the screen and the scanning process will start all over again. FineReader adds each additional page to the current batch and each page in the batch is shown as a small thumbnail image in the sidebar down the left of the screen. 10

11 4.6 Each page is opened as a separate PDF document but you can combine them into one by clicking the Save button on the toolbar menu, choosing PDF as the saving mode, selecting All pages under Save Pages and then clicking OK. Please note that you cannot amend PDF documents, only save them. 4.7 Once you have finished, close both Adobe Reader and FineReader using File and Exit. 11

12 5. How to scan a picture and open it for editing 5.1 Launch Paint Shop Pro X by double-clicking the Paint Shop Pro icon on the desktop. 5.2 Choose File from the top menu bar and then Import and finally TWAIN Acquire from the drop-down menus. 5.3 The HP scanning tool launches and the scanner performs a preview scan. Set the resolution and output type options if required, as described in Sections 2.4 and 2.5 above. If necessary, resize the scanning area as described in Section Click Accept and the scanner will perform a final scan. The image now appears in the Paint Shop Pro window. 12

13 5.5 Resize the image if you wish, by choosing Image from the Paint Shop Pro menu bar and then choosing Resize. 5.6 To save the image choose File then Save as. Change the file type by choosing from the Save as type drop-down box. JPG (JPEG) should be used for photos. GIF (Compuserve Graphics Interchange) should be used for coloured drawings with few colours (e.g. cartoons) or for black and white line drawings. If you are ing your image you should use JPG or GIF as these two file types are in a compressed format suitable for transmission across the internet (i.e. they have a much smaller file size than other formats such as BMP or TIF). Make sure that you save your image to your U: drive or to removable media such as a USB memory stick. Do not save files to the local machine. 5.7 Once you have finished scanning and editing, close Paint Shop Pro using File and Exit. 13

14 6. How to scan a picture and save it 6.1 Launch the Scanner and Camera Wizard by double-clicking the Scanner and Camera Wizard icon on the desktop. 6.2 The Scanner and Camera Wizard launches. Click Next. 14

15 6.3 Choose the type of picture you are scanning. Click Preview. 6.4 Once the preview scan has been completed, the image will appear above the Preview button. Click Next. 6.5 Choose a name, a file format and a location to save to from the drop-down boxes. The default format is JPG. If you plan to display your pictures on the web or send them via then save as JPG. Click Next. The scanner performs a final scan. 6.6 When prompted what to do with the pictures, choose Nothing and then click Next. 6.7 You are told the results of your scans. Click Finish to close the Wizard. 6.8 A dialog opens showing the location of the saved picture. Close this using File and then Close or by clicking the close button in the top right corner of the window. 15