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Finally, A Way to Really Recognize Your Paper!
As any attorney or support staff personnel will tell you, since the advent of affordable scanners and scanning devices, it has become a necessary evil to scan documents in the law office. The problem has always been the OCR'ing (optical character recognition) of those docs! For several years and many iterations and generations, the OCR programs have left a lot to be desired and have helped us to pull out what little hair we have left trying to capture our documents.
I have never been too impressed with the several OCR programs that have been available to the legal profession. That is to say not until now. I have finally found what I believe to be the easiest to use, yet the best for recognition OCR program in the marketplace. I'm talking about the new Abbyy FineReader OCR 7.0 Corporate Edition! This new program has taken much of the guess work and hard to handle documents and made it an almost fun task to OCR my documents. Incidentally, the only major difference between the Abbyy Corporate Edition of 7.0 and the Professional Edition of the same version is the fact that the Corporate Edition includes networking capabilities and bar code recognition; otherwise they are identical!
FineReader has a new technology that is even a help when working with low-contrast images, as well as documents with a colored background, such as newsprint or magazines. After the document has been recognized for the text, FineReader will re-apply all of the formatting elements, such as color, to keep and maintain all the look and feel of the original document. With its Intelligent Background Filtering system, it effectively has the ability to detect and remove texture and background noise that many times interferes with text recognition, like gray or colored backgrounds that have small dots to challenge even the best of OCR programs!
Another interesting feature of note is that fact that FineReader has the power to recognize 177 languages, which at present is more than any other OCR software in the marketplace today! Likewise, it has the ability to spell check with its dictionaries, in 34 languages, again more than any of the other software packages. As if this wasn't enough, the program also is able to recognize text that is colored or inverted, or for that matter, it has the ability to retain all those attributes in the output document!
As for the ease of use of the program, which is something that always frustrated me in prior OCR programs, FineReader has a unique Scan & Read Wizard. This device allows me to go through the OCR process in a step-by-step fashion ' from scanning/opening an image, to OCR, to proofreading and exporting or sending my result directly to several different applications. As for sending the results to applications, with one button click you go from recognized results to MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and even WordPerfect. This one-step process eliminates the need to save the OCR result first and then launch your application to save the file. I guarantee that even if you are a novice when it comes to using this type of program, in short order you will love the way this wizard works for you. Likewise, the program allows for direct printing so that you can make minor changes, etc., and then print without first having to export the OCR result to another application.
As you go through the process, FineReader gives you a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Editor, which displays the OCR result with your full document layout intact, even to the point of having all your columns, tables and pictures right where they ought to be!
Let's talk a bit about the networking features of FineReader. You can install the Corporate Edition on both a server and on a local computer. An administrator only need load the software onto the workstations via the network or directly onto the local computers using the enclosed CD! Keep in mind that instead of expensive per-seat licensing, the folks at Abbyy have given you concurrent user licensing. They also offer a license manager for
IT mangers to better and more efficiently manage all of the licenses on the network.
You might also be wondering about PDF ability with FineReader. Well this program has the ability to convert PDF files to editable text. The OCR result can also then be saved in PDF or any supported output format. Thus expanding the users ability to convert and reuse information. Also, this allows the user a low cost alternative for converting paper to PDF!
A bit earlier, I alluded to the program working with barcodes. FineReader gives the user the option to treat barcodes as images (default) or recognize the barcode and display its value. You can also have the option to change your settings and have FineReader automatically analyze and recognize barcodes. This helps the attorneys who use bar coding regularly for trial presentations and litigation support documentation.
As you can tell by now, FineReader has made a believer out of me! Heretofore, I was on the fence as to the OCR programs in our market, but this program has changed my mind and has given me the confidence to use scanning and OCR without the fear of having to spend an inordinate amount of time with paper handling. I can give a real thumbs-up to Abbyy FineReader Corporate Edition 7.0. If you give it a try, I think you may feel the same way!
FineReader Facts
Abbyy FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition is made by Abbyy USA Software House. You can find them at www.abbyyusa.com or at 510-226-6717. The cost of the product for 7.0 Professional version is $149 from an upgrade of any OCR software product. A non-upgrade version is $299. For Corporate Edition $499 or $399 with a competitive upgrade, per concurrent license.
Alan Pearlman www.theelectroniclawyer.com
As any attorney or support staff personnel will tell you, since the advent of affordable scanners and scanning devices, it has become a necessary evil to scan documents in the law office. The problem has always been the OCR'ing (optical character recognition) of those docs! For several years and many iterations and generations, the OCR programs have left a lot to be desired and have helped us to pull out what little hair we have left trying to capture our documents.
I have never been too impressed with the several OCR programs that have been available to the legal profession. That is to say not until now. I have finally found what I believe to be the easiest to use, yet the best for recognition OCR program in the marketplace. I'm talking about the new Abbyy FineReader OCR 7.0 Corporate Edition! This new program has taken much of the guess work and hard to handle documents and made it an almost fun task to OCR my documents. Incidentally, the only major difference between the Abbyy Corporate Edition of 7.0 and the Professional Edition of the same version is the fact that the Corporate Edition includes networking capabilities and bar code recognition; otherwise they are identical!
FineReader has a new technology that is even a help when working with low-contrast images, as well as documents with a colored background, such as newsprint or magazines. After the document has been recognized for the text, FineReader will re-apply all of the formatting elements, such as color, to keep and maintain all the look and feel of the original document. With its Intelligent Background Filtering system, it effectively has the ability to detect and remove texture and background noise that many times interferes with text recognition, like gray or colored backgrounds that have small dots to challenge even the best of OCR programs!
Another interesting feature of note is that fact that FineReader has the power to recognize 177 languages, which at present is more than any other OCR software in the marketplace today! Likewise, it has the ability to spell check with its dictionaries, in 34 languages, again more than any of the other software packages. As if this wasn't enough, the program also is able to recognize text that is colored or inverted, or for that matter, it has the ability to retain all those attributes in the output document!
As for the ease of use of the program, which is something that always frustrated me in prior OCR programs, FineReader has a unique Scan & Read Wizard. This device allows me to go through the OCR process in a step-by-step fashion ' from scanning/opening an image, to OCR, to proofreading and exporting or sending my result directly to several different applications. As for sending the results to applications, with one button click you go from recognized results to MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and even WordPerfect. This one-step process eliminates the need to save the OCR result first and then launch your application to save the file. I guarantee that even if you are a novice when it comes to using this type of program, in short order you will love the way this wizard works for you. Likewise, the program allows for direct printing so that you can make minor changes, etc., and then print without first having to export the OCR result to another application.
As you go through the process, FineReader gives you a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Editor, which displays the OCR result with your full document layout intact, even to the point of having all your columns, tables and pictures right where they ought to be!
Let's talk a bit about the networking features of FineReader. You can install the Corporate Edition on both a server and on a local computer. An administrator only need load the software onto the workstations via the network or directly onto the local computers using the enclosed CD! Keep in mind that instead of expensive per-seat licensing, the folks at Abbyy have given you concurrent user licensing. They also offer a license manager for
IT mangers to better and more efficiently manage all of the licenses on the network.
You might also be wondering about PDF ability with FineReader. Well this program has the ability to convert PDF files to editable text. The OCR result can also then be saved in PDF or any supported output format. Thus expanding the users ability to convert and reuse information. Also, this allows the user a low cost alternative for converting paper to PDF!
A bit earlier, I alluded to the program working with barcodes. FineReader gives the user the option to treat barcodes as images (default) or recognize the barcode and display its value. You can also have the option to change your settings and have FineReader automatically analyze and recognize barcodes. This helps the attorneys who use bar coding regularly for trial presentations and litigation support documentation.
As you can tell by now, FineReader has made a believer out of me! Heretofore, I was on the fence as to the OCR programs in our market, but this program has changed my mind and has given me the confidence to use scanning and OCR without the fear of having to spend an inordinate amount of time with paper handling. I can give a real thumbs-up to Abbyy FineReader Corporate Edition 7.0. If you give it a try, I think you may feel the same way!
FineReader Facts
Abbyy FineReader 7.0 Corporate Edition is made by Abbyy USA Software House. You can find them at www.abbyyusa.com or at 510-226-6717. The cost of the product for 7.0 Professional version is $149 from an upgrade of any OCR software product. A non-upgrade version is $299. For Corporate Edition $499 or $399 with a competitive upgrade, per concurrent license.
Alan Pearlman www.theelectroniclawyer.com
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Role and Responsibilities of Practice Group Leaders
Ideally, the objective of defining the role and responsibilities of Practice Group Leaders should be to establish just enough structure and accountability within their respective practice group to maximize the economic potential of the firm, while institutionalizing the principles of leadership and teamwork.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?