This application is the epitome of feature-rich. Clearly, the level and depth of the feature set is what warrants its price. While there are broad features, they’re all easily accessible from the program’s user interface. Some of the features and capabilities I found to be most intriguing are:
- PDF Editing
- You don’t need to print and then scan a PDF to have access to its assets. You can open a PDF directly in OmniPage, and copy and paste any zone to any other document. This is a great feature for updating and repurposing existing assets.
- MRC Compression
- This is a type of high-compression technology that works on PDF documents, in color, grayscale, image only, or searchable text varieties. It results in documents with dramatically smaller file size.
- Form Data Extraction
- By setting up a workflow, you can
extract form data from PDF documents (either scanned or filled and saved electronically). The workflow will extract the form data on a file-by-file or folder basis and save the form input as a comma separated value (.CSV) file that you can use with other software such as Excel, Access, and so on.
- Audio Book Creation
- As if the basic document editing, saving, and manipulation capabilities aren’t enough, there’s the built-in ability for OmniPage to create audio files from text that is either scanned in from a paper-based source or opened from an existing electronic source.
- Paper-Based Scanner Workflow
- OmniPage Pro can create a printed bar code cover page that will fire a specific workflow. This is a powerful option for an office scenario where complex workflows need to be initiated by a staff member who isn’t a power user. By simply starting the stack of files being scanned with a special barcode cover page, any workflow that you’ve designed can be initiated by even the most novice user.
- Image Extraction
- Because OmniPage works with zones, you can simply zone-over an image in a document and export it into several image-based formats. This is particularly helpful if a user is repurposing existing advertising collateral.
- SET Tools
- It’s almost like an image editor built right into the program’s user interface, but these tools are designed specifically to enhance and improve document-based images. Using these tools, I was able to get great results from a scanner that I was about to scrap.
Multiple Format Save - Not only can OmniPage save to more than 20 different document file types, it’ll even save to several types at once, including text-based, image-based, and audio files.
- User-Intervention-Free Zoning
- For large paper-to-electronic-document conversion jobs, it’s not very workflow-friendly or efficient to have a user monitor every incoming document. OmniPage has the ability to set up different zoning sensitivities in order to provide the best balance of accuracy and efficiency.
There are many more features within OmniPage that users can leverage; take a few minutes to visit the Nuance website and see what captures your imagination.
It’d be nice to see non-overlapping capabilities in the PaperPort application included with OmniPage, rather than having PaperPort as a “side program.” The same goes for PDF Create. The way I see it: since OmniPage is such a capable product, the “little things” that are done with the inclusion of extra programs should simply be part of the OmniPage installation. The need for extra programs tends to diminish the perception of a main program’s capability.
