USING TEXTBRIDGE PRO 98 AND TEXTBRIDGE 98 CLASSIC FROM THE KEYBOARD TO READ PRINT BY JOHN WILSON Copyright 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Restrictions Available Manual Formats TextBridge Versions Conventions Section 1: Introduction. What is OCR? Stages of OCR. Section 2: Before Installing TextBridge. System Requirements. Important Interface Software Note. Section 3: Types of Scanners. Main Scanner Standards. Which Scanner to Buy and Where From? Section 4: Installing TextBridge Pro 98. Section 5: TextBridge Pro 98 Capabilities. Input and Output Formats. Page Types. Scanners Supported. Specialist User Dictionaries. Automatic Document Feeders (ADF) Document Colour Scanning Capabilities. Type face and size. Languages Supported. Section 6: Customising TextBridge to Work Better for the Visually Impaired. Section 7: Using TextBridge in Automatic Mode. Example of How to Scan Automatically. Saving Your Scanned Document Opening a Saved Document for Reading. Section 8: Using Instant Access to Read Print. The Instant Access Control Panel. Example of How to Scan Documents with Instant Access. Section 9: Using the TextBridge Scanning Wizard. Example of How the TextBridge Scanning Wizard Works. Section 10: Overviw of Manual Mode Scanning. Section 11: Changing Scanner Settings. The First Menu Bar. The Second Menu Bar. Section 12: TextBridge Help. Types of Help. Help Topics Menu Help Dialogue Help Index Help Appendix 1: TextBridge Technical Support. Appendix 2: List of Shortcut Keystrokes. Appendix 3: Speeding Up Older Hewlett Packard Scanners. Appendix 4: Other Manuals by this Author. ******** Foreword This manual is written for the use of visually impaired scanner and scanner software users. It uses keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse whenever possible and a screenreader and speech synthesiser instead of a monitor. The guide assumes that the user is familiar with both the operation of Windows and their own screenreader. Whilst TextBridge is a fully functional electronic scanning and editing system (and VI persons can use it as such), the emphasis in this manual will be on capturing text from a flatbed scanner in order to read print and will include adjusting parameters, loading scanned documents into editors/word-processors, saving scanned text files, etc. ******** RESTRICTIONS I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TextBridge Versions This manual has been written for TextBridge Pro 98, which is the fully-featured, purchasable (but now superseded) version of the software. If you only have the limited version of TextBridge 98, known as the "Classic" version, this guide will still enable you to get up and running with it quickly and effectively. However, you should be aware that some of the features in the full retail version are not available in the limited classic program which currently comes free with many modern scanners. For example, some of the sample practise files are not provided and you do not have the same range of page types to select from before a scan, such as not being able to scan in multiple column mode to decolumnise a page and make it more logically laid out for straightforward reading with a screenreader. Additionally, the classic version cannot automatically orientate a page, i.e. you must put it onto the scanner the correct (portrait) way up, otherwise it will not scan. For these reasons, you may eventually wish to purchase the most up-to-date fully-featured copy of TextBridge or some other OCR software. You should be able to buy it from any high street computer retailer but purchasing it directly from the manufacturer may save you a few pounds (See Appendix 1 for details of how to contact Scansoft who sell TextBridge and OmniPage). Always check with your local software vendors before making a purchase, as there are often special offers to be had, which may even be cheaper than the direct purchase price. ******** Conventions In the writing of this manual, terms have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the CONTROL key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the ENTER key. When a key combination such as ALT P (for Process), E (for Settings) is suggested to go into the "Process" menu and run the "Settings" menu option, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "Process" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Settings" line is spoken, then press ENTER. ******** SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION What is OCR? OCR (optical character recognition) is computer software which allows you to scan and reproduce pictures and printed documents as image files, which then can be converted to text so they can be read with a screenreader and synthesiser and edited within TextBridge itself or by copying them into any text editor or word-processor. You can scan text and pictures or text only. You can keep the original layout of a document or choose to modify its layout, e.g. by having it decolumnised (which puts the left- column above the right-hand column so that your screenreder can read it intelligibly without it being interwoven). You can scan and recognise the print on ordinary letters, circulars, newspapers, FAX documents, photocopies, etc, and you can also import images from hand-held and flatbed scanners and from FAX machines/FAX modems. You can use TextBridge Pro simply as a means of reading your mail, novels, bills, magazines, reports, etc, and/or as a means of capturing, editing and saving text on disk as an electronic filing system, as a sighted person would. Stages of OCR The main stages TextBridge goes through (whether done automatically or manually) are: 1. Obtaining an image of the print or picture on a page or from a FAX MODEM. This is the "Get Page" stage. 2. Placing box-like lines around the various parts of the scanned image--Pictures, text and tables. These are areas of a scanned image on the screen, known as "zones". This is the "Zoning" step. 3. The textual images within the locations or zones is then recognised and converted to text. This is the "Recognising" process, where the layout, paragraphing and font type can be retained. 4. Checking the accuracy of the recognised text and making any necessary corrections. This is the "Proofreading" stage but it is usually easier to turn this off and do any proofreading in your favourite word-processor. 5. The last step is the "Save As" stage where you save your work, which can be done in several different formats, such as Word, WordPerfect, text, RTF, Excel, etc. You can save pictures as well or have these omitted. ******** SECTION 2 BEFORE INSTALLING TEXTBRIDGE System Requirements The minimum computer specifications you will need for TextBridge Pro 98 to run are: 1. A 486 or Pentium Processor. 2. 16 Megabytes of RAM (memory). 3. MS Windows 95, 98 or NT 4. 4. At least 20 Megabytes of free hard disk space. 5. A SCSI, parallel port or USB scanner attached to your PC (see "Types of Scanners" in Section 3 below). Important Interface Software Note It is important to understand the stages of the OCR process and the two types of software which will normally be running in tandem during scanning. Interface software (a type of large driver) is a program which is an integral part of the flatbed scanner's own scanning program. It acts as an intermediary between your mechanical flatbed scanner and your OCR scanning software. Therefore, there are three distinct elements in the scanning process: 1. the mechanical hardware flatbed scanner itself; 2. The interface software which came with the flatbed scanner; and 3. The Optical character recognition (OCR) software, such as TextBridge, which performs the text recognition and outputs the print for you to read. You will have to install the scanner interface software which comes with your scanner and ensure that the scanner is working prior to installing TextBridge Pro. To do this you will have to follow the instructions which came with your scanner set up software. These vary depending upon the scanner you have purchased. If you are new at this, you may be advised to recruit the help of a knowledgeable friend during the scanner interface software and Textbridge installations. Note: When running any scanning software which does not come with its own interface software (which includes most scanners), there will be steps in the middle of the scanning process which are controlled and dependent on the flatbed scanner's own software and not the OCR software itself. Whilst these intermediate steps will be similar in operation, you should note that there may be differences from those outlined in this manual. I have tested using a Microtek scanner which uses Microtek's own interface program, known as the Microtek Scan Wizard 32 Bit. The interface software you use, if you use a different flatbed scanner, may behave slightly differently, e.g. you may be using Hewlett Packard's own ScanJet interface program with HP scanners, the ScanWise interface software with Agfa scanners, etc. ******** SECTION 3 TYPES OF SCANNERS Main Scanner Standards. For most Visually impaired persons I would recommend the use of a flatbed scanner. These are easier to use, scann a page in one pass and you do not have to see where you are moving the scanner head, as you do with a hand-held scanner. There are hundreds of different types of flatbed scanners but only a few scanner standards. Main scanner types: SCSI--This is an older type of standard but which still works well if a good quality SCSI card is used. A card has to be fitted on your computer's motherboard and the scanner attached to this. Fitting such a card may be difficult for a visually impaired person and so one of the below alternatives may be preferable. Such scanners may also cost more than the other types. Parallel Port--These scanners run from your parallel port at the back of your PC. They just plug in and if you need to run your printer from the same parallel port you can normally just plug it into the back of the scanner and still use it as part of a chain of computer peripherals. USB (universal serial bus)--This is similar to parallel port in that it plugs into a socket in the back of your PC (if it is a modern computer and has one). This type of interface is quicker than parallel port and the scanners usually cost less. Which scanner to buy and Where From? If you know the type of scanner you like from past experience or have a knowledgeable friend to advise you, feel free to follow your own instincts. There is no one best flatbed scanner, only what you may prefer or what may work adequately enough for you, depending on your available budgetary wherewithal. However, for the uninitiated the following ideas may be of assistance. These facts were obtained in August 2000 directly from the manufacturers' UK suppliers but most of them will not sell directly to the public. If you want more information, phone them and if your local high street shop does not sell any particular scanner, ask the manufacturer where to buy from. Epsom UK Ltd--The Epsom 120 0Costs about œ150 for the USB version or œ190 for the SCSI version. This scanner is said to ship with the classic version of TextBridge 98. For more information phone: 01442 261144. Hewlett Packard--The HP 5200C is still available in some shops at about œ110 and can be obtained both in parallel port and USB versions. It runs on Windows 95, 98 and NT 4. It comes with OmniPage 8 Limited edition. The HP 5300C is one of the current models and comes with an older version of ReadIRIS, at a cost of around œ130. Both can be purchased from PC World. For more information phone: 020 75507900 or phone your local branch of PC World. Canon UK Ltd--The Canoscan FB300P costs around œ60 and is a 300 by 600 DPI scanner. The FB630P cost around œ80 and is a 600 by 1200 DPI scanner. They are both parallel port scanners and come with limited versions of OmniPage 5.1. For more information phone: 01737 220001. Agfa--The Agfa Snapscan 1212P is an older machine but is still selling. It comes with OmniPage limited and works from the parallel port. It costs about œ70and works with Windows 95, 98 and NT 4. Their newer basic spec scanner is the Agfa E40 at around œ150 but will only work with Windows 98 or above. It is USB only and is shipped with a version of ReadIRIS. For more information phone: 0870 0134271. Note 1: I have not tested the above scanners personally. They are simply manufactured by well-known and generally respected companies. As this is not an indorsement of any particular scanner, you must use your own judgement about which, if any, to buy. Note 2: Appendix 3 gives details on how to make an older Hewlett Packard scanner work faster by using an ISIS instead of a TWAIN driver. ******** SECTION 4 INSTALLING TEXTBRIDGE 98 To install TextBridge 98, for use with Windows 95, 98 or NT 4, with your scanner connected to your computer and turned on: 1a. Place the CD disk in the CD-ROM drawer and close it. The setup.exe program should run automatically and bring up a list of installation languages. 1b. If the setup.exe program does not run automatically, you can run setup.exe manually by pressing Windows logo key and R, followed by typing in the path: d:\intl_eng\tbpro98\setup.exe or D:\autorun.exe (Assuming, of course, that your CD-ROM is on the d: drive). 2. You should go to the last of these languages, which is "International English" and press ENTER or your left mouse simulation key (you may have to do this in your screenreader's navigation or mouse mode). 3. You will drop on the "Install TextBridge Pro 98" button, so just press the ENTER key. 4. The welcome screen will open and you should press ENTER on the "Next" button, when the license agreement will appear. Tab to "Yes" (after reading the agreement, of course) and press ENTER. 5. Now you must select the type of installation you want-- compact, typical or custom. the focus will fall on "Typical", which is recommended for most users, so TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. If you have limited disk space available, select the "Compact" option instead, with the ARROW keys before going to "Next". 6. There will be disk activity for about half a minute and you will then be told that installation is complete. You are then asked if you want to select your scanner now. You will be on the "Yes" button, so hit the ENTER key to accept this offer. 7. You will be in a list of scanner driver manufacturers. You can press the initial letter of your scanner driver to go straight to it or ARROW through them one at a time. For example, press "H" to go to several Hewlett packard scanner drivers. Remember, if your scanner comes with its own scanner driver which was pre- installed when your scanner was set up, then the name of this driver may have been added to the list of scanner drivers, so you should select that driver for use, e.g. a Phillips 300 dpi scanner runs on a Microtek V300 scanning engine and the scanner software which comes with the scanner (and has to be installed before the TextBridge software) is called "Scan Module 32 bit, TWAIN" and it is this scanner driver which you should select during this installation in such a case, not one of the Microtek drivers which come with the TextBridge program. You should then TAB to OK and press ENTER. Note 1: If you make a mistake and your scanner is not recognised when you have finished installation, you can go to the "File" menu and select "select Scanner" to get this same list of scanner drivers back and make other choices. Note 2: Phillips no longer supply scanners. 8. You will then be asked for the speed you want the scanner to run at. The faster you make it run, the less accurate will be the results of your scans. You have choices from 100 per cent down to 20 per cent. the default (normal) speed is 33 per cent, so you should press ENTER on this to accept it as a reasonable balance between speed and accuracy. You then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. You can always change the scanning speed in the program later, again from "File", "Select Scanner". 9. You are then presented with a series of questions about your name, address, etc, to register the program via a modem online. As this does not always work (and never works if you do not have a modem!), I suggest that you skip this, as you can register the program online later or print out a registration form later to complete and post off. However, you should TAB down this information list to the "Serial Number" editfield and complete this, otherwise you will not be able to progress from this point. The serial number is on the back of the CD cover/case and will look something like: S0299TPW7E32852. You then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 10. To cancel the online registration you then press the "escape" key, TAB to "No" and press ENTER. You then TAB again to another instance of "No" and press ENTER. 11. You will then be offered the chance to print out the registration form on your printer to fill in and post. Accept this if you wish or press ENTER on "Cancel" and then "Yes" and register via your modem later. 12. You will then be presented with an "OK" button, so press ENTER on this, when you will be told that installation and set up are complete. You will be on a "Yes" button to accept the offer of shutting down your computer and then restarting it so that TextBridge 98 can finish its configuration, so accept this by pressing ENTER and wait for your PC to restart. ******** SECTION 5 TEXTBRIDGE PRO 98 CAPABILITIES Input and Output Formats TextBridge can import (accept from other sources) several formats such as pdf files, tiff files, xis files, pdx files, etc. You can then process and output these in many different formats. TextBridge can also output or save the product of its scanning to many file formats, such as AmI Pro, Word, HTML, WordPerfect, PDF, DBase, Txt, Write, Excel, rtf, MS Works, Some Mackintosh formats, and many more. Page Types TextBridge can deal with several page formats which you place on your scanner flatbed, including: Any Page--When TextBridge attempts to recognise the layout of any type of page or a variety of differently formatted pages within one document. Any Page FAX Quality--Same as above but for poorer quality documents. Legal Document--Large single column pages which cover the whole scanner bed. Magazine--Pages in flowing columns with good quality print. Memo or Letter--A page with a single column only (sometimes known as simple galley form). Newspaper Article--Generally poorer quality print in columns. Spreadsheet or Table--Documents in cells or with tabbed column blocks. TextBridge will produce better results if you can tell it what the page size is, e.g. legal, letter, A4, etc; what the print quality or type is, e.g. FAX quality, good quality, poor quality, etc; and what the layout of the page is, e.g. single column, multiple column, spreadsheet, etc. However, as a visually impaired person you may not be able to do this but TextBriddge should still do a reasonable job and you can always rescan a page with different settings if the first attempt is not satisfactory. Note: Most FAXES have a standard quality and fine quality output capability, so if you receive regular FAXES from a particular source, you may be able to ask the sender to choose the fine quality (200 DPI) setting before sending them to you. These will scan more easily and accurately than the standard quality. Scanners Supported TextBridge supports dozens of scanner makes, for instance, ISIS, TWAIN, Epsom, Hewlett Packard, Cannon, Agfa, Panasonic, Microtek, and many more. Note: Whilst TextBridge Pro supports many Hewlett Packard scanners and will work well with them, it does not support the Hewlett Packard HP Acupage scanner drivers. To obtain an up-to-date list of scanners supported by TextBridge surf to: www.textbridge.com Also see the release notes in the TextBridge folder, in C:\Program Files\TextBridge Pro 98\Release Notes. Specialist User Dictionaries It is possible to create specialist user dictionaries with things like acronyms, proper nouns, scientific and technical words to load before a scanning session to improve recognition accuracy. However, if you are only scanning standard print material, such as newspapers, letters, novels, etc, this is not necessary. Automatic Document Feeders (ADF) If you have a sheetfeeder you can scan the front sides of pages (odd pages) first and then the back of the pages (even pages) second and Textbridge will interleave them automatically so that they save in the correct order. You should know, however, that sheetfeeders often cost several times more than the basic scanner itself, so I will not go into this aspect of scanning here. You can find out more from the TextBridge help system. Document colour Scanning capabilities TextBridge is capable of scanning and recognising black and white pages, grey scale pages (shades of white and black at various levels of darkness between black and white) and colour pages. However, it is my experience that the better the black on white print the better will be the scanned result and reasonable black on white print will produce better recognised results than will grey scaled print and print in colour or black print on a coloured background. Your scanned and recognised page, even if it started as a colour page, will normally be output as black print on a white background. Type Face and Size TextBridge purports to be able to recognise almost any kind of type face. It claims to be able to scan type sizes from five to 72 point (72 point is one inch or 2.5 centimetres in hight). Textbridge recommends that if the type size is under eight point, you may obtain better results if you change the scanner resolution from 3000 dots per inch to 400 DPI. Languages Supported The "Typical" TextBridge installation enables you to set up the program in English, French, German, Italian and spanish. There are other language options but you can only install these by using the "Custom" installation option. ******** SECTION 6 CUSTOMISING TEXTBRIDGE TO WORK BETTER FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE In order to enhance TextBridge's performance as a print scanner for visually impaired people, make the screen less cluttered and make it easier to use, you may find some of the below suggestions worthwhile: 1. Press ALT V to go into the View menu and then ARROW up to "Toolbars" and press ENTER. TAB to and uncheck with the SPACEBAR "Show Tool Tips", "Process Toolbar" and "Main Toolbar". Leave "Status Bar" checked, as this provides progress information, e.g. tells you when the program is "ready" for use, when it is "recognising", when it is "formatting", etc. 2. Press ALT P for process and ARROW up to "Settings" and press ENTER. You will be in a multi tab list of property sheets: A. In the "Page Type" property sheet TAB to "legal" or press the L key until "legal" is spoken. This will ensure that even the largest sheet you put on an A4 flatbed scanner will all be scanned. B. Then press CONTROL TAB to the "Processing" property sheet and TAB to the "Orientation" line and then ARROW to the "Any" option, to ensure that TextBridge will scan a sheet whichever way you put it onto the scanner flatbed. C. Whilst you are in these property sheets have a good look around, as there may be options which you would wish to change to suit your own particular likes. D. After making any changes, TAB to the "OK" button and press ENTER. You can also TAB to the "Save" button and give these settings a filename (which will be saved in the "Settings" folder of TextBridge as an .ini file) so that you can reload these settings before a scan at any time. 3. If you are using the classic version of textBridge 98 (or any other classic or limited version of a scanner, it is likely that, amongst other omissions, the "free" OCR software will not have a decolumnise (or multiple column) facility. A good way to deal with such an omission, so that your screenreader can read back the print to you logically and not bits of separate lines all together, is to fold a two columned sheet down the middle and scan both sides separately. If you are scanning a book and folding the pages is not possible, you could cut a strip of paper the width of the columns and paper clip that over one of the columns whilst you scan the other and then do the same with the second column. If you have more than one column to deal with, this becomes more tricky but folding a sheet in three is still possible with care. 4. To place an icon on your Desktop from which to quickly and easily launch TextBridge: 1. Press Windows LOGO key followed by the letter S, then press T. 2. Then press CONTROL TAB to the 'Start Menu Programs Property Sheet'. 3. You will and on the 'Add' button, so press ENTER. Then tab to the 'Browse' button and press ENTER. 4. You will be asked for the executable filename, so type in "tb.exe" and then TAB to the list of folders on your c: drive undermeath the 'Look In' line. Press P until 'Program Files' is spoken and then press ENTER. 5. Then press T until "TextBridge Pro 98" (or TextBridge Classic" if you are using this version) is spoken and press ENTER. 6. Press B until "bin" is highlighted and then press ENTER. 7. Now press T until "tb.exe" is spoken. 8. Press the TAB key to the 'Open' option and then press ENTER. 9. Then TAB to the 'Next' button and press ENTER. You are asked where you want to place the shortcut, so ARROW up to 'Desktop' and then press TAB to 'Next' and press ENTER. 10. You are asked to select a name for the shortcut and given "tb.exe" as an option. If you want to change this, just type over it, e.g. with "TextBridge 98", and then press TAB to the 'Finish' button and press ENTER. 11. Now press TAB to the 'OK' button and press ENTER to complete the procedure. 12. You can now, in the normal way, go to this shortcut on your Desktop by pressing ALT M followed by T until "TextBridge 98" is spoken and then press ENTER to launch it. ******** SECTION 7 USING TEXTBRIDGE IN AUTOMATIC MODE Before starting your computer you should switch the scanner on otherwise it may not be recognised. You run TextBridge in this stand-alone way independently of any other running application (see Section 8 "Using the Instant Access Control Panel" for how to run it from within another application). You would save the scanned page in any of a number of formats, e.g. Word 97, WordPerfect, etc. You could then open the saved file in Word 97 or WordPerfect for editing if you wish. In automatic mode you only have to choose the page type you are scanning and TextBridge does the rest for you. You just add more pages when prompted to do so. The default (standard) settings which TextBridge uses in automatic scanning (unless you have changed any of these) are: Scanner resolution--300 dots per inch. scanner brightness--Normal. Language--English. Training data--None. Zone template--None. Orientation--Portrait (page longways, top to bottom like a letter). Page layout--Retained. Pictures--Retained. Formatting--With paragraph styles. One file--For all pages. Save in--The Text Documents folder of the TextBridge folder. Save as--Standard format. User Dictionary--Default dictionary. Note: If you have changed the default of any of these, e.g. no pictures, automatic orientation, etc, then these changes will be honoured. Example of How to Scan Automatically With your scanner having been switched on prior to booting your computer, you would: 1. Run TextBridge from the icon on your Desktop if you have put one there or run it via the Run option on your Start Menu or by navigating to and pressing ENTER on the exe file, e.g. press Windows logo key, followed by P (for Program Files), then T until you hear "TextBridge" spoken, when you should press ENTER again and then ARROW up to "TextBridge Pro 98" (or something similar if you have the free classic version) and press ENTER to load it. 2. Press ALT P (for process) and then A (for Auto). You will land on the "Any Page" page type option, which you may want to use if you have no idea what kind of page layout your page has. If you know what your page layout is, you can ARROW right and down to select a different page layout, e.g. "Magazine Page", "Memo or Letter", etc. 3. Then press the TAB key to "Page Source" which should read "scanner Image File". This is correct for obtaining a page image from a scanner. 4. Press TAB again to a two option list containing "Scanner" and "Image File". You should put the focus on "Scanner" with the ARROW keys if it is not already there. 5. Press TAB again to the "OK" button and then ENTER to start the scanning process. You should hear your scanner running within a few seconds. Note: TABBING again instead of pressing ENTER on OK above gives you a "Cancel" button if you want to start again and a "Help/" button if you want to obtain more information about what you are doing. To get out of the help screen, just press the ESC key to return to where you were. 6. You will fall on the "Preview" button but, as this is not much use to someone who cannot see the screen to check what a scan is likely to come out like, you are probably best advised to simply press the TAB key once to the "Scan" button and then press ENTER to commence scanning straightaway. Your screenreader is unlikely to be able to read any text produced by a preview scan. Note: The above step 6 is where the scanner interface software comes in, so there may be slight differences in what you get at this stage, depending upon the scanner and interface software you are using (see "Important Interface Software Note" in Section 2). 7. You will hear the scanner running and your speech will announce the various stages of the scanning process, such as recognising, transferring, etc, but your speech may stammer during this stage because the scanning process takes up almost all of your computers memory and processing capacity, leaving little for speech to work reliably. 8. After a few seconds you will be presented with a dialogue box asking you if you have finished scanning (the "No More" button(, if you want to scan more pages (the "More Pages" button) or if you want to scan the other side of the current page (the "Other Side" button). 9. If you have finished, just press ENTER as you are already on the "No More" button. If you want to scan another page, either TAB to the "More Pages" button and press ENTER or simply press the M key to achieve this. You will again get the same "Preview" and "Scan" buttons you encountered above with your first page scan, so TAB to "Scan" and press ENTER as before (or whatever your specific interface software requires). 10. The sequence will continue in this way until you have scanned all of the pages you want, so press ENTER on "No More" and the scanning process is finished. 11. You will be taken straight into the proof reader to find any actual and supposed scanning errors which TextBridge has made. This box is not user-friendly to screenreaders so I suggest that you skip this stage and do your proof-reading and spell-checking in your favourite word-processor. Saving Your Scanned document 12. To save, whether or not you have proof-read the scanned results, just press ALT F, A, when TextBridge will give the scanned file a name of its own. If this does not suit you, you can just type over this filename in the "File Name" editfield you fall in with one of your own creation, e.g. type memo1. 13. Press TAB to the "Save As Type" and ARROW up and down the many formats that you can save your scanned document in or press the initial letter of the format you want to jump straight there, e.g. press W to go to WordPerfect, A to go to various forms of ASCII plain text formats, etc. TextBridge will remember this format and save to the same format next time you save a scan, unless you change this. 14. You can then press TAB once more to the "Save" button and press ENTER. The place your scanned file will save is in "Text Documents", which is a subdirectory (subfolder) of your TextBridge Pro 98 folder. You can change this if you wish. The path is: c:\Program Files\TextBridge Pro 98\Text Documents\ However, if you want to save the file in your MS Office "My Documents" folder to make it easy to find and load into MS Word when you give the file a filename, you could do this by typing: c:\my documents\mymemo before TABBING to the "Save" button. In future all files you save will save to the "My Documents" folder until you change this. You will probably also wish to make the "Save As Type" a Word file in this case. To save to your A: floppy disk drive, in the "File Name" editfield, type: A:\memo1 and press ENTER. 15. The file will be formatted and saved. You can now start another scan if you wish by using ALT P, A for auto or ALT G for get page. The last document you scanned remains on the screen but will be replaced as soon as you start scanning again. Note: In the above save dialogue box "step 13), if you save in ASCII text, you cannot choose to retain pictures or retain page layout. However, if you choose a format such as Word or WordPerfect you can do this. The dialogue box will provide extra options for this but you may wish to uncheck "Retain Pictures" by pressing SPACEBAR on it if these are of no use to you. Opening a Saved Document for Reading After saving a scanned document, you can either open it in a text editor, such as Notepad if saved as a txt file, or in a word- processor, such as Word or Wordpad if saved as a rtf, txt or doc file. Do this in the normal way by navigating to the file in the "Text Documents" folder. Alternatively, you can get to the "Text Documents" folder by pressing Windows LOGO key, P for Programs, T for TextBridge and then ARROWING to "Text Documents" and pressing ENTER. A list of your saved files will open up to ARROW down and press ENTER on any of these to have its associated program run and the file made available to you to read. Press ALT F4 to leave this list. Obviously, if you have chosen to save your documents elsewhere, then you will have to navigate there to read them. Note: The advantage of a program such as OmniPage Pro 10 over this version of TextBridge is that Omnipage can automatically launch programs like Notepad, Word, etc, open the scanned document and read a saved file for you without you having to go through the above procedure. OmniPage Pro 10 also has its own speech output capability, so the automatically open document on screen will also be automatically read to you in OmniPage's own good quality synthetic voice, if you wish, or you can use your speech synthesiser or Braille display. ******** SECTION 8 USING INSTANT ACCESS TO READ PRINT Instant Access is a means of running TextBridge from within another program. For example, If you have Word 97 or WordPerfect running you could start Textbridge from within that program and scan a page. The scanned page would be pasted into your word- processor for reading or editing as required. The Instant Access Control Panel This is where the programs which instant access can run from are listed. You can open the Instant Access Control Panel from the File menu by pressing ALT F and ARROWING up to "Instant Access Control Panel" and pressing ENTER. A dialogue box will appear in which you can select which programs you want Instant Access to work from. You should check (press the spacebar on) each program you have and might want to scan from within but most will already be checked. Then go to OK and press ENTER. If your application does not appear in the above list, you should close the Instant Access Control Panel, start your application and then open the Instant Access Control Panel again. Your application should now appear in the list. TextBridge will then appear in the File menu of each of the programs which are checked. Example of How to Scan documents with Instant Access With your scanner having been switched on prior to booting your computer, you would: 1. Start your word-processor or text editor with a blank document screen, e.g. Notepad, Amipro, Wordpad, MS Word, etc. For this example use Wordpad. You can load Wordpad by pressing Windows LOGO key, P for Program Files, A for Accessories and then W for Wordpad. 2. Press ALT F (for File) and ARROW up to "TextBridge..." and press ENTER. The TextBridge start dialogue box will appear which includes processing and output options. This box is somewhat complicated and overcrowded. 3. The "Any Page" option will be selected but you can choose any of the other page formats if you wish. To make changes press ENTER on the "settings" button and TAB around the options and CONTROL TAB to the other property sheets. The default is for any page, any quality of print and any page layout. Press ESC to close the settings dialogue box if you went into this and return to the start dialogue box. Keep pressing the TAB key. You should hear that "Scanner" is selected as the image source, pictures are to be retained (press SPACEBAR on this if you do not want them), page layout is selected and then you have an "Auto OCR" and a "Manual" button. 4. TAB to the "auto OCR" button and press ENTER to start the scan of your print document. 5. The "Preview" and "Scan" buttons will appear, so TAB to "Scan" and press ENTER. Note: The above step 5 is where the scanner interface software comes in, so there may be slight differences in what you get here, depending upon the scanner and interface software you are using (see "Important Interface Software Note" in Section 2). 6. The usual "No more" and "More Pages" buttons will then appear, so make your choices and then, when you have finished, select "No more" to have the pages formatted and immediately pasted into your word-processor or text editor. 7. You can now read, edit, spell-check and save the scanned document if you wish in the normal way. Note: If you try to use instant access scanning via an application which is more up to date than TextBridge Pro 98 itself, it may not be able to scan. ******** SECTION 9 USING THE TEXTBRIDGE SCANNING WIZARD The TextBridge scanning wizard takes you step by step through the scanning process. You may wish to use this form of scanning until you become more confident about using the automatic way of scanning, or if you do not like the instant access method. The stages the wizard takes you through and lets you choose your own preferences as you go are as follows. Example of How the TextBridge Scanning Wizard Works With your scanner switched on first, then your computer, you would do this by: 1. Press ALT P (for process) and then press ENTER as the "Wizard" is the first menu option. 2. You will be asked where you want to get the pages from. If you want to scan print on the scanner, select this with the ARROW keys (it is likely to already be selected, however). Otherwise, ARROW to "File" if you want to obtain an image for recognition from another source, such as an already scanned but not recognised print document, FAX image, etc. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. You will now be asked to indicate the layout of the page you are scanning and the current default will be selected. You can use the ARROW keys to change the selection, e.g. between "any Page", "Legal Document", "Multiple Column", etc. Your screenreder should read out the on-screen descriptions of what each page layout option is designed for. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. The next choice to make is the print quality of the page. Select, with the ARROW keys, the type of page you have on the scanner, e.g. a newspaper, but if you do not know what the format is, select "Any" and TextBridge will do its best to work this out for you. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 5. You will be asked if you want to retain pictures and page layout. If pictures are of no use to you, press SPACEBAR on this to uncheck it. If you are not interested in the layout of a document being retained and would like most of the text to be placed under each other, rather than side-by-side, uncheck this as well. It is probably worth unchecking both of these for most documents for simple document reading but not if your object is to save the current page as closely reproduced to the original as you can get it, perhaps for editing and then reprinting. TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 6. You will be asked if you want the proofreading facility to be invoked after scanning. As this is not very speech-friendly, I suggest that you uncheck this. You can always spell-check a document later in your word-processor. Then TAB to "Finish" and press ENTER. 7. You will drop on the "Preview" button, so TAB to "Scan" and press ENTER. The scanner will start. Note: The above step 7 is where the scanner interface software comes in, so there may be slight differences in what you get at this stage, depending upon the scanner and interface software you are using (see "Important Interface Software Note" in Section 2). 8. If you have finished, press ENTER on "NO More" or Press M to scan another page. Then press ENTER on "NO More" when you have scanned all pages. 9. The proofreading stage will be skipped and you will be in the "Save As" dialogue box and asked for a filename, so type one in. Then TAB to "Save as Type" and, if your preferred format is not already highlighted, ARROW up and down the other choices or press the first letter of the format type you want, e.g. keep pressing W until you reach Word 97 format if you want this. The file will save to the c:\Program Files\TextBridge Pro 98\Text Documents folder unless you changed this. If you want it to save elsewhere, e.g. My Documents, TAB to the "Save In" control and use your up and down ARROW keys to select another destination, which can be somewhere else on the C: drive, or on the A: drive, etc. To open up the folders on the C: drive, ARROW to C, press ENTER and then ARROW to the folder you want, press ENTER and keep on ARROWING and pressing ENTER until you get to the place you want to save the file. 10. You then TAB to the "Save" button and press ENTER to complete the procedure. ******** SECTION 10 OVERVIEW OF MANUAL MODE SCANNING In manual mode you take TextBridge through the various stages of OCR yourself so that you have access to methods of fine-tuning the results. However, for most blind people this may not offer much additional flexibility, as such features as training and zoning require sight to perfect. You have to be able to see which word on a page TextBridge has made a hash of to be able to instruct it as to what the word should have been and you have to be able to draw lines around areas of text on the screen to be able to advise TextBridge where you want zones to apply. For this reason, I have not gone into this method of scanning in this manual. The above three alternative methods of scanning are all easier, faster and more convenient than manual scanning. Just for interest's sake you would start a manual scan by going to "Get Page" in the "Process" menu and then select the separate steps of OCR from that menu in turn. This is labour intensive and not necessary for straightforward and medium complexity documents of reasonable quality. It is no coincidence that specialist scanning programs for the visually impaired do not offer training or zoning as part of their repertoire of features. If you want to examine the options available in Manual mode scanning, see the online manual by pressing F1 and ARROW down to "Manual Mode". ******** SECTION 11 CHANGING SCANNER SETTINGS The First Menu Bar To change any of the default (standard) scanner settings which TextBridge comes with to suit your own preferences or the type of documents you normally have to scan, there are a number of customisable property sheets which you can set things up in. Press ALT P (for Process), ARROW up to "Settings" and press ENTER. There are four property sheets here, which you can move through by pressing CONTROL TAB or SHIFT CONTROL TAB. In the "Page Type" sheet: 1. You can help TextBridge to do a good scanning job by telling it what kind of page you usually put onto the scanner, if you mainly scan one type of page. If not, choose "Any Page". ARROW through the options, e.g. "Legal Document", "Magazine Page", etc. 2. Press TAB to the "Page Layout" group and select the format of the page you are scanning, if you know this, e.g. multiple column, which should decolumnise for you. Otherwise, choose "Any Page". 3. Press TAB to the "Print Type" group and ARROW up and down the various choices to the one you want, e.g. "Newspaper", or select "Any" if you do not know the quality of the print. If you invariably scan good quality hard copy, select "Good" as your future setting. 4. TAB to the "Page Size" box and ARROW up and down the options to the size you want. It is a good idea to make the default "legal", as this is the largest page that will fit on an A4 sized flatbed scanner, so that the scanner always scans the full flatbed surface. 5. Press TAB again to "OK" and press ENTER if you are finished. Otherwise, CONTROL TAB to the other property sheets, choose your preferred settings and press ENTER on "OK" to save all changes simultaneously. In the "Scanner" sheet: 1. You can view and may be able to change the various scanner settings, such as resolution, brightness, etc, but you are likely to have to go into navigation or mouse mode to observe these. 2. Depending upon the quality of your scanner you may be able to select "automatic" brightness detection but for many scanners this will be grayed out/disabled. 3. The scanner resolution group is also found in this sheet. These settings are difficult to manipulate with a screenreader, which is one of the drawbacks with TextBridge 98. However, the default resolution of 300 DPI is recommended for almost all print scanning. Only print size under eight point requires a change of resolution to 400 and, of course, print as small as this is very rare. If you want to change the scanning resolution or brightness, see the procedures under "The Second Menu Bar" below. In the "Processing" sheet: 1. You can change the page orientation between "Any", "Portrait" and "Landscape" but "Any" is your best choice if you are unable to determine visually the correct way up for your documents. 2. There is little else here of interest. In the "Text Document" sheet: 1. You can observe the style that documents will be formatted in, choose if all pages will save to one file, a new file for each page scanned, etc. Just TAB to these lists and ARROW up and down to the preference you want, then TAB on. 2. You can change where scanned documents will be saved but this has been covered in automatic scanning above. 3. You can keep pressing TAB to a list of save formats, showing your normal selection, e.g. ASCII, and ARROW up and down these to alter the default if you wish. After making any changes TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to save all of the above changes at once. The Second Menu Bar (This will depend on your scanner's interface software. The below description is specific to my Microtek Scan Wizard 32 Bit driver and is provided as an example only. Your set up may be different. See "Important Interface Software Note" in Section 2.) In addition to the above main menu bar, there may be a second menu bar, which appears part way through the scanning process. It is available at the stage when the "Preview" and "Scan" buttons appear, i.e. when you have pressed ALT P, A, TABBED three times to "OK" and pressed ENTER. This menu bar can be opened with the ALT key and has menus called "scanner", "View", "Preferences" and "Help". Of particular interest are the "View" and "Preferences" menus. In "View" you can make changes to the page brightness settings, resolution and page size for scans. You do this by: 1. press ALT V and ARROW down to "Show Settings Window" and press ENTER. 2. A settings dialogue will open up which you can TAB through. TAB to "Resolution" and it will show "300". This dialogue is not very user-friendly but you can achieve resolution DPI changes by going to the "Resolution" line in navigation/mouse mode, pressing the left mouse key and then typing a new figure in, e.g. 400 DPI. You then press ALT F4 to close the box and save the setting. 3. In the above dialogue, TABBING once from "Resolution" puts you on "W" and a figure. This is the page width and you can type a figure in here up to 8.5 inches. 4. Pressing TAB again twice brings you to the "H" line and a figure. This is the height of page editfield, which will allow you to make the page height up to 11 inches. 5. Close the dialogue and save any changes by pressing ALT F4. To make changes to brightness, after you enter the "Show Settings Window" in 1 above, you SHIFT TAB back twice and can then left ARROW to reduce the brightness or right ARROW to increase it. This may improve the quality or recognition of text if the page is too dark or too light. TABBING forward once takes you to the "Reset" button to return things to the original TextBridge defaults. Note: The amount of information you are likely to obtain and what you can achieve in the above dialogues will depend on your screenreader but these dialogue boxes are not easy to manoeuvre and make changes in. In "Preferences" you can make changes to the type of paper scanned, e.g. for transparencies, reflective paper, etc, as well as smoked glass background, inverting the page, etc. Go into this menu with ALT P. ******** SECTION 12 TEXTBRIDGE HELP The TextBridge help system provides general and specific help topics on how to use the program from a monitor and mouse point of view. However, it will provide an insight into what sighted people chiefly use TextBridge for--not reading print but, rather, capturing it for editing, reprinting, creating a filing system by saving documents after scanning them, etc. Types of Help Help Topics If you press the F1 key or press ALT H and ENTER on "TextBridge Help", you will be presented with a hierarchical list of help topic books. These are "About TextBridge Pro 98", "Learning TextBridge" . . . down to "What's New". Pressing ENTER on any one of these "books" will open up another list of topics, which are subsections of the main topic. ARROWING down and pressing ENTER on one of these sub-topics will either cause your screenreader to read out a full page of help text (press the PAGE DOWN key to hear the next page) or bring up yet another list of sub-sub- topics to press ENTER on for the information. After listening to the help text, press the ESC key to close help. Menu Help When the focus is on a menu item, such as "New" in the "File" menu, you can press F1 to obtain an explanation of what that command does. Dialogue Help When in a dialogue box, TAB to the "Help" button and press ENTER to obtain an overview explanation in respect of what the dialogue box is for. You can also put the system focus on the specific item you want details about (ARROW OR TAB to it) and then press F1 or SHIFT F1, when a short help message explaining what this item in the dialogue box is for will be spoken. Index Help If you want to know what a particular technical word or phrase means, press ALT H, press ENTER on "TextBridge Help" and then press CONTROL TAB to move to the "Index". You will land in an editfield in which you can type the word you want help on. You then press TAB to a list of help topics containing that word, ARROW up and down these to the one you want and then press TAB to the "Display" button. Pressing ENTER on this will either bring up a page of help information or take you to another list of sub- topics to select from and then press TAB to "Display" again and press ENTER for the information. Press ESC to leave help. For example, with the focus on the Index tab, type in the editfield "Duel Page" (without the quotes) and then TAB to the list of found matches. Duel page will be there (if you have TextBridge Pro 98 Version 1.1), so TAB again to "Display" and press ENTER. You will be told that duel page scanning is for page types which have two distinct sides and which you want to have scanned simultaneously but kept separate, such as when scanning two sides of a textbook together but with each page being seen as a different file. ******** APPENDIX 1 TEXTBRIDGE TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you cannot resolve installation or running problems with TextBridge Pro 98 by use of this manual, the online help topics and release notes, you can tap into the following resources: 1. Go to the TextBridge Internet site at: www.scansoft.com which has links to frequently asked questions (FAQs) , technical information sheets and a problem report form. 2. E-mail to: textbridge_support@europesupport.com 3. Telephone support(UK) (8 am to 8 pm) to: 0906 3500030 (6 pence a minute). 4. Telephone and FAX Support Outside the UK: Phone: +44 (0)142 9855005 (œ9.95 per call). FAX: +44 (0)142 9855042. The UK mailing address for registration of TextBridge is: Technical Support, Scansoft, Unit 8, Suttons Business park, Reading, RG6 1PZ. ******** APPENDIX 2 LIST OF SHORTCUT KEYSTROKES F1--Opens the online help topics manual. CONTROL A--Selects all. CONTROL C--Copy. CONTROL I--Shows or hides a portion of the page image containing the current word during proofreading. CONTROL N--Clears the screen for a new scan job. CONTROL O--Lets you select the image file to process in manual mode. It brings up a list of sample tif image files which you can open and observe to be orientated, zoned, formatted, etc, in the way you would open one of your own image files if you had scanned a page manually but not yet had it recognised. N.B. your screenreader may not be able to read all of the five sample image files in this list. CONTROL P--Paste. CONTROL S--Saves the file. CONTROL X--Cut. CONTROL Z--Undo. CONTROL UP ARROW--Zooms in (enlarges). CONTROL DOWN ARROW--Zooms out (shrinks). CONTROL PAGE DOWN--Go to the next page. CONTROL PAGE UP-- Goes to the previous page. DEL--Deletes the current page. ******** APPENDIX 3 SPEEDING UP OLDER HEWLETT PACKARD SCANNERS The below is an e-mail I received from a very helpful American Web surfer. As I do not own an Hewlett Packard scanner, I cannot test these instructions but the authors, bill Cammeron and his unnamed friend, seem to know what they are talking about. I have reproduced Bill's e-mail instructions verbatim (except for changing some American to English spellings and some spacing) for your consideration. If you require more guidance or explanation, please contact Scansoft technical support. Bill's Message "here are instructions for you to publish for others. author has no problem with sharing. before you read this document if you have text bridge millennium remember that ises is directly supported and best instructions for installing ises drivers for your hp scanner can be obtained from text bridge tec support. it will require using tec support because it will not automatically load ises driver like it did in earlier versions of text bridge. using the ises driver should cut scan times in half. read on what a hp 6200 scanner user says below about how he picked up speed despite his scanner not being listed in the list of supported scanners for the ises driver provided. plus steps for omni page 10 with the ises driver set up. I've done a little investigating and experimenting since Friday night regarding this subject and here is what I found. First, I found that I do have a PIXTRAN folder within the Windows folder with tons of drivers, including a SCANJET and a SCANJETX. However, only a few of these appear to have come from OmniPage 10. I have had previous versions of OmniPage on this machine, so some may have come from a previous version. of course all this means little to a new user. new users can though create their own folder and place the proper driver into it if necessary. because most h p scanners now being maid are not scl most ocr packages install twain instead. most newer hp models now use twain by default even if they are scl scanners like the 6200 models, all three of them, and the 6300 series. only scl scanners from hp can improve performance when using the ises drivers. hp scanners with no scl are better sticking to twain like the 4200 model. the generic ises driver that comes with ocr packages is best suited to models, 2p, 3p, 4p, 5p, 2c, 2cx, 3c, 4c, 6100 and 5200 models. remember you may also need to buy a adaptec p c i scsi card to get older hp scanners working in 98. 98 p n p will recognize the adaptec 2906 p c i card. plug in scanner and 98 p n p will load its driver as well. much easier installed than h p with out adaptec card. However, it appears that the SCANJET.PXW driver came from TextBridge Millennium. it is also in omni page 9 for certain. also in type reader 5 for certain. text bridge millennium also does not install ises for h p scanners by default, no it picks twain like omni page 10 does. The SCANJET.PXW is on the installation CD-ROM but it is contained within the DATA.CAB compressed cabinet file so it would need to be extracted. TextBridge Millennium as Ii installed it uses the TWAIN driver, even though it contained the above-mentioned ISIS driver. i would think these drivers are included in the downloadable demo of text bridge millennium. That might be a cheap way to get them for someone who doesn't have the driver already. I tried the ISIS driver, SCANJET.PXW, with OmniPage 10, even though my scanner was not mentioned. There were a number of HP scanners mentioned such as the 5200 and 6100 that made me think it was worth a try. At this point, the ISIS driver does seem to work and it is definitely faster. It seemed to work fine with the USB interface. also of note even text bridge 98 ises driver supported u s b. By the way, when you select a scanner from within OmniPage 10, a screen of information appears that lists the scanners that are supported. Also, to get a scanner driver installed, you must use Caere's SCAN manager in CONTROL Panel and you must "ADD Scanner. Also, even though I could select that option with the arrow keys, I had to route and click the mouse pointer to actually execute it. I also tried the SCANJETX.PXW driver and it did not work. It appears to support fewer scanners than the SCANJET.PXW driver, though, so this makes sense. It eventually caused a system crash. end of story of a 6200 hp scanner user." "omni page tech support told me it is in their in version 10, just hidden away like it was in version 9. can not seem to find it. though it is possible the omni page tech could have been confused and may have remembered it was hidden in version 9 and maybe 10 does not have the driver. if not a old version of omni page or a copy of text bridge can solve that problem. here are the instructions for doing exactly that. they do conclude you have driver in the proper folder as discussed above. Hi john, Here is what I did to add the ISIS driver for my HP 6200C to OmniPage 10. This assumes that the driver already exists on the hard disk. I believe my ISIS drivers came from a version of TextBridge. Go to Settings, then Control Panel. Arrow down to Caere Scan Manager and press ENTER. You should now see a list of the scanners that have been installed. There may only be one scanner. There is one additional item at the top of the list that says "Add Scanner." Going to the "view" menu and selecting "list" will make this box respond to the UP and DOWN ARROW keys. You can view the properties of an installed scanner, delete it or rename it as well from the FILE menu when that scanner is selected. However, to add a new scanner, I found I had to double-click the "add Scanner" item with the mouse and a wizard was started. When the wizard starts, I found a list of scanners. This is a tree view, so as I moved through the list of scanners, the right side changed. The first scanner on the list was "generic". With "Generic" selected, I tabbed one time to a list of choices for "generic," and I selected the ISIS option. I then tabbed to "next" and pressed ENTER. The next step asked me to name the scanner, and gave me options to make that scanner the default with "yes" or "no" radio check boxes. I chose "no" and pressed "NEXT." The next box lists all of the ISIS drivers. I chose SCANJET.PXW and pressed "NEXT" and that was about it. When I next went into OmniPage, there were two scanners from which to choose in the "tools", "Options" "scanner" dialogue. When you use the arrow keys to select the ISIS scanner, some information about the driver automatically appears. You may need to press OK when you select it for the first time. before you do above locate driver and see if on system. location of ises in omni page 10 The Isis driver is scanjet.pxw. I don't know if it is included with Omni Page 10. It was on the Omni Page 9 CD. You would need to look in the c:\windows\pixtran subdirectory. to verify if it is their. if not their create the pixtran folder under windows and place driver into that folder. if you have a 6200 scanner you can actually purchase a driver specifically for your exact model. no idea if this adds much in the way of performance, but the company lets you try a trial copy of driver if you contact them. here is contact info, but be aware this will cost a pretty penny. Dear Pixel Translations Customer, here is a e mail address for contacting us. kwille@pixtran.com the driver will be compressed into a self-extracting ZIP file along with other files that you will need. Please create a temporary directory and place the attached file into it. Then run the file to extract it's contents. After doing this, please view the contents of the README.TXT file, which will contain further installation instructions. Pixel Translations" ******** >APPENDIX 4 OTHER TUTORIALS BY THIS AUTHOR All of the below titles are available as plain text files as downloads from my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard Tutorial titles and brief descriptions 1. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 1, covering Web and e-mail protocols, Web Search engines, navigating the Internet with Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5/6.0, e-mailing with Outlook Express 5.0/5.5/6.0, Downloading files and programs from the Net, using a range of Internet search engines, Joining Internet newsgroups with Free Agent 1.92, configuration and hints and tips for screenreader users, and much more. 2. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 2, covering hints and customisation, Download Managers, Online Auctions, Internet Chat Rooms, RealAudio, Internet Shopping and Internet Banking. 3. A selection of separate and individual manuals instructing visually impaired people how to use off-the-shelf print scanning/reading programs via screenreaders and the keyboard, including TextBridge Pro 98, TextBridge Pro 9 and Millennium, Omnipage Pro 10, 11 and 12, ReadIRIS Pro 6, TypeReader Pro 6 and Abby FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7. Each scanner tutorial is an independent manual in its own right. For example, the titles of the principal two of these scanner tutorials are entitled: "Using OmniPage Pro 10, 11 and 12 from the Keyboard to Scan Print" and "Using FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7 from the Keyboard to Scan Print". 4. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 1. This covers Easy CD Creator 4, Sound forge 4.5, Windows Media Player 6, Windows Recorder, Winamp 2.72, Freerip.mp3, RealPlayer 8 Basic, and much more. 5. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 2. This covers Winamp 5.0X, GoldWave audio editor 5.06, CDEX ripper 1.51, Basics of burning with Nero 5.5 and much more introductory and general sound-related information. 6. "Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4,5 and 5.5 from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 3.3 and Nero Media Player). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero Wizard, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 7. "Nero Burning-ROM 6 Ultra and Enterprise Editions from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 4). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero StartSmart interfaces, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions or folders to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, ripping sound files to MP3 or MP3 Pro files, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 8. "Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". This takes spreadsheet users from the beginner stages of Excel through much intermediate material and also covers a few more advanced features. It will give you the skills to use Excel for home accounting purposes, for keeping self-employed small business records and for use in the employment workplace. 9. "Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/XP from the Keyboard". This is a tutorial instructing on how to use the richly-featured suite of programs which is a must for anyone seeking employment or wanting to do advanced e-mailing or calendar and other related tasks at home or at work. It covers all of the main features of MS Outlook and many other more technical topics. Covered is: E-mailing, Calendar, Journal, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, arranging appointments and meetings, searching, plus customising Outlook for visually impaired and blind users and appendices of Outlook general shortcuts and HAL, JAWS AND Window-Eyes hot keys and much more. 10. "Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". Available as a plain text file and instructs on how to use over 45 separate skills in these powerful leading word-processors for use at home or in the workplace to make you highly productive and efficient. ******** The End.