FineReader
The other day (probably Tuesday, February 1, 2011) I installed ABBYY FineReader5 SprintXE OCR scanning software on this here machine.
I’ve wanted to do it for some time.
It was on my old tower, so I wanted to install it on this new laptop.
Plus now I had a document to scan.
OCR software is just that: optical-character-recognition.
You scan a book-page or a letter, etc., the OCR recognizes the letters, and creates a computer text-file.
I used to do that at the Mighty Mezz — in fact, it probably saved my job.
Letters-to-the Editor would come, usually as print-outs. I would OCR scan them, and turn in the Letter-to-the-Editor in maybe 15 minutes.
The Executive Vice-President was fixing to lay me off, but the Executive Editor stepped in.
“Why would I ever wanna do that?” he asked. “He’s giving me four or five Letters-to-the-Editor each day.”
One morning the City-Editor asked me if I could OCR-scan a fax she had just received.
It would be the lead story in that day’s newspaper.
About 15 minutes — ready to print.
Although we had an Editor “improve” it.
It ran in that day’s newspaper.
You could never have done that without OCR software — although I hope by now that stringer-reporter is filing by e-mail.
(With that you could run it the same day too.)
My ABBYY FineReader5 SprintXE was one of two supplementary computer-applications that came with my huge Epson 10000XL scanner.
While using it, I noticed an “update” button.
“We see you have the ‘FineReader’ that came with your Epson scanner. Very basic. You should upgrade to real OCR software.”
Whoa! Not so fast! I’m not scanning a book. I only use this software occasionally, hardly ever.
I noticed a free 30-day trial.
Nope; what I got is fine for what I do.
Nowhere near what I was doing at the Mighty Mezz — and even that was piecemeal.
• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over five years ago. Best job I ever had — I worked there almost 10 years. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
• A “stringer-reporter” is a reporter who doesn’t actually work from the MessengerPost Newspapers building in Canandaigua. (“MessengerPost“ because the Messenger bought the suburban [Rochester] Post weeklies when their publisher retired.)
I’ve wanted to do it for some time.
It was on my old tower, so I wanted to install it on this new laptop.
Plus now I had a document to scan.
OCR software is just that: optical-character-recognition.
You scan a book-page or a letter, etc., the OCR recognizes the letters, and creates a computer text-file.
I used to do that at the Mighty Mezz — in fact, it probably saved my job.
Letters-to-the Editor would come, usually as print-outs. I would OCR scan them, and turn in the Letter-to-the-Editor in maybe 15 minutes.
The Executive Vice-President was fixing to lay me off, but the Executive Editor stepped in.
“Why would I ever wanna do that?” he asked. “He’s giving me four or five Letters-to-the-Editor each day.”
One morning the City-Editor asked me if I could OCR-scan a fax she had just received.
It would be the lead story in that day’s newspaper.
About 15 minutes — ready to print.
Although we had an Editor “improve” it.
It ran in that day’s newspaper.
You could never have done that without OCR software — although I hope by now that stringer-reporter is filing by e-mail.
(With that you could run it the same day too.)
My ABBYY FineReader5 SprintXE was one of two supplementary computer-applications that came with my huge Epson 10000XL scanner.
While using it, I noticed an “update” button.
“We see you have the ‘FineReader’ that came with your Epson scanner. Very basic. You should upgrade to real OCR software.”
Whoa! Not so fast! I’m not scanning a book. I only use this software occasionally, hardly ever.
I noticed a free 30-day trial.
Nope; what I got is fine for what I do.
Nowhere near what I was doing at the Mighty Mezz — and even that was piecemeal.
• The “Mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over five years ago. Best job I ever had — I worked there almost 10 years. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
• A “stringer-reporter” is a reporter who doesn’t actually work from the MessengerPost Newspapers building in Canandaigua. (“MessengerPost“ because the Messenger bought the suburban [Rochester] Post weeklies when their publisher retired.)
posted by BobbaLew at 11:11 AM
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