File Indexing with SimpleIndex

SimpleIndex can assign index field metadata to any type of file, not just scanned documents.

Any common images like TIFF, JPEG, GIF and PNG can be displayed, as well as PDF files and MS Office documents. Other file types can be displayed in the embedded browser or automatically opened in their native applications.

Screen scraping and OCR can be used to capture index data from third party applications automatically.

Download document scanning and OCR software.

Enable Post-Process when Input Folder is Empty

When you have multiple Job Configurations running in tandem with the Post-Process command line running one after there other there can be occasions where a Job Configuration earlier in the chain doesn’t have any images in the Input folder. When this happens a prompt occurs that must be clicked to proceed to the the next Job Configuration. When running unattended this can cause issues when the process stops for this prompt. This can be turned off in the Job Configuration’s XML settings. Instructions for suppressing prompt to continue when Input folder is empty: Right click on the Job Configuration file that you would like to suppress the prompt on and select Open With>NotepadSearch the XML settings text open in Notepad for this term: <POSTPROCEMPTY>Set the value between from “True” to “False”. It should look like this: <POSTPROCEMPTY>False</POSTPROCEMPTY> Save and close the file.
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Index With Non-Latin Character Sets

By default SimpleIndex uses the ANSI character set to display and edit captured OCR data, index field values and full-text OCR. This works for all languages based on the Latin alphabet (English, French, Spanish, German, etc.) To index documents in other languages like Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic and other non-Latin alphabets, set the default character set using this registry key. If the key is not set correctly then Unicode text will show up as ??????????. Use Notepad to edit the “Charset” value from the sample setting below and save it to a .reg file. Then double-click the .reg file to install (Administrator privileges required). You can download the .reg file here but you still need to edit in Notepad to set the Charset value before installing. If you are on a 32-bit operating system be sure to remove the extra “\WOW6432Node” from the registry path. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SimpleIndex\Misc] “Charset”=”1” Charset
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Skip to Blank Index on Save Index

If you would like to have SimpleIndex automatically go to the next page with a blank field and highlight that field when the Save Index button or Enter a change to the XML text of the Job Configuration is needed. This can be useful to quickly move to the next document that has a blank Index field.

Instructions to set Skip to Blank index on Save Index:

  1. Right click on the Job Configuration file that you would like to suppress the prompt on and select Open With>Notepad
  2. Search the XML settings text open in Notepad for this term:
    <SKIP_TO_NEXT_BLANK>
  3. Set the value between from “False” to “True”
    <SKIP_TO_NEXT_BLANK>True</SKIP_TO_NEXT_BLANK>
  4. Save and close the file.
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Forward Blank Index Fields

To turn on the carry Forward when you blank out an index field do the following:

1.  Right click on the configuration file and open with Notepad or another text editor.

2.  Search for this XML value:  FORWARD_BLANK

3.  Set the value to true

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Max List Size

If you have a field that has a list and it loads very slowly then the size of the list that it loads needs to be limited. You first open the Registry or regedit.  Then you find this location:  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SimpleIndex\Misc Then you right click in the space to the right and select New>String Value Then you name this new entry this:  MaxListSize Then you double click on it and set the size of the list that it loads.  We suggest somewhere between 1000 and 5000
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MISSING file move with multiple files

​If you want to move the MISSING files from the Output folder to another folder and create multiple MISSING files then use this script for the .bat file:

ren “C:\Users\dgraves.META\Desktop\Folder1\Missing.pdf” Missing-%date:~10,4%%date:~7,2%%date:~4,2%_%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%.PDF 

Move “C:\Users\dgraves.META\Desktop\Folder1\Missing*.pdf” “C:\Users\dgraves.META\Desktop\Folder2”

This will rename the file to MISSING-DATE_TIME and then move it to another folder.

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How do I limit the number of files pulled from the input folder?

The Max File/Batch setting on the Batch Options tab lets you limit the number of files to process in each batch.

In the wizard it can be found under the Advanced File Input Settings section.

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SimpleIndex creates output files with upper case file extensions but we use an UNIX-based fileserver which requires lower case file extensions. How can i change the output file extension from upper case to lower case (e.g. from .PDF to .pdf)?

In SimpleIndex 6, file extensions were changed to default to lower case so this should no longer be an issue. If you want to default back to upper case file extensions, you must edit the registry.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\SimpleIndex\Misc

Create a String value called “UpperCaseFileExtension” and set to 1 for upper case or 0 for lower case.

This registry setting will also work to change the default behavior of version 5.

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How do you select what types of files to process?

You can tell SimpleIndex what types of files it should process and which file types to ignore. This is done by clicking “Job Options” On the “Batch” tab you will find a field labeled “Input file types or mask”. These are the file types that SimpleIndex will input files from. The default types are: TIF,PDF,JPG,GIF,BMP,DOC,XLS,PPT,DOCX,XLSX,PPTX,VSD,DWG,AVI,MP3 To process all files, enter * SimpleIndex will ignore any file whose extension does not appear on the list. In SimpleIndex 6 or above you can enter file masks to filter input files. Some examples are: abc*.pdf (PDF files starting with “abc”) ab??ef.* (All files starting with “ab”, 2 characters and “ef”) It is possible to have some file types open automatically in their default application. This can be done by inserting a pipe “|” into the list. Any file types after the pipe will be opened in their default application. For example: TIF,PDF,JPG|WAV,M

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How do you configure a field to select from a list of possible values?

List fields are populated using a text file or database field containing the values for that list. The text file scenario will be described first. To configure a list field, go to the Index tab in the Job Options. Create a list field by selecting “List” for the field type and give it a name. In the “List File/Field” setting for this field, put the full path or UNC to the text file containing the list or click “Set” to browse to the file. If you have not created a file, you can put the path where you want the file stored here and click the “Edit” button. This will open the file in Notepad; new files will prompt you to create them. On each line of the text file you will put one of the possible values that you want to be able to select from while you are indexing with SimpleIndex. You can copy this information from another source and paste it into the text file. Save the file in Notepad and close it. The List field is now configured! To use

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Can the original image filename be used as part of the output filename?

The input filename can be specified automatically by configuring a field of type “Filename”. The input file path may also be parsed by the SimpleIndex dictionary and template matching algorithms to extract data fields from the folder and file names.

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Can the values of 2 or more fields be combined in a single field?

Set the Type for the field that you want to store the combinded value to “Fixed”.

In the template setting for that field, you can enter the keyword %FIELD#% (where # is the field number) and the keyword will be replaced with the value of the designated field when it is saved.

For example, to combine your first 2 fields into third, inserting a comma between them, set the template for field 3 to:
%FIELD1%,%FIELD2%

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Why does the word “MISSING” show up in filenames and index fields when the field is blank?

“MISSING” is what SimpleIndex puts for any field value used as a filename or folder name and is left blank by defualt.

You can change this to whatever you want it to say when a field value is left blank. To do this go to “Job Options” then to the “Index” Tab now click “Advanced Options”. In the middle of the window you will see a box labeled “Use this value whe a field is empty” just change “DEFAULT” to whatever you want (including leaving it blank) and click OK. Now the next time you have a blank field value for a filename or folder name it will have your new message.
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How do I configure the output folder and file naming scheme?

Use the Folder and Filename check boxes on the Index tab in the Job Options to indicate whether field values will be used to generate subfolders or filenames. Any field with the Folder option checked will create nested subfolders for each value in the order the fields are listed. Any field with the Filename checked will have the values concatenated to form the filename. For example, if Field 1 and Field 3 have the Folder option checked, and Field 2 and Field 3 have the Filename option checked, image filenames will be created in the format: %OUTPUTFOLDER%\Field 1\Field 3\Field 2 – Field 3.tif The Filename Separator option on the Advanced tab lets you change the ” – ” between the fields in the filename to anything you want.

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Automatic Indexing Using Existing Data

Automatic Indexing Using Existing Data The Autofill feature of SimpleIndex is an easy way to associate many index fields with one document without retyping data that already exists in another database. Autofill uses a database lookup to retrieve records that match a key value entered by the user. Blank index fields are then filled in automatically with the data from this lookup. The result is a document database with many different possible search fields, of which only one needed to be entered during scanning. The key field may be typed by the user, or it may be read from the document automatically using barcode recognition or OCR. The lookup is performed either when the user changes this field or when the index values are saved. If the lookup finds multiple matching records, the user will be notified and the first set of values will be used by default. When used with pre-index batches, key information can be read automatically from barcodes or OCR and matched to database records with
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