Optical Character Recognition to read index data from scanned images, convert documents to searchable PDF or text files, dynamic field extraction and other OCR features.
SimpleIndex is the perfect solution for small business and departments looking to manage their files from a single interface, developers who don’t want to reinvent the wheel and large companies with many locations looking to decentralize their scanning. SimpleIndex organizes scanned images and electronic documents into a single document management database your employees can access on their desktops. SimpleIndex takes the labor out of document imaging by providing powerful barcode recognition and OCR search algorithms that can find index values no matter where they are on the page. By providing these essential automations for a reasonable price, we make document management affordable for anyone. The most unique automation is our OCR template and dictionary matching search algorithms. This lets you find information like date, customer name, invoice number and other information on documents with different layouts.
There are plenty of different Features of SimpleSoftware products making your automation process more efficient.
- Streamlined interface – The Fastest, Most Accurate Scanning Solution
- Support for both TWAIN and ISIS Scanning drivers standards
- Introducing Dynamic OCR Feature and comparing it to the traditional Zone OCR
- Unprecedented Control of Database Interactions
- Ensures All Required Documents are Scanned Check
- Automated Processing & 1-Click Interface to make scanning process even more efficient
- SharePoint Document Scanning
- Document Classification – an essential first step for processing mixed batches with many types of documents
- MS Office & PDF Text Parsing – The template and dictionary matching capabilities of SimpleIndex‘s OCR function can be used to extract index information from the text of existing MS Office and PDF files
- Indexing Solutions with Barcode Recognition
- Optical Mark Recognition – lets you define check box regions on scanned images.
- Autofill – Automatic Indexing Using Existing Data
- Imprint, Endorse, or Bates Stamp Images Electronically – SimpleIndex‘s Electronic Imprinting feature lets you apply the bates stamp to the images after they are scanned, saving you thousands on specialized scanning hardware.
- Screenshot OCR – Indexing from Applications with Screen OCR
TaxStacker: Sort & Classify Federal Tax Documents
This is a great way for accountants and tax preparers to organize complex tax returns in a way that makes it easy to find specific documents. It can also be used to ensure all required schedules and supporting documents are present in the finished return.
Use our out-of-the-box TaxStacker configuration to automatically identify all the forms and schedules that make up a U.S. federal income tax return. These can then be sorted into separate PDF files or combined into a single file that has bookmarks to indicate each section.
Change the Dictionary Separator Value
This is used to change the dictionary separator value when doing thesaurus matching from the default character of | to any character(s) that you want. This can be useful in cases where the values you would like in your list or dictionary might include the pipe character or “|” or “Shift Backslash”
This setting is also used as the delimiter when parsing multiple index field values from bar codes (e.g. field1|field2|field3).
Instructions for changing the dictionary separator value:
- Right click on the Job Configuration file that you would like to suppress the prompt on and select Open With>Notepad
- Search the XML settings text open in Notepad for this term:
<OCR_DICT_SEPARATOR> - Change the value in-between from “|” to any other single character that you want.
- For TAB separation use %TAB%
Change the OCR Font or Type
This is used to changed the default OCR recognition font or type from the default, which is “To Be Detected”. This can be used to look for a specific type of OCR font and is especially useful for recognizing things like Dotmatrix, OCR A and OCR B.
Instructions for setting OCR Font:
1. Right click on the .sic file and select Open With a text editor (Notepad, Wordpad, etc.)
2. Find <OCR_TEXT_TYPE>. If you can’t find <OCR_TEXT_TYPE> then add the following as the last row in the text file:
<OCR_TEXT_TYPE>#</OCR_TEXT_TYPE>
3. Change the number in between: <OCR_TEXT_TYPE>#</OCR_TEXT_TYPE>
4. Number of desired font:
- 0 Normal
- 1 Typewriter
- 2 Dotmatrix
- 3 Index
- 5 OCR A
- 6 OCR B
- 7 MICR E13B
- 8 MICR CMC7
- 9 Gothic
- 10 To Be Detected
5. Close and save file
Document Classification
An essential first step to processing mixed batches with many types of documents is classification. Document Classification methods quickly sort documents by type using key content and layout attributes to identify them.
The most popular document classification systems are advanced AI-based machine learning algorithms that automatically learn how to classify documents based on samples and user feedback. These systems are very powerful but also very expensive. Only large organizations processing millions of pages each year can afford these enterprise solutions.
SimpleIndex naturally has a simpler way to do classification based on keyword patterns in the document text. Simply create a list of document types and assign one or more unique keywords or phrases that will only appear in that document type to each. Logical operators for AND, OR and NOT prevent false matches by requiring multiple keywords for matching or excluding documents that contain certain phrases.
Keyword-based classification works for the vast majority of applications at a fraction of the cost of AI classification.
After classification, SimpleIndex can automatically launch separate document indexing workflows for each document type found in the classified batch. This is especially useful when documents have different metadata requirements or business workflows associated with them.
I’m using full page OCR. The information is all appearing in the txt file but it is losing format about half way through. Data to the right is ending up at the end of the txt doc. Can this be fixed?
SimpleIndex version 7 solves this problem with the incorporation of the FineReader OCR engine. Full text in PDFs will now flow with the formatting of the PDF.
Legacy Versions: SimpleIndex can also be used with other OCR applications and servers to improve accuracy, formatting and performance. Use the OCR applications to convert the scanned images to text or searchable PDF, and SimpleIndex can extract index values from the text and automatically sort and organize the files.
- Published in OCR
How do you train the OCR engine for better accuracy?
Training has been removed with version 7 due to the addition of the ABBYY FineReader OCR engine.
- Published in OCR
How do you configure full text searching in Retrieval mode?
On the Database tab there dropdown in the lower portion of the panel for Full Text OCR Field. Put the name of the field that will store the full-text data there. This must be configured both for Insert and Retrieval mode configurations. The database field needs to be sufficient length to store the entire text of your document.
Of course, the Insert Mode configuration must have “Enable Full Page OCR” checked to generate full text data from images. Text from MS Office documents, PDF files and existing OCR text files can be used without setting this option.
When designing your Retrieval Mode configuration, create a Text field to use for full text search queries. On the Database tab, set the corresponding “Database Field Name” to the full text database field.
When searching on your full text field, SimpleIndex finds the text you enter no matter where it appears in the document. It is able to match partial words. It does not perform boolean or natural language searches. The text entered must match the document text exactly.
- Published in Database & Retrieval, OCR
How can I improve recognition rates for my OCR fields?
There are several things you can do to improve accuracy for OCR.
-Scan at 300dpi, black & white for best results.
-Adjust the scan settings to remove background noise and improve the definition of characters.
-For Zone OCR, field recognition can often vary based on the surrounding white space and text in the zone. Try varying the size of the zone to achieve optimal results.
-For template matching, make sure all variations of the field format are included in the template list.
-For dictionary matching, add common variations and OCR mistakes to the “thesaurus” list.
-On the Zones & OCR tab (accessed from the Job Options) you can adjust the Max Errors setting to allow for more mistakes in the dictionary matching process.
-Use the Strip Spaces, Strip Characters, Replace Characters and Case Fixing options to standardize the field format prior to matching.
Please refer to the manual for details on how to configure these options.
Find out more about Optical Character Recognition on the SimpleOCR Guide. You may also check out our Advanced OCR Guide to find out how to use third-party OCR applications with SimpleIndex.
- Published in OCR
Can OCR text be saved to MS Word or HTML formats?
Yes. On the Zones & OCR tab of the Job Options, there is a dropdown list for “Full-page OCR file type”. By default it is set to TEXT, but can be changed to WORD, HTML or PDF.
If the output file type is set to PDF, OCR text will be embedded as hidden text in the PDF file.
Find out more about Optical Character Recognition on the SimpleOCR Guide.
- Published in Licensing & Installation, OCR
Can SimpleIndex create searchable PDF Image+Text files with hidden text?
If you enable full-page OCR and output to PDF, the full-page OCR text will be inserted as invisible text on each page.
With the addition of the FineReader Engine in version 7, SimpleIndex now creates PDF files with fully searchable text formatted to flow with the image of the document.
Find out more about Optical Character Recognition on the SimpleOCR Guide.
- Published in Export, OCR, Office PDF Text Processing
Your All-In-One Scanning & Sorting Tool
SimpleIndex® has the ability to perform a wide variety of scanning and document organization tasks quickly and automatically. This makes it a must-have tool for IT departments and consultants who often need to:
- Scan and store various documents on network shares
- Organize existing MS Office, PDF and other files on your network
- Attach files to records in a custom database
- Integrate scanning into custom business applications
- Automate data entry from paper or electronic documents
- Reduce click charges for centralized scanning departments
The wide variety of scanning and indexing tasks you can do with SimpleIndex make it an incredibly useful tool to have in your arsenal. Even if your company already has an enterprise document scanning system, the low cost, fast setup and automated processing features of SimpleIndex can be put to use in many places where your existing system either doesn’t work, is too complex for the task or costs too much in click charges to be feasible.
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- Is it possible to have the scanned image itself added to a database and not just the image path?
- I have a scanner/copier that creates PDF and TIFF files and saves them to my file server. Can I use SimpleIndex to create a searchable CD/DVD from these files?
- When exporting to a database, I get the error "Multi-step operation generated errors"
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- How do you configure full text searching in Retrieval mode?
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Instant Integration With Any Application
SimpleIndex® provides a great alternative to “reinventing the wheel” using a document imaging SDK to implement scanning in your custom application. SimpleIndex uses a command line interface to enable developers to execute customized scanning workflows from another application. This lets you take advantage of SimpleIndex‘s TWAIN/ISIS scanning, zone OCR, barcode recognition and database export features without having to re-code them all yourself.
Whether you are an IT consultant creating an application for internal company use or a software developer looking to add scanning features to your application, SimpleIndex provides the easiest solution available.
To use SimpleIndex as a scanning front-end for your application, simply:
- Create a SimpleIndex job file configured to scan, index and save files the way you want
- (Optional) configure the database export to create/update document records in your DB
- Use a “Shell” command to execute the job file from your program
When you execute the job file from your program, SimpleIndex will scan, read barcodes, OCR zones, etc. and organize the documents into the folders and filenames your program requires. The database export can be configured to add or update records in your database with information captured from the documents as well as the image file path or binary data. Index values can be passed from your program to SimpleIndex via the command line. The whole process can be configured to run minimized so the user never even sees the SimpleIndex screen.
KB Articles for Integration
- Exclude Index Field from Index Log
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- Change the Font Size of Index Fields
- Large documents (>500 pg) Slow to Process - Workaround
- Regular Expression (RegEx) - Syntax or Type
- Index With Non-Latin Character Sets
- Skip to Blank Index on Save Index
- Stop Autorun When Double Clicking Configuration
- Autonumber Increment Value
- Overlap of SimpleView Viewer in SimpleIndex Display
Patent ID and Title Extraction
To avoid manual data entry, pattern matching is used to automatically read the Patent ID Number and Title from any US patent application straight out of the box.
This job configuration is available for free for SimpleIndex users from the link below.
SimpleIndex Patents Demo Job Configuration
KB Articles for Patent ID and Title
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- What is Document Imaging?
- Change the Dictionary Separator Value
- Change the OCR Font or Type
- Regular Expression (RegEx) - Syntax or Type
- Autonumber Increment Value
- I'm using full page OCR. The information is all appearing in the txt file but it is losing format about half way through. Data to the right is ending up at the end of the txt doc. Can this be fixed?
- Is there a way to just use part of a bar code or OCR value? For example, extract "50" from the value "124450"
- If I have a form which is filled manually by hand, can SimpleIndex read the data from it?
- How do you train the OCR engine for better accuracy?
Indexing from Applications with Screen OCR
Some documents are difficult or impossible to automate with OCR. For example, documents with non-standard layouts, unconstrained handwriting or very poor scan quality. In applications like invoice processing, fully automating the data entry can require expensive software and weeks of consulting. Even after all that expense, many users miss the interface and data validations that their accounting software entry screens provide.
In cases like this, SimpleIndex can help improve data entry efficiency while archiving your scanned originals at the same time. Here’s how it works:
- Scan a batch of documents for data entry
- Place the SimpleIndex window side-by-side with your data entry window
- Enter the data normally, reading from the scanned image in SimpleIndex
- Press the hotkey combo to transfer the data to SimpleIndex
- Save the image and repeat with the next one
In this configuration, SimpleIndex captures an image of the data entry window, then uses OCR to read the data and index the image. Since the data entry screen has a consistent layout and clear, readable fonts, it can be reliably recognized with OCR.
There are several advantages to this approach:
- Configuration and training takes hours not weeks
- Scanned images are indexed with no extra work
- All the advantages of digital docs–security, searching, sharing, etc.
- Use all the data validation features of your software
- No flipping through paper documents
- Operator keeps eyes on the screen and hands on the keyboard
- Data entry can be done remotely
- Data entry performance improves and files are archived at the same time
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 a single click. Search on up to 99 index fields without a single keystroke!
KB Articles for Automatic Indexing
- Exclude Index Field from Index Log
- Turn Off Prompts and Pop Ups on Job Configurations
- Change the Font Size of Index Fields
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- Regular Expression (RegEx) - Syntax or Type
- Index With Non-Latin Character Sets
- Skip to Blank Index on Save Index
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- Autonumber Increment Value
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OMR Optical Mark Recognition
Simple Checkbox Recognition
Some forms require scanning software to recognize the presence or absence of a mark in a particular location, such as a checkbox, without worrying about the specific shape or symbol drawn therein. The ability to do this is called Optical Mark Recognition, or OMR. Let’s take a look at how this feature can help you index your documents and how SimpleIndex improves upon the standard OMR process:
Optical Mark Recognition
Optical Mark Recognition lets you define check box regions on scanned images. OMR is very fast and can be used for a variety of applications:
- Business reply mail
- Simple surveys
- Separate multi-page documents
- Document routing control
- Verify presence of signatures
To configure OMR, use an unfilled form to obtain baseline counts of how many black “pixels” are in the box. When processing, SimpleIndex compares the amount of black in each image to the baseline value to determine if the box is checked or not.
With OMR, it is very important that the check boxes appear in the same place on every scan, and that other text on the document does not move into your check box zone. For best results, use large boxes with plenty of white space around them.
We wouldn’t recommend using the SimpleIndex OMR feature to grade the SATs, but if your documents include a few check box values that you want to capture the SimpleIndex OMR feature is what you need. For more advanced OMR and forms processing solutions, please visit ScanStore.com.
OMR Document Separation
SimpleIndex includes a unique use for mark recognition that can save you thousands on document separator pages. One of the most labor-intensive parts of scanning multi-page files is detecting where one document ends and the next one starts. Traditionally this has been done with blank pages (which doesn’t work with 2-sided documents) or barcodes and patch codes (which must be printed). All of these solutions require someone to insert a piece of paper between each document before scanning, wasting time, money, and paper.
- Using the OMR feature in SimpleIndex, create a checkmark field in the upper-left corner of the page.
- Create an Autonumber field that increments a document number each time the checkmark is found.
- Use this job file to scan and separate documents into multi-page files.
- Create a 2nd job file to index the multi-page files.
- Use the Post-Process feature to run the two jobs consecutively.
When prepping files, simply take a felt tip pen and put a small mark the upper-left corner on the first page of each new document. This can be done very quickly, creates no additional paper and has a negligible effect on scan quality.
KB Articles for Optical Mark Recognition
SimpleIndex Walkthrough
The SimpleIndex® Design Philosophy
SimpleIndex differs from other high-speed scanning applications in that it is designed around a single batch processing model. More expensive programs are designed to process batches in multiple stages that run on separate computers like an assembly line. These stages are:
- Import (scan or read existing files)
- Process (cleanup, OCR, barcode recognition)
- Index (assign keyword values for filenames or search fields)
- Quality Control (review, revise & rescan)
- Export (create file structure, export index values to log or database)
What if your assembly line only has one worker? Other packages require the user to enter a separate set of commands to launch each stage. SimpleIndex is designed to quickly scan and index a single batch by performing each stage automatically in sequence. This design makes SimpleIndex much faster and easier to use than other scanning software, and lowers the cost as well.
SimpleIndex replaces the series of individual commands required by some applications with a single “Run Job” button. This one click executes all the user-configured settings and batch steps.
SimpleIndex Jobs
Each type of scanned document has different parameters for each processing stage that are used to capture and file the images. In SimpleIndex, a particular set of these parameters is called a Job. When configuring a job, you must specify how you want SimpleIndex to perform each of the processing stages from Import to Export. When a job is executed, SimpleIndex automatically launches all the processing stages in sequence according to the settings you specify.
The settings for a job are saved to a SimpleIndex Configuration File (*.sic). Any configuration file can be launched from Windows Explorer by double-clicking its icon just like any saved document. Doing this will start SimpleIndex and execute the job automatically.
Jobs can even be configured to perform all indexing automatically and hide the SimpleIndex user interface altogether. The user just loads the feeder, double-clicks an icon on the desktop, and all processing is done in the background.
The ability to execute scanning and indexing configurations from a saved file is a unique feature of SimpleIndex that opens many new possibilities for automating user tasks.
Processing the Sample Jobs
The best way to get started with SimpleIndex is to check out the sample configuration files that come with it. These sample configurations demonstrate some of the key features of SimpleIndex and provide a starting point for configuring various types of jobs.
Several online videos are available to walk you through this process:
- Sample Job Videos – demonstrations and presentations
- Simple Software University – how to configure jobs
The Getting Started Guide that appears when you first run SimpleIndex will give you step-by-step instructions for running the sample jobs as well. This can also be accessed from the Help menu.
The sample jobs use images that are bundled with SimpleIndex, so don’t worry if you don’t have a scanner!
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Streamlined Interface
The Fastest, Most Accurate Scanning Solution
Simple
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- Automated Processing & 1-Click Interface
- Invoice Processing with Full Page OCR
- Indexing Solutions with Barcode Recognition
- Reduce Click Charges for Data Capture
- Your All-In-One Scanning & Sorting Tool
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