Customer Reviews

Scansoft Omnipage 15 Professional Upgrade

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Buyer beware on this "upgrade." As a long-time customer of ScanSoft products who has been highly satisfied with the OmniPage software, I purchased my upgrade directly from ScanSoft and discovered:

1) If you want to set new styles in the Text Editor window, it must be done each time the software is started; the new styles do not save for me. Instead, they disappear each time I exit and I have to re-establish them each time I use the software.

2) When saving a scaned document to MS Word (using the function which automatically opens Word), the directory must be selected before the file name is entered because changing directories clears the file name box. The file name should not vanish. This is not a problem with Version 14.

3) When selecting text zones, the selection order is no longer relevant to the scanned results (this has also proven to be a problem with Version 14). Pre Version 14, the zones were numbered and they would be presented in the Text Editor window in that order. For at least the most recent two versions, if you scan parallel columns and select no formatting, whichever column's top border is higher on the scan path will be placed in the Text Editor window ahead of the other column(s). I scan recipes for my wife and reformat them to a standard format for her recipe collections; many recipes present the ingredients and/or instructions in parallel columns. It is not useful to have the baking instructions end up before the ingredients or the mixing instructions.

4) The automatic de-skew function is now weaker than in the past, as well. Many document now need to be manually de-skewed whereas Version 14 was almost foolproof.

I've spent hours on the web searching both the ScanSoft knowledge database and researching the above issues through various searches. The ScanSoft support is weaker than ever and, apparently, Version 15 is too new to have generated any truly useful support from other sites.

Although ScanSoft grants free technical support for one incident, their support is M-F, daytime, only. Additionally, they have shown no inclination to extend the free support to deal with defects they have (albeit, inadvertently) built into their product. I strongly believe that if the defect is in my use of a good product, then I should pay for my ignorance; however, if the defect is in the product in spite of my good use, ScanSoft should support the fixes and explanations without additional cost.

While I was dazzled with the improved OCR accuracy, that can't make up for it silently making my old opd files unreadable. It is no good to read in the readme after installing that Omnipage 15 can only read files created in 15 and 14. Since the install process located version 11 on my machine, it *knew* it was going to make me unable to look at my previous research scans, and could have warned me that this version is not capable of reading my files!

This is not a new company, and while I admit I could have hunted for a readme on the CD before installing, to destroy customer access to their previous work files is not acceptable. Note that this is an UPGRADE version. The ability to import documents from the earlier versions is an absolute must!

I purchased OmniPage 15 directly from Scansoft and got a special price because I owned another of their products. It has been a nightmare. First, it doesn't want to install all its parts and the PDF Create installer launches when ever you try to open a file...any file. It completely hosed my HP printer/scanner/fax/copier and then started to change my file icons.

My system is virus free and had been very stable. I run at least 4 antipest programs in addition to both a hardware and software firewall. I also am a computer professional. I have never experienced such a miserable performance from a major piece of software from a reputable house. I couldn't even uninstall it! To their credit the tech support is friendly, based in Florida and they try to help but...I can't be spending hours per week doing what the developers should have done in the first place.

I'll be returning my rights and asking for a refund.

I have purchased both OmniPage and ABBYY and the difference between the two is impressive. OmniPage really does read documents better than ABBYY. The accuracy in the spreadsheet view is fantastic and smart enough to recognize when rows and columns are different from page to page.

However, there are two dissapointing aspects to this product. The first is that if during the recognition a horizontal or vertical line is missed, the user must go through each individual page to correct this miss. Now, OmniPage had far fewer misses than ABBYY, but I am working with a 242-page document (I am trying to transform a PDF file to Excel for analysis of the data in the PDF). To go through each page to find this problem is annoying and time consuming at the least.

The second problem seems to me to be a very easy fix. If the user is transferring the new spreadsheet into Excel it transfers each page into a different sheet. I really wish that I could turn this off and send each page into one sheet. I have 242 pages of documents that need to be anaylized as one set of numbers. Having to paste each page into one sheet is really very tiresome.

Like a few of the other people submitting comments, I am a long-time user of Omnipage Pro. Being able to scan documents accurately is very important to me. Version 15 does achieve an impressive level of accuracy, but the time spent dealing with the software's otherwise horrific programming is simply not worth it. I really don't want to move to another package, but feel I have no choice.

Installation is a nightmare. Wouldn't one think that an upgrade would sorta kinda take earlier versions into account? Not here. I had to delete version 14 manually before trying to install version 15. "PDF Create" didn't install at all, and neither the automatic or manual activation procedures worked for me.

The many problems with the interface have already been noted.

The company should be called "Seance," because that's about the only way to contact them. Essentially, there is no support to help you address errors with the software.

Finally, be prepared to see a small army of "PDF Converter" icons taking over your MSWord toolbars. Don't bother deleting the option in your dot file, it won't work.

I cannot comment on how well the software works, because I was totally unable to even try it. Nuance has invented an "activation" scheme that seems designed solely to frustrate its customers. They give you a number that you have to enter in an activation screen, after which the software goes on line to verify that you are not a thief. The trouble is the number doesn't work. I spent hours on the phone and in email exchanges with Scansoft tech support trying to get the software installed. The Scansoft tech support was never able to come up with any resolution to the problem. I had to get my purchase price refunded and go back to the version 14 that I was using before this disastrous event.