OmniPage Professional 17
Reviewed August 2009
 
Some two years ago the Neat Net Tricks Software Review Panel did a comprehensive review of OmniPage Professional 16, OCR software that converts paper and PDF files with 99% accuracy into files that may then be edited into favorite PC applications or archived into a document repository. With the development of a revised OmniPage Pro 17, the Panel reviews and comments on the changes below. We hope you will find it useful in deciding whether the upgrade is worthy of your consideration.

Reviewer 1:
 
The first thing that one notices when comparing OmniPage16 to OmniPage17 is that the software package is smaller. This is because the paper manual has been completely eliminated and the contents reduced to two CD’s plus a multi-language piece of paper explaining the reduced paper content.
 
The next thing I saw was that the system requirements have changed and that Windows 2000 is no longer supported. This is displayed in small print on the bottom of the box. While my personal laptop runs Windows XP SP3, my office computer, which is directly connected to my scanner, is still chugging along on Win2000. I have purchased a new computer with a more up-to-date operating system, but I have not yet configured it and transferred my data.
 
I attempted installation anyway and the entire process went to completion. But when I attempted to run OmniPage17 I received an error message that the Nuance knowledgebase confirmed with the following explanation as an incompatibility with Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 is not a supported operating system for OmniPage 17 to be installed on. It is recommended to only install OmniPage 17 on the following supported operating systems:

► Windows XP 32-bit (Service Pack 3)
► Windows Vista 32-bit (Service Pack 1)
► Windows Vista 64-bit (Service Pack 1)
 
It would have been nice if there was a message about the incompatibility with the operating system early in the installation process, before the program was authenticated and registered on this computer. I was also able to find the system requirements on Nuance’s Web site under the technical specs heading; this description indicated that XP SP2 is supported.
 
I was able to successfully install and run OmniPage17 on my dual core laptop running Windows XP (SP3).
 
OmniPage17 has done away with the choice of views and the “How-to-Guides” which were presented as a splash screen at the start of the program. Instead, it goes to the classic view from which one can begin work immediately. Views can still be changed and viewed from a drop-down menu at the top of the screen. This is a positive change in my opinion.
 
OmniPage17’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities are still impressive. It can interpret data from scanned documents or from digital photos of text. I did not detect any significant changes in how it interpreted scanned data from its previous version; this would require side-by-side comparison of the same document on the same computer.
 
Nuance has improved its policy for online or telephone technical support to include 90 days of complementary support “for installation, launch, or reinstallation (not including data recovery) when your hardware configuration meets the minimum system requirements for the software.” There continues to be a $19.95 charge for phone support “per incident” and a $9.95 charge per incident for Web support beyond the first 90 days of ownership.
 
Overall, this remains a solid, functional program that integrates tightly with the operating system (with right-click mouse options available in Windows Explorer) and with Microsoft office via toolbar buttons for OmniPage on the top of the screen.
 

Reviewer 2:
 
The first improvement I noticed about OmniPage17, even before installing it, is a significant amelioration in the support they offer to their users. OmniPage 17 is a sophisticated program with many features, not all of which will be self-evident, particularly to the novice user. The online help is now presented in Wiki format. At first glance, this looks similar to the traditional HTML Help format, except that at the top of each page there are tabs for Article, Comments and History. At the bottom there is place to make a comment, or reply to previous comments, much as one would do in an online forum. This appears to be a very new approach, for there are not many comments as yet; but, for the serious OmniPage user and the interested OmniPage novice alike, this is a most welcome innovation.
 
Although it must be there, I could not find a Search or Find function while using this help file. There is a Table of Contents in the right-hand panel and many hyperlinks that make navigation through the file somewhat easier. However, there still needs to be a find function, particularly for beginners.
 
Additionally, Nuance has greatly expanded the personalized support given to individual users. There is now a three-month support period included in the purchase price of the product. This is still miserly compared to most other software programs, many offering lifetime support at no extra charge; but, it does represent a major step forward for Nuance. Thus, my main source of frustration and criticism in my previous assessment has now been somewhat assuaged. I offer my kudos to those in Nuance who proposed this new initiative.
 
I also like the changes in the content of the help files, not just the method of presentation. I find them to be easier to follow and understand and appreciate this part of the upgrade as well.
 
The installation proceeded easily, as it had before. I installed OmniPage 17 on a computer that has recently had a fresh Windows reinstallation. I therefore did not have to remove OmniPage 16 and PDF Converter from the computer that I use daily, so I can continue with the old, tried and familiar, while I look at the features of OmniPage 17. As before, I ran into a choice that I do not really know how to handle. It has to do with installing WIA and TWAIN. My scanner can evidently support either (and even both), and as I do not know which one to choose, some context-sensitive help coming automatically to my aid at this juncture would be very helpful indeed.
 
As before, the integrated "three-step process" works smoothly and efficiently. The actual character recognition is very fast, and the level of accuracy is most impressive. Even when I scan documents containing more than one language (for example, English and French), both languages come out well. I found the English character recognition to contain fewer errors than the French, but the built-in spell-checker in the text editor was able to offer correct choices most of the time for the French words as well. Some of the errors could have been the fault of the clarity of the document being scanned, for which OmniPage 17 does not have to bear all the blame. I also like the ability of OmniPage 17 to be able to store files in multiple formats. My most frequent choice is pdf and doc, as I often actually need the same document in both formats.
 
However, OmniPage 17 (as did OmniPage 16) had great trouble with the pages from a recipe book that I used for testing. It happens that there are scores of unique characters scattered throughout the book. In fact, I would suspect that most of them are individual graphics rather than actual letters, and most of them are used only once. Not only did the conversion of the scanned recipe pages to doc files prove to be very difficult, the pdf files came out badly as well. When I went back to OmniPage 16, the results were similarly inaccurate, both in the pdf files, and in the doc files. Using Nuance PaperPort, I scanned and saved some pages as ordinary pdf files. This produced faithful reproductions of the pages that were scanned. But from that point on, OmniPage 16, OmniPage 17, and PDF Converter Professional 5 were all unable to produce usable doc files. I also have documents in a format that has previously been scanned and stored on the computer. Again, many of these are difficult to read, particularly those that are in French.
 
A nice feature about both OmniPage 16 and OmniPage 17 is to be able to drag and drop files directly into the Page Image Panel. From there, one can initiate the OCR and file saving processes. Again, pages in French gave more trouble to OmniPage than did English documents. Often they were letters having accents over them. Quite frequently the é would be converted to 6, so that a correction had to frequently be done in the Text Editor Panel however, time was still saved over having to retype them.
 
Some years ago, when I first started working with programs that tried to translate scanned documents into editable text, the OCR process was very frustrating. Instead of saving the time to type it out, the OCR text was so mangled, that we should have simply typed it out. OmniPage 17 has gone far beyond those days. My household includes several teachers, and during the school year, they often find themselves retyping documents from scratch. This autumn, I will enjoy using OmniPage 17 to streamline and accelerate this previously tedious task. This is an excellent program that I recommend to those needing such document-handling abilities.
 
 
Reviewer 3:
 
This follow-up review addresses only new features and/or "issues" that occurred with the previous version. As with the previous version, OmniPage Pro 17 is available as a standalone version for $499 or as an upgrade for $199. As part of the package OmniPage 17 Professional 17 includes PDF Create! 5
 
OmniPage Pro 17 requires a clean install and any previous versions must be uninstalled before the new version will proceed. My installation was a clean install with no previous versions present on this computer. The installation occurred without a hitch. No conflicts were discovered in my installed scanner, a CanoScan LiDE 30 USB powered unit was discovered and associated with this program automatically. When installing the program, one must have any scanner to be used connected at the time of the installation so that OmniPage Pro 17 will find it and include it. There is a separate "Scanner Wizard" to help do this if you one has forgotten to connect the scanner.
 
As in previous versions, OmniPage Pro 17 has three basic interfaces plus the ability to customize a view if one desires to set up a specific set of parameters for scans. The views available are "Classic", "Flexible" and "Quick Convert". The Classic view is targeted more at a full-on document flow type of use but can also be used for single documents. It's just a bit of overkill. The Flexible view provides a little more working room to view the document being scanned. The Quick Convert is ideal for quickly scanning various types of documents into a PDF format and routing them into a digital filing system for later recovery. OmniPage Pro 17 also comes with PaperPort, a dedicated scan/file application when OCR is not needed. I personally use this feature a lot for electronic filing of important documents, eliminating the need to store the hard copies.
 
OmniPage Pro 17 claims these new or improved features:
 
► Claimed 42% improvement in accuracy for scanned documents over previous versions.
► Improved table recognition.
► OmniPage Pro 17 opens 200% faster than previous versions.
► Support for Multiword processors.
► Convert scanned documents to Amazon Kindel® format for instant transfer to the device.
► Direct "hook" into Microsoft Office® programs for document conversion without opening OmniPage Pro 17.
► Direct support for Microsoft SharePoint® applications for document sharing.
► Improved handling of digital images for text extraction. 

OPP 17 worked very well for me. The problems I had experienced in testing the previous version seemed to have been dealt with and were no longer occurring. The "SET” function actually worked when using it on some digital photos I had taken of the presenter’s whiteboard during a conference. In my previous version testing, this did not work.
 
First and foremost, I was most happy to see that Nuance seems to have done away with the pay-per- incident support charge of $9.95 starting from day one. It now provides 90 days of "complimentary support", free of the $9.95 per incident charge. This was a big sore point for me before and I'm glad they handled it. Unfortunately the phone-based support is still not toll-free.
 
Another support site, an online Wiki, in program Help, is an online "How-To” Guide that works only with Internet Explorer). It appears that the essentially non-functional “user group forums” are no longer available.
 
At a price of $499, this application qualifies as "Enterprise" level software. There are less expensive solutions available such as the non-Pro version of OmniPage. There is a significant "learning curve" required to utilize the full capabilities of this very powerful software. I'm sure, if properly set up, it would pay for itself in an enterprise environment by streamlining document handling solutions and saving a lot of time.
 
Nuance appears to have taken to heart user feedback and reviews on previous versions and has made significant improvements to this newest version. The 90 day free complementary support included with this newest version is a welcome addition not to mention the improved accuracy and much faster loading time.
 
While thinking back about my experience in 2007 with OmniPage Professional 16, it occurred to me that Nuance's failure to include free technical support with that version may have been due to the consideration that, since this (version 16) was an "Enterprise" level application and not a "consumer" application, the user
 
1. Would already be familiar with the application and only upgrading to a newer version;
 
2. Software support would already be an in-house function of the I.T. department; and,
 
3. Only significant technical problems would require higher-level support that business would be willing to pay for. My earlier review was focused with a consumer viewpoint with more casual application use in mind. This enterprise-level software was previously viewed/reviewed from the viewpoint of that user.
 
 
Reviewer 4:
 
Approximately two years ago I reviewed in depth Nuance Software’s flagship OCR program, OmniPage Professional 16 and since then the newest version, OmniPage Professional 17, has been released and I have been asked to take a look at the changes in this newest addition.
 
Although it looks much the same, OmniPage Professional 17 has several new features that have been added to the previous version that makes it even more versatile—among which is the Nuance’s excellent PDF creation program PDFCreate!5. This program was formerly sold separately and previously tested as PDFCreate!4. I could easily convert documents as simple as one-column forms to as complex as graphic-loaded magazine style pages to PDF format and edit them as well. The program works as flawlessly as it did when sold separately. The main focus of OmniPage Professional 17, however, is as it has always been, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and here, as before, this program really shines.
 
The OCR process is now nearly perfect with only very few errors—all which can easily and quickly be corrected with the built in proofreading and editing tools. In testing, I scanned several documents in varying states of age and condition as well as two lengthy university syllabi with complex formatting, and out of a total of a total of 79,733 characters there were only 88 errors, thus providing an accuracy rate of well over the 99% claimed by the developer. It just does not get any better than that with OCR programs and is far better than any other program I have used. It is also a noticeable improvement over the previous version, and the newest version seems also to have corrected the problem with recognizing the letters “f” and ”t” that version 16 suffered. There was also some noticeable improvement in picking up text where it resided next to graphics and in accurately recognizing content in tables. Overall, version 17 is able to recognize much more deteriorated and low-resolution text than could version 16. There was no noticeable improvement in speed as claimed, but the speed was more than adequate in the previous version.
 
While accuracy and the inclusion of PDFCreate!5 are the two most significant changes I found in OmniPage Professional 17 from the previous version, there are some improvements in features that are worth noting and which I found more useful than others. The most useful and biggest improvement is in a new feature called Easy Loader that enables the loading of multiple files into OmniPage for OCR conversion, thus speeding up and expediting the workflow of document conversion. Other new features, such as the ability to send a properly formatted document for reading in Amazon Kindle while keeping abreast with the latest technology seems to me almost a boutique feature rather than something usable by the majority. Additionally, there is now Asian language recognition and detection, direct support for Microsoft Sharepoint, and a number of small and rather inconsequential improvements in previously existing features.
 
At $499.00, this is not a program for the person who has only limited or casual need for OCR software. It is complex, has a necessarily high learning curve, and is quite frankly overkill for the person who has only an occasional document to scan and edit. For the professional or someone who is constantly converting paper to digital files, however, there is no better such program on the market at any price.
 
For those OmniPage users who are thinking of upgrading, the price is $199.00; however, I would look carefully at the new features if you are upgrading from version 15 or especially from version 16 as there may not be enough new or improved in this version to justify or warrant the upgrade. (I should point out that if you do not already own the PDFCreate program, this is now included so that alone may make the upgrade worthwhile). Additionally, and this is one of my few criticisms of this software, upgrading is unnecessarily cumbersome and time consuming. To upgrade you must completely uninstall any previous version of OmniPage before you download and install the latest version—so there is no “wait and see” if one likes it, or continue to use the older version as one gets comfortable and learn the new. It is all or nothing. Worse, because the old version must be reinstalled, scanner settings are not retained and must be reinstalled as well. There is also an online registration process, a separate activation process, and the installation of the HUGE Microsoft .NET framework if the user does not already have it installed.. Finally, any previous versions of PDFCreate! uninstalled as well since the newest version is included in OmniPage Professional 17. I found this approximately one hour set up time to be very consumer unfriendly.
 
Finally, I continue to be disappointed by the technical support policy of Nuance. There is 90 days of free support after which time the customer is charged a per-incident fee of $19.95 for telephone help or $9.95 by email. (There is also no support for versions older than the one behind the latest build!). While there is an excellent User Manual which can be downloaded on the web site and an extensive Knowledge Base, with software as complex as OmniPage Professional there are bound to be problems from time to time and I find it unconscionable that Nuance charges its customers at all, let alone the outrageous and usurious fees that it does for software that is already at the highest end of the cost spectrum. For me, this represents a serious disconnect between any idea that Nuance is customer-service-oriented and this is very troubling. So, once again I find that I must bite my lip and offer my recommendation when I have refused this same recommendation for software costing one-tenth this price but charged for support. I do so only because of the high quality of this program and because my experience with OmniPage has been that any problems do tend to make themselves known in the free 90-day period. However, my recommendation comes with this warning: If you are not comfortable with potentially paying $20.00 every time you have a technical problem, then do not buy this software. There are others on the market that are nearly as good. But if you want to “drive” the Rolls Royce of OCR software, nothing less will satisfy you, and money is no object, you probably will not find any better program than OmniPage Professional 17.
 
Reviewer 5:
 
This was a rather slow installation and the effort to gain the few improvements over OmniPage Professional 16, an excellent program in itself, just does not seem worth the effort. I hesitate to make that statement, since my machine obviously did not have the advanced power that seems to be needed by OmniPage Pro 17. For example, my 512 MB RAM does not meet with the recommended 1 GB nor does my computer have a dual-core or quad-core processor, both of which are recommended “for advanced performance.” My computer’s operating system is Windows XP Service Pack 2 and I note that SP3 is a minimum system requirement. Nonetheless, I was anxious to give OmniPage Pro 17 a test drive and so I installed it. My other failure was not to have first read carefully the seven-page help file that would have saved me a lot of false starts and wasted effort.
 
In the installation process, it took three minutes just for the Install Wizard to check my computer’s configuration and then ask for the serial number. It then informed me that I would have to remove the entire previous version (Pro 16). That information was contained in the “read me” instructions on the installation disk, but certainly a smoother and shorter process would have been facilitated had there been a feature to automatically remove the previous version in the installation process, after perhaps an “Are You Sure” warning. I was instructed to go to the Control Panel’s Add/Remove applet, which I did, although the process would likely have been faster with Revo Uninstall. Also, I am a bit confused with the readme file that advises if you have purchased a non-upgrade version of OmniPage17 and you own a previous version of OmniPage on your system, we recommend that you remove it before starting the installation of OmniPage 17.
 
I also removed PDFCreate!4 although not specifically instructed to do so, except in the readme file. I assumed this would be a good idea since both OmniPage Pro 16 and PDFCreate!4 occupy sizable real estate, nearly 50mb; and, after all, OmniPage Pro 17 was prepared to install the newer PDF Create!5. Again, I must question why the installation process could not have simply uninstalled earlier versions of both OmniPage and PDFCreate without the need for user intervention.
 
The total uninstall time was nine minutes 15 seconds and only then was I prepared to install OmniPage Pro 17. I was again promoted to enter my previously entered serial number and other information. During the installation of OmniPage Pro 17 and PDF!Create5 (nine minutes 30 seconds for OmniPage Pro 17 and three minutes 15 seconds for PDFCreate!5, I was thankful that there was a progress meter displayed over my Systems Tray that would show some activity; otherwise I would have assumed the process had stalled. I was also reminded that if I worked with XLS or Word 2007 files, I would have to install the .NET framework as well.
 
At the end of the installation, there is an online or mail registration process in which, you guessed it, I was again asked for the serial number and other information, although I could have deferred the process for seven days. Then, I had to click on a screen to activate the program, and I assume this is necessary so that my complimentary 90-day support would not start until program activation. I appreciated that, after all this, I did not have to reboot my computer, but I did find it necessary to set up a scanner (and digital camera if I planned on using it to grab text). The scanner configuration was a fairly simple process, but I was left wondering why it could not have simply called up the same information from my previously installed version (including serial number and other information) rather than deleting all configurations.
 
After installing PDF Create!5, anytime I clicked on a file in Windows Explorer and attempted to delete that file, an installer window opened and attempted to configure PDF Create!5. After a short period, I am then warned that the feature you are trying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk that is not available. Insert the Nuance PDF Create!5 disk and click OK. Then, a second error notes Error 1706. No valid source could be found for product Nuance PDFCreate!5. The Windows Installer cannot continue. To restore functionality of my Windows Explorer, I had to remove PDFCreate!5 but Revo Uninstaller wouldn’t uninstall and it was necessary to use the Control Panel Add/Remove Applet. Loss of PDFCreate!5 was not significant to me since I used Adobe Acrobat, the crème de la crème of PDF writers.
 
As I indicated, the few offered improvements of OmniPage Pro 17 are, at least in my experience, simply not worth the effort. I am going back to OmniPage Pro 16 when the dust settles around here. This is a clear-cut example of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.


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