» ScanSoft OmniPage 15 OCR

ScanSoft OmniPage 15 OCR Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Spend a few dollars more and get ABBYY Fine reader. A truely accurate OCR software application.
Comment: Having been the sole IT hardware person for over 14 years [at my current location. In IT hardware/software for over 20 years career-wise].

I have personally owned over 5 scanners, many in the under $200 range.

I have installed/setup/tested/used over 30 scanners and their associated software packages. (and worked with separately purchased retail boxes of omnipage OCR software).

The majority of OCR packages I have installed were OMNIPAGE.
I have also worked with READIRIS, ABBYY and some that are no longer in business.

Omnipage was always a middle-of-the-road performer for me.
Regardless of the version.

In my work environment,I worked with higher priced scanners.
So the price range of scanners I have tested is quite broad.

The only program that ever really blew me away was ABBYY FINE READER.
I have used their basic sprint reader, up through the Fine reader.

With Scansoft it seemed to be a 50/50 or 60/40 split.
Half your time scanning and then half your time "Reviewing" those items that Omnipage could NOT decypher.
Nothing is so aggravating as a program that throws it's arms up in the air and says,"Hey Mr/Ms user. I can't determine what this text is.
Please decypher it for me and type in the correct word(s).

I mean heck, the whole concept here is that the software should do the DECODING.

As others have noted, support is costly.

For a refreshing OCR program, go get a copy of ABBYY Finereader.
I am still using version 5, mostly because I don't currently do enough OCR'ing to justify buying a current version.

NOTE: Last time I checked with ABBYY, you can QUALIFY for their upgrade pricing by either:
1. switching from one of their competitor's to ABBYY.
2. Upgrading one of your older versions of ABBYY.

They (ABBYY) did not care what competitor version I was upgrading from.
I could have upgraded from Omnipage 8 or 9, and still got the same
good pricing deal as someone upgrading from [example] omnipage 14.
ABBYY is quite liberal in that regard.

[Sidenote: Too many places these days have changed their upgrade polcy. Many will not offer upgrade pricing unless it was from the very last version of their software.]

I'm not a big fan of Readiris, but I would buy their program before
getting omnipage 15.

Just my .02 cents.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Program is really good...If it doesn't crash
Comment: I found the program easy to install. The interface could be more user-friendly, but not out of line with other OCR software I've tried. The document conversion itself is excellent. I found very few errors, and it is certainly nice to see an OCR program handle and maintain formatting. I've been using it to scan in articles for reprint in a historical publication. Some of these articles come from a source with three columns and pictures. Omnipage 15 handled these flawlessly.

Now for the big drawback. Halfway through the project, anything I scanned crashed Microsoft Word, losing any information I'd worked on. I am under a very intense deadline for the publication. Nuance has a chance to rehabilitate the bad reputation of the OCR development community, plagued by a realistic question of whether to retype from the original source or to use the OCR. It's still a gamble on whether OCR products save time in the long run...The verdict is still out in my case.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Rubbish
Comment: This product is absolutely horrible.
Even activating it is a chore.
Way too many errors in conversion and
way too many bugs in program to be useful.

Sorry to say it, but it's really bad.

Learn from my mistake and do not purchase this product.
I am sure there are other OCR programs out there that are way better.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Best OCR software available
Comment: I purchased this product because I like to keep all my documents filed on my computer. I am able to save time and effort using Omnipage 15. It converts all of my documents exactly like my original and converts PDF files into editable documents.
Time and ease of use plus many other tasks are everything this product provides the user. I just like it so much 2 of my friends are using it now.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't expect any help
Comment: Very Buggy software that needs some rewriting.
When you email problems the responses are either unreadagle of just useless. Nuance are the new owners and it looks like they are trying to milk a cash cow without feeding it.

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