Sometimes when you have a ‘good’ program and it goes through a version update, you may not get the latest update each year because the current version is good enough.  For me that has been the case with OmniPage and with PaperPort, both products from Nuance.

I’ve been using PaperPort 9, that came with my amazing Brother Printer, copy machine, scanner and fax with a feeder tray.  Plus, I had a lite version of OmniPage that has served me very well over the years when I needed to convert a lot of paper text into something machine readable.

So these good programs are not my work horses.  I do not turn to them every day like some programs, but when I use them I use them heavily and they save me a lot of time and even more money.  For me an average single usage of OmniPage can easily cover the cost of the software.

PaperPort is similarly useful as it enables me to easily (very very very easily) manage a library of PDF documents, including bills and receipts and things that would have been kept in paper files without taking up all the space.  Plus, the information is at my finger tips when I need it!

Well to make a long story a little longer than short, today I’m finally upgrading my work horses.  Its been 2 versions with PaperPort and 3 or 4 with OmniPage. 

There are two reasons why I’m making the move:

1. The price is right (I’m getting PaperPort free with my purchase of OmniPage Pro (the big full version)
2. OmniPage offers the ability for me to take a picture with my camera or even my phone, and have that image converted into a text document with their optical character reader.

That last point is the new functionality that I need.  When I have loose documents, OmniPage running with my normal scanner and the document feeder is awesome.  But when I have a page in a book, folder, or some other bound or abnormal item, or even an image on a White Board!, well then having the ability to take a picture and have it converted to text will definitely be worth the money of the upgrade, not to mention the major increases in accuracy that the program has gone through since my last purchase.

That money I save will not necessarily line my pockets are encourage me to go buy a new car or gold cufflinks or something, but every little bit will help me keep my prices low and competitive and that means more business for me over the long stretch.

OmniPage 16- Best OCR Software

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I have been waiting for a service like this for years.  Qipit takes images that you snap with your mobile phone camera or just a regular digital camera of things like white boards, hand written notes and other documents and converts them to text using OCR, Optical Character Recognition, technology which has evolved very significantly over the last 12 years.

As a heavy mindmapper I often times try to use electronic mind maps instead of a regular white board, but some things are just easier on a white board.  I use mind maps so heavily because they enable me to capture that information very rapidly. 

However with this type of service and application, I have the ability to get a great electronic backup with very little effort.  Not to mention, I can get electronic iteration captures as the white board notes evolve say during one of those meetings where it seems like everyone will step up and drive the dry erase marker over the white board to get a feel for the issues or add to the discussion.

Now with my 1 megapixel camera on my phone, I can only convert images from white boards.

However, these days I always carry a small digital camera with me as well.  With that I can also upload images from my computer to the site and have documents scanned and read via OCR as well or even have hand notes converted.

Or Here’s a great tip if you are Mobile without a WiFi connection or computer

Take the picture with your regular digital camera.  Pull the flash card out of the camera and drop it into your phone or smart phone and add the better quality image as an attachment and send it to Qipit via email!

So in review this is a very cool and did I mention FREEEEE!  service.  It takes your pictures of handwriting from white boards or even from printed documents and uses OCR technology to create a soft copy or it can even publish straight to your blog or website.

Now, I’ve seen a lot of electronic white board tools and applications, even some touch screen surfaces requiring expensive investments in large screen devices and the wiring and connections and tuning and plasma mount to keep it from falling off the wall, etc, etc, etc. 

This is just a simple little solution that is ready to go for almost any user and the setup only takes about a minute.

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