TextBridge OCR Tutorial

The following is a step-by-step tutorial for using the TextBridge Classic OCR program. TextBridge is an optical character recognition (OCR) program for scanning text documents and converting them into an editable word processor format. TextBridge will not make EXACT photocopy style copies of documents, nor will it scan any sort of forms, handwriting or graphics. To scan such items, consult the Color It! Tutorial. For more information on how OCR works, see Understanding OCR.

1. Double-click the hard disk icon to open it.
2. Locate and double-click the TextBridge folder.
3. Double-click the TextBridge icon to launch the program.
4. The TextBridge window now appears with boxes reading Input, Output and Tools. There are also click buttons for "More Choices" and "Go." If this is your first time using TextBridge, follow the steps below.

1. Click on the Apple menu in the upper-left corner and select Chooser.
2. Locate the Mustek ISIS driver icon in the Chooser and double-click it.
3. Close the Chooser.
4. Click the File menu and click Select Source.
5. Make sure the Mustek ISIS driver is selected and click "OK."
6. The Input box will now have "Scanner" selected.

5. Verify that the Output box has "Text" selected and click "Go."
6. The Save Output As box will now appear. The default folder for saving your text is the Documents folder on your hard disk. For the purpose of this tutorial, you should use the default setting although you can change this by clicking on the Desktop button to the right, then clicking the Hard Disk icon that appears in the box to choose the folder you wish to use.
7. In the box under "Save Output As:" there is the word "Untitled." Double-click this word and replace it with a filename for your text document. For this tutorial, use the name TEST.
8. Just below the box where you entered your filename is a box with the label "Text." This is for selecting the format of your text document. The default setting is "Microsoft Word (RTF)" which means Rich Text Format. This setting will save your recognized document in a format readable by word processors like Word and Claris Works. To use a document in other word processors click on this box and select "Formatted ASCII."
9. Click "Continue." The scanner will now scan the document.
10. When the scanner finishes, it will prompt you to "Add more pages and continue?"

1. If this were a multiple-page document, you could click "Continue."
2. If this were a two-sided document, lift the scanner lid, turn the page over and click "Flip and Continue."
3. If this is a single, one-sided document, click "End."

11. For the purpose of this tutorial, click "End."
12. TextBridge will now perform the OCR process and save the document. The TextBridge setup screen will appear again.
13. Click the File menu and select "Quit."
14. Locate your Documents folder on your hard disk and double-click it.
15. Find the "TEST" document icon and double-click it. Your document will now open into the word processor which can read its format. From here you can edit, print, or save your finished document. You may see characters that look like this ~. These are tildes, and they represent characters that TextBridge did not recognize. OCR programs like TextBridge are not 100 percent accurate in their recognition process, and they will miss a few characters. If they miss too much, try the following troubleshooting tips:

1. Rescan the image at a different resolution. Relaunch TextBridge and click the File menu and then Source Setup. You may choose between 200, 300, or 400 dpi resolution settings. Click "OK" and then click "Go."
2. Make sure the page is lined up straight in the scanner. If it is crooked, it may cause characters to be unrecognized.
3. If the page is a photocopy or print-out from a fax machine, the page may have broken characters or small black spots that would interfere with the OCR process. It may be impossible to get a good OCR of this document without a cleaner original.