The Vent and Rant Thread

[pshrynk]

Relatives. Meh.

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Can I do an "unnamed vent"? I'm hurt, I'm ticked off, and the more I think about the situation, the more just plain angry I'm getting. I don't want to go into the whole thing, it involves some other people (no, no one at MR), but if I seem to be "off" or disappear for the next few days, y'all will know why.

I know the feeling very well.

At the moment I am also feeling (like yourself) just a bit hurt by the actions (or inactions) of someone else.

At the end of the day, all they have managed to do is to lose a friend. Not a good start to the New Year for them.

I hope that this will blow over Phenomeshel and remember, "this too shall pass'.

Cheers.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Google's sponsoring the open source and very powerful OCR software OCRopus. I'd expect a Windows installer in 12-18 months.

I've used it with a Live CD, and it has a drastically lower error rate, as things stand, than the Windows software I was using (trial versions of the "high end" stuff, even).

So the cost for that portion of things should fall.

That will be splendid, but even the consumer grade software shipped with scanners will generally do an adequate job. You simply can't skip the edit/proofread step after scanning, and while Google's software should cut down on how much you have to do, I'll be startled if it makes it go away entirely.

Still, Google behind this and having it as open source is very good news.
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Dennis

[kennyc]

DRM!!!!!!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kazbates

@Dennis ~ I scanned the book on a Canon DR-2510 using the OmniPage OCD software (very limited in scope) bundled with the scanner. It placed the scanned document into a .opd file but I could have saved it as a pdf or tiff (I think there was one other format) using just the scanner software. After the OCD editing process, it gave me the option of saving as a doc, rtf or txt. When saving as a doc or rtf and then opening in Word for further editing, it placed each scanned page in a textbox. Saving as txt completely strips any formating. My thought was to edit in Word and then resave as an html file per HarryT's guide. When I tried to save the textboxed version of the doc file as an html, it stripped all the formating just as if it was a txt file. I'm thinking that the problem lies with the limited version of the Omnipage app but it could very easily be "operator error".

I don't think the problem was Omnipage, though I agree there are better things out there.

One of the issues you face is that each page will be a scanned image, which will be seperately OCRed, and the results saved to different files. Those files must be combined to be a complete book, and there the trouble starts. You're running into the divisions between files.

Which version of Word are you running, and how were you bringing the files into Word to edit? The last time I had to OCR stuff, I wasn't concerned with keeping formatting, and saved to text. I combined the text files from the command line (copy file1.txt+file2,txt+file3.txt... newfile.txt), then brought that into my preferred text editor for cleanup. (I generally use Notepad++, but have a dozen or so others installed. Among other things, I maintain a wiki devoted to text editors, and am always looking at new ones. See http://TextEditors.org)
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Dennis

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

.



No problems. Just don't forget to come back when its better........

Originally Posted by nohmi2

I know the feeling very well.

At the moment I am also feeling (like yourself) just a bit hurt by the actions (or inactions) of someone else.

At the end of the day, all they have managed to do is to lose a friend. Not a good start to the New Year for them.

I hope that this will blow over Phenomeshel and remember, "this too shall pass'.

Cheers.

Thanks DGma and Nohmi, plus those of you who PM'd me. I'm feeling better, it's a situation I really can't do much about, so I'm trying to distract myself the best I can.

Originally Posted by kennyc

DRM!!!!!!

Kenny, can I just say a great big "AMEN" to that??

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I don't think the problem was Omnipage, though I agree there are better things out there.

One of the issues you face is that each page will be a scanned image, which will be seperately OCRed, and the results saved to different files. Those files must be combined to be a complete book, and there the trouble starts. You're running into the divisions between files.

Which version of Word are you running, and how were you bringing the files into Word to edit? The last time I had to OCR stuff, I wasn't concerned with keeping formatting, and saved to text. I combined the text files from the command line (copy file1.txt+file2,txt+file3.txt... newfile.txt), then brought that into my preferred text editor for cleanup. (I generally use Notepad++, but have a dozen or so others installed. Among other things, I maintain a wiki devoted to text editors, and am always looking at new ones. See http://TextEditors.org)
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Dennis

I'm using Word 2007 and the single OCRed file gets there by Export. My husband surprised me today with the upgraded version of OmniPage. It worked much better and the exported file does not use text boxes. It places all pages in one opd file which it then exports to Word in whatever format I choose. This version (OmniPage 17 Standard) will export to an html file that I can then use in Book Designer.

I haven't fiddled with the new software very much, though. Reader Library failed to launch on my computer last night and I had to do a complete uninstall and reinstall and now my computer will not recognize my reader device so I will have to do a hard reset. As if I didn't have enough going on. I am currently reloading all my books from Calibre into the Reader Library so that I can reattach all of my bookmarks and notes. I do have many of my ebooks with notes backed-up on SD cards, but I have several that were stored on a Memory Stick that gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't bothered to back them up on something else. I just know that with my luck lately, the SD cards are going to go the way of the Memory Stick so I've prepared myself for the worst. If you don't hear from me for a few days, you now know why.

[Darqref]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I don't think the problem was Omnipage, though I agree there are better things out there.

One of the issues you face is that each page will be a scanned image, which will be seperately OCRed, and the results saved to different files. Those files must be combined to be a complete book, and there the trouble starts. You're running into the divisions between files.

Which version of Word are you running, and how were you bringing the files into Word to edit? The last time I had to OCR stuff, I wasn't concerned with keeping formatting, and saved to text. I combined the text files from the command line (copy file1.txt+file2,txt+file3.txt... newfile.txt), then brought that into my preferred text editor for cleanup. (I generally use Notepad++, but have a dozen or so others installed. Among other things, I maintain a wiki devoted to text editors, and am always looking at new ones. See http://TextEditors.org)
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Dennis

I use an old but full version of Omnipage 16. Carefully check the options for the save formats, there are frequently more than one version of RTF. I use an RTF formatted for WordPad (the cheapo word processor installed on older Windows). I know from experience that Word does not use RTF - they use and internal EXTENSION of RTF that was known by testers as "woozle" for some gawd-awful reason. Saving to a version that is limited to be compatible with WordPad strips out the annoying text boxes, etc.

AFter that, its easier to start the proofreading stage.

In my opinion, if you are intending to do any serious amount of OCR work, then purchasing a full version of the OCR engine of your choice will be best. The clipped versions that ship with the scanner are only intended to be good enough to entice you to buy the full version.

On my full version of Omnipage, I can load multiple files at once, which will then be recognized as one document for OCR processing. I'm still annoyed by how emdashes are sometimes there and sometimes not, and I still get a lot of trouble with Capital I and lowercase l. And somebody, please make a spellcheck engine that will suggest a replacement because of a likely OCR error instead of a likely typing error!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Clarabell: His eyes, wet.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kazbates

I'm using Word 2007 and the single OCRed file gets there by Export. My husband surprised me today with the upgraded version of OmniPage. It worked much better and the exported file does not use text boxes. It places all pages in one opd file which it then exports to Word in whatever format I choose. This version (OmniPage 17 Standard) will export to an html file that I can then use in Book Designer.

Ah, so Omnipage was the culprit. The new version sounds much better.

I've played with Book Designer a bit, but I'm not the fan some others on MR are. It has too many quirks that must be worked around, like the insistence on full justification as the default. The one function I've found useful is the ability to build a TOC, and I've experimented a bit with using that, then copying the TOC code from the HTML BD generates and pasting it into the original HTML source.

I haven't fiddled with the new software very much, though. Reader Library failed to launch on my computer last night and I had to do a complete uninstall and reinstall and now my computer will not recognize my reader device so I will have to do a hard reset. As if I didn't have enough going on.

Anything interesting in Event Viewer on the failure? The Application section might have a message about the fialed launch.

I am currently reloading all my books from Calibre into the Reader Library so that I can reattach all of my bookmarks and notes. I do have many of my ebooks with notes backed-up on SD cards, but I have several that were stored on a Memory Stick that gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't bothered to back them up on something else. I just know that with my luck lately, the SD cards are going to go the way of the Memory Stick so I've prepared myself for the worst. If you don't hear from me for a few days, you now know why.

Ah, Memory Sticks. Yet Another Proprietary Technology nobody but Sony ever adopted. I have no idea why they didn't just go with CF or SD cards in the first place.

My SD cards are all fine, but one practice I follow is not automatically buying the cheapest I can find. Thre are about four manufacturers of the flash media used in cards - Hitachi, Panasonic, SanDisk, and Toshiba. Card vendors all buy from one of them in OEM deals and put the media in their own packaging. I prefer a "brand name" (usually SanDisk) to get cards I feel relatively sure won't fail on me at an inopportune time.

The one problem I've had is file system corruption, but that's endemic to FAT formatted volumes on disk or card. Putting the card in a USB reader and running CHKDSK /F on it fixes the issue.
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Dennis

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Ah, Memory Sticks. Yet Another Proprietary Technology nobody but Sony ever adopted. I have no idea why they didn't just go with CF or SD cards in the first place.

That's been Sony's way of doing things for decades: Betamax, DAT, MiniDisc, SACD, SDDS...

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by devilsadvocate

That's been Sony's way of doing things for decades: Betamax, DAT, MiniDisc, SACD, SDDS...

I know. You would think they'd learn. Betamax was actually superior to VHS, but Sony lost in the format wars. They got luckier backing Blu-Ray, but had more partners in the effort.
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Dennis

[Catire]

Stupid wide margins on epubs !!!!

Spent 15 minutes looking at the html and css and I still cant find what to modify to change them

[vivaldirules]

I hate epub (although I like the idea of it). But I hold out hope that soon publishers will realize that the formating of their ebooks is as important for marketing as the quality of the paper, fonts, and cover art were for pbooks and will therefore pay more attention to it. And the publishers in turn will make vendors of readers (like Sony) pay some more damn attention to their lousy, stinking firmware.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by Catire

Stupid wide margins on epubs !!!!

Spent 15 minutes looking at the html and css and I still cant find what to modify to change them

I've been there, looking at 8,000 lines of CSS. Searching for margin definitions and finding way too many.