Switching off automatic formatting with FineReader 10.0

Karl Murks · 12-05-2011, 04:57 AM

I am currently scanning a book with a lot of specific formatting but FineReader is giving me some serious trouble. It tries to eliminate all line breaks and completely messes up the text's formatting while doing that.

I looked through all menus but I can't seem to find any option to skip this step and leave the text in the exact same line formatting the original contains.

This is costing me a lot of work because I have to manually undo the entire mess FineReader creates and it's almost as much as just typing the text.

This function has already given me a lot of grief because it seems to be a bit overzealous in trying to merge lines so even for normal books I'd prefer to do the line break cleanup myself with a dedicated tool afterward. So, any idea how I can tell FineReader to do this?

DSpider · 12-05-2011, 05:40 AM

Go to Tools - Options - Save - RTF/DOC/DOCX and tick the check boxes that say "Keep page breaks" and "Keep line breaks".

If you're going with PDF (which I think is the reason you care about line breaks), you should know that some lines won't fit so you'll have to manually adjust the character spacing in Word in 0.05 increments until they do. Simply right click - Font - Advanced - Spacing: Condensed 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 etc. Of course, it's recommended you use a macro for these increments and a hotkey to activate it instead of right clicking dozens of such lines or possibly hundreds, depending on the book.

My problem with FineReader 10 (which I hope they fixed in version 11) is that it creates separate styles for bold and italic characters. And not just that, but MULTIPLE styles for basically the same frigging formatting... I thought you had the same issue and wanted to turn off automatic formatting. Not a line break issue.

Karl Murks · 12-07-2011, 06:48 AM

Actually my problem is that it merges lines it's not supposed to merge.
I find it strange for OCR software that there's no simple way to tell it what to look for when trying to detect new paragraphs.

Most of the texts I scan use indentation but FineReader seems to be oblivious of the idea that those may be new paragraphs and happily merges them together more often than I would like.

The 'keep page breaks' is definitely some help but without being able to see this in the scanned text window it's only half a solution because I still can't use FineReader's editing features efficiently.

Most of the other problems it has - the inability to edit across pages, for example I can deal with by using text cleanup tools afterward. It's really the lack of control over paragraph detection that has been a constant irritation for me because as it is it creates more work than it solves.

DSpider · 12-07-2011, 08:14 AM

Are you sure it merges lines? Press the show/hide formatting characters button in Word and look at the paragraphs:

The reversed "P" marks the end of a paragraph. It's added automatically if you press Enter. If you press Shit+Enter, it will add a line break instead. AFAIK, this works in FineReader as well. But I never use FineReader for page layout. Word is much more advanced.

If you're looking to add indentation, line spacing or paragraph spacing (from Word), you should look at the "Page Layout" tab (Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, etc). Press Ctrl+A to select the entire text and add indentation to your heart's content.

Karl Murks · 12-07-2011, 02:50 PM

I know all that. My problems are not with editing the scan result but with getting something I don't have to edit. And that's where FineReader doesn't do what I want sometimes - unfortunately often enough that it becomes a problem.

I can't find any way to tell it how a paragraph looks on paper so that it can reduce the detection errors.

12-05-2011, 04:57 AM	#1
Karl Murks Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: none	Switching off automatic formatting with FineReader 10.0 I am currently scanning a book with a lot of specific formatting but FineReader is giving me some serious trouble. It tries to eliminate all line breaks and completely messes up the text's formatting while doing that. I looked through all menus but I can't seem to find any option to skip this step and leave the text in the exact same line formatting the original contains. This is costing me a lot of work because I have to manually undo the entire mess FineReader creates and it's almost as much as just typing the text. This function has already given me a lot of grief because it seems to be a bit overzealous in trying to merge lines so even for normal books I'd prefer to do the line break cleanup myself with a dedicated tool afterward. So, any idea how I can tell FineReader to do this?

12-05-2011, 05:40 AM	#2
DSpider Evangelist Posts: 450 Karma: 343115 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Romania Device: PW2 2014	Go to Tools - Options - Save - RTF/DOC/DOCX and tick the check boxes that say "Keep page breaks" and "Keep line breaks". If you're going with PDF (which I think is the reason you care about line breaks), you should know that some lines won't fit so you'll have to manually adjust the character spacing in Word in 0.05 increments until they do. Simply right click - Font - Advanced - Spacing: Condensed 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 etc. Of course, it's recommended you use a macro for these increments and a hotkey to activate it instead of right clicking dozens of such lines or possibly hundreds, depending on the book. My problem with FineReader 10 (which I hope they fixed in version 11) is that it creates separate styles for bold and italic characters. And not just that, but MULTIPLE styles for basically the same frigging formatting... I thought you had the same issue and wanted to turn off automatic formatting. Not a line break issue. Last edited by DSpider; 12-07-2011 at 03:42 PM.

12-07-2011, 08:14 AM	#4
DSpider Evangelist Posts: 450 Karma: 343115 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Romania Device: PW2 2014	Are you sure it merges lines? Press the show/hide formatting characters button in Word and look at the paragraphs: The reversed "P" marks the end of a paragraph. It's added automatically if you press Enter. If you press Shit+Enter, it will add a line break instead. AFAIK, this works in FineReader as well. But I never use FineReader for page layout. Word is much more advanced. If you're looking to add indentation, line spacing or paragraph spacing (from Word), you should look at the "Page Layout" tab (Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, etc). Press Ctrl+A to select the entire text and add indentation to your heart's content. Last edited by DSpider; 12-07-2011 at 08:22 AM.

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12-07-2011, 06:48 AM	#3
Karl Murks Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: none	Actually my problem is that it merges lines it's not supposed to merge. I find it strange for OCR software that there's no simple way to tell it what to look for when trying to detect new paragraphs. Most of the texts I scan use indentation but FineReader seems to be oblivious of the idea that those may be new paragraphs and happily merges them together more often than I would like. The 'keep page breaks' is definitely some help but without being able to see this in the scanned text window it's only half a solution because I still can't use FineReader's editing features efficiently. Most of the other problems it has - the inability to edit across pages, for example I can deal with by using text cleanup tools afterward. It's really the lack of control over paragraph detection that has been a constant irritation for me because as it is it creates more work than it solves.

12-07-2011, 02:50 PM	#5
Karl Murks Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: none	I know all that. My problems are not with editing the scan result but with getting something I don't have to edit. And that's where FineReader doesn't do what I want sometimes - unfortunately often enough that it becomes a problem. I can't find any way to tell it how a paragraph looks on paper so that it can reduce the detection errors.

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