Quick Fields Training Guide

Quick Fields Training Guide

About LaserFiche Since 1987, LaserFiche Document Imaging has led the industry in offering smart, flexible, and easily integrated document management solutions for a broad range of business and government needs. As the core strength of Compulink Management Center, Inc., LaserFiche Document Imaging software turns existing PC hardware into robust search and retrieval databases that can be easily scaled from the single user to the large corporate network. LaserFiche builds on the advantages of paper documents, rather than abandoning paper altogether. Documents are scanned page for page, and a high-resolution photocopy is retained online. Files can still be printed, exchanged, stored, and retrieved by any networked users or by anyone with a standard web browser using LaserFiche Weblink. With LaserFiche, you retain the flexibility and portability of your paper documents while adding the enormous benefit of digital storage. LaserFiche allows you to search thousands, even millions, of documents for file name, folder name, assigned fields, or even any word on a page. Currently, most documents are on paper, microfiche or microfilm and kept in filing cabinets or storage boxes, generating a physical barrier that restricts their access. LaserFiche is designed to solve the basic human problem of finding stored information. Studies have shown that a typical professional worker spends thirty minutes to two hours a day just searching for documents, taking away from time available to actually make use of the information. LaserFiche solves this problem by drastically simplifying the filing process and providing a means to rapidly search, retrieve and share all documents contained within the system. 2003 Compulink Management Center, Inc. All rights reserved. LaserFiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc. Product and service names referenced herein may be trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies. Due to continuing product development, product specifications and capabilities are subject to change without notice. Printed in the USA. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Compulink Management Center, Inc. on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Compulink must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Compulink, and Compulink cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This paper is for informational purposes only. Compulink makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the information in this document. Quick Fields Training Guide March 2004, Version 1.1 LaserFiche 3545 Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90807 USA 562.988.1688 www.laserfiche.com

Table of Contents LaserFiche Quick Fields Overview... 1 What is Quick Fields?... 1 Why Quick Fields?... 1 How does Quick Fields work?... 2 Input... 2 Identification... 2 Image Processing/Enhancement... 2 Document Revision...2 Send to LaserFiche... 3 What can Quick Fields do?...3 Base Product... 3 Quick Fields Add-ons...5 LaserFiche Quick Fields Workbook... 8 Orientation to Quick Fields... 8 Session Pane... 8 Document Pane... 9 Task Pane... 9 Output Pane... 9 Sample Sessions... 9 Session 1: Doughboy Invoices... 16 Session 2: Water Cards... 18 Session 3: Service Reports... 20

LaserFiche Quick Fields Overview What is Quick Fields? LaserFiche Quick Fields is a collection of image processing and enhancement tools wrapped in an elegant and intuitive interface. We call Quick Fields a document capture platform because it is so much more than just an offline scanning tool. Because Quick Fields was developed specifically for LaserFiche document imaging and management solutions, it offers a unique functionality set designed to simplify automated capture and classification of documents. In addition to working with most production level scanners, Quick Fields supports the Universal Capture plug-in and includes a powerful tool called the LaserFiche Capture Engine. The basic premise of the LaserFiche Capture Engine is to provide the ability to scan documents into Quick Fields from a LaserFiche repository. This fairly simple idea is extremely powerful because it eliminates dependence on traditional scanners in order to take advantage of automated image processing technology. With Quick Fields, it does not matter how an organization images their documents. They could be scanned through a networked copier/scanner, automatically imported from a fax server or converted from an electronic format through Snapshot, and Quick Fields will process them as if they were scanned in directly. Besides extending the way organizations can apply image processing technology, the LaserFiche Capture Engine provides the ability to distribute the image capture and classification process and can also be used to move documents and data between separate LaserFiche repositories. The sharing of documents and data between repositories is a process known as Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL) and allows organizations to mirror all or portions of multiple repositories in a way that is much more efficient (in terms of both time and money) than traditional methods. Why Quick Fields? Over the years, there have been numerous studies that have all concluded that the most expensive component of implementing document imaging technology is the capture and classification of documents. There have always been a number of specialized scanning and image processing applications on the market, but none of them were developed for a specific document imaging backend or have the ease of use and intuitive interface that is synonymous with all LaserFiche applications. Developing an application to help our customers capture, classify, and organize their documents quickly and easily was a natural extension of our product offering. In the development of Quick Fields, we were in the enviable position of being able to look at all of the product offerings on the market to determine what works well and what works best. We packaged Quick Fields modularly to allow customers to purchase only what they need, and we integrated it with LaserFiche in a way that had never been done with a capture tool and imaging system before. The end result is a very elegant application that offers some of the most advanced image processing and enhancement technology available, yet presents that technology through an interface that is not at all intimidating. Quick Fields Training Guide 1

How does Quick Fields work? Input Quick Fields is actually a stand alone application, meaning a user does not have to have LaserFiche installed to use it. The first step in processing documents through Quick Fields is capturing your images. As mentioned earlier, there are three different capture methods supported by Quick Fields: Scanning, Universal Capture, and the LaserFiche Capture Engine. While each method of capture has its own advantages, they all have the same result --- images are brought into Quick Fields for processing. Once images are in Quick Fields, the way in which they are handled depends on what type of documents they are. For example, invoices might be indexed differently than purchase orders. Identification Quick Fields is able to tell different document types apart through a process called identification. The identification process can use a variety of technologies to identify distinguishing characteristics of the first page of a document. For example, an invoice might have the word invoice printed in the upper left hand corner. To identify documents as invoices then, Quick Fields could be configured to use zonal OCR to read the term invoice, identifying the image as the first page of an invoice. Image Processing/Enhancement Once Quick Fields knows what kind of document it s dealing with, it will process it according to the properties that have been assigned to that document class. In Quick Fields, each type of document is assigned to a document class. In most cases, processing starts with permanent image enhancements such as de-skew, de-speckle or thresholding. Permanent image enhancements are applied to each page of a document and are used to clean up the image that will be archived in LaserFiche. After an image has been cleaned up, Quick Fields is usually configured to apply one or more data extraction processes such as zonal OCR, barcode recognition, Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) or even Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) if you happen to be scanning checks. In addition to extracting data directly from documents, Quick Fields can connect to an external data source to look up additional information. This stage of image processing is designed to collect all of the information necessary to automatically categorize documents including document name, index field values, and folder location. Quick Fields can also utilize system data (information collected directly from the computer) such as date and time as categorization data. It is important to know that specialized image enhancements can be applied for each data extraction process to enhance accuracy. These types of enhancements are applied locally and only on the particular page associated with a specific process. They will not affect the image that gets archived in LaserFiche. For example, if requisition forms are actually printed on stationary and the data can move up and down on the form and even be printed on top of pieces of the form, the only way to accurately extract the data would be to apply forms registration and forms dropout locally to a zonal OCR process. Document Revision When all image enhancements and data extraction processes have been completed, Quick Fields has all the information it needs to classify a document. Using that information, Quick Fields names each document, assigns index field Quick Fields Training Guide 2

values, and constructs the folder path within LaserFiche where the document will be sent to. Once Quick Fields has completed the classification, documents are moved to the revision folder. If documents are not identified correctly during the beginning of the process, they are moved to the unidentified documents folder where they can be manually classified. During revision, users can scroll through documents to inspect the quality of the scanned images as well as the accuracy of the classification. For index field values that appear in the body of a document, Quick Fields provides a feature called Zoom Fields which automatically zooms in on the value on the image when an operator tabs or clicks on the field value with their mouse. To increase efficiency, all revision functions can be accessed through keyboard shortcuts. Additionally, Quick Fields has the ability to display documents through a slide show, eliminating the need to manually scroll through each page of every document. Send to LaserFiche The last step in processing documents through Quick Fields is sending them to LaserFiche to be loaded into the repository. As mentioned earlier, folder location within LaserFiche is one of the properties Quick Fields collects about each document type. When configuring Quick Fields, you don t have to use static or even existing LaserFiche folders as the destination for documents. Using tokens to specify information obtained through a data extraction process, documents can be sent to folders based on information contained within its pages. Furthermore, the folders to which the documents will be sent do not have to exist within LaserFiche before the documents are sent there. If Quick Fields needs to send a document to a folder location that does not exist in LaserFiche, it will create it automatically. This functionality gives organizations the ability to use Quick Fields to automatically create their file plan for them. Additionally, if the folder structure is created through Quick Fields, documents can be automatically appended when new pages are scanned in. What can Quick Fields do? Now that we are familiar with the design philosophy behind Quick Fields and how it works, it is a good idea to explore in further detail the base product and its plugins. Understanding Quick Fields and all of the different available options affords the capability of tailoring a capture strategy to a specific set of documents. Base Product Quick Fields not only refers to the complete product suite, but also the base program, without any plug-ins. As a standalone product, it has a lot to offer. The base Quick Fields product allows users to manually process batches of documents within an intuitive yet powerful interface. LaserFiche Capture Engine As mentioned previously, the base Quick Fields product includes the LaserFiche Capture Engine. This unique tool actually allows pages from a LaserFiche repository to be scanned into Quick Fields. Thus, with the LaserFiche Capture Engine, pages that are already in LaserFiche can be pulled out, processed in Quick Fields, and sent back to LaserFiche. The functionality of the LaserFiche Capture Engine provides some very helpful applications. First, the Capture Engine can be used to maximize the through-put of a high-speed scanner. Users can scan batches of documents straight to LaserFiche and save the processing for later. Also, Quick Fields Training Guide 3

the Capture Engine would allow users with desktop scanners to scan images into a central processing queue in LaserFiche and have a scanner operator pull them out for processing. Additionally, the Capture Engine actually allows users to re-purpose their documents. Specifically, users can add more template fields, place stamps, enhance, etc. The possibilities made possible by the Capture Engine really are limitless. Zoom Fields Also included with the base Quick Fields product is Zoom Fields functionality. Once configured, Zoom Fields will zoom to specified areas of an image that contains data to be included in a template field. When tabbing through the fields of a pre-assigned index card template in the session pane, Zoom Fields will zoom into the appropriate area of the image in the document pane. Zooming into the area of an image that contains template data allows a scanner operator to quickly and easily identify what information needs to be typed into a particular index card template field. Zoom fields is also useful when checking the accuracy of a data extraction process during document revision. Image Enhancements In addition to Zoom Fields, the base Quick Fields product also contains a number of image enhancements. These image enhancements provide a means to clean-up images and ensure that information captured from a document is as accurate as possible. Images can be de-skewed and despeckled, for example, before they are placed in LaserFiche. This allows documents to have the best possible image quality. These image enhancements can be applied globally thereby being applied to the images that are sent to LaserFiche or they can be applied locally. Local image enhancements alter a document only for a specific process and reinstate the document to its original form after the process has taken place. For example, a global horizontal line removal enhancement would remove the applicable lines from an image that would eventually be sent to LaserFiche, where a local instance of horizontal line removal would remove the lines, allow a particular process to be performed, and replace the lines in the document. This is helpful if characters in a particular Zone OCR field have been typed on top of a line. Next, the base Quick Fields product contains Page Removal. A useful feature for users who are scanning with duplex scanners is the ability to remove blank pages. Typically when scanning both sides of the pages of a document, the back side will often be blank. Blank page removal detects blank pages and deletes them automatically. Page Removal can also be configured to remove a specified page of a document, so that cover-sheets and other non-essential pages can be removed from documents. Lastly, the base Quick Fields product contains a scheduler. This scheduler allows users to hold processed documents locally until a specified time when they should be sent to LaserFiche. Scheduling the sending of documents to LaserFiche is very helpful because it can free up network resources by allowing the transmission to occur during off-peak hours. This idea is especially important for those who choose to use Quick Fields to process documents from a remote site. Quick Fields Training Guide 4

These features as well as a complete set of keyboard shortcuts make the base Quick Fields product a powerful tool for processing documents in LaserFiche. Quick Fields Add-ons Now that we have explored the base Quick Fields product, we can start to acquaint ourselves with its add-ons. The Quick Fields add-ons are the heart of the Quick Fields Suite. Using the correct add-ons can help automate the entire capture process and streamline the time it takes to move from stacks of unsorted paper to fully searchable and retrievable documents in LaserFiche. Zone OCR Zone OCR is perhaps the most familiar Quick Fields plug-in. Building on Optical Character Recognition technology, Zone OCR restricts the area of the images in which it extracts information from to a particular zone. This is accomplished by simply drawing a square on a sample image in a particular region of the page to be OCRed. This information, in turn, can then be used in a number of different ways. The most common ways to use information extracted from an image via Zone OCR are to identify documents and to use in auto-populating template fields. Zone OCR can also aid in naming documents and creating folders. Bar Code Another option available for Quick Fields is the Bar-code plug-in. Barcode can function in a manner similar to Zone OCR, but instead of capturing information directly from a document, it obtains the information from a barcode instead. This barcode, created by a barcode generator, can reside on the actual document itself or a slip-sheet. Like Zone OCR, the user draws a square on a document to specify the region to be processed. This time, however, the area is investigated for the presence of a barcode, the type of barcode is identified, and then the barcode is read for the data it contains. The information can then be used in a template field, to name the document, or to create folders. Annotation/Bate Numbering The Annotation/Bates Numbering plug-in includes both Permanent Stamp and Bates Numbering. Permanent Stamp allows users to permanently place an image or text file on an image. This stamp is different from the annotation capabilities of the LaserFiche client in that it does alter the image. Thus, one can alter the image permanently at scan time by applying a permanent stamp or add an overlay on top of the image once a document is in LaserFiche. Bates Numbering allows a sequential number to be applied on an image or every page of an image. Bates Numbers can be configured to have a certain suffix or prefix, a certain number of digits, and a certain start number. Document Classification Document Classification is a plug-in to Quick Fields that allows multiple classes (multiple types) of documents to be processed within a single session of Quick Fields. The way it works is as follows: when configuring Quick Fields for a particular type of document, a rule is created. The rule gives Quick Fields information such as where are the documents coming from, what does Quick Fields need to do with them, and where to put them once they have been processed. Document Classification allows Quick Fields Training Guide 5

multiple rules to be contained within a single session of Quick Fields. Thus, with Document Classification there is no need for a scanner operator to presort documents into types; simply feed them into a scanner and let Quick Fields do the rest. Forms Processing Forms Processing is a powerful package of tools that can be used to identify and enhance documents. Forms Processing contains four parts: Forms Recognition, Forms Registration, Forms Drop-out, and Optical Mark Recognition (OMR). Forms Recognition allows Quick Fields to identify a document by comparing incoming images to a master form that was scanned in ahead of time. If the incoming image matches up with the master form, Quick Fields knows that it is time to create a new document. Forms Registration allows incoming images to be aligned correctly so that they are processed accurately. Forms Drop-out allows the structure of the form to be removed, temporarily or permanently, so that the data is left behind. This can greatly enhance data-capture accuracy. OMR allows Quick Fields to determine the presence of a mark on a particular area of a scanned image. This can be used to verify the presence of a signature, or to process fill-in boxes on forms. Real-time Lookup Real-time Lookup is an exciting plug-in to the Quick Fields Suite. With Real-time Lookup, information can be extracted from a third-party database. This information can then be put into index card template fields or even be used as a means to verify that information from a Zone OCR field was pulled correctly. Here is how it works: Once information is extracted from an image via Zone OCR or a Bar-code, Real-time Lookup can lookup that information in an ODBC compliant source and find information associated with it. For example, if a customer s name is extracted from an image via Zone OCR, that name can then be looked up in another database and the customer s address, telephone number, or registration number can be obtained. Scan Connect ScanConnect can be used to scan images from a supported scanner directly into Quick Fields for processing. ScanConnect works with most ISIS drivers and there is a list of supported scanners on www.laserfiche.com. Universal Capture Universal Capture can be used as a means to input images from a nonsupported scanner into Quick Fields. Non-supported scanners are typically used in conjunction with large format or special purpose scanners. These non-supported scanners can place images into a network directory. Universal Capture can then in turn be pointed to that directory and pull images into Quick Fields. New for 6.2 Pattern Matching is a plug-in to that is new for Quick Fields 6.2. Pattern Matching provides an additional method of obtaining token information. Instead of searching for a specific area on a document to extract information from the way Zone OCR does or pulling information from a Quick Fields Training Guide 6

third-party database like Real-time Lookup, Pattern Matching works by examining documents and determining if a particular pattern has been met. In other words, Pattern Matching allows the use of regular expressions to format token information. Pattern Matching can be used to recognize social security numbers, phone numbers, zip code or any information that follows a specific pattern. Other new features: In addition to the new Pattern Matching option, Quick Fields 6.2 also contains many new features as well as updates to existing ones. The LaserFiche Capture Engine has been greatly enhanced and updated to include even more capabilities. The 6.1 Capture Engine allowed you to pull documents from a LF folder, process them in Quick Fields, and then send them back to the respository. The new and improved Capture Engine now allows you to delete or move the original images after processing, pull from subfolders of a specified folder, pull images whose names that match a specified pattern, retrieve documents, batches or electronic documents, retain text or annotations from the original image, and limit the number of images to process. Field Access is an add-on which allows documents to be identified based on a token value. Before Quick Fields can process a particular image, it must first know what type of image it is working with. One way to identify a document would be to have Quick Fields start a new document every time it sees a particular bar-code. Field Access, on the other hand, will allow you to identify an incoming document based on its original name or path so that if for example, it matches a certain name that you are looking for, it will then group that document in a specified class. Instead of identifying a document based on, say, the INVOICE keyword Zone OCR, Field Access identifies a document based on its original name or path. Dynamic Thresholding - this is a new image enhancement for Quick Fields 6.2. Dynamic Thresholding works by converting grayscale/color documents to black and white. This conversion is important because it allows the OCR process to take place on color documents. Dynamic Thresholding is useful for both Zone OCR and full-page OCR. Color Smoothing - Similar to Dynamic Thresholding, Color Smoothing averages the background color of an image. This image enhancement is helpful to create a more uniform entity out of an image of varying color. Token Collector and Retriever - The Token Collector and Retriever allow token information to be shared by more than one document class. Thus, information captured on one set of documents can also be applied to other document types without having to re-capture the information over again. Document Classification is required for this plug-in to function. The Token Collector and the Token Retriever processes work together to store and retrieve token data. Often times packets of information contain documents that share template information even though they are of different classes. These enhancements provide a convenient way to accomplish this task. Quick Fields Training Guide 7

Kofax Scanning - Quick Fields 6.2 now supports scanning images using drivers by Kofax ACE software through this add-on. LaserFiche Quick Fields Workbook Orientation to Quick Fields Now that we have become acquainted with the options available for Quick Fields, it would be a good idea to familiarize ourselves with the Quick Fields interface. Understanding just what we are looking at makes configuring a Quick Fields session a matter of putting the pieces in the right place. This is the Quick Fields interface. It is divided into four sections or four panes: the Session Pane, the Document Pane, the Task Pane, and the Output Pane. Session Pane The Session Pane is located at the far left of the interface. The Session Pane contains the tree view for a particular class of document. Incoming images start at the top of the tree view and as they work their way down they are being processed and sent to LaserFiche. Thus, the tree view tells Quick Fields information such as where documents are coming from, how they are identified, Quick Fields Training Guide 8

how they are being processed, and where and how they will be sent. The Document Classification Plug-in, of course, allows the session pane to contain more than one tree. Document Pane The middle section of the interface is known as the Document Pane. The Document Pane serves two purposes. First, the Document Pane can display a sample image that is scanned into Quick Fields during setup. This sample image can be used to configure image processing tasks such as Zone OCR setup. Also, the Document Pane displays incoming scanned images as they are being processed. Task Pane The Task Pane is located to the far right of the Quick Fields interface. The Task Pane contains all of the different options that a user can choose from and apply to the Session Pane. For example, clicking on Identification in the Session Pane will list the different tools (or tasks) that can be used to identify documents in the Task Pane. Accordingly, clicking on Image Processing in the Session Pane will display the different processes that can be applied to documents. Additionally, it is in the Task Pane that a user can run through the configuration wizard of a particular task. Output Pane The fourth and final pane of Quick Fields is called the Output Pane and is located at the bottom of the interface. The Output pane is where Quick Fields displays information about documents as they are being processed. The Output Pane can also be used to test sample documents during setup. Sample Sessions Now that we are familiar with the Quick Fields interface, let s create a session and process some documents. Provided in this workbook are three sets of sample documents. Each set of documents has a corresponding functional session of Quick Fields ready on your computer. The following paragraphs will explain in detail the steps taken to create each session as well as the rationale behind why a particular tool was chosen for a process over the other available options. Understanding these concepts will ensure success when the time comes to create your own Quick Fields session. When creating a session in Quick Fields, the very first thing to do is to run through the Create Session Wizard. The Create Session Wizard allows users to specify where documents are coming from, what index template to use, what volume the documents will be placed in, etc. Completion of this wizard will result in a Quick Fields skeleton of sorts which in turn can then be filled out by adding, one at a time, the desired processes to the tree view. Quick Fields Training Guide 9

To run through the Create Session Wizard, first launch the Quick Fields application and select the create a new session radio button. Then you will have to name your session. The name of your session can be anything, but it usually relates to the type of documents being processed. Quick Fields Training Guide 10

After selecting a name, it is time to determine exactly how documents will be inputted into Quick Fields. Choose the LF Capture for documents that are already in a LaserFiche repository. Choose ScanConnect if you want to scan documents straight into Quick Fields via a supported scanner or Universal Capture for non-supported special purpose scanners. We will scan our documents directly in Quick Fields via ScanConnect. The next step is to choose a class for your documents. Document class is another way to say document type. For example, if you are processing invoices, you would call your class Invoices. Quick Fields Training Guide 11

We will then have to select which database the processed documents will be sent to. Then we need to specify which index card template will be used for these documents. Quick Fields Training Guide 12

After telling Quick Fields which database to send processed documents to and what index card template to use, you can specify the volume where processed documents are to be placed and the specific folder to send the documents to. Quick Fields can even dynamically create a folder structure for processed documents to be placed in. Quick Fields Training Guide 13

Lastly, you can set up a naming convention and delivery method for processed documents. Immediately sending processed documents to LaserFiche automatically is one option, but holding documents locally and choosing to release them manually will allow a scanner operator to perform quality control procedures such as Zoom Fields or document Slide Show. Quick Fields even allows documents to be released to LaserFiche in a scheduled fashion to save the pull on network resources for off-peak hours. Pick the manual release to review them after processing and finish the wizard. Quick Fields Training Guide 14

Once the Create Session Wizard has been run through, users can fill in the resulting Quick Fields skeleton by addressing the ideas presented in the introduction to this manual. Specifically, users must tailor the specific Input, Identification, Processing, Revision, and Release ideas to their particular group of documents. Parts of these ideas have already been addressed in the Create Session Wizard. We will now explore the steps taken to configure the sample sessions that have been provided on your computer. The documents used in these sessions are provided in this workbook. Quick Fields Training Guide 15

Session 1: Doughboy Invoices Let us first start with the group of Invoices from the Doughboy Company. Open Quick Fields and run through the Create Session Wizard. Follow the instructions provided in the previous paragraphs and be sure to choose the Doughboy index card template for these documents. The volume is not relevant for this demonstration, but be sure to browse to the processed invoices folder, which is a sub-folder of the Doughboy folder, when determining which folder to send processed documents to. You can choose to have Quick Fields create subfolders for each specific invoice if you d like by using a token as a placeholder. Simply insert a backslash after the processed invoices folder and use the arrow key to select the desired token. The Quick Fields interface will open on your screen once the wizard is completed. Now we can begin filling out the skeleton for our Quick Fields session. We have already determined how documents will be input into Quick Fields. We specified ScanConnect in the wizard. Now we need to identify the documents. The Doughboy Invoices differ in length; some are single page invoices and others contain up to three pages. This rules out simply telling Quick Fields to create a document every specified number of pages. If there was a unique identifier somewhere on the first page of every document, we could use Zone OCR to read that information and instruct Quick Fields to begin a new document every time Quick Fields sees that information. The only piece of information that appears on the first page of every new document in the same place is the number one next to page number. Thus, we could instruct Quick Fields to create a new document every time it sees the number one in the upper left hand corner of the document. We have, however, instead decided to place a slip-sheet with a bar-code before each document begins. Click on sample image to scan in a sample slip sheet. After clicking on the identification button in the Session Pane, choose Bar-code in the Task Pane and run through the corresponding wizard. Now, whenever Quick Fields detects the bar-code, it will read it and create a new document. Using a bar-code to recognize our documents is perhaps a safer bet than Zone OCR, because often times the bar-codes are of a higher quality than the text on a given page. Now that we have successfully identified when a new document begins, we can tell Quick Fields how to process our documents. Doing this means choosing the appropriate processes and adding them to the Image Processing tree view by running through their respective wizards one at a time. Our Doughboy Invoices contain information that we can grab via Zone OCR and use auto-populate our index card fields, so we will want to scan in another sample image. Pick one that is most representative of the majority of documents that can be processed and be sure to tell Quick Fields to use sample page two when grabbing your zones. The first process we need to apply is rotate. This process will automatically rotate our invoices a specified number of degrees. This allows Quick Fields not only to correctly read our Zone OCR fields, but also enables the images to be sent to LaserFiche in the correct orientation after processing. Next, we can add three Zone OCR fields and pull the Date Ordered, Order Number, and P.O. Number directly off the page. This information can then be input into our template fields. Our documents are fairly clean and thus there is no need to add any image enhancements. We do, however, need to remove the slip-sheet and bar-code from our documents. Since the slip-sheet is always on the first page of Quick Fields Training Guide 16

a new document, we can simply tell Quick Fields to remove page one from every document rather than specifying a page of a particular file size to remove. Now that we have specified how we want our documents processed, we can tell Quick Fields which specific template field to place extracted information in. Do this by clicking on the index fields button in the Session Pane and using the arrows in the Task pane to put a token in the appropriate field. Now we are ready to begin processing documents. Load the scanner and press the start processing button. If configured correctly, Quick Fields will process the documents and hold them for revision underneath the tree view. When ready, select the release button and send the documents to LaserFiche. The session settings can be saved and re-used whenever it is necessary to process Doughboy Invoices. Quick Fields Training Guide 17

Session 2: Water Cards Now it is time to process our second batch of documents. This time we will be processing a group of water cards from a local government agency. There are two different types of cards, but they contain the same information. Thus, each water card can be assigned the same template, but we will set up a different document class for the two types as the information contained on the two types is in different places. Keep in mind that it is the Document Classification plug-in that allows us to process multiple types of documents within a single session of Quick Fields. Run through the Create Session Wizard again, but this time send the documents to the water cards folder and supply them with the water cards template. After this has been done and the Quick Fields interface is open, create a new document class for the second type of water cards by clicking on the first documents class s name and following the instructions in the Task Pane. You will be prompted to run through the Create Session Wizard again. When finished, you will have two tree views within a single session of Quick Fields. Proceeding one class of document at a time, fill both tree views out by applying the rules outlined in this workbook. When scanning a group of water cards in, Quick Fields needs to know of what type of water card it is dealing with and it needs to know when a new water card begins. In essence, Quick Fields needs to identify the documents. There is a bar-code on the documents, but it relates to information contained on the document rather than to document type. Zone OCR is not an option, because although there is information unique to the first page of each document, this information is not presented in a manner sufficient enough to ensure an accurate Zone OCR read. Thus, we have decided to use Forms Recognition. Part of the Forms Processing plug-in, Forms Recognition will compare incoming scanned images to a master form and know when a new document should begin if the forms match up. Add Forms Recognition to the ID tree view and complete the wizard. As the first step of the Forms Recognition wizard, the master form in which Quick Fields compares incoming scanned images to must be scanned in. It must be a blank form. Now that our water cards have been identified, we can choose how to process them. During the document prep phase, a bar-code containing the Assessor s Map number has been applied to the images. Use the Bar-code plug-in to recognize this bar-code. The text on these images is too light to be recognized via Zone OCR. In our scenario, the local government keeps a separate database that contains information pertinent to these cards. Quick Fields, via Real-time Lookup, can tap into this database and extract the necessary information provided the other database is ODBC compliant and there is a piece of information it can lookup. Configure Real-time Lookup to lookup the Assessor s Map number that was obtained from the bar-code. Looking up this number in the third-party database will allow Quick Fields to grab the information related to the Assessor s Map number and incorporate it into LaserFiche index card templates. The Assessor s Map number and information related to that specific number are all in one row of the third-party database. Once Quick Fields has been configured to acquire the information specified above, it can be inputted in the appropriate template fields in a fashion similar to what was done in the first batch of documents we processed. The tokens will still be in the arrows of the index and it is still necessary to choose an appropriate Quick Fields Training Guide 18

token for a specified field, but the name of the token will notify you that it originated in another database. Once these steps are completed, save the session and process your documents. Quick Fields Training Guide 19

Session 3: Service Reports Now that we have successfully processed two different batches of documents, it is time to configure the third and final sample session. The third group of documents is a set of Vehicle Service Contracts. The Vehicle Service Contracts present a significant challenge because the quality of the documents is less than superior, the necessary index information is not available in another database, and based on the volume of contracts, it would be too cumbersome for our scanner operator to place a bar-code on the documents. Run through the Create Session Wizard and configure the skeleton for the Vehicle Service Contracts session. Supply the documents with the appropriate template and send them to the processed contracts folder. As we begin to configure our Quick Fields session, notice that each one of the Service Contracts is exactly one page long. Thus, rather than using one of the identification processes as a means of identifying a document; we can simply tell Quick Fields to create a new document every page. This is beneficial because Quick Fields does not have to spend time running through an identification process. Now we can begin processing our documents. We will first rotate the documents to the appropriate orientation via the rotate enhancement. Then, add the Forms Registration enhancement. Similar to Forms Recognition, Forms Registration requires a blank sample image scanned in as a master form. Once configured, incoming scanned images will be aligned to the master form. This will ensure that the least amount of drift is applied when Quick Fields tries to extract text via Zone OCR. The next step is to configure Zone OCR to extract the pieces of information that will eventually be inputted into the template fields. Notice that the document contains a number of horizontal and vertical lines close to, and in some cases, on top of information that needs to be extracted. Local image enhancements can be applied to each Zone OCR field. Local image enhancements can apply an enhancement to a specific process, allow the process to occur, and then reinstate the image to its original form. In our case, we will apply two local image enhancements to each Zone OCR field: horizontal and vertical line removal. Do this by right clicking in the session pane with an existing Zone OCR process that has already been configured to insert the enhancements one by one. In contrast to local enhancements, global enhancements permanently alter the image: a global horizontal line removal will remove the horizontal lines from a document permanently. The Forms Dropout enhancement could have been used in lieu of the local line removal enhancements, but applying this enhancement locally eight times would cause the processing time to increase significantly. Once the index card template fields have been set up, create a Zoom Field for each one. Zoom Fields works in a manner such that it zooms directly to the area of a document in which template information is contained automatically when a scanner operator tabs to a particular field. Thus, a scanner operator can easily perform any necessary corrections to a document s fields before sending them to LaserFiche. Because of the quality of the Vehicle Contracts, our scanner operator will make heavy use of Zoom Fields. Once the documents have been corrected, the scanner operator can then send them to LaserFiche. Quick Fields Training Guide 20

NOTES

NOTES

2003 Compulink Management Center, Inc. LaserFiche is a registered trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective holders. Printed in the U.S.A.