Working with Areas
Before it starts the recognition, FineReader Sprint automatically analyzes the logical structure of the document and highlights different types of areas, such as Text, Images, Background Images, Tables, and Barcodes. Each area is represented by a frame with a specific color. These areas tell the system which parts of the image should be recognized and in what order. This helps recreate the original formatting.
Usually, FineReader Sprint correctly analyzes document layouts. But if you still need to adjust the areas, the program provides you with special features and tools in the Image window, in the Area inspector, and in the Area menu.
Click an area to make it active.To make an area active, click it. The order in which the program reads areas is determined by their order numbers, which you can view in the Order number box of the Area inspector.
Important! After you have finished adjusting the areas, relaunch the OCR process.
- How to edit the original layout
- How to add/delete an area
- How to select multiple areas
- How to edit area borders
- How to add/delete a rectangular part of an area
- How to move an area
- How to change the numbering of areas
- How to edit text properties in areas
- Working with tables
- Using area templates
How to edit the original layout
By default, FineReader Sprint is set to automatically analyze documents as you open them. However, very complex formatting may cause incorrect detection of some areas. Correcting only the problem areas is much faster than drawing all of the areas manually.
Layout detection can be adjusted by using the following tools and menu commands:- Area drawing tools in the toolbar in the Image window
- Area drawing commands in Area > Draw Area
- Tools in the Area inspector
How to add/delete an area
To draw an area:
- Select a desired area drawing tool in the toolbar in the Image window:
draws a Recognition
area
draws a Text
area
draws an
Picture area
draws a Background Image
area
draws a Table
area - Alternatively, choose Area > Draw Area, and then choose an area drawing command
- Use the mouse to draw an area in the image.
Note: After you select a drawing tool for a specific area type, the appearance of the cursor will change.
You can change the type of an area by selecting the desired type in the Change Area Type shortcut menu.
To delete an area:
- Select the area that you want to delete
- In the toolbar in the Image window, select
.
Alternatively, choose Area > Delete Area.
To delete multiple areas, first select the deletion tool and then click the areas one by one.
When you select the deletion tool, the cursor changes to 
.
Tip: To draw areas from scratch, delete all areas marked on the image. You can do this by choosing Delete All Areas in the Page menu or in the shortcut menu of any area. To revert to the automatically detected areas, choose the Analyze Page or Analyze All Pages command in the Page menu.
How to select multiple areas
You may need to select multiple areas in order to perform group operations. For example, if you want to change the type of several areas at once or move the original layout.
To select several areas:
- click them while holding down the Command key, or
- select the Select Areas tool and use the mouse to draw a box around the areas you want to select.
How to edit area borders
You can change the size of an area so that it fits the text, image, table or barcode within its borders.
To do this, place the cursor on an area border and drag it in the desired direction while holding down the left mouse button. You can simultaneously move vertical and horizontal borders by placing the mouse cursor on a corner of an area.
How to add/delete a rectangular part of an area
- In the toolbar in the Image window, select
to add a section to
an area, or select 
to delete a section. - Place the mouse cursor inside the area and select a rectangular section. This rectangle will be added to or deleted from the area depending on which tool you have selected.
- Adjust the area borders, if necessary.
Note: These tools can only be applied to Text, Image, and Background Image areas. You cannot add/delete a segment in a Table or Barcode area.
How to move an area
Select an area and move it while holding down the Command key. If you select multiple areas, this will move all the selected areas.
How to change the numbering of areas
Each area on the document's page has a number that is displayed in the Order number box of the Area inspector. The order in which the program reads areas and the order of areas in the output document both depend on these numbers.
Note: The area numbers will affect the positions of the areas in the output document only if you export the results in Formatted Text and Plain Text modes. For more information, see "Document Format Export Modes".
- To change the order numbers of areas on an image, click Order Areas on the Areas menu or click the Order Areas button in the Area inspector, and then select the areas. The order in which you select them determines the order in which they appear in the output document.
- To change the number of one area, select it, specify a new number in the Order number field in the Area inspector.
Note: When the program automatically analyzes the layout, it automatically numbers the areas from left to right, regardless of the text direction.
How to edit text properties in areas
The following area properties can be specified in the Area inspector and in the shortcut menu of an area:
- Text Function, which defines the "role" of the text in the area. A
text fragment can be a header, footer, heading, body text, etc, in the
document. If the program fails to identify a text fragment as header/footer,
for example, you can manually change its property to Header/Footer.
Note: This parameter is only available for Text areas. - Inversion, which specifies whether the text is inverted or not.
- Orientation, which specifies the orientation of the text.
- Type, which specifies Barcode areas.
If the program fails to identify the properties of text in several Text or Table areas, you can specify them manually.
Working with tables
If FineReader Sprint fails to detect the rows and columns of a table automatically, you can adjust the layout manually and run the OCR process again.
Example of a complex table:
Editing Tables:
- Use the Area menu or the shortcut menu of a particular area:
- Analyze Table Structure analyzes tables so that you don't have to draw vertical and horizontal separators in a table manually
- Split Cells splits table cells
- Merge Cells merges the selected table cells
- Merge Rows merges the selected table rows
To merge or split table cells or rows, select them first and then choose the corresponding tool or menu command.
- The following tools are available in the toolbar in the Image window:
adds a vertical separator
adds a horizontal separator
deletes a separator
merges selected cells
splits selected cells
Notes:
- The cell splitting command can only be applied to table cells that were previously merged.
- If a table contains vertical text cells, you may need to change the text properties first.
- If a table cell contains only a picture, select "Treat cell as picture" in the Area inspector.
Using area templates
If you are working with a multi-page document, where many pages have similar structure, use area templates.
You can save the layout of areas as a template and then apply this template to similar pages.
- To create an area template for the pages in the current document, choose Area > Save Layout. This will save the template to a file.
- To apply an area template, choose Area > Load Layout, and then select the desired area template.
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