Duhhhh....

[ffutures]

My main reason for buying another PC (rather than say a Mac) was (a) because I needed to get up and running in a hurry after my old machine went phut and (b) to keep compatibility with existing software.

The most expensive software I own is Caere's Omnipage Pro OCR package, which I use to scan old books etc. for the Forgotten Futures games collections and CD-ROM. Last upgrade I had was to release 10, they are now on 14. What I didn't know is that 10 is not Windows XP compatible. Three guesses what OS is on the new computer... And three guesses what is the lowest version they now support (hint, it's 1 more than 10)...

So on top of the cost of the PC, I now have to look at a new OCR package. There don't seem to be any cheap upgrades on offer from Caere, unless I'm missing something, so I might as well try others too. Anyone have any suggestions. I need to support the following:

• A Umax 1220S SCSI scanner, preferably directly driven rather than through a TWAIN interface.
• Large documents (mostly in chunks of 20-30 pages but occasionally more)
• A range of typefaces, portrait and landscape layout, multiple columns, documents with mixed text and graphics.
  
• Sometimes really crappy small typefaces.

I like Omnipage but it isn't cheap; if anyone can suggest alternatives please let me know about them.

Comments

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about instead using xp, that you use win2k instead?. The kernel is nearly the same. And I personally do like, that 2k does not use so much system resources. But i do find it rather strange that a program, that is designed for win2k, does not function on XP.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Not sure it works for 2K (never tried it) and I'm pretty sure my scanner doesn't. I'm going to talk to Caere, obviously, but another change of operating system is very much my last resort.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add that Windows 2K probably costs more than Omnipage, if it's still even available in a single-user package. And yes, it does need to be a legit copy.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

How about that you create a partition for your old legit OS, that you could use with Caere. You would have to repartition your hard disc of course. Or you could also, if your hard disc from you old computer is functional, set it in as slave, and make a dual boot, for the two OS. See windows support site for more details.
Ok I will stop bugging you now.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'm not 100% sure I have a working Windows 98 bootable drive right now; if I do it's going back into the old PC once I've repaired it.

Ok I lied, with that would be the last post last time

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

But I have to ask you about, if you have tried in Win Xp, to force Xp to run Caere in win 98 or win 2k mode ?.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

After all that it turns out to be a scanner problem, not software - the interface appears to be unable to keep up with the processors speed. A new scanner (a lot cheaper than any of the OCR software I looked at) fixed things.