--- Forwarded Message from Frank Keller <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 16:38:19 -0400
>From: Frank Keller <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: #6655 OCR scanning - phonetic characters
>To: [log in to unmask]

------------------
I have found ABBYY OCR software to be far superior to Omnipage. I have used it for English, Greek, Spanish and French. I am not sure how well it will do with phonetic symbols, however. http://www.abbyy.com 



Frank Keller
Microcomputer Support Specialist II
Language Laboratory
506 Krieger Hall
Johns Hopkins University
410-516-6767
[log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 04/30/02 03:22PM >>>
--- Forwarded Message from "Janel Brennan" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>From: "Janel Brennan" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: "Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum"    <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: OCR scanning - phonetic characters
>Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 10:56:36 -0400
>In-Reply-To:  <[log in to unmask]>
>Importance: Normal

------------------
Hello,

We have a group on campus that has an online course in Ethnomusicology with
a school in Spain.  They have been using Omnipage Pro to scan articles for
the course into a digital format and post them on WebCT.  They could
technically create PDF files but say that the download time is too long for
the dial up connection of the students.  Currently, they scan the articles
and then spend a lot of time editing the text and trying to get the
formatting correct.  Many times the articles are in Portuguese, Spanish,
English and also include phonetic symbols.  They can get Omnipage to pick up
the Spanish and the Portuguese but not the phonetic symbols.  Is there a
plugin or some way in which this can be done or will they just have to add
the phonetic symbols in Word?

If there is anyone out there already doing this successfully, please let me
know!  Their poor grad students are going slowly insane from the constant
scanning and editing.  My suggestion for them was to just scan the articles
as pdfs and burn them to a CD to send to Spain but I wonder if there is
another option out there for them.

Thanks for any help you can provide!!

-Janel :)


----------------
Janel Brennan, Coordinator
Language Instructional Technology
School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures
University of Maryland
3215 Jimenez Hall
College Park, MD 20742
[log in to unmask] 
301-405-6927
FAX: 301-314-9752
http://www.umd.edu/sllc