Version 7.2 ScanTools Plus Help - For Technical Reference Only

Post-Scan Editing (Correcting Serial Number...) dialog

The edit profile you select may contain validation tests or other criteria that documents must conform to, such as the presence of data in mandatory fields or the absence of multiple marks. If a document fails an edit profile test, ScanTools software can present the failing document record for editing.scanning after

For Image Scanner Implementation Only: If you want to view the image clip of a failing field during post-scan editing, you should select the same edit profile during scanning that you will use for post-scan editing. Image clips of edit failures are created during scanning using the edit profile selected at scan time. You can select a different edit profile for post-scan editing; however, depending on how the edit profiles differ, image clips may not be displayed in the post-scan editor. For example, if a field passes editing during scanning, an image clip will not be captured; if the field later fails during post-scan editing with a different edit profile, the image clip is not available because it was not captured during scanning.

NOTE: Additionally, for grayboxes, the same edit type must be used at both scan time and during post-scan editing.

The Correcting Serial Number… (Post-Scan Editing) dialog appears after scanning and enables you to review and correct errors in the data file.

For Image Scanner Implementation Only:

• The background form image comes from a TIFF file that must be supplied by the user and specified in the application definition. See Add Background Form Images for Sheet # dialog and Image Clips dialog
• ScanTools always operates as if it has a full-page clip. If sparse clipping has been done (the default), the individual clips are assembled on an otherwise blank page. The effect is that the area of the page that was not clipped contains no marks.

If, during the editing, ScanTools software does not display the document records that you expect, check the settings in Edit Options dialog. You access that dialog box from the Main Window Options Menu

Graybox Edits and OMR Scanners

If you are using an OMR scanner and a graybox edit is specified in your Edit Profile, a graybox edit may be presented for correction. This behavior depends on a combination of factors including whether other edit failures are present in the record and whether Program Action is set to No Action or to Require Key Entry. See Graybox Display in Post-Scan Editor for graybox edit behavior details. If the edit is presented for correction, you can enter data for the field, if desired.

Post-Scan Editing Procedure

To use an edit profile to edit a data file after scanning has occurred, follow these steps:

1. Select the application that is associated with the data file whose records you will be editing.
2. On the Options menu of the Main Window, select Edit Options. Check the currently defined Edit Options dialog to see what edit profile and data file will be selected for editing. There are also other parameters to check in the edit options.

If you selected Edit Options in the Confirmations dialog you automatically receive the Edit Options dialog when you start the edit operation. This allows you to double-check the Edit Options settings before you actually perform the edit action.

3. Select the data file you want to edit if different than the currently selected data file.
4. Select the edit profile you want to use if different than the currently selected edit profile.

For Image Scanner Implementation Only: If you want to view the image clip of a failing field during post-scan editing, you should select the same edit profile during scanning that you will use for post-scan editing. Image clips of edit failures are created during scanning using the edit profile selected at scan time. You can select a different edit profile for post-scan editing; however, depending on how the edit profiles differ, image clips may not be displayed in the post-scan editor. For example, if a field passes editing during scanning, an image clip will not be captured; if the field later fails during post-scan editing with a different edit profile, the image clip is not available because it was not captured during scanning.

5. Start the edit cycle. You can click the Edit button on the action bar, select Edit from the Actions menu, or press the F3 function key. The Post-Scan Editing (Correcting Serial Number…) dialog appears.
6. Make corrections in this dialog as errors appear.

Manual Editing

You can also edit data files manually using the Modify Data file window. More info...

Character Replacement Process

See the Extended Edit Options dialog for more information about the character replacement process.

Dialog Box Items

Display Field =

The name of the display field defined for the application is shown in the dialog title bar to help you identify the document you are editing. This field is defined by checking Display Field in the Attributes section of the Output Field Entry dialog.

Records Checked: # of #

The record number that you are editing is shown in the dialog title bar to help you identify where you are in the editing process. For example, 3 of 5 means that you are viewing the third of five records in the selected data file that are flagged for edit failures.

Toolbar at top of screen (for Image Scanner Implementation Only)

Display %

You can select the size (%) of the image from the list in the upper left corner. It isn’t a good idea to make the window larger than necessary, because more time is used to draw the form and clips.

Sheet

This shows which sheet appears. Sheets are numbered as they are defined in the application.

Side of Sheet

• The T button shows the top side of the sheet.
• The B button shows the bottom side of the sheet.

Clip Rotation Arrows

As you edit each failing field, the associated clip is centered in the clip view window, displayed in the orientation defined in the application. You can rotate the individual clip relative to the defined orientation, using the appropriate arrow:

• Left arrow = 90 degrees counterclockwise rotation
• Up arrow = no rotation
• Down arrow = 180 degrees rotation
• Right arrow = 90 degrees clockwise rotation

If you must rotate numerous clips in a grid (either characters, rows, or columns) for ideal viewing in the post-scan editor, you should change the rotation of the entire grid in the Application Definition (grid rotation is set in Clip Attributes). This will alleviate the need to rotate each clip independently in the post-scan editor.

Light bulb button - background contrast

The clip for the field being edited is highlighted by graying out the rest of the form. Where possible, the individual failing row or column within the grid is highlighted. Only failed fields are highlighted. This grayout can be turned off with the light bulb button on the toolbar.

NOTE: When ScanTools Plus takes a clip of an ICR/OCR graybox for use in the editor, ScanTools Plus will also save phantom clips for each resolved ICR/OCR character. However, if the defined clip region does not fully encompass the evaluation region, phantom clips will not be saved for that ICR/OCR graybox.

Clip Viewing Area (for Image Scanner Implementation Only)

Directly under the tool bar is the clip viewing area which shows the actual clips acquired during scanning. The clip currently displayed belongs to the Field selected in the Field list under this window. If a background form image was defined in the application, the clips are superimposed on the background form. The image clip for the current field and edit is centered in the view window. Each clip appears in the orientation defined in the application.

NOTE: in the Application Settings dialog to improve the alignment of the background form image to the scanned image. OMR/Merge Horizontal Adjustment to adjust the dimensions of the background image. Or, if your form has the required form ID mark and timing marks, you can use the Image Clips dialog setting in the Paper Size If the background form image is not aligning completely with the individual grid clips, you can use the

Use the rotation arrows on the tool bar if you want to rotate the clip.

With the scroll bars you can scroll the image up and down and from right to left.

Field List

This area, directly under the clip viewing area, lists the name of the field that failed its edit. You can select the field of the data record you want to move to; pressing the Enter key moves you to the next failing field. The current edit status is listed after the name. This includes:

• Failing - the data in the field does not pass the edit criteria. The explanation of the failing condition is listed in the area under the data. This is the status that appears when the field is first viewed in the editor.
• Corrected - the data has been changed using the data editor so that it passes the edit criteria.

CAUTION: If you Auto-Advance through an ICR/OCR Graybox field and Display Highest Confidence Character has been elected, questionable characters will be written to the data file and the field status will be changed to Corrected.

• Viewed - the field has been accessed by the editor but not changed or corrected. Usually, nothing was done to the field and the Next Field button or Enter key was used to proceed.

When a field is changed to Corrected or Viewed, it is no longer Failing. If there are no Failing fields remaining in a record, the record is no longer available in the editor. If you have to make any further changes to the data record, you must do it manually, see Editing Data Files Manually.

Field Data

The textbox directly to the right of the Field list and under the form image is the area where you perform post-scan editing. For all grids except ICR/OCR grayboxes, it shows the data for this field as it currently exists in the data file (.dat). For ICR/OCR grayboxes, it shows results from the recognition engine, including asterisks, spaces, and highest confidence characters. The text cursor is placed automatically in the currently selected field.

• Characters that need correction are underlined. After you change them, they remain underlined as a reference to what was changed.
• Use the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys to move the text cursor.
• Entering text in typeover (Ovr) mode replaces a character at the cursor location. This mode is available for all grid types.
• Entering text in insert (Ins) mode inserts a character at the cursor location. This mode is available for non-date-containing grayboxes only.
• Use the Delete key, for all grid/field types except non-date-containing grayboxes, to replace the character at the current cursor position with a space and advance to the next character position.
• Use the Delete key, for non-date-containing grayboxes, to remove the character at the current cursor position and move all characters on the right side of the cursor within the current grid data area to the left.
• Use the Backspace key to replace the character to the left of the cursor with a space and then move the cursor to the left of the space.
• The Offset display below shows the character position number of the cursor within the field.
• If a partial edit was defined for this field, you can still move to and change any area of the entire field.

ICR/OCR Data

The Print Type selected in the optional RealTime Character Recognition component for an ICR/OCR Graybox affects whether resolved characters will be upper case, lower case, or a combination of both. In the Edit Selected ICR/OCR Graybox – Print Type dialog:

• If Hand Print is selected, lower case characters will be resolved as lower case but will be output as upper case characters. 
• If Mixed Hand and Machine Print is selected, the characters are resolved in upper and lower case and may be output as all upper, all lower, or a combination of the two based on the quality of the hand print.

Show Spaces

When Show Spaces is checked, spaces in the data record appear as black dots.

Auto Advance

When Auto Advance is checked (On):

• You can move the cursor automatically from failure to failure using the cursor navigation keys listed below. When you are at the last failing field in one record, you automatically advance to the first failing field in the next record. If a document has no failures, the record is not displayed.
• Both the edit control and the clip viewer automatically advance to the next failure each time a failure is corrected.
• The state of Auto Advance (on or off) is saved between edit sessions.

When Auto Advance is not checked (Off), images for failing fields are only displayed from the point that:

• The first character in any field of the selected record is a failure; or
• A failing character is clicked on in the Field Data text box; or
• A failing character is clicked on in the Field Data text box and then a previously failing field in the "Fields" list box (for which no image was displayed) is clicked on (vs. using the Next Field button).

NOTE: Auto Advance must be turned on at the beginning of editing. The option to turn Auto Advance on mid-record in the data file is available but the actual Auto Advance behavior will not be available until the next record. 

Ovr/Ins

This display indicates whether you select typeover (Ovr) or insert (Ins) key entry mode for the Field Data area. The setting is toggled via the Insert key on your keyboard:

• Ovr - Typeover mode. In typeover mode, the character after the cursor in the Field Data area is replaced by a keyed character. Typeover is the default text entry mode for most post-scan editing. For OMR grids and date-containing grayboxes, Ovr is grayed out so you cannot toggle to insert mode.
• Ins – Insert mode. In insert mode, the keyed character is placed at the current cursor position in the Field Data area and all of the characters to the right of the cursor that are within the current grid data area are moved to the right. The last character in the grid data area is deleted so that the number of characters remains the same. The cursor is advanced one character to the right. Inserted characters will be marked as non-failing. Insert mode is only available for non-date-containing grayboxes.

Offset

This shows the character position number of the text cursor within the current field.

Edit Failure description

This area shows a description of the edit failure. The description is based on the edit defined for the field in the edit profile.

Next Field button

This moves you to the next failing field. If you are at the last failing field when you select this button, you move to the next record if all mandatory corrections are completed.

Quit button

Use this button when you want to leave the editor. Changes made to records previous to the current record are saved. Any changes made to the current record are not saved when you select Quit.

Delete Record button

Use this button if you want to set the Delete flag in the NCS Header.

Once you have marked a record for deletion, it is not actually deleted until you perform post-scan converting on the data file. You must do the converting after you close the data file.

Records marked for deletion are not processed when you perform post-scan editing.

See Deleting Records from a Data File.

Suspend Record button

Use this button to write the changes you have made to the current record but keep the record flagged as an edit failure. For example, if you cannot complete the edit, selecting the Suspend Record button causes the record to be returned to the data file, but still marked as failing edit. So, when editing begins again, the record will be presented for correction again. You do not leave the data editor when you select this button.

Accept as Good button

Use this button to mark the current document record as passing all edits, even if not all failures are corrected. The Accept as Good button is not honored if any of the failing edits are mandatory and have not yet been corrected.

Previous Record button

The Previous Record button appears only if at least one record has already been edited. Use this button to edit a previous record (allows only one previous record to be edited). By pressing the Previous Record button, the following warning message appears.

Returning to the previous record will cause any changes made to the present record to be lost. Do you wish to continue? Yes No

Click Yes to display all the previous failing fields in the field list marked as failing. The data presented can be modified. Once the data has been modified, you may continue the editing process.

NOTE: When you click Yes, the Previous Record button is no longer displayed.

Keyboard Functions and Navigation

For All Scanners

Arrow Keys 

• Up Arrow - go to previous failure, either in this field or a previous field, Failing and Viewed status only
• Down Arrow - go to next failure, either in this field or the next field, Failing and Viewed status only
• Left Arrow - in the Field Data area, move the cursor one character to the left
• Right Arrow - in the Field Data area, move the cursor one character to the right

Backspace in the Field Data area, replace the character to the left of the cursor with a space and then move the cursor to the left of the space

Delete in the Field Data area:

• for all grid/field types except non-date-containing grayboxes, replace the character at the current cursor position with a space and advance to the next character position
• for non-date-containing grayboxes, remove the character at the current cursor location and move all characters on the right side of the cursor, within the current grid data area, to the left

Enter go to next field, or next record containing a failure, if no more failing fields in this record

Insert in the Field Data area, toggle between inserting (Ins) and typing over (Ovr) key entered text

Page Down go to next field, regardless of status

Page Up go to previous field, regardless of status

For Image Scanners Only

Ctrl B go to the Bottom side of the sheet

Ctrl L toggle background contrast (Light bulb on tool bar)

Ctrl S activate the Sheet selection combo

Ctrl T go to the Top side of the sheet

Ctrl +  zoom in (numeric keypad)

Ctrl -  zoom out (numeric keypad)

Ctrl Page Down go to next sheet in document – applies only to multi-sheet documents

Ctrl Page Up go to previous sheet in document – applies only to multi-sheet documents