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Able2Extract Professional 11–The Only PDF Tool You’ll Ever Need

 

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It’s been over a week since we launched Able2Extract Professional 11 and we hope you’re all enjoying the latest features and the boost in productivity.

As you may have noticed during this year’s launch, Able2Extract Professional is the only tool we’ve upgraded. And no, we didn’t forget to upgrade the Standard version.  In fact, we decided that, in order to give you the best in PDF conversion technology, we’re now focusing solely on Able2Extract Professional.

The Standard version has been an Investintech staple from the very early days, but we believe that providing you with one tool is, by far, a more effective solution to getting your PDF tasks done.   

In other words, this change means giving you a product that allows you to do every PDF task you need without having to resort to another tool. As a result, you get a complete out-of-the-box PDF user experience.

OCR Conversion Results

On top of PDF editing, annotation and redaction, as well as upgraded PDF security features, you now get the added bonus of scanned PDF conversion. You can integrate hard copy documents into your digital workflow seamlessly.

There are a few details to note with this change, though.  

Save More With Discounted Upgrades

As a licensed user of a prior version, you are entitled to a significantly discounted upgrade to our all-new Able2Extract Professional 11.

Upgrades from all Able2Extract Standard versions to Able2Extract Professional 11 is only $49.50.  You don’t need to pay full price to get the new version and the latest features.   

Get More From Technical And Customer Support

In addition, we encourage everyone to join our  Software Advantage Plan for complete, uninterrupted and upgraded support when making the transition.  It costs only $39.95 for a yearly subscription for front-of-the-line support on your most pressing issues and questions.

Plus, there are other VIP member perks to enjoy:

  • Free access to all minor products updates and major upgrade
  • Exclusive access to new, unreleased product builds
  • A personalized web portal
  • Special volume discounts

This is a major change, but it’s a positive one. The goal: to make your Investintech experience better than ever.  If you haven’t checked out Able2Extract Professional 11 yet, you can try it free for 7-days.

Putting The Paperless Office Into Perspective

Creating Paperless Office

Image Source:  Ajaxunion.com

You’re all familiar with the concept of the “paperless office.”  Who isn’t? It’s the ideal workplace where everything is done digitally. No recycling boxes, no shredders. Although we’re a lot closer to that efficient digital office than we were 10 years ago, it’s no surprise that getting to “paper zero” is tough.

True, our technologically oriented world makes it easy to go paperless wherever we can. Free online tools, integrated cloud services and accessible networks make digitizing workflows simple. Even basic things like drafting documents and communicating with colleagues are already being done digitally with MS Word and email.

And we know that the widely used PDF format makes the transition to a paperless office simple. Lawyers, accountants, and business professionals use the format on a daily basis for legal briefs, bank statements, and official contracts, respectively. The format is secured, credible, robust and accessible.  Anyone can easily reuse and edit PDF content by converting it, if needed.

Moreover, paperless offices are appealing because it cuts down on costs.  Fees and budgets associated with printing cartridges, file storage, and shredding services can be eliminated. Our mobile driven world is essentially about being paperless, too. Everything can be done on the go without pen or paper with free or low cost apps.

…But We Still Need Paper!

Yet, there are still some things that will always require paper. As one marketing ad reminds us, there are no substitutes for toilet paper!

In fact, a manufacturer of uncoated free sheet paper in North America, launched an advertizing campaign against the growing trend of digital offices known as PaperBecause. And just as the phrase implies, they provide reasons for using paper.

They point out one obvious fact: we still need paper. It’s true. We’re still attached to it. We still write up phone messages on a sticky note, we still read printed pages, we still use photocopiers.

Finding Common Ground: The Paper-efficient Office

Yet, the humorous videos also make another thing clear. The digital switch is still a work in progress and, fortunately, isn’t about keeping paper around permanently or about abolishing paper altogether. Rather, it’s all about developing a paper-efficient office first.

So before you start getting withdrawal symptoms from going cold turkey on trying to cut your paper usage completely, take your lead from a few of the following tips to make an effective transition:

  • Use tools that can bridge the gap between paper and digital workflows. This includes tools like computer scanners, mobile converter apps, e-faxing services, and document managers.
  • Combine old paper habits with digital ones.  A tip like this is geared towards the small paper habits—taking phone messages and jotting down spontaneous notes. Smartphones these days come with voice recorders and quick note apps. So for every flyleaf you use to note something down, use a digital note the next time. This way you can cut down on half the paper you’re using for notes.
  • Only print up documents when absolutely needed. Ask yourself if your task can be done digitally first.  For example, PDF forms can just as easily be signed and filled in on a computer or converted to editable Word forms. There’s no need to print them up.
  • Work seamlessly with scanned PDF files. As everyone turns paper files into digital ones, you won’t be able to avoid scanned PDF files. For such cases, use a tool like Able2Extract Professional that can make scanned PDF content reusable. To boot, using scanned PDF converter can eliminate the need to manually retype PDF content to edit it.
  • Share documents and ideas with groups digitally.  Many collaboration, white board, document sharing and web clipping tools exist to help you work on content with others. If you can share your ideas and notes without having to make 10 photocopies, go for it!

Taking the first steps by getting some parts of your routine digitized is a great start, but don’t forget to monitor how much paper you’re still using.

Keeping an eye on those levels will help you realize how much paper you can slowly save on without cutting it out completely and all at once.

Any other suggestions you can think of?

Converting Scanned AutoCAD PDFs With OCR

As the new 2008 year rolls on, so does the work and no doubt, the PDF conversions as well. Don’t worry, we’re at it too. And every now and again, amidst troubleshooting and developing, we get an email from clients having difficulties with AutoCAD PDFs:

“I downloaded and installed your Pro version as a trial.  When I tried to convert a PDF file which was an AutoCAD drawing scanned and saved as such, it seems as if it was working but it opens Excel and nothing is converted in?”

If you’re experiencing or have experienced the same problem without any luck, don’t give up yet. Here’s a conversion tip: try resizing the image-based/scanned PDF.

This is because AutoCAD files are usually created with huge page dimensions that measure up to 30″ by 40″. In addition, it is difficult for the OCR engine to determine the size (in points) of any letter on an OCR page.  So the OCR engine is oftentimes unable to extract legible text from AutoCAD documents due to the small text size (hence the empty Excel output).

The only way it can determine the size of the text is by comparing it relative to the size of a stated PDF page which the OCR engine can read and support. The OCR engine in Able2Extract Professional can only support AutoCAD file dimensions of up to 22″ by 22″.

To resize the PDF:

1) Open the PDF in either Adobe Reader or Acrobat

2) Select File > Print

3) Change the Printer Name to ‘Adobe PDF’ in the drop box

4) Under the Page Scaling section ensure that ‘Choose Paper Source by PDF page size’ is deselected

AutoCad Print

5) Click OK to print a new PDF

You can also resize the PDF with our trial version of Sonic PDF Creator 2.0.  After installing Sonic, select ‘Sonic PDF’ as a printer (as opposed to Adobe PDF in step 3).

After you’ve resized the PDF, try the conversion again.

Hope this tip helps!

Why Performing OCR On Handwriting Doesn’t Work

Unsurprisingly, OCR is consistently a hot topic in PDF and the PDF user mind in general. In paper intense work environments, PDF conversion and OCR engines have proven to be a successful work-around for transferring paper files into word processing applications. Thus, with the help of scanners and the PDF format, any and all types of paper work can be done electronically and efficiently. Or can it?

While trying to integrate and transfer every non-digital working habit into an electronic equivalent, there are still some things that just can’t be done with ease using the same everyday tools. For instance, what about converting hand printed/written documents?

Three Flavours Of OCR

Many of you have probably wondered why such a thing can’t be done with the OCR technology in PDF conversion products. Well, this is because OCR technology and devices are only capable of recognizing the machine printed characters and fonts. And seeing as how the number of documents that are being scanned in are usually typewritten, OCR is employed in almost all cases.

In other cases, there are documents that contain handwritten sections and/or fields that are used for collecting data—a thing being slowly superseded by the fill-able PDF form. You can create a digital copy from such a document simply by scanning it in, right? Yes. However, it requires a different recognition technology altogether. Using OCR, you can perhaps get maybe one letter to “OCR” into ASCII, if it’s printed clearly and written in ink that’s thick enough to be read. But that’s about it. This is where another flavor of OCR comes in: Intelligent Character Recognition.

ICR is a more advanced form of OCR that translates hand printed letters into digital ASCII equivalents. This version of OCR is primarily used for processing applications and forms on which you “print clearly” and place individual letters in boxes. This structured method of reading a hand printed document is one of the major limitations of the technology, but controls and reduces the amount of human errors that cause misinterpretations.

In addition, there are documents that contain handwriting—aka cursive writing. Can recognition on such documents be performed? The answer: Yes. The third flavor of OCR is IR (Intelligent Recognition), the latest generation of OCR technology to date. This is used to read unconstrained writing (text not contained in boxes) and uses the same methods to translate the characters into ASCII text. From my online searching, there are a good number of companies that provide full fledged OCR/ICR/IR solutions, which can be integrated with digital workflows.

Thus, if you’re looking to OCR handwritten PDFs, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The ability to do everything and anything with technology is perhaps the ultimate goal for developers and users. Practicing it, on the other hand, is perhaps the ideal goal for every worker bee out there. It’s sad to say, but there are some cases in which you can only do so much.