Omnipage Pro X and Snow Leopard

[Maximzodal]

I used Omnipage for years with Windows to bring scanned documents into
Word updating it whenever a new version came out. I bought Parallels
just for Omnipage when I switched to the Mac. With Snow Leopard my
Parallels didn't work so I decided to get Omnipage Pro X for Mac.
After failing to install it on either machine I finally got through to
Nuance technical support (2 hours) and they finally told me it isn't
compatible with Snow Leopard! I was sure I had read in the forums
that people had gotten Omnipage Pro X to work with Snow Leopard. If
so, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Max

 

[Daniel Cohen]

I used Omnipage for years with Windows to bring scanned documents into
Word updating it whenever a new version came out. I bought Parallels
just for Omnipage when I switched to the Mac. With Snow Leopard my
Parallels didn't work so I decided to get Omnipage Pro X for Mac.
After failing to install it on either machine I finally got through to
Nuance technical support (2 hours) and they finally told me it isn't
compatible with Snow Leopard! I was sure I had read in the forums
that people had gotten Omnipage Pro X to work with Snow Leopard. If
so, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

I don't know about installation, there might be issues there. I had it
from way back.

I can't recall what I did to get it working, as I don't use it often.
Maybe the incompatibility is in scanning. If you can install it, then
try scanning the document using some other program (Image Capture,
perhaps) and then running Omnipage on the scan rather than trying to
scan within Omnipage.

 

[CyberTaz]

According to the Nuance web site it is compatible with:

Mac OS 9.0 or later
Mac OS X (10.1)

NOTE that it doesn't read as "or later", nor is there any reference to the
Mac version in their Knowledge Base. Apparently Nuance has all but abandoned
the Mac product, so...

If the developer tells you it's not compatible with 10.6 I'd have to believe
them. Even if someone can suggest a way to "make it work" it's quite likely
that it will not work *properly* & may very possibly interfere with other
software -- including the OS -- in the process. The only reference to
installing it I've found in this group suggests:

Some folks have had a hard time getting OmniPage Pro installed. The
work-around is to boot up as "root" and to install the program.

I've not tried it, so I can't comment on its validity or long-term
effectiveness.

What I can tell you for certain is that even if you succeed, Office 2008
does not provide a Twain interface so you won't be able to scan directly
into Word or any of the other Office 2008 apps. The Twain mechanism relied
on VBA which is not a part of Office 2008 but is expected to return in the
next release. Whether there is an Apple Script substitute I don't know.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Maximzodal]

SNIP

I don't know about installation, there might be issues there. I had it
from way back.

I can't recall what I did to get it working, as I don't use it often.
Maybe the incompatibility is in scanning. If you can install it, then
try scanning the document using some other program (Image Capture,
perhaps) and then running Omnipage on the scan rather than trying to
scan within Omnipage.

The install fails almost immediately so there is no scanning. The
dialog states Apple will receive notification of the failure.

BTW, Nuance apparently does not offer free technical phone support for
any of their products! The phone support number listed on their web
page is an recording that refers you back to the web page! I had to
call customer service in order to get a technical support phone
number. To add insult to injury, the customer is required to pay
return postage in order to get a refund. How many months has Snow
Leopard been out? How difficult would it be to inform potential
customers on their web site the product doesn't work with Snow
Leopard? I won't be buying anything from them in the future.

So, if Omnipage is out, what is a good OCR application that won't cost
half a grand?

Thanks,
Max

 

[Michel Bintener]

So, if Omnipage is out, what is a good OCR application that won't cost
half a grand?

There aren't that many OCR applications on the Mac. One application that
comes to mind immediately is ReadIRIS Pro, which I have been using
successfully for a number of years now. The latest version is compatible
with Snow Leopard, by the way.

See here for more details:
<http://tinyurl.com/mqq8fm>

Another solution is ABBYY FineReader Express Edition for Mac. I don't
have any experience with this software, so I can only direct you to the
product page:

<http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_for_mac/>

 

[Daniel Cohen]

There aren't that many OCR applications on the Mac. One application that
comes to mind immediately is ReadIRIS Pro, which I have been using
successfully for a number of years now. The latest version is compatible
with Snow Leopard, by the way.

See here for more details:
<http://tinyurl.com/mqq8fm>

Another solution is ABBYY FineReader Express Edition for Mac. I don't
have any experience with this software, so I can only direct you to the
product page:

<http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_for_mac/>

VelOCRaptor is cheaper than either of those two. It's new, not that
established, but worth looking at.

As to OmniPage, I'm trying to search my memory. I think the issue is
that the program runs under Rosetta, but the installer requires Classic,
which does not exist in (Snow) Leopard. So if you have access to a
machine running Tiger or earlier, you could install on that and then
copy the installed files over.