If you have a scanner, it is possible to scan a document into the WintextCom Reader for you to read and optionally save in the library. This is a more advanced capability that is not readily available within WintextCom, but needs setting up. It is very useful, however, and the general procedure for enabling it is outlined below.

Basically, you need to scan a document and store it as text in a file on the computer. Exactly how this is done will depend upon your system. Some scanners are provided with OCR software that enables you to save scanned documents to disk using a command line interface, and this is the recommended approach. However, if the scanner software enables you to scan documents as text into a file interactively, it may still be possible to automate the process using a script, such as in Visual Basic, to activate the software and generate the required keystrokes or mouse clicks. Third-party OCR software can also be obtained to extract information from your scanner even if it is not already provided, such as Simple OCR.

In either of the above cases, you need to write an external script to create the file containing the scanned text. You can then set up a shortcut to it in the WintextCom directory or on the WintextCom personal start menu that is available by pressing F7 (or WindowsKey+F7 in any application). The personal start menu is displayed similarly to the library, but operates like a menu. By default, it is in the "My Start Menu" subfolder of the WintextCom installation folder.

The script needs to finish by passing the file containing the scanned text to WintextCom. For example, if the script creates a file called "scanner.txt" in the WintextCom installation folder, you can read it into the WintextCom Reader with the command line:

wtc.exe ::/"|~scanner.txt".

In the above command line, prepend the appropriate path to "wtc.exe". The double quotes are necessary, they are part of the instruction to open the file in the WintextCom Reader in capture mode. The vertical bar causes the file to be opened in capture mode rather than as a document in its own rights, and the tilde specifies that scanner.txt resides in the WintextCom installation folder (Otherwise, provide a full path).

It is important that the script passes the file to WintextCom ("wtc.exe") and terminates, it must not wait for WintextCom to terminate, as generally this would not be required. By opening the file in capture mode instead of just reading it, the user can decide whether to save the information in the library by pressing ENTER, or discard it after reading by pressing Escape. Often, saving the text is not required, this capability is also just a convenient way of reading it. "*Document" is shown on the status line when reading a document in capture mode, such as in the above situation.

The technique outlined above for capturing scanned text can be used to obtain text in many other situations. You just arrange for the text to be saved in a file by whatever means and wherever it came from, and then pass the file to WintextCom as above. You could have the file created in the background at certain times and just have a shortcut in WintextCom to capture it, if it exists, and allow the user to read and save the information. For example, if you are using an e-mail program that allows you to set up advanced rules, it could automatically accumulate specific e-mails in a text file, such as news, for you to read at your leisure; once set up, this procedure is much simpler and more productive than getting the information in your e-mail and manually transferring it for later reading.

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Saving Scanned Text