[blindLaw] ABYY FineReader Stability with Jaws?

Laura Wolk laura.wolk at gmail.com
Mon Aug 5 21:38:11 UTC 2019


Why shouldn't we insist on Adobe creating a better OCR solution?  Also, the
issues being raised have to do with Jaws losing focus, inexplicably
jumping around the document, and not navigating properly as you scan
by paragraph or line.  Unless i'm mistaken, that has nothing to do
with OCR capability.  And if it does, then it only highlights that the
solutions provided by Jaws and Adobe are inadequate for the task,
since people are using these functions and still getting rather paltry
results.  It also doesn't make sense, given that people have reported
a marked downturn in Adobe's performance as of late with Jaws.  So
perhaps the issue is we're simply discussing two different things.

As for my previous email, thank you for bringing your interpretation
of it to my attention.  However, I've reread it, and I don't think
there is anything disrespectful about its tone, except perhaps that I
didn't give exact concrete data about how many files I'm dealing with
and how frequently assignments are given and expected back the same
day.  The suggested overnight solution is just not viable.  And I
don't think it would be viable in many competitive high-paced working
environments.   (Again, I am in no way commenting on your own personal
working environment.  I'm making a general statement based on the
general proposition that, oftentimes in high-paced environments,
associates are given hours not a full business day or overnight to
complete a task, and these minutes add up).  I hope that clarifies my
point.

Angie, I do get your point, and thank you.  My point is, if you take
those minutes, let's just say even five minutes per document, or even
3, and then say you have to review twenty files.  Those minutes add up
quite quickly.  Just like the track change issue.  Sure, if you've got
ten to review, no big deal.  When you're talking about 600 changes, it matters
a whole lot more.  So I completely hear you, but just like at some
point the "a little extra time" approach to track changes veers into
"I can't actually or I am severely struggling to complete my duties"
territory, so too with converting pdfs.  And again, my main point
doesn't even have to do with converting.  It has to do with the fact
that I have a pdf that Adobe is reading just fine.  It's not
presenting as blank or empty.  But in the course of reading, Jaws
becomes frenetic and starts jumping all over the document.  This
happens with multiple documents, and others have stated they
experience the same.  It seems like there must be a solution to this
that does not involve saving to another doc type (since Adobe seems
able to read it), but only involves stabilizing Adobe and Jaws.

For that reason, I'm still interested in your and Ger's experience
using Nuance to batch
convert.  Did you or do you have the issue of Jaws jumping around when
you do not use Nuance to first convert the pdf to another pdf?  Does
Adobe appear more stable when you're using a nuance-converted pdf?
Ger, it sounds like you are not having the issues that I am
describing.  So if you are using Nuance to ocr and tag documents and
those documents are then stable in Adobe, that would be a wonderful
and welcome development!

Thanks,
Laura



On 8/5/19, Gerard Sadlier via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Angie’s comments are well made. I would only add that if the document
> contains paragraph numbers those are a good and reliable reference
>
> On Mon 5 Aug 2019 at 20:52 Angela Matney via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Laura, one quick observation: Without addressing the need for precision
>> when, say, referring to line numbers or making other references to the
>> PDFs
>> that are required for your job, I just want to add that converting files
>> to
>> another format may not take the amount of time one might expect,
>> particularly if you use a mainstream solution. I don’t know how long it
>> takes Kurzweil to convert a PDF because I don’t use that product. In the
>> past, I’ve used Abbyy Finereader; nowadays, I use Nuance Power PDF. Each
>> of
>> these can OCR a file of several hundred pages in a matter of minutes and
>> give good results, barring handwriting or other unusual attributes of the
>> file. I’m in no way saying that we don’t need a better way to access PDF
>> files directly; I’m just suggesting that converting a PDF to Word or
>> another format of choice isn’t necessarily a process that takes hours and
>> hours.
>>
>> Having said this, it’s certainly true that if you have many, many files,
>> there will be a good amount of time involved. This has happened to me
>> before (involving due diligence for a merger and documents from the other
>> side’s data room). But I’m not sure that the method I used ultimately took
>> more time than I would have spent performing OCR on the PDFs, which would
>> have had to be done in any case because they were images.
>>
>> I can’t comment on using any of these applications to read PDFs directly.
>> In my mind, converting files to another format is analogous to printing vs
>> reading the PDF on-screen, and while it’s not perfect, it generally works
>> for my purposes.
>>
>> I hope you’re able to find a solution quickly.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Angie
>>
>> Angela Matney, CIPP/US
>> Attorney at Law
>> [Loeb & Loeb LLP]<http://www.loeb.com/>
>> Loeb and Loeb LLP
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