OCR and destinations

[skilled_experts7811]

I would like to know if anyone has ocr'd a multi page document and used a keyword within that document to put into a destination folder. Any help is appreciated. 

[gary_sc]

Hi, @skilled_experts7811,  Let me see if I understand you properly. There is a word in the file, let's say "earthquakes," and when saving, you want some function to seek that word and if its found, place that file into the Earthquakes folder?

On one level, I'm not sure I'd trust that approach because of the inherent mistakes that OCR incurses*, there could be an error in the text making your auto-save mechanism unable to find your keywords. You do not state if you are on a PC or Mac, but occasionally, I have the same need as you. What I do on my Mac is that I have a 3^rd party item of software called Default Folder**. When I perform repetitive tasks, such as scanning, OCR, and image saving, using Default Folder, I've access to a drop-down list of recent folders I’ve used or permanently saved folders that I often need to return to. This is used during saving and occurs very quickly. I am unsure if there is a comparable application available for the PC. Also, if this is so completely not what you’re interested in, I apologize ahead of time for not being able to help you. There are several individuals in these forums who can create amazing scripts, but be aware that no script can successfully find a word by context or meaning. So, if the OCR bungles it, the document will not be found.

*I've been doing OCR for over 3yearsasand InI know what can be expected. The success can be improved by using good scanning technques, but many folks are unaware, and/or do not bother to learn these approaches. Nonetheless, there can be errors , regardless of how good your orginal scans are. If you are curious, please check out this blog I wrote for Adobe a number of years ago: 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-community-professionals/scanning-clean-searchable-pdfs/m-p/4785...

**I did a quick searconiGooglele and found this for PC: Several tools offer similar functionality, including Listary, Quicksilver, and "Alfred." I have not used any of these and cannot recommend any of them.

[skilled_experts7811]

Gary,

Amazing thank you for responding I thought I was at a dead end. I am on a PC and I will review anything you and others send me to see if I can get a direction. Signing off for today but I will be back at it bright and early tomorrow, I need to get this done. Again, thanks so much. 

[gary_sc]

Hi, @skilled_experts7811, one quick comment: my auto-correct was pretty bad yesterday. Example: when I stated that "I've been doing OCR for over 3yearsasand InI know what can be expected," that should have read "…30 years…" (how did I not catch that???).

One thing you did not respond to is when and how you expect that this transfer would occur? During the OCR process? During the Save Process? Also, what do you suppose would happen if you had two of the keywords in the same document? How would any automated function process that?

The more I think about this, the more I think you should check out one of the PC versions of Default Folder mentioned above. That gives you absolute certainty of what's going where and there will not be any surprises. Let me show you the two ways that I rely upon DF daily. You'll need to check out the applications I mentioned above to see if they offer the same kind of functionality that I depend upon.

As I mentioned, DF keeps a list of the last 20 folders you've visited. So, if you're in the middle of some major organization, you can easily go to any of these recent 20 during the Save event. If the desired folder is not showing, manually go to it, and it will appear at the top of the queue.

If you need to constantly go to several folders over and over, you can save them in the Favorites section. These are permanent in the list unless you remove them. 

Default Folder has other capabilities, but these are the ones that I rely upon daily. I also think that these are the ones that would be the best (and most reliable) for your needs.

 

[skilled_experts7811]

I was thinking maybe using a template. With only one incident of the key word. I am having some trouble using the new version of Adobe. Trying to understand tags etc.
Again,, I appreciate the conversation, too bad I dont know what I am doing? I just know what I need. Sorry.

[gary_sc]

@skilled_experts7811, as I stated, I am not the person who can write scripts or other mechanisms to do what you want. One thing you really need to do is to explain in greater detail what you are expecting to happen. I put forth a simple direction of this happening during the Save steps, but I have no idea if that could actually happen. Perhaps if you could elaborate on ways that you'd like to work and/or what to expect might be more helpful to someone who can write scripts.

Perhaps you could add the keyword in the document title.

Again, noone knows what you want to happen or how. You have just related the final result. Many years ago, there was a cartoon of some scientist-like folks in front of a chalkboard filled with complext mathemantical equations. Then toward the bottom of the chalkboard was a small box saying "miracle occured" followed by the answer to the equation. Anyone who can help you need more information.

Good luck

[skilled_experts7811]

Thanks Gary,

I certainly did not want to imply that I wanted you to write a script. I apologize if I gave that impression and I agree I need to detail what I want and make sure that I understand what is needed. I appreciate your time.