Separate OCRed from non-OCRed and pull passworded documents into another folder

[62chuck]

I first want to thank who have already helped me. The help is very valuable so Thank You!

I asked in another post ( My other post related to this ) what I needed and got some great response’s that did move me along some. However there were so issue that came up and I posted those issues in that same post and I have not gotten any further responses. That is why I am not really reposting because some things have changed as to what I now need. I am listing what I now need. My hope in the earlier post was to understand how to create an action to do this and be able to modify as needed from there. Once I created my first action however, some things came up which I could not find how to modify the action so I could move forward. However with no response’s coming in on my other post I am unable to do this.

I know some here will see this as a double post and for that I understand but would also like to say with no further activity on my other post I feel like I had to try again. If people out there do not know the answer I am looking for then please let me know and I will move on somewhere else. But people here have been so helpful I wanted to try one last time.

I am getting an average of 400.000 to 550.000 rolls of microfiche per week. These have got to be returned by the 10th day. I have to pay a deposit for each box in case they are not returned. I also am required to pay an average of $25 per box that I will not get back because this is the fee for the sourced location not have them available to researchers coming in that need the roll I have in my possession. If I go past the return date then I am charged another $5 dollars a day till they get the box back in their hands. So it is starting to be urgent that I get moving.

I am also getting these items that already have been digitized. But quite a few of these are passworded. These have become a real pain! So below is what I need an action for.

1- I am loading as many documents I can into Acrobat’s “Recognize Text” box. Acrobat begins to load. When it comes to a document that is passworded it displays an error box and I have to sit here and hit cancel for it to continue. This will tie me up for 3 hours just hitting cancel.

I need this action to…..

Check a folder and be able to separate OCRed documents from non-OCRed documents.

Then

In the folder containing the documents that need to be OCRed it will pull those into acrobat and begin the OCR process. Then as it finishes the OCR process it move each completed document into another folder so I know those are now OCRed.

AND

If it finds documents that are passworded it can just leave those in its current folder to keep them separate from the documents that have been OCRed.

OK, I only see two options here.

Option one would be someone could make an action that does this (I will pay if need be) for me and send me the action file. This would allow me to start back up and also allows me the option of taking this action apart to see how it was done so I can get a better understanding of how to do my own action from here on out.

Option Two. Someone could post step by step how I can create this action. This will also allow me to understand how to make my next action and not have to post further on this subject hopefully.

Just thought of a third option. I could send the action I have already created and they could check it and let me know where I went wrong. The one I created only takes documents from a folder and separates OCRed documents from non-OCRed documents then it goes an pulls documents from the non-OCRed folder to run the OCR process on them. Problem is. When it pulls documents from the non-OCRed documents, it asks me to click continue to do the next document which keeps me sitting here hitting continue on each one. So it is no help because I am still sitting here till it is finished. I need to have it unattended so I can move on and do other things while this is running.

There it is laid out as best I could. Can anyone give me a hand here? Thank you for reading this. Please someone take pity on me and give me a hand. Any questions I will be glad to answer.

[Test Screen Name]

This may have been said but... Acrobat is an interactive tool, designed for a person to sit and work it. It has some VERY limited features for VERY low volume automation, and that's that. The interaction is of the "watch it while it runs" variety, with messages. You are pushing it far beyond its design. Actions cannot overcome this basic limitation.

[62chuck]

Thank you for that post.

I take it that you are saying I am reaching well beyond what Acrobat is capable of doing. If this stands to be true then it is very unfortunate. I will either have to see if I can find another option to deal with this problem or just be stuck sitting here. This may end up making this direction just plaine too costly and I may be force to end the project where I am. Very unfortunate in-deed.

                                         Thank you again!

I will give it some time to see if anyone dooes post anything that will allow me to move forward but if it stand here as you said then this project may have to die and end up on a shelf till something else comes along which may allow me to continue this project.

[try67]

Regardless of volume, I don't think this is possible in Acrobat. To do conditional processing requires using a script, but a script can't perform OCR, for example. Also, Acrobat can't move files from one place to another. It can only save a copy of the file under a new name or in a new location, but not remove the original.

[gary_sc]

My gosh, what a task. 

As has been stated, you are asking Acrobat to do far more than it was designed for. You are asking it to make decisions based on viewing the contents.

If you can afford a script and can afford to pay the extra fees for keeping the items longer than your allowed time, don't you have the money to pay some folks to try to open the file: if PW protected put in Folder X and if not put in Folder Y?

You need help!!

As I know from personal experience, Acrobat's OCRing is not fast. If you want quality, you sacrifice speed (or vise versa). As such, if I were you, I'd have (at least) two other attendents, both with computers: one to do the sorting as mentioned, a second one to help organize the times and pass them to you, and you should have two computer to load up files and start the OCR process going back and forth until the job is done.

I completely salute you for what you're doing, but please: you cannot do this all by yourself with the conditions that govern the elements that you are in.

The best of luck!