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Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:	OLD ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:	Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:	IOSG::PYE

Created:	Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:	Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	4343
Total number of notes:	18308

4104.0. "Scanned Forms?" by SYOMV::BYERS () Fri Apr 22 1994 22:24

    A customer who has to process a lot of New York State forms would like
    to be able to scan the forms in, then complete and mail them using
    ALL-IN-1.
    
    [He is apparently able to get scanned forms into Wordperfect.  So
    this may provide a potential intermediate step].  
    
    Any suggestions?

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
4104.1	Trivial solution?	IOSG::MARSHALL	A glitch in reality	`Mon Apr 25 1994 10:19`	10
	If the customer's using Wordperfect with ALL-IN-1, where's the problem? (If they're not, installing it seems to be their simplest solution!). ALL-IN-1 can mail Wordperfect documents quite happily; if the receiving end isn't ALL-IN-1 or doesn't understand Wordperfect, ALL-IN-1 can automatically convert the outgoing documents to text (set OA$MTI_TRNS to 1). But if they mean that they want to create an FMS form by scanning in a paper form, that would be somewhat more difficult! Scott
4104.2	Scanned forms to FMS?	SYORRK::byers	Eric Byers	`Mon Apr 25 1994 15:59`	2
	The customer is interested in the more difficult option of getting the scanned form into FMS.
4104.3	Quicker to do it by hand	IOSG::MARSHALL	A glitch in reality	`Mon Apr 25 1994 17:22`	16
	In that case you'd have to write some pretty clever code to parse the scanned image and detect which bits are background text, which bits are field labels and which bits are enterable fields. Then you'd have to manually go into the FMS editor and add info about field lengths and attributes. Then you'd have to add ALL-IN-1 named data to provide recognition, validation, etc for the forms. It would probably be just as quick to create the forms by hand! It sounds like the customer has an unrealistic expectation of what computers can do for them in this case ;-) Scott
4104.4	On a PC client you could use Jetform ...	BRUMMY::MARTIN::BELL	Martin Bell, Central PSC, Birmingham UK	`Mon Apr 25 1994 17:50`	11
	If your customer want's to keep the forms as "forms", rather than converting them to the character-cell equivalent, then a product called "Jetform" may be able to help, but this is a PC-based client/ server application, so you may need to use LinkWorks or TeamLinks as your "office and mail system" instead of (or as well as) ALL-IN-1. The man to speak to for more details is Kevin Browne @SBP hth mb
4104.5	Here's another option . . .	ROMEOS::LESLIE_DA	Greetings & Solutions	`Mon Apr 25 1994 19:22`	25
	RE:.3 There is a simpler solution. I worked on a project where the WordPerfect document contained the Merge Codes to indicate where on the page the text should be placed (and what font to use, etc.) and we built the WP merge file from a dataset that was stored after filling standard FMS-type forms. We built the WP merge code file from an ALL-IN-1 boilerplate (using all the control-sequences that WP required). On the team was a WordPerfect knowledgeable person (who had been doing things with Merge Codes for sometime. He was used to laying out the codes on forms, so he built the forms and defined the merge code locations. We provided the ALL-IN-1/FMS interface for the user and "printing" the record took the data from the form making a single column WP merge file (text format I believe), then called WP to do the merge and print the results. It is complex, but if they take the time to build merge codes into the document (and it's going to be very repetitive), it can be done. Make sure you've got good ALL-IN-1 developers as well as someone who understands WordPerfect merge codes and macros very well. HTH, Dan