Custom Automated Tasks

You can create your own automated tasks to suit your document processing needs. You can add more steps to your automated tasks than are available in the five automated tasks which ship with ABBYY FineReader. For example, you can add the step of checking the recognition results or add multiple saving steps to save your document in several formats.

The sequence of steps in an automated task must follow the usual order of processing a document in ABBYY FineReader: acquiring an image - recognition - checking the results - saving the results.

Each new step is added with default properties. You can change the properties to suit your needs.

Main steps

The main steps are: acquiring images, recognition, and saving. One automated task may include only one step of acquiring images, one recognition step, and several saving steps.

Step	Property	Description
Scan Images	ABBYY FineReader uses the current batch settings to scan the images.	Scans paper documents.
Open Images	Prompt for image file names when task starts (default)	When you run the task, ABBYY FineReader will prompt you to select image files and add them to the current batch. In the Open Images dialog, select the files to be processed and click OK.
Process images from folder	When you run the task, ABBYY FineReader will open the folder you specified in the field below and add all the images from this folder to the current batch. Select the Include all subfolders box if you wish ABBYY FineReader to look for images in all the subfolders.
Open Batch	Prompt for batch name when task starts (default)	When you run the task, ABBYY FineReader will prompt you for a batch name. In the Open dialog that opens, select the batch to be processed.
Use current batch	When you run the task, ABBYY FineReader will start processing the images in the current batch.
Use this batch	When you run this task, ABBYY FineReader will start processing the images from the batch you specified in the field below.

Step	Property	Description
Load Blocks Template	Prompt for block template when task starts (default)	When you run the task, ABBYY FineReader will prompt you for a block template. Browse to the required template file in the Open dialog and click OK.
Use this block template	Provide the path to the template file to be used.
Check and adjust blocks manually	Once the program has analyzed the layout and drawn the necessary blocks, you can review and adjust them manually.
Analyze Layout	Analyze layout automatically then adjust blocks manually (default)	Once ABBYY FineReader has acquired the images, it will analyze them and draw the necessary blocks. Then you can review and adjust them manually.
Draw blocks manually	Once ABBYY FineReader has acquired the images it will ask you to draw the necessary blocks manually.

Step	Property	Description
Read All Pages	No properties	Automatically recognizes the images in the specified batch or folder.

Step	Property	Description
Check Results	Check spelling	Once ABBYY FineReader has recognized the text, the Check Spelling dialog will open.
Review results without spell check	The recognized pages will be displayed in the Text window where you can review it without running the spell-checker.

At this step, ABBYY FineReader saves the text to a file or sends it to an application of your choice. An automated task may include several saving steps.

Step	Property	Description
Save Pages	Prompt for output file names when saving (default)	ABBYY FineReader will open the Save Pages dialog prompting you to select the file and saving options.
Save Pages	Save with specified names and to specified location	If you select this property, you need to specify the following: Output folder Specify the folder where the file(s) containing the recognized text will be saved. Check the Create time-stamped subfolder box if you wish ABBYY FineReader to create a new subfolder each time you run this task. This option is useful if you do not wish to specify the folder manually each time you run the task. Save as type From the drop-down list, select file format. File options: Create a single file for all pages - Saves all the pages (or all the selected pages) of the batch to one file. Create a separate file for each page - Saves each page to a separate file. Create a new file at each blank page - ABBYY FineReader uses blank pages to divide the pages into groups. For each group, a separate file is created into which all the pages of the group are saved. ABBYY FineReader will name the created files by adding -1, -2, -3, etc. to the file name specified in the Name field. Name files as source images - Saves each page to a separate file named as the original image. File name.
Save Images	Prompt for image file names when saving (default)	ABBYY FineReader will open the Save Image As dialog prompting you to select the file and saving options.
Save Images	Save images with specified names and to specified location	If you select this property, you need to specify the following: Output folder Specify the folder where the file(s) containing the images will be saved. Save as type From the drop-down list, select file format. Select the Save as one multi-page image file option if you wish to save all the images into one multi-page file. Note: This option is available only for TIFF and PDF file formats. File name.

Additional steps

Additional steps of an automated task are used to send the recognized text to an external application, attach the acquired image or the recognized text to an e-mail message, and copy ABBYY FineReader batches.

Step	Property	Description
E-mail Pages	Attach as type	Select the required file format from the drop-down list. The recognized text will be saved to a file of the selected format. See the full list of the image file formats supported by ABBYY FineReader in Supported Document Saving Formats. Note: The recognized pages can be saved into several files according to your choice made in File options.
E-mail Pages	File options	From the drop-down list, select one of the options. The following choices are available: Create a single file for all pages All pages are saved to one file. The option is set by default. Create a separate file for each page Each page is saved to a separate attached file. For each page, a separate file is created into which all the pages are saved. ABBYY FineReader will name the created files by adding -0001, -0002, -0003, etc. to the default file name. Create a new file at each blank page ABBYY FineReader uses blank pages to divide the pages into groups. For each group, a separate file is created into which all the pages of the group are saved. ABBYY FineReader will name the created files by adding -1, -2, -3, etc. to the default file name. Name files as source images Each page is saved as a separated attached file named as the original image.
E-mail Images	Attach as type	Select the desired file format from the drop-down list. The selected images will be attached to an e-mail message. See the full list of the image file formats supported by ABBYY FineReader in Supported Image Formats.
	Send as one multi-page image file	Select this option if you wish to save all the images into one multi-page file. Note: This option is available only for TIFF and PDF file formats.
	Name	Specify the file name. Note: If you save images to separate files (the Save as one multi-page image file option is not selected), ABBYY FineReader will add the page number or page group number (0001, 0002, etc.) to the name of each file.

Step	Property	Description
Save Batch	Prompt for batch name when saving (default)	At this step, the Save Batch As... dialog will open where you have to specify a folder where the batch will be stored.
Save Batch	Save batch to	Browse to the folder where the batch will be stored.