For optical character recognition (OCR) software to be more effective than hiring a fast typist, it has to be very accurate. It also helps if it can recognize a range of languages. FineReader Pro 5.0 comes with support for more than a hundred languages, although it spell checks only around 25 of the more common ones. It also recognizes programming languages like Java and Pascal.
The quality of recognition of the English texts tested was high--selected texts, from magazines, newspapers, and printouts, required little editing. FineReader Pro 5.0 saves images from the source documents as well as text, recognizes formatting such as column breaks, and will recognize tables. You can send scanned material to the clipboard for pasting into any editor you choose, or send it directly to Microsoft Word, Lotus Word Pro, Corel WordPerfect, Sun StarWriter, or Microsoft Excel. It can also be sent straight to e-mail, or saved as HTML.
The more advanced points of FineReader Pro 5.0, such as fine-tuning scanning quality for optimum results and managing tables accurately, require a little practice to master, and the interface is a bit on the cluttered side. However, for standard OCR tasks, FineReader Pro 5.0 is a useful and efficient application. --Sandra Vogel
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Poor Installation methodology
Comment: I have owned this product for a number of years and it ran well on Windows 98se. I just recently upgraded to Windows 2000 on a PC that does not have a floppy drive. It is not possible to reinstall this software without a floppy drive. Copying the floppy to another media using a machine with a floppy does not work. It appears you must use a native A: drive. The subst command also does not work.
There is no longer any tech support of any kind provided for this release. The newer releases also appear to require the use of an A: drive floppy, so upgrading will not solve the problem.
Customer Rating: Summary: 2 Thumbs Up! Incredible OCR accuracy. [bye bye scansoft]
Comment: I got my first FULL version with the purchase of PC PRO magazine [issue 118, august 2004].[produced by a UK publisher, www.pcpro.uk.co I think]
It simply required a "Free" registration and then the folks at ABBYY sent a serial number to make it a FULLY functional program.
I have used several programs, the most recent being textbridge 9 and omnipage 8.0 and 9.0.
But the speed and accuracy of finereader pro 5 just blew me away.
The price of the PC PRO magazine had been like $14.99 at my local bookstore [for both the mag and accompanying CD]. By the time it arrived from the publishers in the UK and was put on display at my local bookstore, it was either Sept or Oct 2004. But the ABBYY software installed and registered flawlessly. [despite the magazine disclaimer to register by aug or sept of 2004]
A couple friends saw the program in action and were equally as awestruck as I was. We ran our own evaluation tests between finereader 5 pro and textbridge, omnipage 8 and 9.
Finereader won in both speed and accuracy. Especially accuracy.
I don't have to tell anyone that uses OCR just how much it BITES if your OCR package reports a high percentage of "unreadables" and/or "mis-reads".
[If there are too many unreadables, you can reach a point in which it becomes easier to just type a document out yourself].
Ok, so my documents did have TONS of acronyms.
But I came close to a blister on my finger, when I kept having to hit the IGNORE button,during my scansoft ocr exercises.
Finereader was about 50% less "unreadables or mis-reads".
[sorry I don't have an EXACT percentage to provide].
I really am thinking aboutan upgrade to finereader 7 [the latest version I think] but with version 5 working so well, I hate to change anything.
2 thumbs up ! Way up! Good job ABBYY.
Customer Rating: Summary: Absolutely Fabulous
Comment: ABBYY FIneReader 5.0 Home Edition is an exceptionally valuable, high quality product a very affordable price. This program is as accurate as any other I have tried, costing far more. It is as easy to use as any other OCR software package out there, and is just as accurate. When considering the price is below ...[undisclosed dollar amount], you cannot go wrong with this product. I quit using TextBridge and Omni Page after trying this product. Those other programs cost three to five times more, and provide no greater productivity. Best ...[undisclosed dollar amount]I have never spent on software.
Customer Rating: Summary: A solid product
Comment: This program is not perfect, but does a real good job most of the time. The interface is straight-forward and it is pretty fast. I would purchase this product again.
Customer Rating: Summary: Awesome product...stinky customer support
Comment: I bought this software, primarily on the basis of the reviews on Amazon. It installed easily...and I should note that although I've used several scanning packages, this is the first one I've bought. The capabilities of the software are truely awesome...some real virtuousity is clearly evident. Tables and text scan easily and flawlessly into every kind of file I can think of. Amazing.
The problem I have with Finereader 5.0 Pro it is really two-fold. First, the manual is pathetic...nowhere would one discover how to use the product, much less what it is capable of delivering, if s/he relied on the manual. It just doesn't make sense and has loads of omissions. Second, the email support is literally useless...I don't really think there is anything but an email address at the other end... No response, at all. I was about 15 minutes from returning the whole box when I tried something completely illogical to change the scanner settings, when, Voila! The thing started working.
Whatever, you do...don't rely on the manual. A good technical writer with several weeks' experience with this package could earn this company a lot of grateful and loyal customers. Are you ABBYY guys listening?
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