Document Management Made Easier With OmniPage 16

A big part of Relationship Marketing is keeping track of important information for important people. By combining a sincere personal desire to stay in touch with people and what is important to them with the right tools and technologies, you gain a competitive advantage. One I just explored recently is OmniPage 16 from Nuance.

I've been using some very helpful document management tools from Nuance for quite a while. I didn't think their tools could get much better since they did the things I wanted. However, they continue to amaze me with new versions and additions.

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I recently tested the new OmniPage 16 and have to say that it is very impressive for keeping track of various documents. I tried the scanning feature with both my sheet fed scanner and scanner built into my printer. It took a little work initially and that techno-frustration was there for a while. However, after a few more mouse clicks and checking with the help files, I was able to get text from both a magazine article (ripped from the magazine) and a booklet (left in tact, but laid on my printer's scanning tray). The software scanned the text in the article, recognized graphics on the pages and gave me the ability to edit that text in my word processing package, Microsoft Word.

This feature has some great options for tracking and keeping up with people and what is important to them. You can file the converted document as a Word document, Rich Text Format, several standard graphic formats (including JPG and PDF) and a host of others.

One of the more relevant and new features in OmniPage Professional is the ability to scan text from a picture you took with your digital camera. It brings to mind images of a 1960's spy TV show. You can take a picture of a page in a book or magazine, then import that JPG into OmniPage Professional. From there you can convert it into text for further editing. My mind races with the devious possibilities!! (Just kidding!)

New features include the ability to turn text into speech. I had to try repeatedly to get it to work, but eventually the program was able to read back a line at a time of text in fairly reasonable speech (not sounding like a mechanical robot). This can be a big help for sharing your work with sight-impaired or blind colleagues.

You can also use the program for completing forms. OmniPage now scans forms and gives you the ability to complete forms and transfer data.

The program has what is calls, "Help Guides" which are fair. I'd love to see some Camtasia-like videos, which are available with many other programs, describing how to perform certain functions. This would save a lot of grief for users of the product and undoubtedly reduce the drain on Nuance resources in their customer support area.

Overall, this is a good product. If you go with the Professional version, you get PDF Creator and PaperPort, two must-have office tools for me. This one package would give most of the tools that most office workers need. Is it perfect? Not quite yet. However, it is one of my must-have products to increase productivity and connect better and faster for Relationship Marketing.

(OmniPage Professional and Standard, $499, $149 respectively. www.nuance.com ) Organizing For Relationship Marketing

Using a scanner and a product like OmniPage 16 gives you the ability to scan articles from magazines, pages from books and more. You can send these to prospects and clients with a "Thought you would find this valuable" note. Much like good relationship marketers have done for years in sending key items of interest to their network, you can update the process with a tool like OmniPage.

Using a tool like this allows you to scan, say, a magazine article that you found really helpful and then send it to several people who would find it of interest. Be sure to check with legal counsel to avoid violating any copyright agreements, but you can accomplish a lot with this that you couldn't otherwise.

Not only can you send the article by e-mail, but OmniPage lets you use a process called FTP (File Transport Protocol) to send it to a website for many to view. You'd put the article on a website and then send a reference to people to view it.

Keeping track of important documents is a vital part of Relationship Marketing. You gain credibility points when you're organized, can access the right document at the right time and be impressive with prospects and clients.

This is a good tool to consider for the mobile professional today. Yes, it will take a little time to master all the possibilities of a product like OmniPage but the rewards can pay off richly with an organized office, computer and enhanced Relationship Marketing.