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ABBYY Hot Folder

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(ABBYY FineReader Corporate only)

ABBYY FineReader includes ABBYY Hot Folder, a scheduling agent which allows you to select a folder with images and set the time for ABBYY FineReader to process the images contained in the folder. For example, you can schedule your computer to recognize images overnight.

To process images in a folder automatically, create a processing task for that folder and specify the image opening, OCR, and saving options. You must also specify how often ABBYY FineReader should check the folder for new images (at regular intervals or only once) and set the start time for the task.

Important! At the time when the task should start, your computer must be turned on and you must be logged on.

Installing and Starting ABBYY Hot Folder

By default, ABBYY Hot Folder is installed on your computer together with ABBYY FineReader 12. If, during custom installation, you chose not to install ABBYY Hot Folder, you can install the application later by following the instructions below:

  1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start and then click Control Panel.
  2. Click Programs and Features.

Note: If you use Windows XP, click Add or Remove Programs.

  1. In the list of installed programs, select ABBYY FineReader 12 and then click Change.
  2. In the Custom Setup dialog box, select ABBYY Hot Folder.
  3. Follow the instructions of the setup program.

Starting ABBYY Hot Folder

There are several ways to start ABBYY Hot Folder:

  • Click Start>All Programs>ABBYY FineReader 12 and then click ABBYY Hot Folder or
  • In the ABBYY FineReader 12 main window, click Tools>Hot Folder… or
  • Double-click the ABBYY Hot Folder icon on the Windows taskbar (this icon will appear once you have set up at least one hot folder)

When you start ABBYY Hot Folder, its main window opens. Use the buttons on the toolbar to set up, copy, delete, and start folder processing tasks. You can also view detailed reports for each folder.

The ABBYY Hot Folder main window displays a list of set-up tasks. For each task, the full path to the corresponding hot folder is displayed, together with its current status and the scheduled processing time.

Tasks may have the following statuses:

Status Description
Running… The images in the folder are being processed.
Scheduled You chose to check the hot folder for images only once at start time. The start time is indicated in the Next Start Time column.
Stopped Processing has been stopped by the user.
Completed Finished processing images in this folder.
Error (see log) An error occurred when processing images in this folder. ABBYY FineReader did not complete the processing tasks. To find out the cause of the error, select the failed folder and click the View Log button on the toolbar.

You can save any task for future use:

  1. Click the button on the toolbar and select Export…
  2. Specify the name of the task and the path to the task.
  3. Click Save.

To load a previously saved task:

  1. Click the button on the toolbar and click Import…
  2. Select the desired task and click Open.

Creating a new task for a folder

  1. click the New button on the ABBYY Hot Folder toolbar,
  2. In the Task name field, type a name for your task.
  3. In the Hot Folder dialog box, select how often the task should be launched:
    • Run once (the task will be launched once at the time you specify)
    • Recurring (the task will be launched multiple times)
  4. Specify the folder or document that contains the images to be processed.
    • File from folder allows you to process images in local and network folders.
    • File from FTP allows you to process images in folders on an FTP server.

If login and password are required in order to access the FTP folder, enter them in the User name and Password fields respectively. If no login and password are required, select the  Anonymous user option.

  • File from Outlook allows you to process images in your mail box.
  • FineReader document opens images stored in a FineReader document.

For more about document colors, please refer to "Document Features to Consider Prior to OCR."

Under Original files, specify whether original files should be kept, deleted or moved.

  1. In the Analyze and read step, configure the document analysis and recognition options.
    • From the Document language drop-down list, select the language of the texts to be recognized.

Note: You can select more than one language.

  • Under Document processing settings, specify whether a document should be recognized or analyzed or whether its page images should be preprocessed. If required, specify additional recognition and image preprocessing options by clicking Recognition Options… and Preprocessing Options… respectively.
  • If you do not need to preserve the original colors, you can set up the program to process images in black-and-white mode. To do this, select the Convert images to black and white option under Color mode.
  • Specify whether the program should detect areas automatically or use an area template for the purpose.
  1. In the Save and share drop-down list, select how documents should be saved.
    • From the Save as drop-down list, select a destination format.

Tip: Click Options… if you want to specify additional saving options.

  • In the Folder field, specify a folder where documents should be saved after processing.
  • In the Output drop-down list, select a saving method:
    • Create a separate document for each file (retains folder hierarchy) creates a separate document for each file
    • Create a separate document for each folder (retains folder hierarchy) creates one document for all files stored in a particular folder
    • Create one document for all files creates one document for all files
  • In the File name field, enter a name to be assigned to documents after processing.

Tip: You can specify several saving steps for a folder in order to save processing results in multiple formats.

  1. Click OK.

The configured task will be displayed in the ABBYY Hot Folder main window.

Note. Task files are stored in %Userprofile%\AppData\Local\ABBYY\HotFolder\12.00. (In Microsoft Windows XP in %Userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\ABBYY\HotFolder\12.00).

Important! For tasks to start, your computer must be turned on and you must be logged on.

To see a notification message each time a task has been completed, click .

A notification message will be displayed in a pop-up window above the Windows taskbar.

Changing task properties

You can change the properties of an existing task.

  1. Stop the task whose properties you wish to change.
  2. On the ABBYY Hot Folder toolbar, click the Modify button.
  3. Make the necessary changes and click OK.

Processing log

Images in a hot folder are processed according to your defined settings. ABBYY Hot Folder keeps a detailed log of all the operations.

The log file contains the following information:

  • The name of the task and its settings
  • Errors and warnings (if any)
  • Statistics (number of processed pages, number of errors and warnings, number of uncertain characters)

To enable logging:

  • On the ABBYY Hot Folder toolbar, click .

The log will be saved as a TXT file in the same folder that contains the files with recognized text.

To view a log:

  1. In the ABBYY Hot Folder main window, select the task you wish to inspect.
  2. Click the Log button on the toolbar.

Note: To view information about the progress of a task, point the mouse to the status of the task.

1/14/2020 5:26:19 PM

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