OmniPage Wizard 1.0 (OPW) from ScanSoft Inc. is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software package. It comes with a slim User's Guide, sells for about $40 on the Internet, and installation is straightforward. Stated system requirements are: 486 CPU or better, Win9x/NT4, RAM - 8M (Win9x) 16M (WinNT), and 30M of hard-drive storage (just about what it took on my hard drive).

OPW comes with an important subsidiary software, a 'Scan Manager', which integrates one's scanner with OPW, namely, the manager sets up the interface between OPW and the scanner's unique driver (unique TWAIN software). To avoid (or troubleshoot) scanner problems, it's well worth reading the separate set of Scan Manager notes supplied on the installation CD; those with Visioneer scanners and PaperPort drivers should especially read these notes.

Installation of OPW went smoothly, except that, every time OPW 'looked' for my Microtek E6 scanner the error message come up, "This application uses CTL3D32.DLL, which is not the correct version. This version of CTL3D32.DLL is designed only for Windows NT systems." I could not determine how to eliminate this error message, but punching an OK button in the message box seemed to continue normal OPW operations.

The puffery on the box of OPW touts the software to be, "MORE ACCURATE THAN THE OCR THAT COME WITH YOUR SCANNER" and"SO SIMPLE ANYONE CAN USE IT". Within its limitations of scanning Black&White and Gray scale, this OCR software does offer a simplified scanning tool.

What rescued OPW from severe limitations is that it could be set up to allow user access to my scanner's TWAIN software. Thus, OPW could function in either of two modes: semiautomatic (default) or TWAIN software (via setup). In semiautomatic mode, the software seemingly only allowed user adjustment of my scanner's threshold Brightness control. And for ordinary, clean, black-on-white, letter-type, and newspaper imprints, Automatic-OPW produced scan outputs (transferred into my Word 97) for decent editing. The software was able to parse variable layouts into text and graphic zones for modification by the word processor. Two difficulties did appear: in some cases layouts were not closely retained; also font sizes were somewhat changed.

Automatic OPW did not do well with imprints that contained printing on colored backgrounds, especially with the use of the suggested adjustments; the scans produced could not be OCR'd or used. Poor scans were similarly obtained with poor imprints, low-brightness or wrinkled paper, and with complex layouts. This, however, is to be expected. Decent scans from non-perfect imprints require careful adjustment of three Brightness parameters that define a scanner's scanning operation and the quality of its output; these are Brightness low limit, high limit and mid point. To set these, one needs a scanner's TWAIN driver having such capabilities. Setting these three parameters carefully, I was able to get good scans. OPW zoned well and allowed text editing following its OCR operation.

The mechanics of setting up and effecting a scan operation were simple. A set of sequential wizard-type steps were provided via a window with buttons. Stepping through the guided button sequences, resulted in an OCR'd scan.

For black-and-white and gray-scale imprints, OPW offers a good choice.