Acrobat User Community Forums

Try this.
If this is your signature, scan the signature and save it as a PDF.

Place it in your PDF icon library.

Create a button in the PDF doc and click the Options tab. Set the button propertie to icon only, click the Choose icon and select the signature PDF.

Secure the button by clicking Lock and Read Only.

If this is someone elses signature, you should get their written permission to use it in this manner.

rcruz wrote:

Is it possible to use other OCR technology, such as IR (intelligent recognition) on a scanned in, hand-written (cursive writing) doc in the PDF format?

I suspect it would have to be provided by a third-party application.  Using what comes "out of the box" (5.x through 8.x) I've found cursive writing to be rather unfriendly to the Adobe OCR engine.

jwogle wrote:

Is there a way to train Acrobat's Paper Capture feature to recognize my own handwriting (let's start with print, since cursive may be more difficult), possibly adding my own library of symbols, and including a general rule for when no recognition occurs (such as, leave it in as a picture).

Again, out of the box, "training" or using a symbol library has not been an immediate user option. Perhaps via a third party application?
With that said, perhaps a "metadata" page, created in a text editor and converted to PDF, could contain the bullet points of what is in specific ranges of images. Once the scanned images are in PDF, the "metadata" page could be inserted at front or back. Then combine appropriate topic collections in a single PDF. Park in appropriately nested folders. Build one cataloged index which you'd connect to an entry/start PDF. After opening this PDF you could engage advanced search to look over the "metadata" pages and then follow the appropriate query returns. Adding appropriate bookmarks to topic PDF file(s) and metadata in the PDF Document Properties would also help to zero in on specifics.

While some upfront time would be called for you would have more use of the scanned images of your information.

Another advantage to this is that you'd be able to copy the parent folder (with all content) to an OSM disc. A backup disc or an "on the road" disc (good to have when you have that urge to review something while having that cold Balashi at the beach bar <g>).

Be well...

Last edited by daka630 (2008-07-05 23:26:51)

Hello jwogle,
Yes, Acrobat's advanced search is capable of searching bookmarks (and tags).
If you used the Comment tool you could place useful annotations on pages. These can be processed to help locate an entry of interest.

Using Acrobat Professional you could OCR your scanned in notes and equations.
My understanding is that Acrobat Professional 9 has an improved OCR engine; so, you may want to use it.
Try searchable image and searchable image (exact) to see what you get.
You could use the Formated Text and Graphics option and then manually key in corrections to "capture suspects".
But then, if one is going to start re-keying why not just transcribe directly into a contemporary authoring application that supports making equations?

A co-worker has had oversight of a project that has scanned handwritten calculations associated with engineering
changes. Neither Adlib Server, Adobe Capture, nor Acrobat OCR engines have provided significantly useful character recognition for either handwritten words or equations. Alas, how individuals write is so... individual!

Of course there are other, very good products available that you could try vis-a-vis OCR.

I'd not be surprised to learn of a high end product that could provide most of what you desire. It would just be a question of budget then, no?

If, when the dust settles, you are holding what you started with then why not consider a "tag & bag" of your files in some simple manner (metadata, bookmarks, links, annotations, etc.) that would render them more usable? These would let you locate and go to information categories of interest. After all, the files represent a signifcant level of effort on your part; so, even something rather simplistic might be helpful. That you'd have to invest some time is a given. But, again, consider how much time/effort you have already invested.

Be well...

Last edited by daka630 (2008-07-17 20:07:24)