OmniForm Reference Version 2 for Windows 95/NT/3.
Please Note In order to use this program, you should know how to work in the Microsoft Windows environment. Please refer to your Windows documentation if you have questions about how to use menu commands, dialog boxes, scroll bars, edit boxes, and so on. OmniForm Reference Version 2 for Windows 95/NT/3.1 Copyright© 1996 Caere Corporation. All rights reserved. CAERE®, Logical Form Recognition, and OmniForm are trademarks of Caere Corporation. Formonix is a trademark of Formonix, Inc.
Chapter 1 Introduction OmniForm is the easy way to convert your paper forms to electronic forms. Use OmniForm to edit, design, and fill forms, manage information databases, and print, fax, and mail forms among other functions. This chapter gives an overview of the form creation and information management capabilities OmniForm provides, as well as an explanation of how to use the documentation.
OmniForm Features OmniForm Features OmniForm, an easy-to-use environment for working with forms, is more than just form-recognition software. OmniForm includes the following features: Form Input OmniForm uses Logical Form Recognition™ to convert your scanned paper forms or imported image files into electronic, editable forms. Fill View Use OmniForm’s fill view to fill a form with the information you need. Information entered can easily be searched and sorted.
Using the Documentation Using the Documentation This section explains the various instructional and formatting conventions used in this manual. Screenshots and Instructions Most screenshots in this manual were taken in Windows 95. Your dialog boxes and windows may look slightly different if you are using Windows NT or Windows 3.1. For example, dialog box titles in Windows 95 appear in the top left of the box. Dialog box titles in Windows NT and Windows 3.1 appear in the top middle of the box.
Using the Documentation Courier font • The Courier font indicates text that you are supposed to enter; for example, “Type Sample1 in the File Name text box and click OK.” • The Courier font is also used to distinguish file paths and file and folder names from the rest of the text; for example, “Locate the Sample form in the OmniForm folder.” Symbols Two symbols are used in this manual to highlight text. This symbol means Note. It introduces a tip or an item of note. This symbol means Warning.
Chapter 2 Installation and Setup This chapter describes how to install OmniForm and begin using it.
System Requirements System Requirements To install and run OmniForm, you need the following setup: • Computer with an 80386 or higher processor. • VGA or SVGA monitor. • Windows-compatible mouse. • 1.44MB high-density floppy disk drive and internal hard disk. • A minimum of 11MB hard disk space for the US version; 15MB for the International English version. • If you plan to scan forms, you need a Hewlett-Packard (ScanJet Plus or above), Visioneer, or TWAIN-compatible scanner.
Installing OmniForm Installing OmniForm This section describes how to install OmniForm on Windows 95, and on Windows NT and 3.1. OmniForm automatically decides which version of the program to install. If you are running Windows 3.1, for example, OmniForm installs the 16-bit Windows 3.1 version of OmniForm. Close all applications — including screen savers and mail applications — to free up memory before installing OmniForm. Installing on a Windows 95 System 1 Start Windows 95.
Installing OmniForm Installing on a Windows NT or 3.1 System 1 Start Windows NT or 3.1 and open the Program Manager window. 2 Insert OmniForm disk #1 in drive a: (or b:) of your computer. 3 Choose Run in the Program Manager File menu. The Run dialog box appears. 4 Type a:\setup (or b:\setup) in the Command Line text box and click OK. The InstallShield Wizard appears to guide you through the setup process. 5 Follow the instructions in each dialog box that appears.
Starting OmniForm Starting OmniForm This section describes how to launch OmniForm after it is installed. Any instruction for Windows NT and 3.1, when different from that for Windows 95, appears immediately after the Windows 95 instruction. Install your scanner and test it in Windows before using it with OmniForm. Consult your scanner documentation or the scanner manufacturer to resolve any scanner problems that occur. To start OmniForm: 1 Click Start in the Taskbar and choose Programs OmniForm.
Chapter 3 Tutorials These tutorials guide you through some of the main features of OmniForm. There are four sections in this chapter: • Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form • Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form • Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form • Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database Perform these exercises in order if you are new to OmniForm. Each new exercise builds upon skills learned in the previous one.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form You will load the Sample form in this exercise in one of three ways: • Scan in the Sample form with a scanner if you have one. The form is supplied inside this manual. • Fax the Sample form to your computer’s fax modem if you have no scanner, use your fax software to save it as a PCX or TIFF file, and open it in OmniForm. The form is inside this manual. • Locate and open the Sample.tif file if you have no scanner and no fax modem.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form • See the next section if you have a scanner and want to scan the form. • See “Fax the Sample Form” on page 17 if you have a fax machine and a fax modem and want to fax the form to your computer. • See “Import an Image File” on page 17 if you do not have a scanner or a fax modem, or if you want to use this method instead of the other two methods. Scan the Sample Form 1 Select Scan in a form and then click Next>. 2 Select a source for the form in the next window.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form 6 Select Letter in the next window if this option is not selected already. The Sample form is a letter-sized page. 7 Click Next>. The next window offers two form usage options. 8 Select the second option. You will just fill the form in this exercise, not work on its design. 9 Click Next>. The next window prompts you to place a page in your scanner. 10 Make sure the page is aligned correctly in your scanner, and click Finish.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form OmniForm scans the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress. The Sample form opens as Form1 in fill view. It should look the same as the original copy of the form. 11 Click the Save button or choose Save in the File menu. The Save As dialog box appears. 12 Type Sample1 in the File name text box and click Save. Proceed to the section “Filling in the Form” on page 21 to begin using OmniForm’s tools.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form Fax the Sample Form To fax the Sample form, you need the following: • a fax modem connected to your computer • fax software that is compatible with your fax modem • access to a regular fax machine To fax the form: 1 Make sure your fax modem is turned on and that your fax software is set up to receive a call. Refer to your fax manual(s) for information. 2 Place the Sample form in the fax machine. 3 Set faxing resolution to Fine or Best.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form Load the Image File in OmniForm 1 Select Scan in a form in Form Assistant and then click Next>. 2 Select Fax or Image in the next window and then click Next>. 3 Click Browse... in the next window. The Browse dialog box appears.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form 4 This is how the dialog box looks in Windows 3.1 and NT. 5 This is how the dialog box looks in Windows 95. • Select TIFF Files in the Files of type drop-down list if you want to import the Sample.tif file. Locate and select the Sample file in the OmniForm\Sample Forms (omniform\samples in Windows 3.1) folder. • Locate and select your fax file if you created one in the previous exercise. • Click Open to return to Form Assistant.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form 7 Select the second option. You will just fill the form in this exercise, not work on its design. 8 Click Finish>. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress. The Sample form opens as Form1 in fill view.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form 9 Click the Save button or choose Save in the File menu. The Save As dialog box appears. 10 Type Sample1 in the File Name text box and click Save. The next section shows you how to begin using OmniForm’s tools. Filling in the Form The Sample form you scanned or imported in the previous exercise opens in fill view.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form Fill View Overview The standard toolbar appears below the menus. The buttons correspond to various menu commands. See “Menu Commands” on page 110 for a description of all menu commands. 1 Place your cursor over one of the buttons and hold it there without clicking. A ToolTip describes the button’s function. Hold the cursor over any button in the toolbar to see its function. Corresponding status text simultaneously appears in the status bar at the bottom of the window.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form 3 Continue to press the Tab key to move to and fill in the Address, City, and State fields (or click to place the cursor there). You can press Shift-Tab to move to a previous field. 4 Tab to or click in the Zip Code field. This is a comb field. This is a field that is subdivided into comb elements. The next fields, Phone Number and Fax Number, are also comb fields. 5 Type five numbers in the Zip Code field. You do not have to click in each box in the field.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form 8 Move down the page and click in the square next to the words Check here to receive our next magazine. An “X” appears in the box. This is a check box field. 9 Click the word Yes next to the words Would you like to receive more information? Nothing happens. This should be a circle text field but there was no circle on the form to indicate this to OmniForm during form recognition. OmniForm provides tools to compensate for missing information on forms.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form OmniForm switches to design view. Any text you entered in fill view disappears in design view. It still exists in fill view. Standard toolbar Font/text toolbar Arrange toolbar Drawing toolbar There are four toolbars in design view: the standard toolbar (different in design view than in fill view), the font/text toolbar, the drawing toolbar, and the arrange toolbar.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form Create a Circle Text field 1 Click the Circle Text tool in the drawing toolbar. Your cursor changes to a plus sign with a circle. 2 Draw a circle (or oval) around the word Yes next to the words Would you like to receive more information? You will select this circle later in fill view. Format Text 1 Click the table to select it. 2 Click the first field under the word Cost in the table to select it.
Tutorial 1 — Load and Fill a Form Return to Fill View 1 Click the Fill button in the standard toolbar to return to fill view. The text in fill fields is now bold and the number in the table’s Cost cell is right-aligned. 2 Click the word Yes next to the words Would you like to receive more information? This time, a circle appears around the word Yes. Print the Form 1 Click the Save button or choose Save in the File menu. 2 Choose Print... in the File menu. The Print dialog box appears.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form You will scan or import the Sample form into OmniForm again in this exercise. This time, you will bypass the Form Assistant dialog box so that you can see which buttons and menu commands to use. You will verify and correct OCR, and practice redesigning the form. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on form design. Launch OmniForm If OmniForm is already open, proceed to the next section.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form Click Select Source... to select a TWAIN source. Click OK to return to the Scan Form dialog box. Proceed to step 3. 3 Select Auto Form Design to use Logical Form Recognition to recognize text and fillable fields in the form. 4 Click OK. OmniForm scans the form, recognizes both text and fields, and opens it in design view. 5 Click the Save button or choose Save in the File menu. The Save As dialog box appears.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form • Double-click the file to place it in the Files to Process list box. • Click OK to return to the Scan Form dialog box. 4 Click OK in the Scan Form dialog box. 5 OmniForm loads the form, recognizes both text and fields, and opens it in design view. 6 Click the Save button or choose Save in the File menu. The Save As dialog box appears. 7 Type Sample2 in the File Name text box and click OK. The next section explains how to begin using OmniForm’s design tools.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form Verifying the OCR In this exercise, you will verify and correct OCR as necessary and copy a graphic to the new form. Edit the Text OCR is not always perfect. Text that is very small, very light or broken, or difficult to read in any other way can cause recognition problems. This is easily corrected in OmniForm. 1 Choose Form Image in the View menu. The screen splits to show the form both as it was designed with OCR and as it was scanned originally.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form 3 Use the Zoom button’s drop-down list to zoom your page view in and out. 4 If you find text in the top window that does not match text in the bottom window: • Click the Selection tool in the drawing toolbar if it is not selected already. • Click any text object with erroneous text in the top window to select it. Your cursor turns into an I-beam when it is positioned over the editable area.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form Copy the Arrow Graphic 1 Scroll to the arrow at the bottom of the page in the bottom window and to where it should be in the top window. Because graphics are not retained during Logical Form Recognition, the arrow does not appear in the top window. 2 Click the Graphic tool in the drawing toolbar. Your cursor changes to a Graphic tool shape in the top window and a crosshair in the second. 3 Use the crosshair to draw a box around the arrow in the bottom window.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form The Graphic Definition dialog box appears. 5 Select Form Image in the Source drop-down list. 6 Click OK. The arrow appears in the top window. 7 Choose Form Image in the View menu to close the bottom window. Alternatively, double-click the horizontal bar or drag it all the way to the top or bottom of the Form window. Modifying the Form’s Design In the first tutorial, you modified the form’s design only by adding a circle field that OmniForm had not recognized.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form 5 Place the cursor over the middle handle on the right end of the object and hold down the mouse button. 6 Move the cursor to the left to make the Name fill text object smaller. You will create another fill text object next to this one later in the exercise. Edit the Table Object 1 Click the table object to select it. Click the Object Definition button in the standard toolbar or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Table Definition dialog box appears.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form Create Text and Fill Text Objects 1 Click the Text tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Click the mouse button once or hold the mouse button and drag the cursor to create a a text object anywhere on the form. The object has the word Label in it. 3 With the text object still selected, type the word Title:. You do not have to select the word Label to replace it. Just the text object itself needs to be selected.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form 7 Draw a text object next to the check box and type Check here to receive our next catalogue. 8 Draw a text object below the check boxes and type Number of times a year you use our catalogue:. Click the Lock tool to deselect it. 9 Create Circle Text Objects 1 Click the Circle Text tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a circle below the check boxes. 3 Select the circle and choose Copy in the Edit menu.
Tutorial 2 — Edit and Design a Form measurement set in the Grid Settings dialog box (choose Grid Settings... in the Tools menu). 4 Use the Select Special... command in the Edit menu to select various types of objects and format their text as you choose. See page 26 for a description of this command. 5 Your redesigned form should look something like this: Test in Fill View 1 Click the Fill button in the standard toolbar. 2 Test your new form by filling in fields.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form The previous two tutorials introduced you to the concepts of loading, filling in, and modifying a form. In this tutorial, you will create the personal job-tracking form shown below for a hypothetical free-lance editor/writer. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on form design.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Pre-Organization It is a good idea to draw a rough draft of a form before you begin to design it, complete with all fields and graphic elements. This makes the design process go faster and you will be less likely to have to go back and redo portions of the form. In this tutorial, the form pictured on the previous page can serve as your rough draft. You do not have to design the form exactly as it is pictured.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Create the Text Objects 1 Click the Text tool in the drawing toolbar. You need text objects named Customer:, Contact:, Address:, City:, State:, Zip:, Job Type, Editing, Tech Writing, Marketing Writing, Advertising Copy, Rate:, Expenses:, Profit:, and Comments:. 2 Create the text objects in one of three ways: • Click the Lock tool in the drawing toolbar to keep the Text tool selected.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form 4 Line the fill text objects up with the Customer, Contact, Address, City, and State text objects. 5 Select the Customer fill text object. 6 Click the Object Definition button in the standard toolbar or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Fill Text Definition dialog box appears. • Type Customer in the Name text box. • Select Name in the Type drop-down list. 7 Click OK.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Fill Lines 1 Draw a large fill text object. 2 Drag it beneath the text object Comments. 3 With the object still selected, click the Top Alignment button in the font/text toolbar. 4 With the object still selected, click the Left Alignment button in the font/text toolbar. Text entered in fill view will align to the left and top of the field in fill view.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Select Black, a solid line, and 1/4 pt in the drop-down lists, and deselect Clear as pictured below. 6 Click OK. The bottom border disappears from the selected object and fill lines appear to show where lines of text will flow. 7 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button in the standard toolbar to open the Fill Text Definition dialog box. • Type Comments in the Name text box.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Create the Comb Objects You will draw a simple comb object for the zip code and use the scrapbook to copy phone and fax numbers. Zip Code Comb Object 1 Click the Comb tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a comb object. 3 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Comb Definition dialog box appears. 4 Click the Properties tab. Type Zip Code in the Name text box.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form 2 Select Special Fields (Special in Windows 3.1) in the Scrapbook drop-down list. 3 Locate the Phone Number scrap in the scrapbook. 4 Select the scrap and drag it into the form below the City objects. 5 Locate the Fax Number scrap in the scrapbook. 6 Select the scrap and drag it into the form below the Phone objects. This exercise illustrates how you can save time by using objects stored in the scrapbook.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Create the Check Box Objects 1 Click the Check Box tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a check box. Hold down the Shift key to constrain the shape to a square. 3 With the object still selected, choose Copy and then Paste in the Edit menu. 4 Choose Paste two more times. You now have four check boxes of equal size. The user of this form wants to be able to select only one check box at a time so that each copy of the form records just one job.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form 10 Drag the check boxes in front of the Editing, Tech Writing, Marketing Writing, and Advertising Copy text objects under Job Type. Create the Table Object Create the Table 1 Click the Table tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a table. 3 With the table still selected, click the Object Definition button or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Table Definition dialog box appears. • Type Task List in the Name text box.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form The Object Appearance dialog box appears. 6 Click the Background tab and select Clear. 7 Click the Border tab. A one-point black border is selected by default. Just for looks, add a shadow effect to the border: • Select Lower Right in the Location drop-down list. • Select 3 pt in the Offset drop-down list. This moves the shadow three points to the right and bottom of the border. 8 Click OK. A shadow appears behind the table.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form 5 Select the Yes option in the next window to enable the Field Names text box. 6 Select the first word Label and click Rename. 7 Type Task. All fill text fields within cells in this column are automatically renamed Task1, Task2, and so forth. You can verify this by selecting a cell and opening the Object Definition dialog box. 8 Repeat for the second word but change its name to Completed.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form The Text dialog box appears. • Click the Margins tab and type the measurements 0.04, 0.04, 0.02, and 0 as pictured above. This offsets your text from the border around each row, making it easier to read. • Click the Alignment tab and select Left and Bottom. Text entered in fill view will align to the left and bottom of the cell. 3 Click OK. 4 Repeat steps 2–3 for the Completed column but select Right and Bottom for the alignment in the Text dialog box.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form • Select m/d/yy in the Format drop-down list. 6 Click OK. Numbers entered in this row will be formatted as right-aligned dates in the m/d/yy format (10/15/95). 7 Drag the table above the Comments text object to about the middle of the form. Create the Graphic Objects You will create both a graphic object and a fill graphic object. You can import a graphic into a graphic object in design view. You can import a graphic into a fill graphic field in fill view.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form 2 Draw a box in the upper right corner of the form. You will import a graphic into this field in fill view later in the tutorial. Graphic Object 1 Click the graphic tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 It is below the Rectangle tool. 3 Draw a box in the lower right corner of the form. 4 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Graphic Definition dialog box appears.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Create and Define the Fill Text Objects 1 Click the Fill Text tool. 2 Draw a fill text object anywhere on the page. 3 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Fill Text Definition dialog box appears. • Type Rate in the Name text box. • Select Currency in the Type drop-down list. • Select $0.00 in the Format drop-down list.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form 8 Draw another Fill Text object and use the Object Definition command to define it as pictured below: 9 Click OK. Create the Text Objects 1 Click the Text tool. 2 Draw an object and type an x. 3 Draw another object and type an equal sign(=).
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form The calculation toolbar appears at the top of the window below the font/text toolbar. Accept Auto Calculation Calculation Cancel Calculation Click to Edit Calculation — the calculation Calculation Builder for the field appears in the text box. 3 Click the Calculation Builder button in the calculation toolbar. The Calculation Builder dialog box appears. 4 Locate Rate in the Fields list box. 5 Double-click Rate or select it and click Paste.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Calculate Profit Profit, on this form, equals the Earnings minus Expenses. You will create this calculation manually instead of using the Calculation Builder dialog box so you can see another feature of OmniForm. 1 Select the Profit fill text object. 2 Click in the calculation toolbar’s text box to activate the toolbar. Your cursor turns into a calculation cursor. 3 Click the Earnings fill text object in the form. The field name appears in the calculation toolbar.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Align the Objects Use the Align commands in the Format menu or the Arrange toolbar to line up selected objects left, right, center, and so forth. See “Align and Format the Objects” on page 37 for more information. Use the Snap to Grid command in the Tools menu to line fields up precisely along a grid. Choose Grid Settings... in the Tools menu to set the size of the grid. Turn this command off if you do not want fields snapping to a grid.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form • Click the Border tab and select the settings shown below. • Click on each side of the rectangle in the Borders box to place borders around the entire object. 4 Click OK. See page 39 again for the completed form. Your final form should look similar to this depending on how you chose to customize it. Your form will not as yet have the arrow in the upper right corner. That is added in fill view. Tab Order You can tab from field to field in fill view.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Both indicate current tab order. In the example above, the user wants the check box fields to be before the Rate field because that is the order of the fields on the form. Your Tab Order dialog box will not necessarily look the same as this one. 2 Select the field to reorder. Note that the corresponding field on the form highlights. 3 Reorder the field in one of the following ways: • Drag the field up or down in the dialog box to reorder it.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form Test the Form in Fill View 1 Click the Fill button or choose Fill in the View menu. 2 Click the fill graphic field in the upper right corner of the form. The Fill Graphic dialog box appears. • Select Graphic File in the Source drop-down list. • Click Browse to open the Browse dialog box. • Locate the Arrowr file in the OmniForm\Sample Forms folder (omniform\samples in Windows 3.1). • Click Open to return to the Fill Graphic dialog box.
Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form • You can enter dates in the right column as either January 1, 1995 or 1-1-95 and they will be converted to the m/d/yy format. Or, you can enter them as 1/1/95 in the first place. 9 Verify that comb field elements contain the right amount of numbers. 10 Enter numbers in the calculation fields. The Expenses and Profit fields should fill automatically and correctly as you fill in the other fields involved in the calculation.
Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database This tutorial is a brief introduction to the OmniForm database. A database is a collection of information stored as individual records. Each record uses the same form design but can contain different information in its fields. OmniForm automatically creates a database when you scan in or import a form. In the previous tutorial, for example, you created the Job Tracking (or jobtrack) form.
Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database To duplicate a record: 1 Locate and open the Job Tracking (jobtrack in Windows 3.1) form you created in the previous tutorial. 2 Enter the customer information shown below. Suppose you did another job for this company but this time instead of editing it was marketing writing. You do not have to retype all the same information for just one change. 3 Choose Duplicate Record in the Records menu.
Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database 4 Type Zimmer DTP in the Customer fill text field in the new record. Fill in other information if you like. 5 Use the Record buttons in the toolbar to scroll through your records. First Record Previous Record Record Number Next Record Last Record Search the Database Records It is not hard to find information when you only have a few records, but depending on your database, you may have thousands. OmniForm makes it easy to find the information you need quickly.
Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database 3 OmniForm searches the database and retrieves the two records that match the search criteria. This is called the found set. Status text just below the toolbar shows the search results information. You can narrow a search further by searching a found set for more specific information. For example, you might want to find only editing jobs you had done for Franich & Halsey.
Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database Database Changes You have changed individual records in fill view in this tutorial. Changes to one record did not affect changes to another record. However, changes in design view do affect your records. To make a change in design view: 1 Click the Design button or choose Design in the View menu. 2 3 Delete the graphic object in the lower right corner. Click the Fill button or choose Fill in the View menu. 4 Click the appropriate Records button to view each record.
Tutorial 4 — The OmniForm Database Deleting Records You may want to delete an old or obsolete record. To delete a record: 1 Return to Fill view if you are not in it already. 2 Choose Delete Record in the Records menu. 3 Click Yes in the warning dialog box that appears. The record you are viewing is deleted permanently from the database. Use the command Delete All Records to permanently destroy all database records. You can also use the command to delete a subset of retrieved search records.
Chapter 4 Views and Form Usage This chapter describes basic OmniForm concepts you should know before scanning, importing or designing a new form: what Form Assistant is and how to use it; the difference between fill view and design view; how form usage choices affect your form; how to select and change form usage options; and how to use the international options in the Options dialog box. Proceed to Chapter 5, OmniForm Procedures, if you want to begin working with forms immediately.
Using Form Assistant Using Form Assistant This section describes Form Assistant and its basic OmniForm functions. Form Assistant is a dialog box that appears the first time you launch OmniForm. Form Assistant makes decision-making easy when processing a form. This section contains the following topics: • Opening Form Assistant • The Form Assistant Options • Setting the Form Assistant Startup Option Opening Form Assistant There are several ways to open Form Assistant.
Using Form Assistant The Form Assistant Options This section gives a brief description of each option in Form Assistant. A cross-reference after each description points you to step-by-step instructions for the procedure. Scan in a form Select Scan in a form to scan a paper form or import an image file and to determine how you will work with the form in OmniForm. See “Scanning a Paper Form” on page 84 or “Importing an Image File” on page 90 for instructions.
Using Form Assistant Setting the Form Assistant Startup Option You can enable or disable Form Assistant at startup. To do so: 1 Choose Options... in the Tools menu. The Options dialog box appears. • Deselect the Show Form Assistant at Startup option if you do not want Form Assistant to appear at startup. OmniForm will open a blank form instead the next time you launch it. • Select the Show Form Assistant at Startup option if you want Form Assistant to appear at startup. 2 Click OK.
The Design View Window The Design View Window This section provides an overview of the design view window. If a form is open in fill view, click the Design button in the standard toolbar or choose Design in the View menu to switch to design view. As a handy shortcut, click the right mouse button to open a shortcut menu. Choose Design in this menu. The design view window contains four toolbars and seven menus.
The Fill View Window The Fill View Window This section provides an overview of the fill view window. If you are in design view, click the Fill button in the standard toolbar or choose Fill in the View menu to switch to fill view. As a handy shortcut, click the right mouse button to open a shortcut menu. Choose Fill in this menu. The fill view window contains a toolbar and seven menus. Standard toolbar Status bar: displays current activity and settings.
Form Usage Options Form Usage Options This section describes form usage: how it affects the forms you scan in or import as image files, how to select form usage, and how to change it. This section contains the following topics: • Choosing a Form Usage Option • Where to Select Form Usage Options • Changing Form Usage Choosing a Form Usage Option Form usage affects the way you can use a form once it is in OmniForm.
Form Usage Options Non-designed Form This type of form has no fillable fields and no editable text. Basically, it is just a an image, or picture, on your computer. Use this option if you want to be able to: • input a form of such poor quality that it would cause recognition problems • draw new fillable objects on the form in design view • print, fax, or mail the form only See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for information on adding graphics, creating objects, and using other design techniques.
Form Usage Options Scan Form Dialog Box You can choose to scan in or import either a designed form or a nondesigned form in the Scan Form dialog box after choosing Scan Form... in the File menu. Select this option for a designed form. Deselect it for a non-designed form. Changing Form Usage Choose Form Usage... in the View menu to change the way you can use a form. For example: • You have an original form but decide to change the design. You would change the form to a designed form.
Form Usage Options 2 Select a form usage option. • Select Use Designed Form to view the form as it was designed by OmniForm on import along with any changes you have made to the form’s design. You can edit all text and fields, and add graphics to the form. • Select Use Original Form to view the form as it looked originally, before you scanned or imported it to OmniForm. You can create, resize, move, delete, define, or change the appearance of fillable fields with this option.
International Settings International Settings This section describes how OmniForm supports different language and cultural conventions. You can choose from 45 different locales in the International tab in the Options dialog box. A locale — as defined for OmniForm usage — is a combination of a language and a region. The language you select for a particular region affects how your form displays currency, numbers, and dates.
International Settings 5 Select a different language for the current form if you like. Changing the language of the current form could cause OmniForm to misinterpret any data already entered in that form. OmniForm warns you of this if at least one field is filled and you change the Current Form selection. 6 Click New Forms. The Language drop-down list displays the default language that will be used for the next form you open, scan, or import.
International Settings The Options Dialog Box Readouts Below the Language selection, OmniForm displays readouts: the international symbol for the selected language (which appears in the status bar); and currency, number, and date conventions specific to that language. The readouts show: • How OmniForm expects data to be entered in fill view. • How OmniForm will format data in fill view if it is not entered correctly. (Formatting takes place after you move the cursor out of a field.
International Settings • Click Options... to change the language for your new form. You cannot change the New Form language selection if Add Page(s) to Current Form is checked because a language is already associated with the current form. A form can have only one language. • If you select Add Page(s) to Current Form, the Language display changes to reflect the Current Form language if it is different.
Chapter 5 OmniForm Procedures This chapter describes basic OmniForm procedures: how to turn your paper forms into electronic forms; how to fill, print, mail, and fax forms; how to open forms to fill, redesign, and search for information. It also lists all menu commands.
Scanning a Paper Form Scanning a Paper Form This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the Scan Form... command to turn your paper form into an electronic form. You can scan paper forms directly into OmniForm if you have a scanner. Forms should be blank with crisp, dark text on a white background for best results. You can use the Sample Form included with your OmniForm package as a test page if you like.
Scanning a Paper Form 7 Click Next>. The next window only appears if a form is open already. Proceed to step 9 if a form is not open. 8 Select whether you want the scanned page to be a new form or to add the page to a currently open form in the next window, and then click Next>. 9 Select form usage in the next window. • Select the first option if you want to edit or redesign a form. • Select the second option if you do not want to edit or redesign a form, just fill it in. 10 Click Next>.
Scanning a Paper Form See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on defining, moving, resizing, and creating fields, and other design functions. See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on the kinds of fields you may find on a form and how to fill them. Using the Scan Form... Command 1 Click the Scan button in the standard toolbar or choose Scan Form... in the File menu. The Scan Form dialog box appears. 2 Select a source in the Source drop-down list.
Scanning a Paper Form • Select an option under Page Size: Select Letter if the form is 8.5 by 11 inches. Select Legal if the form is 8.5 by 14 inches. Select A4 if the form is 21 by 29.7 centimeters (European). • Select a scanning brightness under Brightness. Select Auto (AccuPage) if your scanner supports HP AccuPage and your form is printed on colored, shaded, or smudged paper, or if it has very small type.
Scanning a Paper Form The Flipped and Flipscape options are useful for scanning pages in a book that needs to be turned upside down or sideways. 6 Select import options. • Select Auto Form Design to use Logical Form Recognition to recognize text and fillable fields in the form. This gives you full control over a form’s design. Graphics are not retained but you can import them. • Deselect Auto Form Design to scan a form without recognizing form design. Text and fillable fields are not recognized.
Scanning a Paper Form 9 Click OK in the Scan Form dialog box to begin scanning. (TWAIN users may see a TWAIN dialog box for their scanner after clicking OK. See “Scanners” on page 267 for information on scanner settings.) OmniForm scans the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress if you selected those options. How your form appears depends on whether or not you chose Auto Form Design in the Scan Form dialog box.
Importing an Image File Importing an Image File This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the Scan Form... command to import an image file as a recognized OmniForm form. OmniForm can import and recognize black-and-white forms in either PCX or TIFF format. Image resolution must be 200, 300, or 400 dots per inch (dpi). If you have a fax modem, for example, you can receive a faxed form and use the fax program’s software to save the file in PCX or TIFF format.
Importing an Image File 8 Select form usage in the last window. • Select the first option if you want to edit or redesign a form. • Select the second option if you do not want to edit or redesign a form, just fill it in. 9 Click Finish>. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress. How your form appears in OmniForm depends on the form usage options you chose in Form Assistant. 10 Click the Save button in the standard toolbar or choose Save...
Importing an Image File Using the Scan Form... Command to Import 1 Click the Scan button in the standard toolbar or choose Scan Form... in the File menu. The Scan Form dialog box appears. 2 Select Image File(s) in the Source drop-down list to recognize a form in a supported image format. This could be a form created in another program or one received as a fax file. 3 Click Select Files... to open the Select Files dialog box. • Locate and select a file.
Importing an Image File 5 Select import options. • Select Auto Form Design to use Logical Form Recognition to recognize text and fillable fields in the form. This gives you full control over a form’s design. Graphics are not retained but you can import them. • Deselect Auto Form Design to scan a form without recognizing form design. Text and fillable fields are not recognized.
Importing an Image File OmniForm imports the form. The OmniForm window displays scanning, designing, and straightening progress if you selected these options. How your form appears depends on whether or not you chose to have OmniForm design the form during import. 9 Click the Save button in the standard toolbar or choose Save... in the File menu to name and save your file. 10 Begin to fill or edit your form.
Filling a Form Filling a Form This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the Fill command to open a form and fill it. Filling Fields With Form Assistant 1 Windows 95 users: click Start in the Taskbar and choose Programs OmniForm. Windows NT and 3.1 users: double-click the OmniForm icon in the Caere Applications folder. Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open. Form Assistant appears. 2 Select Fill in a form and click Next>.
Printing or Faxing a Form Printing or Faxing a Form This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the Print... command to print or fax a form, and how to print a form as a macro. You must have fax hardware and software installed in order to fax a form. Refer to your fax documentation for instructions on how to set up your equipment for faxing. Faxing uses the Print... command. The word print in these instructions describes both printing and faxing.
Printing or Faxing a Form 6 Click Next>. 7 Select how you would like the form to look in the next window. • Select the first option to print the form as it was designed by OmniForm during import or by the person who designed it in OmniForm. • Select the second option to print the form as it appeared when it was a hard copy, without any edits or redesign. 8 Click Finish. The Print dialog box appears. 9 Select the desired print options and click OK.
Printing or Faxing a Form This dialog box contains the Quick Print option. Select this option to: • Print forms faster. • Achieve a smaller file size when using the Print to File option. See the online help for detailed information about the Quick Print option. 3 This is how the dialog box looks in fill view in Windows 95. 4 Select an option in the Form/Data drop-down list. • Select Form and Data to print all text, graphics, and any information in fillable fields.
Printing or Faxing a Form 5 Select an option in the Data drop-down list. This option is only available if Form and Data or Data Only is selected in the Form/data drop-down list. • Select Current Record Only to print just the current record. • Select Current Record Set to print the current found set of records. • Select All Records to print every record in the database. 6 Select Collate to assemble multiple printed copies in the proper sequence.
Printing or Faxing a Form Printing Your Form as a Macro OmniForm supports macro programming utilities, such as Kelly FlashSIMM, that translate print files to macros and download them to a Flash storage device in a printer. Set up a Form as a Macro 1 Open or scan in the form you want to translate to a macro. 2 If the form opens in fill view, click the Design button in the standard toolbar or choose Design in the View menu to switch to design view. 3 Choose Print... in the File menu.
Searching a Form Searching a Form This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the Search... command to open a form and perform a search. Searching With Form Assistant 1 Windows 95 users: click Start in the Taskbar and choose Programs OmniForm. Windows NT and 3.1 users: double-click the OmniForm icon in the Caere Applications folder. Click the Form Assistant button in the standard toolbar if OmniForm is already open. Form Assistant appears.
Searching a Form 8 Select the which records to search. • Select Search All Records in the Database to search all records in the current database. • Select Only Search Current Record Set to search the current found set of records. This option is available after a search. 9 Click OK. OmniForm searches the records and finds any that contain the information you specified. See “Searching Records for Information” on page 198 for detailed information on searching. Using the Search...
Opening a Form to Design Opening a Form to Design This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the Design command to open a form in design view. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on designing and editing forms. Opening a Form in Design View With Form Assistant 1 Windows 95 users: click Start in the Taskbar and choose Programs OmniForm. Windows NT and 3.1 users: double-click the OmniForm icon in the Caere Applications folder.
Creating a New Form Creating a New Form This section describes how to use both Form Assistant and the New command to create a new form. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on form design. Creating a New Form With Form Assistant 1 Windows 95 users: click Start in the Taskbar and choose Programs OmniForm. Windows NT and 3.1 users: double-click the OmniForm icon in the Caere Applications folder. Form Assistant appears. 2 Select Create a new, blank form. 3 Click Finish.
Opening a Form Opening a Form This section describes how to use the Open... command to open a form. You can have up to 20 forms open at the same time. To open a form: 1 Windows 95 users: click Start in the Taskbar and choose Programs OmniForm. Windows NT and 3.1 users: double-click the OmniForm icon in the Caere Applications folder. 2 Click Cancel in Form Assistant if it appears. 3 Click the Open button in the standard toolbar or choose Open... in the File menu. The Open dialog box appears.
Opening a Form 4 Make sure OmniForm Form is selected in the Files of type (Windows 95) or List Files of Type (Windows NT and 3.1) dropdown list. 5 Locate and select a file. 6 Click Open (Windows 95) or OK (Windows NT and 3.1). The form opens in the last view in which it was saved. You can have a maximum of 20 forms open at one time. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on defining, moving, resizing, and creating fields, and other design functions.
Mailing a Form Mailing a Form This section describes how to select a mail system and use the Send... command to mail a form from OmniForm. You must have either Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, or a MAPI-compliant mail system such as Microsoft Exchange installed to mail a form. Selecting a Mail System 1 Choose Options... in the Tools menu in either fill or design view. The Options dialog box appears. 2 Click the General tab.
Mailing a Form The Send/Route Options dialog box appears if you chose Send... in fill view. Proceed to step 5 if you are in design view. 4 Select an option. • Select Form and Data to send all text, graphics, and any information in fillable fields. • Select Data Only to send just the information you have typed in the fillable fields. • Select Form Only to send the form as it would appear in design view, without any information in fillable fields. 5 Click Range...
Mailing a Form 7 Enter log-in information if the application requires it. A messaging interface appears after you log in. The appearance of the dialog box depends on the selected mail application. 8 Enter a subject line and message. Refer to the program’s documentation for more information. 9 Click Send to mail the information as specified. Adding a Routing Slip Microsoft Exchange/Mail users can add a routing slip to mail. See the Microsoft Exchange/Mail documentation for detailed information.
Menu Commands Menu Commands This section explains each OmniForm command. The menu command information is listed in the same order as commands appear in the menus. Cross-references in some sections point you to more detailed information for a command or a set of commands. Menu Shortcuts Use a right-mouse-button click to access the four available OmniForm shortcut menus. Select a command in a shortcut menu just as you would in the regular menu bar.
Menu Commands Export... (fill view only) — Export information from your currently open OmniForm database to a supported database file format. See “Importing Information” on page 213. Summary Info... (design view only) — Enter information about the current form. Print... — Print the current form on a printer, to disk as a file, or as a macro. See “Printing or Faxing a Form” on page 96. Print Preview — View a form before printing it. Page Setup...
Menu Commands Select Special... (design view only) — Select all form objects of a specific type, such as fill text. Add Page... (design view only) — Add one or more pages before or after the current page. Delete Page... (design view only) — Delete the current page or a range of pages. You cannot delete a page if it is the only one in a form. Insert New Object... (design view only) — Insert an OLE object such as a bitmap image or a video clip into your form.
Menu Commands Highlight Fill Areas — Turn field highlighting on and off. Grid (design view only) — Display or hide the grid. A check mark in front of the command means that the grid is displayed. The grid consists of horizontal and vertical lines made up of points that assist in positioning and resizing objects on a form. See Snap to Grid and Grid Settings... under “The Format Menu (Design View Only)” on page 115. Rulers (design view only) — Display or hide the horizontal and vertical rulers.
Menu Commands • The Record Number text box displays the number of the record you are viewing. Highlight the number, type in a new number, and press Enter to move to that record. • Select Next to move to the record after the one you are viewing. If record 3 is on view, for example, record 4 is the next record. • Select Last to move to the last record in your database. • Select New to create a new, blank record. You must have a form open and at least one field filled manually to create a new record. Search..
Menu Commands The Format Menu (Design View Only) Use the Format menu commands to set object attributes and field definitions. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for detailed information on each command. Object Appearance... — Select how selected objects appear. Options in the Object Appearance dialog box vary according to the selected object. Object Definition... — Set the properties and validation requirements for a selected field or fields. (You cannot define a text, line, oval, or rectangle object.
Menu Commands The Tools Menu Spelling... — In fill view, check the spelling in your filled fields. In design view, check the spelling of text, either after form import to check recognition accuracy or after you create text objects. See “Spell Checking Your Form” on page 190 for more information. Calculation (design view only) — Define a calculation on a selected field. OmniForm calculates the result automatically as you fill the form. See Chapter 9, Using Calculations.
Menu Commands Options... — Select various OmniForm options in the Options dialog box. General • Select Status Bar to display status text at the bottom of the window. • Select Page Margins to display the page margins on a form. • Select a mail system under Mail System if you have more than one installed. • Select a measurement unit in the Measurement Units drop-down list. • Select Show Form Assistant at Startup to open Form Assistant upon OmniForm launch. See “Using Form Assistant” on page 70.
Menu Commands The Help Menu Contents — Open the Help Topics window to the Contents tab to see a list of available help topics. Search for Help on... — Open the Help Topics window to the Index tab to search for information on a specific topic. How to Use Help — Open instructions on using the Help program. About OmniForm — See information about the current OmniForm version, any copyrights in effect, the program’s licensee, company name, and serial number.
Chapter 6 Designing a Form This chapter discusses how to design new forms and edit existing ones in OmniForm. OmniForm contains numerous tools in design view that let you create fields and objects, define calculations, and decide how your form will look.
The Design Process The Design Process This section gives a brief overview of how to design a new form. A form can be as simple as you need or as complex as OmniForm allows. Although the steps below are not required, they are recommended. See “Tutorial 3 — Design Your Own Form” on page 39 for step-by-step instructions on designing a form. See “Redesigning Your Form” on page 153 for information on how you can change existing forms. To design a new form: 1 Open a new, blank form. 2 Choose Page Setup...
The Design View Toolbars The Design View Toolbars This section describes each toolbar in design view and defines its buttons. Design view contains five toolbars: • the standard toolbar • the font/text toolbar • the drawing toolbar • the arrange toolbar • the calculation toolbar (See Chapter 9, Using Calculations, for information on this toolbar and its functions.) In Windows 95, you can drag these toolbars to any other location in the OmniForm window.
The Design View Toolbars Print Preview — See how your form will look before you print, mail, or fax it. Spelling — Check the spelling of the form’s text. Cut — Remove the current selection and copy it to the Clipboard. Copy — Copy the current selection to the Clipboard. Paste — Place the current contents of the Clipboard on your form. Text pastes at the cursor location. Design — Switch to design view. Fill — Switch to fill view. Zoom — Choose a page view.
The Design View Toolbars The Font/Text Toolbar Use the font/text toolbar to format text. This toolbar is only active when a fill text, comb, comb element, circle text, or table cell object is selected. Center Center Alignment Alignment Bold Underline Horizontal Justify Vertical Font drop-down list Font Size drop-down list Italic Left Top Bottom Right Alignment Alignment Alignment Alignment The drop-down lists and buttons correspond to options in the Font or Text dialog boxes (choose Font... or Text...
The Design View Toolbars The Drawing Toolbar Use the drawing toolbar to create and select objects. Selection tool Text tool Line tool Oval tool Rectangle tool Graphic tool Fill Text tool Comb tool Check Box tool Circle Text tool Table tool Fill Graphic tool Lock On/Off tool Below is a brief explanation of each tool’s function. See “Creating Objects” on page 126 for detailed information on using the drawing tools. Selection tool — Select, move, and resize objects.
The Design View Toolbars The Arrange Toolbar Use the arrange toolbar to arrange and align objects on a form. Bring to Front Send to Back Align Left Align Right Center Horizontally Align Top Align Bottom Center Vertically Below is a brief explanation of each button’s function. These buttons correspond to the Align, Bring to Front, and Send to Back commands in the Format menu. The last six buttons on the toolbar are only active when multiple objects are selected.
Creating Objects Creating Objects This section explains how to create objects. You can create fillable objects that a user fills in fill view, and non-fillable objects such as lines and rectangles that contribute to a form’s design. You will learn how to use all the tools in the drawing toolbar. See “Defining Objects” on page 137 information on how to define objects after you create them. See Chapter 7, Filling a Form, for detailed information on how to fill objects (fields) in fill view.
Creating Objects 5 Drag the object where you want it on the form. When the object is complete and no longer selected, the drawing tool reverts to the Selection tool unless the Lock tool is on. Creating a Text Object A text object is most often used as a title, label, or header. Text object used as label The State fill text field 1 Click the Text tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw the text object. 3 With the object still selected, type the text you want to replace the word Label.
Creating Objects Creating an Oval Object Use an oval object to highlight areas on a form or as a design element. See how the rectangle object is used in the next example. 1 Click the Oval tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw an oval. To create a circle, hold down the Shift key as you draw. Creating a Rectangle Object Use a rectangle object to highlight areas on a form or as a design element. 1 Click the Rectangle tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a rectangle.
Creating Objects To create a graphic object: 1 Click the Graphic tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a graphic object. To create a square graphic object, hold down the Shift key as you draw. 3 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button in the standard toolbar or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Graphic Definition dialog box appears. 4 Select a source for the graphic in the Source drop-down list.
Creating Objects Form Image Source: Copying a Graphic From the Original Form 1 Choose Form Image in the View menu. This command is only available when a form has an original view. It is not available for forms you design in OmniForm. The screen splits to show the form both as it was designed with Logical Form Recognition and as it was scanned originally. 2 Locate the graphic you want to copy from the original form. Each view window has its own scroll bar so you can scroll to the same place in each form.
Creating Objects A corresponding box appears in the top window. Graphic box where graphic will be placed Graphic in original form 5 With the object still selected, click the Object Definition button in the standard toolbar or choose Object Definition... in the Format menu. The Graphic Definition dialog box appears. 6 Select Form Image in the Source drop-down list. 7 Proceed to “Graphic Definition Options” on page 132.
Creating Objects Graphic File Source: Importing a Graphic 1 Type a file name in the File Name text box or click Browse... to open the Browse dialog box. 2 Locate and select a file. 3 Click OK to return to the Graphic Definition dialog box. The name of the selected file appears in the File Name text box. 4 Proceed to “Graphic Definition Options”on this page to continue. TWAIN Source: Scanning in a Graphic 1 Click Select Source.... The Select Source dialog box appears.
Creating Objects • Select Stretch to Fit to change your graphic’s original shape and size to fit in the fill graphic field. This option does not maintain a graphic’s original proportions. Depending on the shape of the fill graphic field, your graphic may be stretched or compressed. You might want to use this for special effects. • Select Just Change the Options for this Graphic if the graphic object contains a graphic already. This changes how the graphic appears without reimporting it.
Creating Objects Creating a Comb Object Use a comb field to separate information into separate groups of elements while maintaining the field as a whole. For example, United States forms typically require that you enter zip code numbers in five or nine separate boxes. In most languages, phone numbers are broken into several boxes. 1 Click the Comb tool in the drawing toolbar.
Creating Objects Creating a Circle Text Object Use circle text objects for Yes/No questions and for selecting one or more choices on a form (see the example in the previous section). 1 Click the Circle Text tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Draw a circle text object. To create a circle instead of an oval, hold down the Shift key as you draw. 3 With the object still selected, type the text you want to replace the number in the object.
Creating Objects To create a table object: 1 Click the Table tool in the drawing toolbar. 2 Either click anywhere on the form to create a table, or hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor slowly. The number of rows and columns in the comb field increase as you drag the mouse. Let go of the mouse button when the table contains the number of rows and columns you want. To create a square table, hold down the Shift key as you draw.
Defining Objects Defining Objects This section describes the options in the Object Definition dialog box and how they affect a selected object. The dialog box varies according to the selected object and form language. Each definable object is described in this section in the order it appears in the drawing toolbar. When you define an object you can: • Give it a unique name that is useful when sorting or searching records, arranging tab order, or defining calculations.
Defining Objects Defining a Fill Text Object Choose Object Definition... in the Format menu to open the Fill Text Definition dialog box when a fill text object is selected. Set Property Options 1 Click the Properties tab. 2 Type a unique name in the Name text box. Each object must have a unique name. A descriptive name such as Address makes a field easy to find when sorting, searching, defining calculations, and so forth. 3 Select a type in the Type drop-down list.
Defining Objects • A General format leaves the field entry exactly as it is entered. In the above example, 7889 entered in the field would be displayed as 7889. • Field type also affects field validation. You can require that the field entry match the field type. See “Set Validation Options” on page 141 for information. The next two options are enabled when Number, Currency, or Percentage is selected in the Type drop-down list.
Defining Objects • Select an entry in the list and click Remove to remove it. • A field with a list of choices looks like this in fill view: A drop-down list arrow appears when the cursor is in the field. Click the arrow to open the list and select an entry. The entry appears in the field. 3 Deselect Can Be Filled so an empty field cannot be filled and a filled field cannot be changed in fill view.
Defining Objects Set Validation Options 1 Click the Validation tab. 2 Select Must be Filled in to display a prompt in fill view if the user does not fill the field. The Can Be Filled option in the Filling tab, when deselected, overrides the Must be Filled in option when it is selected. 3 Select Data Must Match Field Type to display a prompt in fill view if the user enters incorrect information in the field.
Defining Objects Defining a Comb Object Choose Object Definition... in the Format menu to open the Comb Definition dialog box when a comb object is selected. This dialog box contains most of the same options as the Fill Text Definition dialog box with these exceptions: • It contains an Interpret As drop-down list instead of a Format drop-down list. • It contains an Elements section. • It contains a Fill Right to Left option. These options are described in this section.
Defining Objects Element Options 1 Click the Properties tab. 2 Type a number in the Number of Elements text box. A zip code field for the United States, for example, would have either five or nine elements. 3 Type a number in the Width of Elements text box to set how wide all comb elements will be. You can resize individual elements later if you want to change their width. 4 Type a number in the Inter-Element Spacing text box to set the amount of space between each comb element.
Defining Objects Defining a Comb Element Object Choose Object Definition... in the Format menu to open the Comb Element Definition dialog box when a comb element is selected. To define a comb element: 1 Select left and right border measurements under Border Height. This sets the left and right border height of each element. You might, for example, select Half to use the popular half-border height often seen on forms. 2 Select Prefill element to place a hyphen in the selected element.
Defining Objects Defining a Check Box Object Choose Object Definition... in the Format menu to open the Check Box Definition dialog box when a check box object is selected. Set Property Options 1 Click the Properties tab. 2 Type a unique name in the Name text box. Each object must have a unique name. A descriptive name such as Yes Check Box makes a field easy to find when sorting, searching, defining calculations, and so forth.
Defining Objects Set Filling Options 1 Click the Filling tab. 2 Select a mark for the check box: a check mark, an X, or a fill. 3 Deselect Can Be Filled so an empty field cannot be filled and a filled field cannot be changed in fill view. 4 Select Tab Stop so that the cursor automatically moves to the selected field when the user presses the Tab key. Deselect Tab Stop so that the cursor tabs past the selected field.
Defining Objects Defining a Table Object Choose Object Definition... in the Format menu to open the Table Definition dialog box when a table object is selected. 1 Type a unique name in the Name text box. Each object must have a unique name. A descriptive name such as Order Information makes a field easy to find when sorting, searching, changing tab order, and so forth. 2 Type the number of columns you want in the table in the Number of Columns text box.
Defining Objects the other two centimeters high, for example, each would be resized to three centimeters high. 6 Click OK to apply the changes. Defining a Table Cell A table cell contains a fill text object by default. See “Defining a Fill Text Object” on page 138 for information. See any relevant entry in this section if the table cell contains another type of object. A table cell can contain more than one object. It can also contain graphics.
Changing Object Appearance Changing Object Appearance This section describes the options in the Object Appearance dialog box and how they affect a selected object. See the section “Creating Objects” on page 126 to learn how to create objects. To change object appearance: 1 Select an object or objects in design view. 2 Click the Object Appearance button in the standard toolbar or choose Object Appearance... in the Format menu.
Changing Object Appearance 3 Select a background pattern for the object in the Pattern dropdown list. 4 Select a color for the background pattern in the Pattern Color drop-down list. 5 Deselect Clear to have the selected colors and pattern appear as the object’s background. See “Paint Order” on page 152 for a description of how paint order affects color and pattern display. Set the Border 1 Click the Border tab. 2 Select border color in the Color drop-down list.
Changing Object Appearance 8 Enter a measurement from 0 to 14 in the Rounded text box to indicate the degree of border curve. 9 For a shadow effect, select an option in the Location drop-down list in the Shadow section. 10 Select how many points to offset the shadow from the border in the Offset drop-down list. Set Fill Lines Text alignment must be set to Left and Top or Exactly in the Text dialog box before fill lines can be set. See “Formatting Text” on page 155 for information.
Changing Object Appearance 4 Select line thickness in the Weight drop-down list. 5 Deselect Clear to display the fill lines. The next section, “Paint Order,” describes how paint order affects fill line display. 6 Select Start Fill Line at First Line Indentation to indent the first fill line the same amount as the first line of text entered in the field. See “The Text... Command” on page 156 for more information. 7 Click OK to apply the changes and close the dialog box.
Redesigning Your Form Redesigning Your Form This section describes how to redesign a form using the design view tools and commands. Once you have created objects, you may want to move, resize, or convert them. You may also want to make changes to a newly scanned or imported form.
Redesigning Your Form • Choose Select Special... in the Edit menu to select all objects of the same type. Moving an Object You can move a selected object or objects in several ways. • Hold down the mouse button and drag the selected object to another location. • Choose Size and Position... in the Format menu to position the selected object precisely on the form. • Use the Align commands in the Format menu or the corresponding button in the Arrange toolbar to align selected objects.
Redesigning Your Form Deleting an Object Choose Delete in the Edit menu or press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete one or more selected objects. Formatting Text Use the Font... and Text... commands in the Format menu or the corresponding buttons in the font/text toolbar to format selected objects. See “The Font/Text Toolbar” on page 123 for information about each button in the toolbar. The Font... Command 1 Select the text and/or fill objects you want to format.
Redesigning Your Form 6 Select an option in the Effects box. • Select Strikeout to place a line through all characters. • Select Underline to underline all characters. A preview of your choices appears in the Sample box. 7 Click OK to apply the formatting. The Text... Command 1 Select the text and/or fill objects you want to format. Text entered in fill view takes on formatting assigned to fill objects in design view. 2 Choose Text... in the Format menu. The Text dialog box appears.
Redesigning Your Form 6 Click the Spacing tab and select a line-spacing option. You can change the vertical spacing between paragraph lines. Vertical spacing is dependent on selected font size; a singlespaced paragraph with 12-point text would have 12 points between each line in the paragraph. • Select Single for a single-spaced paragraph. • Select 1.5 Lines for a paragraph with one-and-a-half spaces between each lines. • Select Double for a double-spaced paragraph.
Redesigning Your Form Redesigning a Table Use the Table AutoFormat... command to format a selected table. To format a table: 1 Select a table. 2 Choose Table AutoFormat... in the Format menu. The Table AutoFormat dialog box appears. 3 Select the Yes option to enable the Appearance list box. 4 Select an appearance option for your table. 5 Click Next> if it is available to open the Naming window. Depending on your appearance selection, the Naming window may not be available.
Redesigning Your Form Aligning Objects Use the Align commands in the Format menu or the corresponding buttons in the Arrange toolbar to move and align multiple selected objects. See “The Arrange Toolbar” on page 125 for information about each button in the toolbar. Each selected object aligns to the edge of its bounding box, the imaginary box that surrounds all objects. A bounding box appears when you select an object and hold down the mouse button. Objects align to the outermost selected object.
Redesigning Your Form • Select Center Vertically to align the selected objects by their vertical centers. Vertical centers Vertical centers’ alignment midpoint The objects align according to the chosen command. Sending Objects Front or Back You can use the Bring to Front or Send to Back commands in the Format menu to layer overlapping objects. Choose Bring to Front to move one or more selected objects in front of all objects on a form.
Redesigning Your Form The Tab Order window appears to the right of the form and numbers appear by each object on the form. Both indicate current tab order. 2 Select the field to reorder. Note that the corresponding object on the form is selected. 3 Reorder the field in one of the following ways: • Select a field in the window and drag it up or down to change its tab order. • Click the Move Up button to move the selected field up. Click as many times as needed to move it into place.
Redesigning Your Form • Click a field with a plus sign in front of it to display its list of contained fields. A table, for example, opens to display a list of cells. You can click each cell to display the object(s) it contains. You cannot change cell order, but you can change tab order within a cell if it contains multiple fillable fields. The corresponding tab order numbers on the field change when you reorder a field in the Tab Order dialog box. 4 Repeat for each field you want to reorder.
Redesigning Your Form Converting an Object You can convert any selected object to another type of object. You might, for example, want to convert objects in table cells to check boxes. Be careful when converting objects in an existing form. If the old object contained information, you will permanently lose that object’s information in every record. You can also convert objects that were not defined properly during import; for example, OmniForm might define a line with space above it as a fill text field.
Using the Scrapbook Using the Scrapbook This section describes the OmniForm scrapbook and how to use it. What is the Scrapbook? The scrapbook is a convenient place to store frequently used or complex objects. Objects stored in the scrapbooks are called scraps. You can copy these scraps into any form. You can use one of the several scrapbook files provided with OmniForm or create your own. Opening a Scrapbook 1 Current scrapbook Choose Scrapbook in the Tools menu.
Using the Scrapbook Copying Objects to the Scrapbook 1 Open the desired scrapbook. 2 Select one or more objects on your form and drag them into the scrapbook. Alternatively, select one or more objects and choose Paste Scrap in the Scrapbook Commands icon menu. Small thumbnails of the objects appear as Scrap 1, Scrap 2, and so forth in the scrapbook. You cannot store an OLE object in the scrapbook. Placing Scraps in a Form 1 Open the desired scrapbook. 2 Select a scrap and drag it into your form.
Using the Scrapbook Deleting a Scrap 1 Select a scrap. 2 Select Delete Scrap in the Scrapbook Commands icon menu. You can also press the Delete key to delete a selected scrap. OmniForm prompts you to confirm your choice. You cannot undo the Delete Scrap command! Creating a New Scrapbook 1 Select New Scrapbook... in the Scrapbook icon drop-down list. The New Scrapbook dialog box appears. 2 Type a name in the Scrapbook Name text box. In Window 3.1, scrapbooks names are limited to eight characters.
Using the Scrapbook 4 Type a name in the New Name text box. In Window 3.1, scrapbooks names are limited to eight characters. 5 Click OK. The new scrapbook name appears in the Scrapbook drop-down list. Deleting a Scrapbook 1 Open the scrapbook to delete. 2 Choose Delete Scrapbook in the Scrapbook Commands icon menu. 3 OmniForm prompts you to confirm your choice. You cannot undo the Delete Scrapbook command! You can also delete a scrapbook file directly from the hard drive.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form Inserting OLE Objects in a Form This section describes how to use object linking and embedding (OLE) to insert objects in a form. Inserting objects is a convenient way to place information from other sources in OmniForm. OmniForm supports objects created in a variety of applications. For example, instead of scanning a page of text into OmniForm, you could create a Microsoft Word Document object and insert it in the form either as fully displayed text or as a launchable icon.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form How to Insert OLE Objects 1 Choose Insert New Object... in the Edit menu. The Insert Object dialog box appears. 2 Select an object type in the Object Type list box. 3 Select one of the following: • Select Create New to create a new object of the type selected and embed it in your form. Proceed to step 4. • Select Create From File to import a file of the type selected and either embed it in or link it to your form. The dialog box changes.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form Creating a New OLE Object See the previous section, “How to Insert OLE Objects” on page 169 if you need to insert an object. How your object appears depends on the options you selected in the Insert Object dialog box. If you selected Display as Icon in step 4 in the previous section, the source application launches. Use its commands and tools to create your object. Choose Exit in the File menu to insert the object as an icon.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form Creating an OLE Object From a File See steps 1–3 in the section “How to Insert OLE Objects” on page 169 if you need to create an object. The Insert Object dialog box changes when you select Create From File. 1 Type a file name in the File text box. • Click Browse to locate a file. • Locate and select a file. • Click OK to return to the Insert Object dialog box. 2 Select Link if you want to link the object to its source file. Otherwise, the object will be embedded.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form To paste a linked OLE object: 1 Open a document in an application that supports links to its documents. 2 Select the portion to link and leave it selected. 3 Open a form in OmniForm. 4 Choose Paste Link in the Edit menu. OmniForm pastes the information as a linked OLE object. Use the Links... command in the Edit menu to set linking options for any linked object. See the next section for information. Using the Links... Command This section describes the Links...
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form This is useful if you do not want the linked object to reflect all changes made to the source file. 4 Select a link and click a button to perform a linking procedure: • Click Update Now to update the selected link to reflect any changes made to its source file. • Click Open Source to launch the selected link in its source application. • Click Change Source to change the source file to which the object is linked. The Change Source dialog box appears.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form Using the Object Commands The Object command in the Edit menu is only available when an OLE object is selected. It changes according to the selected object. The commands in its cascading menu change as well. This section describes each command. Open Choose Open in the Object cascading menu to view a selected OLE object in its source application. • Linked objects and objects displayed as icons open in the source application. Choose Exit in the File menu when you are done.
Inserting OLE Objects in a Form 4 Click Change Icon... when Display As Icon is selected if you want to select a new icon or change its name. The Change Icon... button appears when Display As Icon is selected. Click it to select a new icon for the object or to change the icon’s name. By default, an object appears with the object type name if it is unlinked and the source file name if it is linked. 5 Click OK. The object is converted.
Chapter 7 Filling a Form This chapter describes what kinds of fields a form can contain, how to fill those fields, how to move through fields on a form, and how to use the standard toolbar. See Chapter 5, OmniForm Procedures, if you need information on how to start working with a form. You must first open, scan, or import a form in order to fill it.
The Fill View Window The Fill View Window This section describes the standard toolbar and its commands. The standard toolbar is the only toolbar in fill view. It is somewhat different than the standard toolbar in design view. Standard toolbar The Standard Toolbar Use the standard toolbar for basic file operations such as saving and printing. Use it also to move through records in a database.
The Fill View Window The Standard Toolbar Commands This section gives a quick explanation of each button’s function. All corresponding menu commands are explained in the section “Menu Commands” on page 110. Processes such as scanning or opening a form are explained in Chapter 5, OmniForm Procedures. New — Click the New button to open a new, blank form in design view. Open — Click the Open button to open an OmniForm Form. Save — Click the Save button to save changes made to the current form.
The Fill View Window Record Number — This text box displays the current record number. Highlight the number in the Record Number text box, type a new one, and press Enter to move to that record. Next Record — Click the Next Record button to move to the record after the one you are viewing. Last Record — Click the Last Record button to move to the last record in a database. New Record — Click the New Record button to create a new record with empty fields.
Moving Through Fields Moving Through Fields You can click in any field to place the cursor there or you can use the following keyboard commands to move the cursor within a form. Place the cursor in a field: When a form first opens, press the Tab or Enter key to place the cursor in the first field. Next field: Press the Tab or Enter key. Previous field: Press Shift-Tab or Shift-Enter. Next line in a fill text field: Press Ctrl-Enter to move to the next line in a multiple-line fill text field.
Filling Fields Filling Fields This section describes each type of fillable field in OmniForm, how to fill it, and how to check spelling. It contains the following topics: • Fill Text • Comb • Check Box • Circle Text • Table • Fill Graphic • List Fields • Fields Defined by a Calculation • Field Validation These instructions assume that the cursor is already in a field. The way information is displayed in a field depends on the current form language selection and object definition.
Filling Fields Check Box Click a check box field to fill it. A check box field can be defined to contain one of three elements: a check mark, an X, or a fill. If OmniForm designs your form and recognizes a check box, it defines the box to contain an X by default. Check boxes are commonly used for Yes/No questions and for selecting an item in a group, as in the two examples below: Fill Check Check boxes may be grouped; this means that only one can be selected.
Filling Fields A table cell can also contain any other type of field, even multiple fields of the same or different types. In the example below, the table cells on the right contain check box fields. The user clicks this cell to fill it in the same way as a check box field. See Chapter 6, Designing a Form, for information on tables, converting fields from one type to another, inserting objects in table cells, and so on. Fill Graphic A fill graphic field contains a graphic you select.
Filling Fields 3 Enter a file name in the File Name text box. • Click Browse if you need to locate a file. • Select a file format in the Files of Type drop-down list. • Select a file and click OK to return to the Fill Graphic dialog box. The file name appears in the File Name text box. 4 Select an option in the Options drop-down list. • Select Maintain Original Size to import the graphic without changes.
Filling Fields text boxes under Size. The size of the fill graphic field is displayed at the bottom of the Fill Graphic dialog box. If you enter a size larger than the fill graphic field, only part of the graphic will be visible. 5 Enter offset measurements under Offset if you want. This is useful if you want to position a graphic exactly in the field, crop a large graphic, or move the graphic away from a field border that would interfere with its design.
Filling Fields 5 Type a file name in the File Name text box. This is the file name the graphic will have after it is scanned and saved automatically by OmniForm. • Click Browse if you need to locate a path for the file. • Set a path in the Browse dialog box, type a name for the file, and click OK to return to the Fill Graphic dialog box. 6 Follow steps 4–6 beginning on page 184 and then return to step 7 on this page.
Filling Fields Fields Defined by a Calculation The only time you would notice a calculation in fill view is when a field fills in automatically. In the example below, the TOTAL field automatically added the amounts entered in the first and second fields. The TOTAL would increase if the third and fourth fields were filled as well. You define a calculation on a field in design view. See Chapter 8, Using Calculations, for detailed information on calculations.
Spell Checking Spell Checking Use the spell-checking feature to verify that field entries are correct. Before you check spelling make sure you have selected the correct language for your form in the Options dialog box as described below. Proceed to “Spell Checking Your Form” on page 190 if: you have a single-language form; the Current Form language selection is correct; you have a dictionary for that language. Checking the Current Form Language Selection 1 Choose Options... in the Tools menu.
Spell Checking Changing the Language Selection 1 Click the Design button in the standard toolbar or choose Design in the View menu. 2 Choose Options... in the Tools menu. The Options dialog box appears. 3 Click the International tab if it is not displayed. 4 Select the correct language for your form in the Current Form drop-down list. This also selects the correct dictionary for spell checking. 5 Click OK. 6 Click the fill view button in the standard toolbar or choose Fill in the View menu.
Spell Checking Spell Checking Your Form 1 Click the Spelling button in the standard toolbar or choose Spelling... in the Tools menu. The Spelling dialog box appears with the first questionable word after Unknown Word. • The suggested spelling, if there is one, appears in the Change to text box. • Other suggested spellings appear in the Suggestions list box. 2 Select one of the following options: • Click Ignore to allow the questioned word to remain as is and continue the spell check.
Saving in Fill View Saving in Fill View You will notice that if you close a form after making data entries in fill view (but no changes in design view) that OmniForm does not prompt you to save the changes. This is because OmniForm saves automatically in fill view. OmniForm saves after numerous user actions: moving from one record to another, printing or closing a form, before importing or exporting data, and in many other situations.
Chapter 8 Managing an OmniForm Database This chapter introduces basic database concepts. It explains what a database is, how to create one automatically by scanning or importing a form, how to create and maintain records in a database, and how to protect the vital information entered in your database records.
What is a Database? What is a Database? A database is a collection of information stored as individual records. Each record uses the same form design but can contain different information in its fields. OmniForm automatically creates a database when you scan in or import a form. As soon as you fill in the form, it becomes the first record in a new database. Any user of this database can create a new, blank form using the record as a template and then fill in new information to create another record.
Managing Database Records Managing Database Records This section tells you how to create a database of records and manage its information.
Managing Database Records To create a new record: 1 Open or scan in a form. 2 If the form opens in design view, click the Fill button in the standard toolbar or choose Fill in the View menu to switch to fill view. 3 Click in a field with the cursor or press Tab to place the cursor in the first fillable field. 4 Enter information in the field. OmniForm cannot create a new record until you fill at least one field in an empty form.
Managing Database Records 6 Fill in as many fields as you like. 7 Click the New button in the standard toolbar or choose Go To in the Records menu and New in its cascading menu. OmniForm creates and displays a new, empty record with the same form design as the first one. 8 Fill in this record with the appropriate information. 9 Continue to create new records in this way as you need.
Managing Database Records To duplicate a record: 1 Open or scan in a form. 2 If the form opens in design view, click the Fill button in the standard toolbar or choose Fill in the View menu to switch to fill view. 3 Fill in the information you want duplicated. 4 Choose Duplicate Record in the Records menu. OmniForm duplicates and displays the new record. To change an entry in a filled field, tab to a field or drag your cursor over the entry to highlight it and then type a new entry.
Managing Database Records Next Record Click the Next Record button or choose Go To in the Records menu and Next in its cascading menu to move to the record after the one you are viewing. If you are viewing record 3, for example, the next record is record 4. Last Record Click the Last Record button or choose Go To in the Records menu and Last in its cascading menu to move to the last record in your database.
Managing Database Records To simplify searches, give each field a unique name. Otherwise, you will have fields named FillText1, FillText2, and so forth, making it difficult to determine which fields contain what information. See “Defining Objects” on page 137 for detailed information. 4 Select a condition in the Condition drop-down list. A condition describes how to look for information entered in the Value text box. For example, suppose you entered the words Franich & Halsey in the Value text box.
Managing Database Records • is less than: find records of lesser value than the Value entry. This finds records that have entries in the Customer field beginning with a symbol, a number, or letters earlier in the alphabet than the entry, for example, France or Dharma Dogs. • is less than or equal to: find records of equal or lesser value than the Value entry. This finds records that have entries in the Customer field beginning with a symbol, a number, or the letter A up to the entry name itself.
Managing Database Records • does not end with: find records that do not have the Value entry at the end of the selected field or records that do not contain the value entry at all. This search finds records that do not have Franich & Halsey at the end of an entry in the Customer field. • contains: find records that contain the Value entry. This search finds records that have Franich & Halsey entered anywhere in the Customer field. • does not contain: find records that do not contain the Value entry.
Managing Database Records 6 Select an option under Scope of Search. • Select Search All Records in the Database to search the entire record set. • Select Only Search Current Record Set to search a subset of records. This option is only available when you have a found set open from a previous search. 7 Click OK. OmniForm searches for and retrieves all records that contain the information you specified in the Search dialog box. Click Clear Search to return to the full record set.
Managing Database Records Sorting Records You can sort records in OmniForm in ascending, descending, or original order entry. This is useful for many situations. If you wanted to export mailing information, for example, you could sort records by postal code to reduce bulk mailing costs. Or, you might want to sort invoices by date to find the most delinquent accounts. You can print, fax, mail, or export this information in the order in which it is sorted.
Managing Database Records • Select Original Order Entered to sort records in the order in which you originally entered information in the selected field. This is useful to view the history of information entered. 5 Click OK. OmniForm sorts the records in the order indicated. Recalculating Records Recalculating records applies any new or changed calculations to selected records in a database. Until you use the Recalculate... command, new or changed calculations apply only to new records.
Managing Database Records The Recalculate dialog box appears. 3 Select the records to recalculate. • Select All Records to apply the new or changed calculation to either the current found set or to every record in the database if the entire record set is open. • Select Current Record Only to apply the new or changed calculation to just the record you are viewing. • Select From/To to apply the new or changed calculation to a range of records. Enter a number in the From and To text boxes.
Managing Database Records Deleting Records This section describes how to delete one or more records in a database. Do this to get rid of old, unwanted, or duplicate records. You can export information from a record first if you want to delete a record but save its data. See “Exporting Information” on page 207 for instructions. You cannot delete a record if data protection is turned on. See “Protecting Your Database” on page 217 for information.
Managing Database Records Exporting Information This section explains the benefits of exporting information, how to prepare for export, and how to export information from an open OmniForm form. See “Importing Information” on page 213 for information on how to import information into a database. The Benefits of Exporting Information Export information from records to: • Share information with other OmniForm databases.
Managing Database Records To export information: 1 If you are in design view, click the Fill button in the standard toolbar or choose Fill in the View menu to switch to fill view. 2 Choose Export... in the File menu. The Export Setup dialog box appears. 3 Select a database file type in the Export To drop-down list. • Select OmniForm to export information to an OmniForm Data file. • Select ODBC Database to select a data source in the Available Data Sources list box.
Managing Database Records This is how the dialog box looks in Windows 95. • A file name appears in the File name text box. The file is named by default with the name of the currently open database. You can change the file name if you want. • The database file type you selected in the previous dialog box appears in the Save as type (or Save File as Type) drop-down list. 5 Use the Save in (or Directories) drop-down list to select a location for the file. 6 Click Save. The Export dialog box appears.
Managing Database Records 7 Select each field that contains the information to export and click Add>> to move it to the Fields to Export list box. • Shift-click to select or deselect multiple adjacent records, or hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor over adjacent records. • Ctrl-click to select or deselect multiple non-adjacent records. • Select a field on the right and click <
Managing Database Records ODBC Options Installed ODBC database drivers appear in the Available Data Sources list box when you select ODBC Database in the Export To drop-down list. • Select a source and click Setup... to open a setup dialog box for that program. Enter information in the Setup dialog box and click OK to return to the Export Setup dialog box. • Click Delete to remove a selected source from the list. • Click Add to select an ODBC database driver in the Add Data Source dialog box.
Managing Database Records Exported Data and Shared Forms This section explains how to use OmniForm Data files to open shared forms and how to set up a shared form location. A shared form is one other users can access. When you export OmniForm data from a form, the form’s file name is stored inside the Data file. OmniForm uses the file name information as well as pathway information in the Options dialog box to locate and open a copy of the original form.
Managing Database Records To use an OmniForm Data file to open a shared form: 1 Locate the OmniForm Data file to use. 2 Double-click the file or select it and choose Open in its folder’s File menu. A copy of the shared OmniForm Form from which the OmniForm Data file was exported opens. OmniForm automatically imports the information in the OmniForm Data file into the form.
Managing Database Records The Import Setup dialog box appears. 4 Select the type of database information to import in the Import From drop-down list. • Select OmniForm Database to import information from an OmniForm Form or from an OmniForm Data file. • Select a data source in the Available Data Sources list box to import files from another database source. You can also add, delete, and set up data sources. 5 Click OK.
Managing Database Records This is how the dialog box looks in Windows 95. An OmniForm Data (OFD) file has a different icon than a Form (OFM) file. The first New Address file in the picture above is a data file. 6 Locate and select a Data file to import. 7 Click OK. Depending on the database source you chose, more dialog boxes may appear. Select the appropriate options. The Import dialog box appears after you select a file. • Fields in the open OmniForm database appear on the left.
Managing Database Records • To link individual fields, select a field on the left, select its corresponding field on the right, and click Link. • Click Auto to automatically link all fields with the same name. Some fields will not have matching names but contain the same information. Or, you may not want to import all fields. Linked fields appear in the Links list box. • Select a link in the Links list box and click Unlink to unlink it. • Click Unlink All to unlink all fields.
Protecting Your Database Protecting Your Database It is important to protect information and form design in your database. This section describes how to use the OmniForm protection options to protect both your data and form design from potential deletions or changes, as well as the benefits of using the OmniForm Filler program. If your OmniForm database has an administrator, check with the administrator first before making any changes. Protecting Data Many databases have multiple users.
Protecting Your Database A dialog box appears. 7 Click OK to close the dialog box. Users can export data or copy text in protected mode but cannot alter form information in any other way such as by filling fields or importing data. Repeat steps 1–4 in the preceding instructions but deselect Protect Data in the Protection dialog box to turn off data protection. Protecting the Form The form layout you create in design view is used by every record in a database.
Protecting Your Database The drawing toolbar and many buttons in the standard toolbar are now grayed out. All the menu commands associated with these buttons are grayed out as well. 5 Click anywhere on the form. A dialog box appears. 6 Click OK to close the dialog box. Users can change viewing preferences and use most basic file commands such as Print and Save but cannot format or redesign the form in any way.
Chapter 9 Using Calculations This chapter describes how to use OmniForm’s calculation features. OmniForm automatically performs calculations when you fill in the appropriate field(s). Use calculations to automate data entry and prevent errors. For example, the average person might find it time-consuming to add a column of 100 numbers, and easy to make an error, but OmniForm can return an error-free sum in a fraction of a second.
Calculation Overview Calculation Overview This section gives an overview of how to create calculations. It contains the following topics: • Creating a Calculation • Calculation Guidelines • Using the Recalculate... Command • Usage Conventions See “Tutorial 3 — Create Your Own Form” on page 3-34 for step-by-step instructions on creating a simple calculation. Creating a Calculation Calculations are created in design view. You can create a calculation for fill text, comb, check box, and circle text objects.
Calculation Overview • Calculation Builder button Click this to open the Calculation Builder dialog box and create your own calculation. • Auto Calculation button Click this to have OmniForm attempt to define a calculation automatically. OmniForm can determine an auto calculation for an entire table in some circumstances. • Calculation text box The calculation for the selected field appears here. Click in the text box to edit a calculation manually.
Calculation Overview • Functions list This list contains all available functions that can be used in a calculation. (Functions are sorted by category in Windows 95. Click a category to open it.) Double-click a function to insert it in the calculation text box, or select it and click Paste. See “Functions” on page 9-230 for detailed information. Operators List of available functions. List of fields in your form 2 Select the operators, fields, and functions that you need for your calculation.
Calculation Overview Suppose you wanted to create a calculation for a Subtotal field in an invoice. The Subtotal field is the sum of the Price1 and Price2 fields. There is often more than one way to create a calculation. Here are two calculations you could create: • [Price1]+[Price2] • Sum([Price1],[Price2]) Both calculations return the same result. The first calculation is simple addition. It is easy for new users to create.
Calculation Overview The Auto Calculation dialog box appears if OmniForm proposes an auto calculation. 3 Accept or cancel OmniForm’s proposed calculation. • Click OK to accept the calculation. The calculation appears in the toolbar’s text box. • Click Cancel close the dialog box without creating a calculation.
Calculation Overview Calculation Guidelines Keep these guidelines in mind as you work with calculations: • Brackets ( [] ) must enclose a field name that contains a space. [Quantity Ordered] * [Unit Price] OmniForm will not accept the calculation otherwise. • Parentheses ( () ) must enclose an entire function. Sum([Price1],[Price2]) This tells OmniForm where the function begins and ends. You may have more than one function in a calculation.
Calculation Overview • If you change a field name and that field is part of a calculation, you must change the field name in the calculation as well. OmniForm cannot perform the calculation otherwise. • Calculations are performed in tabbing order. • If a calculation contains another field that has a calculation, the other field’s calculation is performed first. Usage Conventions Substitute the appropriate field name where you see num and str in the function examples.
Operators Operators Operators represent mathematical, comparison, logical, and text operations to be performed within a calculation. You must have an operator between fields in a calculation. For example, a calculation for a Total field might look like this: [Price1] + [Price2] + [Price3] The plus signs between the field names are the Addition operators in the calculation. The calculation could also look like this: Sum([Price1],[Price2],[Price3]) The parentheses are the operators in the calculation.
Operators Operators — Quick Reference See “Usage Conventions” on page 9-227 for information on how to interpret the examples in the following table.
Functions Functions This section defines each OmniForm function and shows how to use it in a calculation. Functions are listed alphabetically. See “Functions — Quick Reference” on page 9-252 for an overview of each function. Functions are single words used by OmniForm to represent operations within a calculation. Functions can use field values, information you enter, and information from outside sources such as the computer date.
Functions Avg (Average) The Avg function returns the average value of a set of numbers and/or numeric expressions. The average value is determined by adding all the values and dividing by the number of values. Usage Example Avg([num1,num2] ...) If the field entries are 11, 14, and 20 Then the calculation Avg([num1],[num2],[num3] returns 15 In the example below, the average of sales for the past six months is calculated. It appears in the Average field.
Functions DayName The DayName function returns the name of the day of the week for a given date. Usage Example DayName(Date()) If the current date is February 14, 1996 Then the calculation DayName(Date())returns Wednesday In the example below, the name of the day of the week is calculated using the Cur Date field and put in the Day Name field. DayOfMonth The DayOfMonth function returns the number for the day of the month for a given date.
Functions DayOfWeek The DayOfWeek function returns a number for the day of the week for a given date. The values returned are: Sunday1, Monday2, Tuesday3, Wednesday4, Thursday5, Friday6, and Saturday7. Usage Example DayOfWeek(Date()) If the current date is February 14, 1996 Then the calculation DayOfWeek(Date())returns 4 (Wednesday) In the example below, the day of the week from the Date field appears in the Day of Week field.
Functions Exp (Exponentiation) The Exp function returns the value of the constant e to the power of a number or numeric expression. The value of e, the base of natural logarithms, is approximately 2.71828. This function is the inverse of the Ln function. Usage Example Exp([num1]) If the field [num1] = 3 Then the calculation Exp([num1]) returns 20.08553692 In the example below, the Exp field is calculated using the number in the Value field.
Functions Hour The Hour function returns the hour (HH) portion of a given time (HH:MM:SS). The hour is based on a 24-hour clock and ranges from 0– 23. Usage Example Hour(Time()) If the current time is 18:05:05 Then the calculation Hour(Time()) returns 18 In the example below, the hour is taken from the Time field and put in the Hour field. If The If function evaluates a logical expression and returns the true expression if it evaluates to true (“yes” or “true”).
Functions Int (Integer) The Int function returns the integer portion of a number or numeric expression. Usage Example Int([num1]) If the field [num1] = 16,184.35 Then the calculation Int([num1]) returns 16,184.00 In the example below, the total amount (dollar portion only) is put in the Total Sales field. Left The Left function returns characters from a given string from the first character on the left to the right for the specified number of characters.
Functions Length The Length function returns the number of characters in a given string. The calculation counts all characters in a string including spaces. Usage Example Length([str1]) If the field [str1] = John Doe Then the calculation Length([str1]) returns 8 In the example below, the length of the name in the Name field is put in the Length of Name field. Ln (Natural Logarithm) The Ln function returns the natural logarithm (base e) of a number or numeric expression.
Functions Log (Base 10 Logarithm) The Log function returns the common logarithm (base 10) of a number or numeric expression. The number or numeric expression must be greater than 0. Usage Example Log([num1]) If the field [num1] = 3 Then the calculation Log([num1]) returns 0.47712125 In the example below, the common logarithm is calculated using the Log Value field and put in the Logarithm field. Lower The Lower function returns the lower case of a given string.
Functions Max (Maximum) The Max function returns the maximum (highest) value of a set of numbers and/or numeric expressions. Usage Example Max([num1],[num2] ...) If the numbers in the fields are 150, 200, and 45 Then the calculation Max([num1],[num2],[num3]) returns 200 In the example below, the Top Sales field displays the highest sales made.
Functions Min (Minimum) The Min function returns the minimum (lowest) value of a set of numbers and/or numeric expressions. Usage Example Min([num1], [num2] ...) If the numbers in the fields are 90, 95, 82 and 78 Then the calculation Min([num1],[num2],[num3],[num4]) returns 78 In the example below, the minimum test score is picked out of a list of scores and put in the Minimum Score field. Minute The Minute function returns the minute (MM) portion of a given time (HH:MM:SS). The minute ranges from 0–59.
Functions Mod (Modulus (Remainder)) The Mod function returns the remainder of a number or numeric expression divided by another number or numeric expression. A positive number is returned if the dividend is positive, and a negative number is returned if the dividend is negative.
Functions MonthName The MonthName function returns the full name of the month for a given date. Usage Example MonthName(Date()) If the current date is February 14, 1996 Then the calculation MonthName(Date()) returns February In the example below, the name of the month is put in the Month Name field using the current system date calculated in the Today’s Date field. Pi The Pi function returns the value of the constant Pi (approximately 3.14159265).
Functions PMT (Payment) The PMT function returns the payment amount required for a given principal at a fixed interest rate per period, for a fixed number of payment periods. It assumes payments are made at the end of each period. Usage Example PMT([principal num],[interest rate num],[num periods]) If the principal is $30,000, the annual interest rate is 9% (.75% monthly), and the number of years is 30 Then the calculation PMT([principal num],[interest rate num],[num periods]) returns 241.
Functions Proper The Proper function returns the given string with the first character of each word converted to upper case and the rest of the characters in each word converted to lower case. Usage Example Proper([str1]) If the field [str1] = john doe Then the calculation Proper([str1]) returns John Doe In the example below, the Proper function places the Student Name entry in the Proper Name field with the first letter of each name capitalized.
Functions RecordCount The RecordCount function returns the number of records in the current database. Usage Example RecordCount() If a field contains the function RecordCount() and the database contains 156 records Then the value returned is 156 In the example below, the number of records appears in the Number of Records field. Replace The Replace function returns a replacement string for a given source string starting at the specified position from the left in the source string for the specified length.
Functions Replicate The Replicate function returns a given string repeated the specified number of times. The maximum length returned is 16,000 characters. Usage Example Replicate(str1, num of times to replicate) If the field [str1] = * Then the calculation Replicate(“*”, 10) returns ********** In the example below, the Start Date field is put into the Target Date field with leading and trailing asterisks.
Functions Round The Round function returns the value of a number or numeric expression rounded to the specified decimal places in the second parameter. Usage Example Round([num1], num of decimal places) If the field [num1] = 2404.685 Then the calculation Round([num1],2) returns 2404.68 In the example below, the value in the Total field is extracted and rounded to two decimal places in the Price field. Second The Second function returns the second (SS) portion of a given time (HH:MM:SS).
Functions Sign The Sign function returns a value of 1 if a number or numeric expression is positive, -1 if it is negative, and 0 if it is 0. Usage Example Sign([num1]) If the field [num1] = -100 Then the calculation Sign([num1]) returns -1 In the example below, the Invoice Amount field is evaluated and a message is put in the Warning field if it is negative. The Sign function is used to determine if the value is negative.
Functions Sum The Sum function returns the total value of a set of numbers and/or numeric expressions added together. Usage Example Sum([num1],[num2], ...) If the numbers in the fields are 3, 6, and 8 Then the calculation Sum([num1],[num2],[num3] returns 17 In the example below, test scores are added together and put in the Total Scores field. Time The Time function returns the current time based on the current system clock. The time is returned as HH:MM:SS.
Functions Trim The Trim function returns a given string with all leading, trailing, and extra blank spaces removed. Usage Example Trim([str1]) If the field [str1] = Jane Doe Then the calculation Trim([str1]) returns Jane Doe In the example below, the Supervisor 1 field or Supervisor 2 field is placed in the Manager field depending on which box is checked. The name is trimmed of all extra blank spaces.
Functions Upper The Upper function returns a given string as uppercase. Usage Example Upper([str1]) If the field [str1] = Samantha Morrison Then the calculation Upper([str1]) returns SAMANTHA MORRISON In the example below, the Salesperson field is converted to all upper case and put in the Salesperson Last Name field. Year The Year function returns the numeric year for a date. The year is returned as CCYY.
Functions Functions — Quick Reference See “Usage Conventions” on page 9-227 for information on how to interpret the examples in the following table. A brief description and usage of each function is listed. Function Type Abs mathematical Absolute Value: returns the value of num Abs(num) Avg statistical Average: returns the average for num1, num2, etc. Avg(num1, num2, ...
Functions Left text Left: returns the characters for str beginning from the left and proceeding to the right for num characters Left(str, num) Length text Length: returns the number of characters in str Length(str) Ln mathematical Natural Logarithm: returns the natural logarithm (base e — approximately 2.
Functions PV financial Record Count database Present Value: returns the present value of an investment given a payment num, interest rate num, and num of periods PV(payment num, interest rate num, num of periods) Record Count: returns the number of records in the current database.
Functions Functions Sorted by Type This section lists each function by type. (In Windows 95, the Calculation Builder dialog box contains folders for each type of function listed.
Chapter 10 Technical Information This chapter explains how to troubleshoot common problems you may encounter. It also provides technical information on such topics as how to improve Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and scanning performance.
Before You Begin Before You Begin If you have a problem with OmniForm, first check that your computer, scanner, and other applications are functioning properly. Make backups of OmniForm files regularly, preferably in a location other than your hard drive. This could save you hours or days of work if the unexpected happens: file deletion or corruption caused by disk crashes, viruses, or user error.
OmniForm Setup Issues OmniForm Setup Issues This section contains information on some common installation problems and information on how to optimize the installation process: • Memory and Installation • Setup Program Requests the Same Disk • Integrating OmniForm with PaperPort™ • Installing OmniForm 2.01 over Older Versions • Uninstalling OmniForm Memory and Installation Close all applications — including screen savers and mail applications — to free up memory before starting the OmniForm setup program.
OmniForm Setup Issues Uninstalling OmniForm Follow these steps to remove OmniForm permanently from your system. The steps listed here remove all OmniForm files from your computer. Back up files and records outside your OmniForm folder if you want to save them. To uninstall OmniForm in Windows 95: 1 Exit from OmniForm. 2 Click Start in the Taskbar and choose Settings Control Panel. The Control Panel appears. 3 Double-click Add/Remove Programs. The Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box appears.
Scanning and Recognition Scanning and Recognition This section describes common scanning and recognition problems and possible solutions: • System Hang During Scan • System Hang During Auto Form Design • Scanner Compatibility System Hang During Scan A system hang during a scan could have several possible causes: • An interrupt conflict between your scanner and another device such as a bus mouse or network card. Check interrupt addresses for a possible conflict. See your device documentation.
Scanning and Recognition Scanner Compatibility If you experience a problem between OmniForm and your scanner, make sure your scanner is one that OmniForm supports. OmniForm supports the following scanners: • Hewlett-Packard (ScanJet Plus and above) • Visioneer • TWAIN-compliant scanners such as Canon, Epson and Microtek Select setup options for TWAIN-compliant scanners in the TWAIN dialog box that appears before scanning. Select 200, 300, or 400 dots per inch (dpi) for the resolution.
Operation Operation This section provides troubleshooting techniques for potential operational problems as well as additional technical information: • OmniForm Limits • Low Memory • Low Disk Space • Right Mouse Button Functions • Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Automation Support OmniForm Limits The following limits apply in OmniForm: • Pages in a form: 100. • Open forms: 20. • Records in a database: 10,000 or approximately 5.4 MB of data across all records.
Operation Amount of Memory Available You can find out how much memory you have and how much is currently available. To check available memory in Windows 95: 1 Click the Start button in the Taskbar and choose Settings Control Panel. 2 Double-click System in the Control Panel. The System Properties dialog box appears. 3 Click the Performance tab. All memory information appears in this tab. See your Windows documentation or the Windows online help for more information. You can click Virtual Memory..
Operation To check available memory in Windows 3.1 or NT: Type mem at the prompt after starting your computer. DOS displays your total memory and other information. Check free memory available in Windows by choosing About Program Manager... in the Program Manager’s Help menu. Virtual Memory OmniForm uses virtual memory when memory runs low. Windows uses disk space to simulate the RAM it does not have available. Your system runs more slowly when it has to use virtual memory.
Improving Performance Improving Performance If you scan typeset, high-quality printed pages, text recognition accuracy should be very high. With lesser-quality pages, however, text recognition may not be as accurate. This section discusses a number of factors that affect scanning and recognition performance: • Document Quality • Scanning Angle • Scanner Glass Clarity • Paper Transparency • HP AccuPage 2 Document Quality OmniForm recognizes characters in almost any font from 6 to 72 points in size.
Improving Performance Scanner Glass Clarity The sheet of glass on the flatbed of the scanner must be clear. If it gets dirty, wipe it gently with a soft, damp, lint-free cloth or tissue. Be sure that it is completely dry before you put pages on it. See your scanner documentation for more information on proper scanner maintenance. Paper Transparency Some paper is thin enough that the scanner sees text printed on the opposite side of a two-sided page.
OmniForm Compatibility OmniForm Compatibility This section provides OmniForm compatibility lists. Database Information Exchange OmniForm uses industry-standard ODBC to exchange information with the following databases: • Microsoft Access 1.0, 1.1, 2.0; 7.0 (Windows 95 only) • dBase III and IV • Excel 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 • FoxPro 2.0, 2.5, 2.6 • Paradox 3.x, 4.x, 5.x • text-based and CSV files E-mail Programs • MAPI-compliant mail systems such as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Mail • Lotus cc:Mail/Notes 2.
Error Messages Error Messages Where possible, OmniForm error messages attempt to pinpoint a problem and offer a solution. Sometimes one solution may not work or there may be more information that does not fit into the dialog box. Many calculation errors are the result of improperly constructed calculations. See “Calculation Guidelines” on page 226 for detailed information.
Error Messages Calculation Error: Invalid Field Name. Correct the field name or enter another in the expression for [field name]. A field name in your calculation does not exist in the form. It may be misspelled or it may have been deleted from the form after the calculation was previously accepted. Correct the field name, add it to the form if it is missing, or change the calculation. Calculation Error: Invalid Field used in calculation. [field name1] cannot be used in the Expression for [field name2].
Error Messages The current word cannot be added to the dictionary because it contains invalid characters. The word contains a character such as a caret (^) that OmniForm does not allow in the dictionary. The name you entered contains invalid characters. Please enter a valid name. A field name can contain only letters, numbers, the underscore character ( _ ), and spaces. This form is protected. Turn off form or data protection to make changes. Form and/or data protection is active.
Caere Product Support Caere Product Support Product support is available if you need help. First, please check this manual to find the information you need, or look in the online help if you can run OmniForm. You may save yourself a phone call. World Wide Web Caere’s home page is located at: http://www.caere.com Our Web site contains product information, lists of common questions and answers, and all known issues regarding Caere products.
Glossary active window The foremost window on the desktop; the window where the next action will take place. An active window’s title bar is highlighted. ADF See automatic document feeder. arrange toolbar The toolbar that contains buttons for aligning and moving multiple selected objects. auto calculation A calculation automatically created by OmniForm when you select a field and click the Auto button in the calculation toolbar.
operators and functions. You define a calculation on a field and OmniForm calculates the result automatically as you fill the form. calculation toolbar The calculation toolbar lets you define calculations on a field. Cancel button A button in a dialog box that you can click to cancel the current process or operation. cell The basic unit of a table field. You can fill each cell separately. A cell is a fill text field by default, but can be converted to any other kind of field.
designed form A form as recognized and designed by OmniForm during import. OmniForm uses Logical Form Recognition to identify text, rectangles, lines, and fillable areas on a form. This gives you full control of a form’s design. Graphics are not retained but can be imported. device driver A program that manages the transfer of information between the computer and a peripheral device. dialog box A box that contains a message requesting more information from the computer user.
files. You make a file when you create text or graphics, give the material a name, and save it to disk. file name The name that identifies a file. The maximum character length of a file name and the rules for naming a file vary under different operating systems. fill view The view in OmniForm in which you can fill fields in an existing form and manage database records. font In typography, a complete set of type in one size and style of character.
and improved recognition, especially for text printed on shaded backgrounds and at small point sizes. image An electronic picture of text and/or graphics such as a scanned document or graphic file. interface The point at which independent systems or diverse groups interact. The devices, rules, or conventions by which one component of a system communicates with another. Also, the point of communication between a person and a computer.
OCR See Optical Character Recognition. ODBC An acronym for Open Data Base Connectivity. OmniForm uses an ODBC data source, such as FoxPro, to import and export information to and from a database. Database drivers are installed during OmniForm installation. OLE See Object Linking and Embedding. open To retrieve a file from storage and load it into the computer’s working memory (RAM). Files must be open in order to work with them.
point A typographic unit of measurement equal to 1/72 inch, measured vertically. Points are used to describe font size. prefill element A character used as a separator in a comb element. The default prefill character is a hyphen (-), often used in phone numbers. processor The integrated circuit chip component within the computer that directly executes instructions. Sometimes referred to as the CPU (Central Processing Unit) or microprocessor.
save To store information by transferring it from main memory (RAM) to a storage device. Work not saved disappears when you turn off the computer or when the power is interrupted. smart naming An OmniForm feature that automatically defines fields as a part of Logical Form Recognition and places them in a logical order on the form. If you scanned in an blank form, for example, OmniForm would recognize a Customer field to be a fill text field. It would automatically assign the name Customer to this field.
window The area that displays a file’s contents on the screen within the Windows environment. It is possible to have several windows open on screen at once; however, only one will be active at a time. write permission The ability to make changes to the designated file. A file that does not give a user write permission is read-only.
