Laserfiche 8 | Quick Start

Quick Fields

Table of Contents
WelcometoQuickFields8..............................................................................................................3 ASampleUseofQuickFields.......................................................................................................4 KeyConceptsandTerms..............................................................................................................5 TheQuickFields8Interface.........................................................................................................6 GettingStarted ................................................................................................................................7 . CategorizingDocuments..............................................................................................................7 AboutProcesses...............................................................................................................................8 IdentifyingDocuments.................................................................................................................9 ProcessingDocuments...............................................................................................................10 ConfiguringImageEnhancements.............................................................................................11 UsingTokens..............................................................................................................................11 Scanning,Review,Revision,andStorage ......................................................................................12 . AdditionalOptions.........................................................................................................................13 OrderofProcesses.................................................................................................................13 TestingProcesses...................................................................................................................14 SettingPermissionsfortheSession.......................................................................................15 ContinuingtoWorkwithQuickFields...........................................................................................16 LearningMoreaboutQuickFields8..............................................................................................17

Welcome to Quick Fields 8

Laserfiche Quick Fields lets you automate the process of: Capturing information from documents. Filling out fields, tags, and other information. Sorting the documents. Storing them in your Laserfiche repository.

In many cases, a scanner operator only needs to touch a button or two once the session is set up. This guide is designed for Quick Fields administrators. It will demonstrate the process of setting up a Quick Fields session, and introduce the interface and basic features of Quick Fields.

You can also find more information on Quick Fields, including tutorial videos and detailed white papers, at support.laserfiche.com.

A Sample Use of Quick Fields

For this example, suppose the accounting department needs to extract data from their purchase order forms and place it in Laserfiche fields. They want to name each document according to the vendor name and the date, and file the purchase orders in Laserfiche. We will use Quick Fields to automate this process.

Key Concepts and Terms

Quick Fields Session: A Quick Fields session contains configuration information that determines how documents run through that session will be captured, identified, processed, filed, and stored. Document Class: A document class defines a group of documents that will be processed with the same operations. Scan Source: A scan source is how and where documents are captured into a session. Images can be captured from a scanner, or images and electronic documents can be captured from a network drive or a Laserfiche repository. Identification: In the Identification stage of a session, Quick Fields determines whether a document from your scan source belongs to one of the document classes you have defined. Processing: During processing, information is retrieved from a particular image or associated text and can then be used to categorize and file the document automatically. Processes: A process is an operation used to retrieve information from or modify a particular image or associated text. Image Enhancements: Image enhancements modify an image, usually to clean it up and make it more attractive or easier for a process to extract information from. Tokens: A token is a placeholder for a value to be generated later.

The Quick Fields 8 Interface

Once you have gone through the initial steps in creating a new Quick Fields session, you will be in the main Quick Fields interface, where you can specify additional settings to capture and use information from your documents. Selecting an item in the Session Configuration Pane will change the Tasks Pane to display the properties for that item.

Getting Started
After you install and activate Quick Fields, you will open to the Start Page. This page offers links to online videos and help files to help you learn more about Quick Fields. It also offers a New Session Wizard. You will be prompted to specify information about the session. If you need more assistance, use the Help buttons on the wizard.

Categorizing Documents
A document class is a group of documents that will all be processed according to the same settings. You can give the document class a name that helps you remember what kinds of documents go in it; for example, Purchase Order Documents. When creating a document class, you will specify the default server, repository, template, and volume for documents in that class. You can also set conventions for the document name, folder path, and field values using tokens, which will be discussed later in this Quick Start.

About Processes
Processes modify or extract information from documents. Organizations can purchase different sets of processes for each Quick Fields installation, so the processes you have access to may be slightly different than those pictured here, depending on what your organization purchased. Processes can be used to tell whether a document belongs to a particular document class or to modify its appearance or metadata. Some processes can only be used for one purpose or the other, and some can be used for either. When you select a stage of processing in the Session Configuration Pane, a list of the processes available in that stage will appear in the Tasks Pane.

Identifying Documents
Identification conditions are criteria you specify to determine whether a page will become the first page of a new document in the document class. On our purchase order forms, a distinguishing feature is the phrase PURCHASE ORDER written at the top of the form. We can configure the OmniPage Zone OCR process, which reads text from a specified area, in the Identification stage within the Purchase Order Documents class. If the text in the zone says PURCHASE ORDER, the page will become the beginning of a new document. Any supporting pages such as receipts will become additional pages in each document. You could identify documents according to other conditions, such as whether: The document matches a particular form. A box is checked. A barcode contains a value in a certain range. The document contains a certain word. Etc.

Setting the identification condition

Processing Documents
Next, we will specify which processes will be applied to which pages of the documents. The processes available to you may vary depending on which add-ons your organization has purchased. In our example, we want to extract data from the purchase order form and place it in fields. We will use the OmniPage Zone OCR process again, but this time to extract information rather than compare it. Click on a stage to view the processes available there. In this example, we are selecting the Page Processing stage. We select the Omni Page Zone OCR process and follow the instructions to configure a zone around each piece of information we want to capture. Note that OmniPage Zone OCR is the data capture process that works for these particular documents, but depending on our needs, we might have also purchased or used a different process. We assign the zones names that will help us quickly recognize what information they contain.

10

Configuring Image Enhancements

Image enhancements clean up a document for a better appearance and more accurate data. They can remove speckles, sharpen blurry characters, and so on. In this case, we find that when we test the OmniPage Zone OCR process, the zone captures a line on the form as the number 1, which makes an inaccurate value in the Total Amount zone. The Line Removal image enhancement can remove lines from the image, so we can capture accurate data.

Using Tokens
Processes that extract information generate tokens, which are placeholders that you can put into fields, document names, and other metadata. To populate metadata for our purchase orders, we click on the name of our document class to change the Tasks Pane to Document Properties mode. Then we use the token buttons ( ) to retrieve the tokens generated by the OmniPage Zone OCR process and place them in fields. Since we want to use some of the same information in the document name, we use tokens representing the fields. You can also use tokens in the folder path, which is in the Properties tab.

Using tokens in field value and document name

11

Scanning, Review, Revision, and Storage

To process the documents, press the scan button. When you select a document in the Document Revision Pane, you can view its pages and metadata in the other panes. You can review and make changes to the document.

When you are satisfied with the documents, you can store them in Laserfiche.

Documents stored in the Laserfiche repository

12

Additional Options
Order of Processes
Processes will run in the order displayed. The results of an earlier process can affect a later one, which is important to keep in mind when setting up your session.

Stages of Processing
There are three stages where you can add processes: Pre-Classification Processing: Applies to every page scanned into the session. Page Processing: Applies to specified pages of a particular document class while the session is running. Storage Processing: Applies to specified pages of a particular document class at the time the documents are stored in Laserfiche.

Choose a stage based on your desired results.

The OmniPage OCR process in the storage processing stage

Local Enhancements
If you want an image enhancement to affect the results of some other process, but not alter the final image, you can configure it as a local enhancement of the other process. For example, if we want to use the Line Removal enhancement to improve the results of Zone OCR, but we want the complete form to appear when it is stored in Laserfiche, we can configure Line Removal as a local enhancement to the Zone OCR process.

Line Removal as a local enhancement of OmniPage Zone OCR

13

Testing Processes
A representative sample image can be used to test and fine-tune processes without needing to scan a large number of test images.

Adding a sample image

In our example, we know that we will be processing purchase order forms, so we scan a representative purchase order form according to the same scanner settings we plan to use for the entire batch. You can test the processes you have configured to see whether they run as expected on the sample document. This way, you can test the configuration before scanning a lot of documents.

Testing processes

The results of the processes will appear in the Processing Information Pane. If the processes do not run as expected, you can adjust the properties of the processes or configure image enhancements.

Processing information

14

Setting Permissions for the Session

Once you have finished configuring the session, you can set permissions on it to help prevent unintended changes to the configuration or addition of unwanted documents to the repository. You can make it possible to open sessions in Operator rather than Administrator mode. Someone logged in as an operator will not see the Session Configuration Pane, and the actions they can perform may be limited by options set for the session. You can set passwords for Administrator and/or Operator modes. For more information on session permissions, see the Quick Fields 8 help file.

15

Continuing to Work with Quick Fields

As you continue to work with Quick Fields, you can use its various features, or the features available through other add-ons, to perform different tasks. For instance, with our example session, you could: Extract additional information from the documents. For example, you could capture the items ordered from each document. Sort the documents into different folders based on a piece of information such as the vendor name or date. Reformat the information. Create an additional document class to process invoices and process them both at once.

You can also create different sessions to process different types of documents for your organization. For instance, you could create a different type of session for the accounting department to process tax forms. Then you could go to the human resources department and create a session to process benefit enrollment information.

The Quick Fields 8 Start Page

16

Learning More about Quick Fields 8

Laserfiche offers many additional resources to help you use the various features of Quick Fields 8. The Start Page offers links to the online help file, instructional videos, and the Laserfiche Support Site. You can access help on a specific item by pressing the Help selecting an item and clicking the F1 key. buttons or

Sample Quick Fields resources on the Laserfiche Support Site

Sample Quick Fields 8 help file page

17

Quick Fields 8 Quick Start June 2010 Author: Snow Tempest Editors: Tammy Kaehler and Jonathan Powers Technical Editors: Evelyn Crofts and Miruna Babatie Laserfiche 3545 Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90807 U.S.A Phone: +1.562.988.1688 www.laserfiche.com Laserfiche is a trademark of Compulink Management Center, Inc. Various product and service names references herein may be trademarks of Compulink Management Center, Inc. All other products and service names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners. Laserfiche makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of these contents at the time of publication. They are for information purposes only and Laserfiche makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the information herein. Copyright 2010 Laserfiche All rights reserved.

18