Re: scanner software

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Peregrine@xxxxxxx wrote:

> I've used TextBridge Classic (probably a much earlier edition than yours)
> with good results, Bruce. It's one of the best OCR programs I have used. I
> scanned files using that software, then opened them up later in XyWrite 4.018
> to clean up the almost inevitable typos.
>

Bruce (and anyone else),

I got Textbridge 3.02 -- possibly the same version you are referring to (?) --
some years back, because it ran under Win 3.x, and was the last version that
would run under OS/2's Win-OS/2 subsystem. It ceased working after I upgraded
from a P-Pro 200 to a P-II/450 CPU, due to a timing problem. It is not the only
piece of software to do so, but there was no patch released for this that I know
of, and Xerox sold this product line to another company. But that's not what I'm
writing about.

Along the way, I bought a couple program updates -- Textbridge '98 (never
installed), and later ver. 2.0 of the Pagis suite, now bearing the ScanSoft
name. The latter I did install into NT. It screwed up my Registry, apparently
beyond repair. CleanSweep could not touch the mess it left behind. *Everything*
having to do with my scanner, including PhotoShop, stopped working under NT. (It
still worked fine under OS/2, so this was no hardware problem.) ScanSoft walked
me through the removal of some leftover, intractable, die-hard keys it left in
the Registry. But the scanner never came back in NT. Before I take the drastic
step of nuking the partition and restoring a 5-month-old partition image (should
have had a more recent one . . . I know), I'm going to see if Configsafe can turn
the clock back on the Registry to before this happened.

The WIN Registry is a wretched and fiendish invention. In any case, I've heard
from two other users who had very similar experiences with Pagis. I don't know
about the '98 edition, which may still have been under Xerox's tenure, but, the
Pagis suite upgrades of this product can be very dangerous, and should probably
be avoided.

Jordan