OmniForm allows your forms to go electronic

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): When helping a friend set up his SOHO (Small Office Home Office) computers last year, I learned that forms can be created, filled in and then printed easily on a computer. He was using FormTool Gold software, still one of the most popular electronic form creators for small business owners.

Form software like FormTool Gold is easier to use and more diverse than the heavy-duty spreadsheet programs like Excel, 1-2- 3 and Quattro Pro. The design tools are usually cruder than DTP software like PageMaker, but they are highly intuitive. Business users don't have much time to learn programs, or to design artistic forms, so the more intuitive the tools the better. The way labels are placed and used in FormTool Gold reminds me of the first DTP program I learned to use, Newsroom.

A contender to FormTool was recently introduced by Caere, the king of OCR and page recognition programs. Courtesy of Sistech Kharisma in Jakarta, I had the chance to play with this simple, but useful, software.

The OmniForm demo package I received contained both Version 1.01 and Version 2.0., the earlier is for people using Windows 3.x machines and the latter for people already sailing in Windows 95 or Windows NT. I tried out Version 1.01 because my Windows 95- based PC has a serious cough and seems to need a major overhaul. Unfortunately, the manual was intended for Windows 95 users.

Electronic forms

What makes electronic forms so attractive? Obviously, the ability to design forms to fit personal taste and requirements. Once the form templates have been designed and saved they can be used repeatedly to create filled copies that can be printed. For instance, now order forms can be printed on a laser printer rather than on a dot matrix printer with multi-part forms. Better still, if the forms can be printed, they can be faxed, and if they can be faxed, they certainly can be e-mailed.

When designing a form, the sequence in which the blanks are to be filled can be specified. To move from one field to another requires just the Tab key, the usual way of moving from one entry to another in Windows. Anyone familiar with Windows will therefore have no difficulty filling in the custom-made form.

TWAIN

Because Caere has such a long history in OCR and page recognition technology, it is not surprising that the new program supports scanning. I tried out the software with the new Logitech PageScan Color scanner, and because this sheetfed scanner supports TWAIN the combination worked fine. I was able to scan the registration form for the Simply 3D program that is on the left of the screen in the accompanying picture.

Scanned forms can then be modified on the screen. The program is intelligent enough to detect where the fields in which information should be typed are located. The fields are indicated by a yellow box.

As Caere cooperates with HP, it is not surprising that the program supports HP's AccuPage technology. An HP scanner, or one that supports AccuPage, is needed to take advantage of this technology.

When scanning, OmniForm requires that the black and white line draw mode be used. In most cases, therefore, the graphics elements of the scanned form will not be included. This doesn't pose a serious problem, however, because graphics can always be imported from files like logos and cliparts during the design stage.

Features

No scanner. No worries. Like in FormTool, you can create new forms from scratch. Click on File, then New, and up pops the tools needed to enter labels as well as to create lines, rectangles and circles. There are also tools to create fill text boxes, fill text circles, check boxes, and comb boxes.

The comb boxes are interesting. The tool makes separate boxes for each character, commonly used for specific data like birth dates and phone numbers. I have already explained how to do this in PageMaker. In OmniForm the tiny boxes are much easier to create.

The software is also equipped with an interface to popular databases, such as Access, dBase, and Paradox, to allow it to be used for data entry. Entries can be validated, and the software can ensure specified fields are filled in. The type of input can be specified -- much like designing the structure of a database -- and, even better, entries can be automatically calculated from other entries.

If the database management programs are not adequate, a custom database can be created with OmniForm. In the Fill mode, the database can be browsed through using the appropriate buttons found on the toolbar. Records can be easily searched, sorted and deleted.

Wish list

There are only two minor shortcomings I can point out. Changing color still requires text like "D(ar)k Cyan)" or "L(igh)t Green" to be read, instead of displaying the actual color on the screen.

Perhaps a bit more serious is the inability to print multiple copies with minor alterations from one copy to another. For example, it would be helpful if the program automatically printed the first copy with the word "Original" on the top right hand corner of an invoice, and the word "Customer's copy" on the second copy.

Businesspeople who must fill out mounds of forms each day can definitely say goodbye to their faithful typewriter. Equipped with a scanner, filling in forms can now be as easy as hitting the Tab key and typing in the data. A form software program can save precious time and effort in creating invoices, purchasing orders, and -- the most certain thing in life besides death -- tax returns.