OmniForm allows your forms to go electronic

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.