Configuring Zonal Recognition Basics
In this video, we’ll cover the basics about how you can configure contents and values using barcode or the text on the document.
For each document type, you can configure Content Central to look in a specific area or zone for information to pull into a field. Content Central can look in that zone for some text like a PO number, or it can look for a barcode that contains the information for one of your fields like a client ID. For example, let’s say we’ve been scanning checks into the system for a while now but our check volume has increased dramatically so we want to set up Content Central to fill in the check number field for us automatically. Since the check number is located in the same place on every check and since we scanned checks at a decent resolution of 200 or 300 dots per inch and the skin is very clear, we can use zonal recognition to fill in the check number field for us.
To do this, we just go to the zonal recognition area for the check’s document type and add a zone. Since we’re going to pull in the check number for the text that was found on the document after OCR processing, our zone type will be OCR. We tell Content Central which field to populate and where the zone is located on the page.
Now, whenever we capture a document to the check document type, Content Central will look in that zone and pull whatever text it finds into the check number field. If you do all of your scanning and using the direct scan capture method then you’re all set. You can start scanning to the check document type immediately and take advantage of the check number field being filled in for you automatically. But if you bring your documents in through a monitored folder then you’ll probably need to create a new capture job. The reason for this is that was monitored folders each capture job has a default document type that Content Central will assign to every document that comes into the system from that monitored folder. And when Content Central is bringing the document type into the system from that folder, Content Central applies the zonal recognition settings that are configured on that default document type. So, for instance, if the capture job is configured to assign the check document type as the default document type, then Content Central will attempt to find a check number in the zone that you configured for checks regardless of whether the document actually is a check or not. But if the capture job is configured to assign the purchase order document type as a default document type, then Content Central will not look for the check number in the zone because it’s treating the document like a purchase order, not a check, and purchase orders don’t have any zones configured.
Because of this, customers who have zone setup on a document type typically create a new capture job that assigns that document type as the default one. So far we’ve set up the system to pull text off our document and populate a field with it. But, if you have documents that already have a barcode on it then you can configure Content Central to populate a field with the contents of the barcode as well. Just choose custom barcode and let Content Central know where the barcode should be located.
Whether your zones are configured to look for a barcode or text, you’ll get the best accuracy by making sure your scanner is producing images that are 300 dots per inch, black and white, and in Tiff format. You can use other settings but the accuracy will typically be lower.
In this video we covered the basics about how you can configure Content Central to fill in fields using barcodes or text from you documents.
