Using CloudNine LAW > Importing Documents > Document Scanning > TSI Scanner

Scanner Preparation

LAWtsi is designed to interact with TWAIN enabled devices only. TWAIN is an open standard used in communications between applications and image acquisition devices. LAWtsi does not distribute a set of drivers as does LAW 7.0. Instead drivers are provided by the manufacturer of the device.

Twain drivers, in the case of multi-function devices are sometimes composed of two pieces. One piece being the actual driver, and the other being a communications tool to drive the scanner over the network. Some manufacturers incorporate both of these elements into one tool. Cannon Network ScanGear is an example of this type of driver.

If you have used any other TWAIN enabled software to scan with your device, e.g. Adobe® Acrobat®, Microsoft Document Imaging or Imaging For Windows Professional, then LAWtsi should require no additional setup to communicate with your device.

Scanners with TWAIN drivers can be used to import physical (paper) documents into a Case Database as image files. You can control the scan operations for many supported scanners directly from the LAWtsi Interface. These image files can later have OCR performed on them in order to create text files for Full-Text Indexing/Searching.

Due to the wide variety of scanning scenarios that can occur, it would be impossible to include a fully detailed set of preparations that covers every unique situation. In this topic, we cover several important actions that should be taken prior to importing physical documents with a scanner. General Preparations will apply to every situation, while Break Sheet Preparations apply specifically to the use of Barcode Break Sheets (also known as slip sheets):

General Preparations •Gather and sort all the physical (paper) documents being scanned. Consider what folder structure may be necessary for the best organization of these documents within the Case Directory. •Create and organize New Folders for these documents within the Case Directory. •Install the necessary TWAIN drivers for your scanner. These should be provided by the scanner's manufacturer. •Connect to your scanner through the Scanner Selection window (Select... > Select your scanner).	Break Sheet Preparations •Folder names in the Case Directory should be auto-generated when using Folder Break sheets. Otherwise, LAWtsi may be unable to properly find (or create) folders as needed during the import process. •Print out the necessary Barcode Break Sheets. It's a good idea to print out more than you think you'll need. •Observe your Barcode Breaks settings (Settings > Barcode Detect.). Make sure these codes match up with the barcodes being used on your Break Sheets. •Make sure the Enable Barcode Detection filter (Settings > Barcode Detect) is turned on.

General Preparations

•Gather and sort all the physical (paper) documents being scanned. Consider what folder structure may be necessary for the best organization of these documents within the Case Directory.

•Create and organize New Folders for these documents within the Case Directory.

•Install the necessary TWAIN drivers for your scanner. These should be provided by the scanner's manufacturer.

•Connect to your scanner through the Scanner Selection window (Select... > Select your scanner).

Break Sheet Preparations

•Folder names in the Case Directory should be auto-generated when using Folder Break sheets. Otherwise, LAWtsi may be unable to properly find (or create) folders as needed during the import process.

•Print out the necessary Barcode Break Sheets. It's a good idea to print out more than you think you'll need.

•Observe your Barcode Breaks settings (Settings > Barcode Detect.). Make sure these codes match up with the barcodes being used on your Break Sheets.

•Make sure the Enable Barcode Detection filter (Settings > Barcode Detect) is turned on.

Scanner Selection

To open the LAWtsi and then Select... > Select your scanner window,

Here you can select a scanner for LAWtsi to connect to. A full list of scanners with installed drivers will appear by default. Once you've selected a scanner from the list, click Select to connect to that scanner.

New Folder

To open the Project Explorer window, from the Menu portion of the Main User Interface select Browse > New Folder

This tool is used to create new folders within the Folder Tree of the Case Directory pane. You can either type directly into the New Folder Name box, or use the Number box and Type drop-down menu to have LAWtsi automatically generate a name for you. Only folders with automatically generated names are eligible as selections when using the Auto-Create function (Folder > Auto-Create/Auto-Create N Folders...).

When you are satisfied with the folder name, click Accept to have it created within the Case Directory pane.

Barcode Break Sheets

Barcode Break Sheets are page separators used to indicate the start of new documents, folders, or attachments while batch importing stacks of physical documents into LAW via LAWtsi via scanner. They can either be printed using the default TIFF files ("Break_Doc1.tif", "Break_Doc2.tif", "Break_Folder.tif", "Attach1.tif") that are located in the LAW50 root install folder, or may be created with user-defined custom barcodes instead.

Using poor quality prints or improper scan settings can greatly diminish the barcode detection capabilities of LAW, so it's important to adhere to the following guidelines when using Break Sheets:

•Print Break Sheets onto lightly-colored or pristine white paper.

•Use a laser printer for sharper barcode images.

•Avoid wrinkling or damaging Break Sheets, and replace them if they become too worn.

•Do not photocopy Break Sheets to create extra copies, as this often results poor barcode quality.

•Use a higher scanner resolution (DPI) to increase the quality of scanned barcodes.

•Increasing the brightness or contrast can help with detection, but may also diminish the quality.

To scan documents as attachments using break sheets

You use an attachment barcode break sheet during scanning to designate a document as an attachment. An attachment barcode break sheet is a special type of barcode break sheet that signifies that the document that follows is an attachment.

Note the following facts when using barcode break sheets:

•If using barcode break sheets to scan multiple documents, each attachments must be preceded by an attachment break sheet.

•The break sheet for attachments is named attach1.tif and can be found in the installation directory for CloudNine™ LAW.

•A shortcut to this file (Attachment Break #1) can be found in the Break Sheets subfolder in the LAW program group.

•Documents preceded by an attachment break sheet will always be attached to the previous parent document. Therefore, to scan a document with three attachments, a standard document break sheet must precede the parent, and an attachment break sheet must precede each of the three attachments.

•After you scan an attachment, you can check that the attachment was itemized as an attachment by looking at the item number of the document. Attached documents appear indented in the document list to indicate that they are attached to the previous document. For example, in the following figure, item number -- 0002 is an attachment of item number 0001.

TSIFamily

LAWtsi supports barcode detection when scanning and splitting documents. Since different break sheets may be used, LAWtsi offers some configuration options which can be set via the Settings dialog in the Barcode Detect section.

barcode

Barcode Detect settings - This dialog shows where the barcode detection settings are configured.

Enabling the Barcode Detection setting will allow users to change the barcode values for the Folder, Document, and Attachment break sheets. Clicking the Edit... button will display the Interactive Keyboard and allow user input.

The Barcode Types button will display the available barcodes and allow users to select type of barcodes to detect.