(Archived) How to tell if a note has been OCRed?

[hseni 0]

Is there a way to tell if a note has been OCRed on a free account?

[gazumped 11,661]

Hi, welcome to the forums. There are three ways:

1. OCR it yourself, then you know it's done.
   
2. Wait for a while (The speed of an OCR depends on your membership type and the load on EN servers - think around 24 hours) - then look for an icon in the top-right corner of the note header - a little box with a magnifying glass. If it's green, you're done. If it's still grey, try later.
   
3. Right-click the PDF in the note - see if you have an option to copy an OCR version...
   

[stephendl 1]

Thanks gazumped. Do you know if this (your point 2) is still the case?

 

I can't see the magnifying glass icon on my EN client (Mac v 5.0.5) nor on the EN web client.

[gazumped 11,661]

NP.  The icon is still on some of my Windows client notes,  but I don't know whether it's still around for Macs.  Agreed it's not on the web client,  but I don't know that it ever was.  I don't use the web client often so probably wasn't figuring that in to my earlier reply.  Bear in mind that you need to be looking at an OCR-able note - ie one with an un-OCR'd PDF that isn't over the size or page limits - or a JPG/ PNG image - to see a change. 

 

Another way to test used to be to right-click the PDF (I recall..) to see whether you were offered the option to download the searchable file that had been produced by Evernote.  That doesn't seem to happen now either.

 

OK final bid - read your PDF file to check for a keyword or phrase;  check whether that's 'found' and if so - you've been OCR'd!

[stephendl 1]

:-)

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

There is definitely no icon on my Mac client - but it is very different to the Windows client. I'll check my Windows box when I get home.

 

The note is certainly OCR-able, and I've been using the 'search for a known word' method to date, but I was wondering if there was a better way. The problem with just searching for a word or phrase is that you don't know wether the document has just not been OCR'd, or that the OCR has happened, but failed to index the word or phrase you are looking for!

 

Ideally I'd like to be able have a "OCR'd" tag added when the EN servers have done their thing (or similar). Maybe I'll suggest it as a feature.

 

Thanks again.

[gazumped 11,661]

Agreed - I just had to squint to see whether the box was grey or green,  and since I post lots of stuff into Evernote I have lots of notes without that box at all..  It would be good to see a definitive 'we got this' signal.

[stephendl 1]

I checked my EN client last night on a windows machine and there is no such icon.

 

Problem is that I don't know what state it's in! I possibly did something wrong and it's never going to be OCR'd, or it is in a queue waiting for OCR, or it's been done and the OCR failed to find anything.

 

I'll suggest it as a future feature I think (although I'm not sure how much notice they will pay to a non-premium member!).

 

Now - where to suggest features?! I'll keep the thread updated.

[jefito 5,589]

I checked my EN client last night on a windows machine and there is no such icon.

You need to open up the Note Info panel to its fullest extent, using the F8 shortcut key.

 

I'll suggest it as a future feature I think (although I'm not sure how much notice they will pay to a non-premium member!).

 

Now - where to suggest features?! I'll keep the thread updated.

The forum is where you suggest features. Evernote staff read them all.

[stephendl 1]

You need to open up the Note Info panel to its fullest extent, using the F8 shortcut key.

 

Bingo - that's it! Thanks.

 

I think the same info can be seen on the Mac client under Note -> Show Note Info, or CMD - Shift - I, or by clicking the 'i' in the top right corner of the note. It's likely the 'Attachment Status' field.

 

Unfortunately my notes that I am struggling to get OCR'd have the status 'No Attachments to Index'. The attachment is a PDF.

 

Notes that have images attached have the status 'All attachments have been Indexed' when the OCR works, and 'x images have not been indexed' when the OCR doesn't. I imagine these are in there queue waiting to be indexed.

 

Maybe there is an issue when indexing PDF's... Or there is an issue with the PDF's that my scanner produces. I'll rescan as JPEG for now as that seems to work.

 

I guess the Mac client has the status functionality I need - I just couldn't work out where to find it! Hopefully the Windows client will catch up soon.

 

Thanks again.

[stephendl 1]

I don't think the EN is OCRing my PDF's at all... just my JPEG attachments. I've tried attaching PDF's from a new source (different scanner) and no joy.

 

Oh well, I can live with that, now I know.

[stephendl 1]

It seems that indexing PDF's is a premium feature, which is why EN was ignoring these for me.

[gazumped 11,661]

Thanks for the confirmation - I thought about asking whether you were using a free or a paid account,  but couldn't find any comparisons between the two that said definitively that indexing was only available for premium users.  I assumed it wasn't,  which got me where that sort of thing usually does...

 

Glad we know the answer now anyway!

[stephendl 1]

The only reason I know (or have implied) is that when you upgrade to premium one of the features you get is 'PDF Search'. See http://evernote.com/premium/ at the bottom.

 

I've upgraded now and new PDF's I upload get indexed (old ones don't).