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Creating a Document Definition is the most critical part of configuring a project and determines the quality of data obtained after processing. A Document Definition describes the location of document elements and indicates fields to be used in data extraction. To create a Document Definition, run the Document Definition Wizard:
  1. In the Project Setup Station main window, select Project → Document Definitions…
  2. In the Document Definitions dialog box, click the New… button.
  3. Follow the instructions of the Document Definition Wizard.
The main stages of Document Definition creation depend on the type of documents being processed.
  1. Create a new Document Definition with the help of the Document Definition Wizard. With the Wizard running, open the document page image that will be used to perform Document Definition marking.
  2. Mark static elements anchors and identifiers, configuring their properties. Static elements are used for Document Definition matching and identification. Normally, static elements are detected automatically and assigned default properties.
  3. Mark fields on the image. Fields are used for data extraction.
  4. Configure field properties. Field properties both affect the quality of recognition and determine whether field values will be exported and submitted for verification by the Operator. They specify the types of data and range of values of a field.
  5. Create Document Definitions for multipage documents: adding pages and repeating all stages for each page.
  6. Configure data export.
  7. If required, you can configure the way data is displayed in the document window, checked against rules, etc.
  8. Test a Document Definition using images of several documents.
Note: If you have created machine-readable forms with ABBYY FormDesigner, instead of the first three stages you only need to import a file with the *.xfd extension. A page image with ready marking will open (or images of several pages if you used ABBYY FormDesigner to create a multipage form). For details see Importing a Document Definition for forms created with ABBYY FormDesigner.
  1. Create a FlexiLayout (a file with the *.afl extension) using ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio. For details, see the Help Topics of ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio.
  2. Create a new Document Definition with the help of the Document Definition Wizard. With the Wizard running, open an image of a document page and attach a FlexiLayout (the *.afl file you have created). After the Wizard has finished, the field marking will be present on the image.
  3. Configure field properties. Follow the procedure for configuring Document Definition properties for a fixed form.
  4. Configure data export.
  5. If required, you can configure the way data is displayed in the document window, checked against rules, etc.
  6. Test a Document Definition using images of several documents.
For mixed-type documents containing pages with fixed forms and semi-structured sections, you can attach a FlexiLayout as one of the Document Definition sections. Start creating a Document Definition from any section (flexible or fixed) and then add a new section of a different type. Documents of various types can be processed in a single flow: within the same project, you can create Document Definitions for fixed forms, semi-structured documents, and mixed-type documents. The program will select appropriate Document Definitions automatically. To process documents with annexes, create a Document Definition and enable the option Enable annex pages in the Document Definition properties. See Creating Document Definitions for documents with annexes. To process a document set (i.e. a set of related documents intended for the same purpose, such as personal loan applications or insurance reports), create a Document Definition for the document set. For details, see Document sets.

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See also:

Document Definitions