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ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio lets you create FlexiLayouts by training it on marked-up fields and static elements. Static elements are elements that appear on documents of the same type. The most common type of static element is static text (a word, a part of a word, or a line of text). Less common examples include separators and barcodes. Fields are the blocks that FlexiLayout Studio must detect to extract text (a word, a part of a word, a line, or a paragraph) or a barcode. FlexiLayouts created this way can be used in ABBYY FlexiCapture to detect fields on document images based on their positions relative to static elements. Using training to create FlexiLayouts can be much easier than creating them manually. ABBYY FlexiLayout Studio also lets you create several layout alternatives. Layout alternatives are versions of a FlexiLayout that have different static element settings but share the same set of fields. They can be trained using the training mode or while editing a FlexiLayout.

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FlexiLayout training considerations

  • FlexiLayout Studio uses images from the training set. You can add images to the training set at any point before you generate a FlexiLayout. The training set must contain at least 3 pages.
  • You can only edit the static elements of a layout alternative. All alternatives of a FlexiLayout have the same fields.
  • If the page contains unmarked fields or static elements when you edit a layout alternative, the FlexiLayout is automatically applied to the page. Any new field blocks detected this way are added to the FlexiLayout, while existing field regions are not changed.
  • If you add blocks to an existing FlexiLayout, these blocks do not appear in the training mode. You can create these blocks using the Initialize Fields By Blocks command on the shortcut menu of the FlexiLayout.

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Create a FlexiLayout in the training mode

1

Create or open a project

Create a new project, or open an existing project that already contains a FlexiLayout.
2

Switch to the training mode

Click the Training mode button button, or select Training Mode from the Training menu.
3

Pre-recognize the images in the Batch pane

Select all images, right-click them, and click Pre-Recognize on the shortcut menu. Alternatively, open the Batch menu and click Pre-Recognize.
4

Open and study an image

Double-click any image to open it. Study the recognition results, and then specify the fields and static elements that you want to use for training the FlexiLayout.
5

Select a reference alternative in the Training window

Select a layout alternative from the Reference Alternative drop-down list, or create a new one.
6

Set the Auto references option

To generate reference elements automatically, leave the Auto references option enabled. If this option is disabled, you must specify reference elements manually.
  • If the Auto references option is disabled, automatically generated reference elements are added to the Static elements list, and their positions are marked on pages. You can remove unnecessary elements or add new ones. If the Auto references option is enabled, manually added elements are deleted.
  • The contents of the Training window depend on whether the Auto references option is enabled or disabled. If it is disabled, the Training window contains two areas: the Fields area with a list of fields and the Static elements area with a list of static elements. If the Auto references option is enabled, only the Fields area is present in the Training window.
7

Mark fields and static elements in the Image window

Use the following tools to mark the areas:
  • Use the Create Block Create Block button tool to mark areas of blocks on the image. The names of the blocks you have marked appear in the Fields list.
  • Use the Create Element Create Element button tool to mark areas of static elements. The names of marked elements appear in the Static elements list.
  • FlexiLayout Studio uses recognized text near marked fields and elements to generate their names. These names appear in bold font when the area of the field or element is detected on the page.
  • The Create Block and Create Element tools can be used when viewing a Reference Layout or Difference Layout, but the Create Element tool is only available when creating reference elements manually.
You can also use commands on the shortcut menu to mark fields and static elements. Use the Draw Location Draw Location button tool to mark a field or element, right-click the marked area, and then click the command on the shortcut menu.
8

Add the pages to the training set

Select the pages in the Used For Training column of the Batch window.
9

Predict the draft layout

Click Predict Draft Layout on the shortcut menu of images.
10

Check detection and correct the markup

Check whether fields and elements were detected correctly on all images in the batch, and correct the markup where necessary. Add all pages where FlexiLayout Studio failed to detect fields or elements to the training set.To mark an element that is not present on the page, click Not Present on the shortcut menu of the element, click the Not Present button button, or click the middle mouse button on the area of the element. The names of elements marked as not present are displayed in strike-through font.The status of pages is indicated by icons in the Training Layout State column:
  • No elements marked status icon No elements marked – No fields or reference elements have been marked on the page.
  • Has unmarked elements status icon Has unmarked elements – Some fields or reference elements have not been marked on the page, or not all unmarked elements have been marked as not present.
  • Has unmarked required element status icon Has unmarked required element – A required element has not been marked on the page.
  • All elements marked status icon All elements marked – All elements have been marked on the page or marked as not present.
  • No reference class set status icon No reference class set – The reference class of the training page has not been specified.
11

Generate the layout alternative

Click the Generate Alternative button button. If the project uses more than one reference alternative, specify which layout alternatives you want to update.

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Train FlexiLayouts during debugging

ABBYY FlexiCapture 12 lets you train FlexiLayouts while debugging them. To do so, use the Train Alternative command on the context menu of a layout alternative. The reference layout is used to generate the new layout alternative, and reference elements are created automatically. The Train and Test Alternative command trains a new layout alternative and applies it to all pages of its class.

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Training mode options

The Training tab of the Options… dialog box contains training settings. Settings in the Navigation group determine how the program navigates pages when you click the Previous page button or Next page button buttons:
  • any unmarked element – Cycles pages that contain any unmarked element. This is the default setting.
  • unmarked selected element – Cycles pages that contain the currently selected unmarked element.
The Draft layout prediction group contains settings that determine how layout alternatives are applied during training:
  • Predict layout automatically on navigation (Predict Layout button button) – Automatically applies the draft layout when you switch to a different page.
  • Replace existing regions of fields on batch prediction – Replaces existing blocks of fields and elements with blocks detected when the layout alternative is applied.
The Template generation group contains one option:
  • Create Identifiers on Generation – Automatically creates identifiers for the layout alternative being trained. For more information, see the Identifiers section.

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Identifiers

Identifiers are distinctive features of documents that can be used to classify them as belonging to a specific type. Examples of identifiers include distinctive words and phrases, specific barcode values, and separators. When you train a layout alternative, FlexiLayout Studio puts together a set of words that occur frequently in documents belonging to the layout alternative and do not occur in other types of documents. Identifiers of layout alternatives are stored in the Identifiers group, which is marked as required. This group includes a list of elements of the static text type, each of which contains a word that only occurs in documents belonging to the layout alternative. Relationships between groups of identifiers cannot be created.

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Training mode toolbar buttons

The training mode toolbar provides the following buttons: