The Bubble Publishing Suite of software was bought up and taken off the market by Scantron years ago. The Bubble Publishing Suite (which consists of Form Shop, Scan Shop, and Report Shop)is no longer actively marketed. However, there are many of us out here who still love to use it. Even though Bubble Publishing has not been updated in many years, it still is respected as a very easy-to-use and intuitive program that can handle the many processes involved in OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) data collection projects such as form design, form scanning and reporting.
Survey Systems is known in the industry as the Bubble Publishing experts. As a result, we are now preparing a Bubble Publishing FAQ that will soon be posted on our web site for other users to visit and hopefully find some helpful tips to solve software and hardware related issues.
We would appreciate it if you as Bubble Publishing Suite users would send us your ideas and suggestions regarding issues and solutions that you have run across over the years. Please send your helpful suggestions to lynn@sur-sys.com. We may include your submission in our Bubble Publishing User FAQ.
As an alternative, you may just want to give us the priviledge of taking care of all the "under the hood" details of your next data collection project. Either way, thanks for giving us the opportunity of serving the you in the faithful Bubble Publishing Community!
The Survey Systems' Staff
Showing posts with label omr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label omr. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
How To Do Data Entry with Scanners
"Can I use scanners and scanning software technology for data entry"? Yes you can, but only if it contains the best of penmanship.
As one who deals with paper surveys with open-ended questions and comments, I know what it's like to try to capture hand written text responses from those whose penmanship is a bit cryptic. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to just run these through some kind of scanner and have a computer transcribe it? Dream on!
There have been some very powerful advances in scanning software that does a pretty good job of converting printed words into editable ASCII characters. Most of us have used OCR software that comes bundled with scanners. I recently discovered the power of Adobe Acrobat to convert scanned printed material to editable ASCII characters that even automatically picks the correct font of the original. If handwritten comments are legible with the best of penmanship, Acrobat may even convert some of that, too. The quality of the text capture results are directly related to the clarity of the text on the scan. Scanning a document in pdf format creates an image, so make sure that your resolution is adequate. I would recommend scanning with no less than 300 dpi. If the quality of the original is high, the converted pdf file will look very much like the original except that the characters will now be editable and even searchable. The technology isn't perfect by any means, but it will amaze you.
Sometimes, when working with hard to read comments, it works best to use specialized software like Scantron's eListen 6.0 survey software. As their website says, "eListen 6.0 eliminates tedious manual data entry by capturing and storing handwritten responses using Scantron's Clarity OMR and Imaging scanner". This software captures the pre-defined comment section as an image which you can then let the reader try to decipher for themselves.
Another option that has worked well for us in circumstances where there are many open-ended questions is to scan the entire paper survey form using a high-speed copier like our Ricoh. We scan single or double-sided sheets and save the file in a pdf format and either burn the files to CD or post them to our ftp site.
Of course, there are many businesses, like ours, that provide manual transcription services for data entry of hand written comments to be included in your reports. That's part of the fun that I get to do from time to time.
As one who deals with paper surveys with open-ended questions and comments, I know what it's like to try to capture hand written text responses from those whose penmanship is a bit cryptic. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to just run these through some kind of scanner and have a computer transcribe it? Dream on!
There have been some very powerful advances in scanning software that does a pretty good job of converting printed words into editable ASCII characters. Most of us have used OCR software that comes bundled with scanners. I recently discovered the power of Adobe Acrobat to convert scanned printed material to editable ASCII characters that even automatically picks the correct font of the original. If handwritten comments are legible with the best of penmanship, Acrobat may even convert some of that, too. The quality of the text capture results are directly related to the clarity of the text on the scan. Scanning a document in pdf format creates an image, so make sure that your resolution is adequate. I would recommend scanning with no less than 300 dpi. If the quality of the original is high, the converted pdf file will look very much like the original except that the characters will now be editable and even searchable. The technology isn't perfect by any means, but it will amaze you.
Sometimes, when working with hard to read comments, it works best to use specialized software like Scantron's eListen 6.0 survey software. As their website says, "eListen 6.0 eliminates tedious manual data entry by capturing and storing handwritten responses using Scantron's Clarity OMR and Imaging scanner". This software captures the pre-defined comment section as an image which you can then let the reader try to decipher for themselves.
Another option that has worked well for us in circumstances where there are many open-ended questions is to scan the entire paper survey form using a high-speed copier like our Ricoh. We scan single or double-sided sheets and save the file in a pdf format and either burn the files to CD or post them to our ftp site.
Of course, there are many businesses, like ours, that provide manual transcription services for data entry of hand written comments to be included in your reports. That's part of the fun that I get to do from time to time.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Is NCS data form the same as Scantron data form?
Scantron Form is the most widely recognized term to describe Optical Mark Read (OMR) machine-readable forms. NCS data forms are basically the same thing. In fact, NCS was recently purchased by Scantron. Scantron and NCS is to OMR what Coke is to cola and Kleenex is to tissue. The Scantron Form is commonly used in the education establishment for testing, conference course evaluations, surveys and other data collection projects. But it need not be limited to education applications. Because OMR is still considered the most cost-effective and reliable method for getting data off of paper into meaningful reports, it remains the time-proven standard against which alternate data collection systems are compared.
NCS forms (also referred to as Scantron forms) have a unique appearance but the process of designing, printing and processing this form is still the same. It follows critical criteria for positioning, printing and scanning in order to capture the data accurately. All the steps in the process involve specialized software and hardware. Scantron provides both, but so do many other good companies. In fact, there are other sources of OMR products and services that are actually better and more affordable.
Scantron gets a good deal when their name is attached to a generic product like an OMR form. But the customer may or may not get such a good deal by the association. It's important to note that there are other options to investigate. The generic association doesn't make it the best. Biggest maybe. But not necessarily the best. Scantron/NCS produces some great scanners. We use them and sell them. But we also use a variety of other software not produced by NCS that works better in our estimation. So don't be easily influenced by the big names. Do your research. Ask around for advice from those who have had experience with many different products and services. Good things often come in smaller packages.
NCS forms (also referred to as Scantron forms) have a unique appearance but the process of designing, printing and processing this form is still the same. It follows critical criteria for positioning, printing and scanning in order to capture the data accurately. All the steps in the process involve specialized software and hardware. Scantron provides both, but so do many other good companies. In fact, there are other sources of OMR products and services that are actually better and more affordable.
Scantron gets a good deal when their name is attached to a generic product like an OMR form. But the customer may or may not get such a good deal by the association. It's important to note that there are other options to investigate. The generic association doesn't make it the best. Biggest maybe. But not necessarily the best. Scantron/NCS produces some great scanners. We use them and sell them. But we also use a variety of other software not produced by NCS that works better in our estimation. So don't be easily influenced by the big names. Do your research. Ask around for advice from those who have had experience with many different products and services. Good things often come in smaller packages.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
OMR
OMR is an acronym for Optical Mark Recognition. You can read more about OMR here.
OMR forms are used for collecting data. Preparation of this type of form involves several critical steps.
Obviously, one needs to thoughtfully determine the kind of data that needs to be gathered and layout the questions in a clear, understandable format. These questions are then sent to the designer to figure out the best way to present these questions in an attractive layout. The designer needs to understand how the OMR scanner reads this information and position the questions and related response bubbles in just the right position on the form to assure that the scanner can accurately read the information. When the form design or layout is approved by the customer, the electronic form is moved to the printing phase. It is critical that the printer also understands the importance of consistent positioning of the printed sheet according to the layout. Below is a grid layout that represents the critical positioning of an OMR form.
As you can see, there are several grid density options to use based on the amount of data required for the form.
The two basic elements of this grid are the timing marks and the response bubbles. The timing marks appear in one column on one edge of the sheet. These rectangular marks are viewed by the scanner as the sheet travels through it. A timing mark determines when to begin and end the viewing of the corresponding row of bubbles and record the results. A typical form can have up to 48 bubbles across the sheet. In order for the scanner to know what bubbles to look at, a file called a scanning definition needs to be created with the scanning software prior to the actual scanning process. This scanning definition tells the scanner which bubble or bubbles in the grid to look at if filled in, record the assigned value. These values or results are then added to an Excel type data file as each form is scanned. When the scanning is finished the results are then tabulated with the use of special reporting software.
If the quality of the original scan form has been compromised by sloppy layout or printing processes, then the scanned data and the tabulated results potentially may not be reliable.
OMR is a great time-saving process in collecting data but can also create a huge headache if not done correctly.
OMR forms are used for collecting data. Preparation of this type of form involves several critical steps.
Obviously, one needs to thoughtfully determine the kind of data that needs to be gathered and layout the questions in a clear, understandable format. These questions are then sent to the designer to figure out the best way to present these questions in an attractive layout. The designer needs to understand how the OMR scanner reads this information and position the questions and related response bubbles in just the right position on the form to assure that the scanner can accurately read the information. When the form design or layout is approved by the customer, the electronic form is moved to the printing phase. It is critical that the printer also understands the importance of consistent positioning of the printed sheet according to the layout. Below is a grid layout that represents the critical positioning of an OMR form.
As you can see, there are several grid density options to use based on the amount of data required for the form.
The two basic elements of this grid are the timing marks and the response bubbles. The timing marks appear in one column on one edge of the sheet. These rectangular marks are viewed by the scanner as the sheet travels through it. A timing mark determines when to begin and end the viewing of the corresponding row of bubbles and record the results. A typical form can have up to 48 bubbles across the sheet. In order for the scanner to know what bubbles to look at, a file called a scanning definition needs to be created with the scanning software prior to the actual scanning process. This scanning definition tells the scanner which bubble or bubbles in the grid to look at if filled in, record the assigned value. These values or results are then added to an Excel type data file as each form is scanned. When the scanning is finished the results are then tabulated with the use of special reporting software.
If the quality of the original scan form has been compromised by sloppy layout or printing processes, then the scanned data and the tabulated results potentially may not be reliable.
OMR is a great time-saving process in collecting data but can also create a huge headache if not done correctly.
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