FineReader Version 8.0 or 7.0?

FineReader is our OCR software of choice. OCR software is critical for a paperless office. OCR software is the software that takes the "picture" that the scanner takes of documents and turns that picture into something that can be searched or indexed.

Recently, FineReader Version 8.0 was released. Question: Should you upgrade to version 8.0? We don't think the update is worth it. We scanned various documents today with FineReader Version 7.0 and Version 8.0. We did not notice any improvement in speed. About the only places where speed can be improved are in the "reading" phase and the phase where the PDF file is created. The "reading" phase is the process of recognizing words and letters in the scanned image. To be honest, the PDF creation phase is so short compared to the "reading" phase that an improvement in the PDF creation phase would not make much difference.

We did note that both FineReader versions will create PDF files that are Acrobat 3.x or 4.x version. The most current Acrobat version is now at version 7.

Security: ZoneAlarm or Symantec(Norton)

You can't have a paperless office for long, if you don't have security. Two popular security products are Norton Internet Security and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

Recently, several computer publications have rated the ZoneAlarm product much higher than the Norton (Symantec) product. I don't have the means to do extensive security testing, but I rate the Symantec product higher.

When ZoneAlarm encounters a possible security breach, it asks the computer user for guidance. I sometimes don't know the correct response. Keep in mind that I probably have more computer know-how than the typical computer user. I have an engineering degree, a MBA, I have read extensively on computers and I have personally developed and sold over a dozen computer programs.

So what happens when a computer novice gets these ZoneAlarm pop up warnings? In many cases, if ZoneAlarm blocks a program, some other program doesn't work. The solution for the computer novice: don't block anything! That is a recipe for disaster.

Symantec frequently automatically configures security when a potential threat appears. In some instances, Norton Internet Security asks the user to choose the level of security. When that happens, Norton recommends what the user's response should be.

The real test of a security system is how well it protects the system. A user - friendly system, like Norton, does not guarantee security, but a confusing system, like ZoneAlarm, that lets inexperienced users guess about security options, in my opinion is a weak system.