Configuring On-Premises OCR

  • 05/01/2021
  • 5 minutes to read

Optical character recognition (OCR) is the process of extracting the textual content of a scanned image or PDF file and converting it into something that can be processed by a computer.

If you’re using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central online, your default OCR method is Continia Cloud OCR, which means that no additional configuration is required.

However, if you’re using Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Business Central on-premises, you can choose to use either on-premises OCR or Continia Cloud OCR. The on-premises method is described in detail below, whereas you can find an in-depth description of Continia Cloud OCR in the article Configuring Cloud OCR.

Setting up on-premises OCR

When you use on-premises OCR, you won't be provided with a system-generated email address for document import as you do with Continia Cloud OCR. Instead, you must create and configure email addresses for each relevant document category in order to import your documents into Document Capture. You must also set up the OCR service and Document Capture, so that the imported documents can be OCR-processed and stored. This entire process is described below.

To set up on-premises OCR, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that you've imported the default Document Capture configuration.
  2. Create and configure email addresses for each relevant document category. For more information, see Creating and Configuring Email Addresses for Document Import.
  3. Install the ABBYY and Document Capture services. For more information, see Installing ABBYY and Document Capture Services.
  4. Choose the Search icon, enter Document Capture Setup, and then choose the related link.
  5. On the Document Capture Setup page, on the General FastTab, go to the On-Premise OCR Storage section.
  6. In the PDF File Path for OCR field, specify a path to the folder where you want to store all scanned PDF documents. This folder corresponds to the Pending OCR cue in the Continia Document Capture Activities section of the Role Center.

    Important

    Note that the entered path must be identical with the path entered in PDF files for OCR during the installation of the Document Capture service.

  7. In the File Path for OCR-processed files field, specify a path to the folder where you want to store all OCR-processed PDF documents. This folder corresponds to the Ready to Import cue in the Continia Document Capture Activities section of the Role Center.

    Important

    Note that the entered path must be identical with the path entered in OCR-processed Files for NAV during the installation of the Document Capture service.

  8. In the XML File Path field, specify a path to the folder where you want to store all incoming XML documents (if any).
  9. Choose the Search icon, enter Export OCR Configuration Files, and then choose the related link. A dialog box confirms that a number of configuration files have been exported. Select OK to close it.

Note

We recommend that you use UNC paths when you specify folder paths as described above – for example, \\servername\share\DC\PDF. Also, note that the service account that runs the Business Central service must have read, write, and delete permissions for the relevant folders.

See also

Configuring Cloud OCR
Creating and Configuring Email Addresses for Document Import
Installing ABBYY and Document Capture Services
Microsoft article on UNC paths