Frequently Asked Questions
The following are a list of questions that we are often asked. If you feel that your question is not answered, email us at info@ebstrada.com and we will include your question in this list.
Q. Forms are taking a long time to load. Why is this?
A. You need to scan forms between 150 and 200 DPI. If you scan a form at 300 or more DPI, FormReturn will take longer to process and load the form. A quality form image is NOT a JPG file, has no image enhancements and is clear with good contrast. If your scanner can produce a good image, you can use a lower DPI, otherwise you have to increase the DPI to compensate for imperfections in image quality.
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Q. What do I need to use FormReturn and how much does it all cost?
A. To use FormReturn, you need a laser or bubble jet printer (starting at around $100 US dollars), preferably a document scanner or flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder (starting at around $500 US dollars), a computer that is less than 5 years old (the faster the better), a single user license of FormReturn (around $650 US dollars).
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Q. Should students/respondents use pencil or pen to complete the forms?
A. You can use anything that makes a dark colored mark to complete a form. For pencil, you will need to adjust the luminance settings to about 200 in the recognition settings area so it is picked up better. Always do a trial run in the recognition preview area by printing a test page out, scribble in your answer, then scan it, load the image into the test preview tab and test the recognition settings by adjusting their values and clicking the apply button. For a video tutorial on this, watch the recognition settings screencast.
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Q. Can FormReturn capture handwritten responses such as telephone numbers?
A. Not yet, this is a new product coming shortly.
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Q. How do I set correct and incorrect responses for multiple choice questions?
A. You use the mark aggregation feature in the mark area properties. The following links are some screencasts explaining how to create checkboxes:
The recordings in mpeg4 format (you can play it in itunes/quicktime).
http://www.formreturn.com/question_tutorial_part1.mp4
http://www.formreturn.com/question_tutorial_part2.mp4
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Q. Can FormReturn accept documents I've already created in Word or OMR reader forms?
A. Yes, you can import PDF files into FormReturn. To create a PDF file from a word document, either save it as a PDF or use this print driver to print it as a PDF file (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
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Q. Can FormReturn forms be photocopied rather than printing them out?
A. Yes, but you have to be sure the publication type is OMR ID. This can match an OMR recognition key area with source data record values to link back captured data.
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Q. I still have a form waiting to be processed. What is going wrong?
A. Either your server's form processor is innactive or it is causing an error when processing the form. Please email us the image, the form and segment template you created along with your database so we can find the bug and fix it. email: bugs@ebstrada.com
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Q. I have uploaded a form and it is saying it is unrecognized. What is going wrong?
A. It is a common problem if the image quality is too low or you uploaded a test preview image and are wondering why it isn't being recognized. However, if you believe that the quality is ok, please email the scanned image, the form and segment templates and your database to bugs@ebstrada.com
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Q. I have a red elipse appearing over my barcodes when I view my forms as a PDF file. What is that?
A. This is a problem with the default PDF viewier in some Linux distributions. Install XPDF and use that to view PDF files in Linux instead.