Practice Documentation

Documentation for the halFILE Documentation is provided as a service to clients of hal Systems Corporation.

Document Capture

Capturing documents is the method by which images are placed into the system. halFILE provides several methods for capturing documents including (1) scanning pages using a digital scanner, (2) importing compatible image files from disk, (3) capturing printed output from another application, and (4) sending Office Documents to halFILE.

Scanning

Scanning is performed using the menu selection FILE-SCAN or selecting the scan icon. Scanned pages are placed into the basket that selected at the top right side of the halFILE Manager. After a batch of pages is scanned, they can be "stapled" into documents.

The first time you select this menu you will be asked:

select scanner interface for this station 1=Kofax, 2=Twain, 3=Twain/Pro

You should select the interface that is set up and working for the station. Kofax (see Kofax Scanning) should be selected when you are using a Kofax Adrenaline scanner interface card (Adrenaline or KF-Series) or the Kofax Adrenaline Image Processing Software Engine (AIPE). TWAIN scanning (see TWAIN Scanning) should be selected if the TWAIN interface to the scanner is in use. Select Twain/Pro when using Imaging Professional 2.7 or later. Select Twain if you are using a TWAIN scanner with Imaging Standard or Imaging 2.6 or earlier.

Kofax Scanning

see Kofax Scanning

TWAIN Scanning

see TWAIN Scanning

Document Search

Once documents have been indexed, the user can use the halFILE Search icon to search the database and list matching documents.

Searching for documents that have been indexed

1. Select File-Search from the main menu or click on the search icon from the Manager tool bar.
2. The following windows are established as follows:
   1. The Search Criteria Window is the area into which search criteria is entered.
   2. The Search Hit List Window is a grid containing a row for each record found by the search and a column for each field in the record.
   3. The View Window shows the images for the selected document.
   4. The Document Information Window shows the indexed information of the document being viewed. This window also allows updating of the database fields for the document being viewed.
3. Enter the search criteria into the Criteria Window by clicking on a field and entering the data to search for. Check the appropriate search type button in the upper right corner of the window which provides options for exact match, beginning of field, end of field, free form search, greater than, less than and range. As many fields as necessary can be entered for a search.
4. Press the Begin Search button.
5. The search is then processed and a box appears showing the number of hits found. Answer Yes to load the hits into the Hit List grid. Answer No to stop the search and re-enter criteria.
6. The Search Hit List grid is loaded and displayed. Double click on a row to load the View Window with the first and second image pages for the document, respectively. The Document Information Window is also loaded with the data for the selected record. The View Window and the Document Information Window are placed, side by side, on the screen.

The Search Criteria Window

When the search feature is loaded, the Search Criteria Window is loaded. This screen is used to enter the criteria for the search. The other search windows appear as minimized icons in the lower left portion of the screen.

Searching for more than one multi-entry field item

Multi-entry fields are those fields for which more than one line of data can be entered. If you wish to search for a single entry in a multi-entry field, simply enter the data to search for in the field box. If you want to search for multiple entries for one multi-entry field:

1. Click on the multi-entry box to position the cursor.
2. Enter the first line to search for and press the enter key.
3. Enter the second line to search for.

The search mechanism performs a search looking for records that contain either the first line that was entered or the second line and containing any other criteria entered. For instance, you could search for documents filed on 12/15/2000 for persons named ‘Smith’ or ‘Jones’ where the name was defined as a multi-entry field.

Searching for a range of values

The Range search type is provided to search for a range of values and is entered as follows:

1. Click the mouse inside the criteria field for which a range search is desired. (i.e. date field)
2. Click the range button in the search type box.
3. Enter the first criteria field (the low value).
4. Press the space bar on the keyboard. This will automatically put the word <thru> into the criteria field.
5. Enter the second criteria field (the high value).

The search is processed and records with a value within the given range, inclusively (the low and high values included), will be included in the hit list.

Printing the search criteria

After performing a search, select File-Print Criteria to print the criteria for your records. Note: that a report can be designed (using Crystal Reports) to print the criteria at the top of the page.

Closing the search module

Select File-Close' from the menu.

Performing an Append search

After a search is performed and the results are in the hit list you can perform an "Append" search. This is a second search that appends the results to the results of the first search. To do this:

1. Select Clear-Criteria from the menu to clear all the criteria from the criteria screen. This leaves the hit list intact and any subsequent searches are appended to the list.
2. Select Clear-Hit List to clear all records from the hit list window. This leaves the criteria from the previous search loaded so you can make minor criteria adjustments and search again.
3. Select Clear-New Search from the menu to clear both the hit list and the criteria for a new search.
4. Select Window-Search Criteria to activate the criteria window so another search can be performed.

or

Click the Append Search button on the Search Hit List window.