FormReturn 0.8.1b

All you need is the FormReturn Application (download here), a printer and a document scanner and you will be able to process hundreds of forms within minutes! Think of the time and money you will save.

Major Features:

1. It is the only decent software based OMR solution made for Mac OSX. It is also designed for Windows and Linux. You can share FormReturn files between all platforms.
2. It is a fully integrated OMR form editor, database and OMR form processing solution. Most other OMR software solutions require a seperate word processor and database. They also require the installation of OMR and barcode fonts. FormReturn is much more advanced as it creates its own vector based barcodes and OMR mark areas.
3. When editing an OMR form in form editor, when you create checkboxes (bubbles), you supply both the values, fieldnames and marks allocated when creating it on the page. Other OMR software systems require you to design the checkboxes in a word processor with special OMR fonts, print the forms out, scan the forms in, select the checkboxes in the scanned image and add the values. All the extra steps can be very tedious and time consuming with other OMR software solutions. If you update an existing form in FormReturn, you don't have to go through the whole process of re-training forms. There is no need to "train" forms in FormReturn.
4. If you want to personalize forms with custom names taken from records in a database (such as firstname and lastname), you don't need to do a mail merge. FormReturn can do this very easily using its special system called Template Variable Replacement (TVR). Furthermore, you can use database data to create custom barcodes of all different types, sizes and placements on each form.
5. FormReturn uses automatic form ID generation (placed as form ID barcodes) to track and automatically process form pages. You can have more than one page per form. Other OMR software solutions only allow one page for auto ID generation as they never factored in needing more than one page for a form.
6. What are some of the technical features of FormReturn?
   • Java Swing Application - Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
   • Barcode creator - Support for 1D barcodes (Code128, EAN13).
   • Barcode reader - Support for 1D barcodes (Code128).
   • SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) support - Can embed vector graphics for high quality printing.
   • Raster image support - Can embed PNG, JPG, GIF files.
   • Truetype font support - Supports truetype fonts.
   • PDF export - Exports forms and previews as PDF files.
   • Embedded, networkable database - JDBC compliant embedded database.
   • Image deskew - Form images can be deskewed automatically.
   • Form template editor - An integrated template editor that allows you to publish personalised forms.
   • Sub-forms (segments) - When publishing, multiple sub-forms can be included depending on the data provided.
   • Template variable replacement - Templates that contain variables such as eg. <> become John Smith, Joe Smith, Jane Doe etc when they are placed in a form and then published.
7. What makes FormReturn different from traditional (hardware based) OMR systems? No need for expensive hardware or pre-printed answer sheets - You can use an ordinary scanner to scan answer sheets and an ordinary printer to print answer sheets.
   • Customised answer sheets - You can completely customise and personalise answer sheets. You can also have more than one page.
   • What makes FormReturn different from other (software based) OMR applications?
   • While FormReturn can work the same way other OMR programs do with two separate pages (a question sheet and a mark sheet), one of its greatest advantages is that you can combine both using only the one form.
   • One Form for Marks and Questions - FormReturn forms can combine both the questions and mark area together. The design of the forms is entirely up to you.
   • Automation - Shares processed data with other third party applications the instant a form is processed (via its database).
   • Form ID generation & record reconciliation - Automatically link source records to completed answer sheet mark data.
   • No third party applications required - The template editor creates answer sheets and the built in database stores results.
   • No need for mail merging - FormReturn has its own built-in relational database and template editor to create customised/personalised answer sheets.
   • Mac OS X support - Unlike most other OMR programs, FormReturn is one of the very limited number of OMR applications available for Mac OS X. This is particularly important for the education industry.
   • Cross platform - Works on all major operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux).
   • Image Deskew - If Completed marksheets are not fed into scanners "straight", the automatic deskew function will turn the image to the correct angle.
   • Image Compression Compensation - If the image scanning mechanism compresses the image horizontally or vertically, it should not affect the detection of the mark area.
   • Simplicity - A single application to create custom answer sheets, automatically linking source records to answer sheet mark data.

Enhancements:

• New Features:
• • When making a scribble mark inside of an OMR box, it no longer needs to touch the edges of the omr box. Eg. a dot in the center of an OMR box will count towards it as being recognized as a mark. This improves the detection of marks in many ways. The improved mark detection algorithm in 0.8.0b has made this change possible.
  • In the source data record import area, you can now select the import CSV format as either tab or comma separators, and quotes, double quotes or no quotes.
  • The application has new icons and a new logo!
    
  • Now detects forms that are scanned upside down. If a form is scanned upside down, FormReturn will automatically rotate the form 180 degrees if it cannot find any Form ID barcodes where it will then check again.
  • More screenshots appearing in the help guide.
  • Beta trial period extended to 31 August, 2009.
• Bug Fixes:
• • Software update had a bug in it, couldn't figure out the versions correctly. Now fixed.
  • Major bug fix - When publishing a form with more than 1 page in versions prior to 0.8.1b, the mark area detection boxes would overlap between pages. Found bug and fixed it. However, you need to re-publish forms in order for these changes to take effect.
  • The processing queue's unprocessed images preview now works properly. Impliments the new image preview with zoom functionality.

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.5 or above.
• Mac computer with an Intel,
• PowerPC G5, or G4 processor.
• 512 MB RAM.
• 10 GB free storage space.