On March 31, ABBYY released a completely new version of the product, FineReader PDF for Mac. Based on the latest technologies, with a new user interface, it has been developed to support the latest macOS Big Sur.
If you have additional questions, feel free to contact the Support team.
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128 comments
I completely agree with BergQuester. You all have had plenty of time to address this and my sympathies to the support team.
So what exactly is the timeline for an update? Exact date is not required, but a timeframe is certainly a reasonable ask.
Like the others, I had no prior warning from ABBYY that the product was crippled if you upgrade to Big Sur, which I did a few days ago.
I have just received 24.99GB of PDF files that I need to OCR and could not understand why import images under my File option were greyed out. Although Import from Device is not greyed out, when you select it, my connected scanner is greyed out.
Essentially the software is now useless and not fit for purpose. If ABBYY have no idea when an update that it will work on Big Sur is available then you should stop selling the product. In the meantime I am paying a commercial firm to do my OCR Work and looking for a replacement for ABBYY who clearly do nor give a damn for their Mac Customers.
Hello Steve Tennant,
Please note that the "Import images" item is available only when FineReader`s shell is displayed. In the opened Tasks window you need to select Import\Scan Images to New Document as a first step.
Regarding scanning scenario I will request additional information in the support ticket created.
This is getting ridiculous.
I'm having to jump through extra hoops to get my tasks done with this software. Extra hoops means more time, time I could be spending doing something else.
I would like a partial refund.
I also recommend others watching this thread to start asking for at least a partial refund in response to this roadblock issue.
Perhaps a collectively signed letter to the CEO of ABBYY?
Ulf Persson is CEO of ABBYY Group.
David Yang is a founder and Chairman of the Board.
Victoria Dvornikova: I do feel like at the very least, there should be some acknowledgement from you as support person about this issue and what we can expect and when.
Surely your company can do better. You have a great product and this is such an easy thing to address. How is this worth alienating your customers???
I have reached out to Ulf Persson and David Yang on LinkedIn drawing their attention to this Knowledge Base article, asking if they can provide any clarity as to when FineReader Pro for Mac will fully support macOS Big Sur.
I have also pointed out that the ABBYY Support staff here are receiving a lot of criticism for a situation which is not their personal fault but rather a corporate failure.
I have no idea of such incompatibility and I have already upgraded my Mac OS. Basically same issues as Julian Garberson described. I was not among those rushing into Big Sur because I had to deal with backups and storage space etc., so I have only had the new Mac version for a few days. But I only find out about these issues a moment ago when I encountered them while trying to work on a PDF, and I only got to know about the incompatibility after searching online about it. 23 days ago, Denis Sukhinokhomenko suggested the customer service team should spread this info around, yet nothing came at all, and the issues do not seem to have been resolved in any way. This is a bit too disappointing.
Hello Odalismelvai,
I`ve created a support ticket based on your comment here. Please await a reply soon.
Hello Robert,
Please await a reply via support ticket created based on your comment here.
Dear users,
Please be informed that we have updated the article with new information about beta version and planned release date of the new version with macOS Big Sur support.
I need to update to big sur for several reasons. My Mac and all Applications except Abby Fine Reader Pro are ready. Abby is since several years my OCR Software but if this takes to long to support big sur I need to watch out for a new solution. Scanning documents and OCR is very important for my daily work. I also don't really understand why big sur support takes so long, it looks like nobody likes to spend effort in the existing version vs. a new version is planed. But this dosn't make it any better for actual users. A time line by end of march is way to long.
regards
Michael
Does this new version of Finereader for mac require a new purchase? I just bought mine less than a month ago...
I have been beta testing the new version of FineReader for Mac for almost 2 weeks. It appears to be a complete rebuild of the app. It looks great and works *really* well. To the point where I've been re-recognizing (OCR) PDFs that I'd previously OCRed in other apps.
While it's not yet perfect (I've pestered Victoria and the team with many suggestions), the bugs are all minor and the app feels releasable to me. I look forward to general release timing news.
Thanks, David
To David R - Thanks very much for this review! I have the beta but haven't played with it yet. Your report encourages me to dive in.
Best,
p
The beta is working fast and accurate for me: convert .pdf to searchable pdf; convert to .docx; scan and convert. The recognition area can be drawn as desired.
Hi everyone,
Finally I received the beta Version for big sur. I just installed the program and getting frustrated at the first moment. I'm able to scan a document via “add pages” but I do not see a way to import the scanned page into the workspace from Fine Reader? I started the test with Catalina to make sur its proper enough to change to big sur before. Is this a issue with Catalina? Once an upgraded there is no way back to Fine Reader Pro which would be a disaster.
To some of former messages I do not agree that this build is anyhow ready for realese for normal users.
Michael
Hello Michael,
The issue with limited scanning scenarios in beta version is known to our Development team. Final version of the product will support basic scanning scenarios in FineReader Pro.
Hello Victoria,
I understand but how should be even limited testing of the software possible if we are not able to scan a document and try to work with it? This makes no sense at all. Fine Reader is mainly for scanning and OCR used. It dosn't help verymuch at this point and Iam getting mor and mor pushed to find an othe solution for an OCR Software to work with big sur. I realy liked to use FRP on the Mac but it takes too long!
I wish you a happy new year
Michael
To Michael - You can scan a document. I did it a couple times yesterday. Here are the steps I took (which I understand will not be necessary when the new build is done):
1) go to 'advanced conversion' in the opening window
2) click 'create new project'
3) when the file selection window opens, click 'cancel'
4) this will leave you with a blank window titled 'untitled.frdoc'
5) in the toolbar at the top of this blank window, click 'add page' and select 'scan page'
6) this starts the scanner process
7) proceed from scan is as usual
More to Michael - I meant to add that in the scanning process, you can adjust the recognition areas as usual...
best,
p
Peter,
Thank you very much to your contribution. I was able (several time) to scan a document.
Scan seems to be much faster as in the previous Mac Version.
But I still have to much issues even to use this Version as a temporaly solution. I could accept some comforts missing and also workarounds but I see no chance even to come to a usable intermidiate working area.
- as mentioned somtimes I could scan into the workspace, sometimes it dosn't
- ADF (automatic document feeder) dos not scan into workspace at all
- ADF is not very stable (the workspace window will disapear while scanning)
- There is no editor available e.g. to add keywords to a document
Michael
Michael I faced the same Issue "no editor available" but apparently there is one, it is however currently hidden in PDF Viewer -> File -> Properties.
Beta feedback: When dealing with scans of 2-column text, the TXT option only outputs a text file with two isolated columns of copy. The same output settings from the previous version reflowed the text as expected.
Peter,
aucl,
I find the documet probeerties and coul add and save keywords to a document. Hope this will be attached to the "advanced documentation" screen otherwise we have to create a document, save it and the open it again in the viewer? For now its Ok to work with it temporarily.
Does someone find the adjustments for the picture edition (previous version) to adjust things like darkness, contrast e.g.?This would be very helpful to work on the scans.
Are you guys still working with Catalina or did you move to Big Sur? With Big sur there is no step back to the old version?
Thank you very much for the helpful input!
Michael
If I export to PDF, the viewer opens it automatically.
I am running Big Sur.
best,
p
Yep,
This is probabliy because you checked the box while exporting (open document after saving" in the Export workflow. If I check it will work and open the pdf also under Catalina.
So now the only thing I'm missing to make a start with big sur and work with this version of Fine Reader will be the possibility to edit the scannend picture. I still do not see this opportunity at the moment and some scans from old or bad docuemtns need some corrections.
Michael
Re: OCRing two-column scans, I've noticed that in some cases the section of copy which wraps around images—but is clearly noted as recognized text by the software—doesn't reliably get included in the total output of recognized text: in these cases the copy is just missing altogether. It's only by luck that I can notice when this occurs. I have to go back to the file and select the "copy recognized text" for these particular missing sections.
I just found while setting up the tool bar there are two symbols "Editor and Inspector". It seems there are already planed to serve the functions i'am looking for but without functionallity so far. Did someone try to use them with the same result or are the functional under big sur?
Michael
I don't know if this is the right place to give beta feedback, but I cannot get the beta to preprocess images or recognize pages. When I create a new project, the images are quickly imported (much faster than the previous version!), but then the app hangs with "Preprocessing page: 0 of XX", or, when all preprocessing options are turned off, "Recognizing page: 0 of XX". Any suggestions? (And if there's a better place to give beta feedback, I apologize. Please let me know where to go instead. Thanks!)
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