Overview
FormReturn is a fully integrated program that uses scanned images of completed bubble sheet forms, designed using the software, to detect handmarked responses in the checkboxes. The software then automatically reconciles the captured response data from each form page, with your respondent's records added to FormReturn's Source Data and stores them together with the scanned form page image.
FormReturn Software's User Interface. The tool icons in the application toolbar at the top access the applications, used to operate the working components of FormReturn.
OMR form design streamlined with Data Capture
- Design OMR bubble sheets which are published and printed into paper forms.
- Capture the response data from the returned forms using OMR technology, store the data and export it to a spreadsheet, all with one fully integrated program.
FormReturn has built in form editors, for adding the form components needed to design OMR multiple-choice, bubble sheet forms.
The beauty of being able to design your own forms, that can be used
with FormReturn OMR software, means your forms can have any layout you
choose. They can contain the questions and answers on the same page if
required or you can design a response/answer sheet (bubble sheet) only.
Add shapes for mathematical questions and load your images such as
school emblems or company logos onto the template. Use FormReturn's template editors to
design your forms however you want them to look.
FormReturn captures the hand marked responses from scanned images of the returned forms, using a built-in software-based Optical Mark Recognition Reader to
extract dark marks made in the checkboxes
The captured response data can then be exported to a spreadsheet.
Each form page is recognized and identified with a Form ID Barcode.
There is one thing that must be added to every form page which will be processed by FormReturn and that is a Form ID Barcode. Barcodes are easy to add using the barcode tool in the form editor toolbar and they only take up a small amount of space on the form. The reason every page must contain a Form ID barcode is because this is how the forms will be identified when they are returned for processing.
Segments contain the checkbox mark areas and are added as a separate component, to the form template.
Care must be taken when designing OMR forms if you want your form to be properly detected by the software.
Now I know this will sound confusing, but when a form template is designed, the part of the form that contains the mark areas (checkbox bubbles), is designed as a separate component and then added to the form template. This is easy to do once you know how, it just sounds confusing. This part of the form is called a segment and contains it's own barcodes for locating so the mark areas when the forms are processed. You see, Optical Mark Recognition needs to know where to locate the mark areas before it can begin to extract the dark marks made in checkboxes.
The Importance of Publishing the form template.
The next step after the form template is designed. is the Publication process. A very important step, because information will be added to the Form ID barcode for identification and reconciliation of the captured responses with records in a Source Data table added to FormReturn's database. When the forms are processed, the Form Id barcodes reconcile the captured response data with the published template and the records from the chosen data table.
There are 4 different ways of reconciling the captured response data from forms with the chosen data table.
- Form ID reconciles: which uses the Form ID barcode for appending the captured data to corresponding records in a data table. Template Variable Replacement, similar to mailmerge, would need to be used for this type of Publication if you want to identify who forms belong to.
- Key Field reconciles: which uses an OMR ID Grid to capture the respondent's ID number, filled into the grid, for reconciling the captured data from forms, with corresponding records in a data table. FormReturn can alsocreate automatically generate a New Record if there is no corresponding ID number record in the data table.
- Key Field reconciles: which uses an affixed Barcode of your own for reconciling the captured data from forms, to
corresponding records in a data table or it can create a New Record if
there is no corresponding record.
- Key Field reconciles: Anonymous forms can be processed, but an empty data table must be created in Source data for the captured response data to reconcile with. Automatically generated records (in number format) are generated into the empty data table when the forms are processed.
Follow the detailed steps in this help guide for each application from designing forms to managing the captured response data.
Understand and Manage FormReturn OMR Software
How OMR and FormReturn Work Together
Optical Mark Recognition works by reading only what it determines as black in the checkboxes of scanned images of forms. A sharp, perfectly scanned image of the forms is important for the detection of the barcodes and the marks made by respondents, in the checkbox mark areas.
The FormReturn OMR Software reads and analyzes the scanned form images returned from a publication. Each page of a form template is recognized using the Form ID barcode. The FormReturn software then stores the captured data from each mark area in the segment, against each record from the data table that was selected and used in the publication of the form template. This is why the form template you design needs to be assigned to a data table and published, before it can be printed into separate forms for each respondent.
Capured data will show the value of the marked checkbox from each mark area and the score if mark aggregation was used.
By publishing the form template, each form page printed contains a different barcode that identifies the form page and which form template it belongs to, the data table record it belongs to and stores the captured data against all of these.
Why FormReturn can only recognize it's own OMR Forms.
FormReturn OMR is fast and accurate but can only process response data from form images that it recognizes. FormReturn uses the Form ID barcode to recognize each form page and to reconcile the captured data with the form template and data records it belongs to.
If the Form ID Barcode can't be recognized, the image will be rejected by
FormReturn and put in the Unidentified Images folder in the Processing Queue. The scanned form images that FormReturn reads, must me clear for barcode recognition and it is really important that the
Form ID Barcodes don't touch any other black text or lines on the page and
are not squashed against the right hand side of the page (this decreases their size). When the Form ID Barcode is recognized in the recognition preview, it has a pink border.
If the segment barcodes can't be detected, the OMR software won't be able to detect and located the mark areas, therefore the form won't be accurately processed into captured data. When segment barcodes are detected in the recognition preview, they have a blue border. The reason why segment barcodes might not be detected could be because they are touching other black marks, like text or lines which have been added to the page.
If any mark area fragment can't be detected, the response data won't be processed. Therefore it is really important that all fragment edges on the segment are not touching any other marks like black text or black lines added to the page, it interferes with and breaks the detection of the checkbox mark areas. When fragments are detected in the recognition preview they have a red border.
If the segment, which contains the mark areas can't be detected it is probably because one of the elements added to the segment is overlapping the segment edges. So as not to break any detection when the form is being processed it is important to keep all elements clear of the segment edges. When the segment is detected in the recognition preview, it has a green border.
This is why it's important that the design of the form template is done correctly, which is quite a simple process with experience.
This is also why the form template needs to be recognition tested by FormReturn before it is published, printed and distributed.
Why the Form Template needs to be Recognition Tested
The recognition testing looks at the form template you have designed and will show you, by highlighting the edges, if all of the template's elements are detected by FormReturn. You will need to look at the barcodes, all of the mark areas and even text that you want to appear on the printed form. If something isn't recognized then you won't get the results from the returned data that you need.
The Recognition preview can be used while you are designing the segment template and form template to test if the elements you added can be detected by FormReturn. Use the detect barcodes, detect segments and detect fragments to show if they have all been detected. Look at the text to make sure it shows up in the preview. Sometimes text areas are overlapping with other text areas or if the text area isn't big enough for the text, it won't show in the preview and therefore won't be printed.
The Test Preview tests a scanned image of the form and is used after you have designed the form template but before it is published. This will test your scanner's settings as well as hand marks in the checkboxes written by yourself. Once you have done a recognition test preview on your form template and it is accurately detected, you can rest assured that your returned forms from your publication will also be detected accurately.
Data Tables and Records
FormReturn has it's own database called Source Data, where you can add data tables and your records.
Source Data can store many data tables each with their own records.
A form template is published into unique or anonymous forms.
- Forms containing one of FormReturn's methods of Identification will link the captured data to the records in an assigned data table, using the Form ID Barcode on each page of the form.
- Anonymous forms will link to an empty data table.
Source Data
Design a Form
A basic form template is designed using the form editor to add a Form ID barcode to each form page for identification purposes.
- The Form ID Barcode links the captured results from each processed form back to the published form template.
- The Form ID Barcode links the captured results from each processed form back to the individual source data record.
Use the form editor to add Template Variable Replacement fieldnames, a feature that will print individual records from the chosen Data table onto the published forms, so each form can be distributed to the right person.
Use the segment editor to design one or more segments, containing the checkbox mark areas. Segments are then added to the form template. Segments are designed separately because they have their own barcodes, located at the top right and bottom left, which are used during form processing to locate where mark areas appear on the form.
A form template can contain as many pages as needed, and each page can contain as many segments as will fit on the page. A segment can be what ever size you make it as long as it will fit into one page of the form template.
One page of a form template with the Form ID barcode (highlighted in blue), segment barcodes (highlighted in light blue), the segment (highlighted in green) and Mark area (highlighted in red).
Segment Editor
Form Editor
Distribute the printed forms
Depending on the Form Identification and the publication type used, the finished form template is published into a unique form for each record in the selected data table, printed then distributed to each recipient, or a single form is published and printed into as many copies as needed.
Scan the returned forms
The handmarked and returned forms are scanned back into your computer using a document scanner with an
automatic document feeder. FormReturn needs a clear scanned image so it can detect and recognize the barcodes and capture the marks in checkboxes. It will only process forms with recognizable Form ID barcodes and mark areas that were added using the form editor.
Capturing Form Images
Upload the scanned images
The scanned form images are uploaded into FormReturn and the form processor reads and processes each one using the optical mark recognition software. FormReturn identifies the form ID barcode and analyzes and processes the marked checkboxes. It captures the results and stores them to its database. It then moves the results for each form in the publication into Captured Data. The processing of images takes a matter of seconds which means hundreds or thousands of forms can be processed each day.
Form Processing Queue
Captured Data Management
Export Captured data to a spreadsheet
One more easy step and the collected results can be exported to a spreadsheet using the CSV export feature.
Exporting Captured Data