Adapx Offers Capturx Forms for Excel for Data Entry

Remember Adapx and Capturx and the OneNote plug-in? While some decried the use of paper and expensive notebooks, it actually works very well in its integration with OneNote. Now Adapx has come up with a plug-in that works with Microsoft Excel that allows you to create and print your own forms for use in the field. With Capturx Forms for Excel information written on those forms with the digital pen is then synced back up with Excel on your computer. This looks like it would be an very good solution for forms based data capture in fieldwork. The neat thing about this for Tablet PC users is that you can also use enter the data straight into the forms on your Tablet PC.

Here’s the other neat thing. You don’t need special paper to make this work. You can print out your own forms on regular paper after designing them in Excel. The technology prints a series of dots which are read by the digital pen. There is a potential catch (there is always a potential catch.) You do need laser jet printer capable of four color printing to make this work. The dots are printed in black and the other aspects of the form design are printed using the remaining three color mix of your printer. (i.e. a black line on your form would actually be created with using that 3-color mix.) Notice I said ““potential” catch. Depending on your form design, you can use a black-and-white laser printer to print out your forms. The success of that depends on your form design.

Once you have your data synced back to your computer, you can view it as recognized text or in ink with by pressing a button in Excel.

The package comes with the Digital Pen and the software plug-in. Adapx also offers solutions that work with Autodesk Design Review and ArcGIS applications as well.

• You can view a product demo of Capturx Forms for Excel at this link.
• Check out the GBM InkShow on Capturx for OneNote.

The slide below is used with permission from Adapx.