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Configure Automatic OCR (beta) and OCR guidance for fields

Admins can control which fields are eligible for Automatic OCR and provide guidance to improve how Automatic OCR places extracted text.

Enable Automatic OCR for a field

  1. Open your Template in the Template Editor.

  2. Select a supported field.

  3. Enable Allow OCR in the properties panel.

Default: Disabled

When enabled, the field becomes eligible to receive values from Automatic OCR.

🗒️ Note: This setting does not affect manual text extraction (Pull text from image).


Behavior when disabled

When Allow Automatic OCR is disabled:

  • Automatic OCR will not place values into the field

  • Manual text extraction remains available

  • Any existing OCR guidance remains stored but is not used


OCR guidance

OCR guidance helps improve how automatically extracted text is mapped to fields. Guidance is optional and only applies when Allow Automatic OCR is enabled. You can write guidance yourself, or generate it with GoFormz Assistant.

Add OCR guidance

  1. Enable Allow OCR for the field.

  2. In the OCR Guidance section, select Add.

  3. Enter guidance text describing your field's placement in your image.

    1. Examples

      • “Total amount shown in the bottom right”

      • “Date next to “Service Date””

      • “Serial number printed under the barcode”

  4. Click Save to return to the Properties panel.

Generate OCR guidance with GoFormz Assistant

Available to Advanced and Enterprise accounts.

Prompt GoFormz Assistant to write OCR guidance for you using plain English. Describe what you want to capture, review the suggestion, and insert it directly.

💡 As an example, a dispatcher wants to pull an invoice number from a photographed delivery slip. They prompt GoFormz Assistant by saying…

"Pull the invoice number from the delivery slip — it's in the upper right, next to 'Invoice Number' and will be 3 letters and 6 numbers"

GoFormz Assistant generates the OCR guidance for that field, ready to review and insert.

🗒️ Note: Whether written or AI-generated, test your OCR guidance against real sample documents before relying on it.


Additional notes

  • Automatically extracted values are reviewed by the user before being saved

  • Values from Automatic OCR are not applied unless the user accepts them

  • Fields that are not enabled for Automatic OCR are skipped


Related topics

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