Welcome > Set up extraction > Format Locator > Modify format options

Modify format options

Several format options become available when you add a format regular expression. These include:

Use Format

For each format to use, enable or clear the check box. For example, enabling the format definitions one-at-a-time helps you to test each format separately. If you have two similar formats, test them to see which one provides better performance in production. To disable the less effective format, clear the Use Format option. Do not delete the format because it may be useful at a later date.

Format Type
This shows the format type. This can be a regular expression, simple expression, Levenshtein, or trigram format definition.
Format Expression
This shows the syntax of the format definition.
Whole Word

This option is available only for regular expression format definitions.

Selecting this option Whole Word icon assigns a lower level of confidence to unwanted alternatives that lie within longer strings of characters. Consider a format designed to search for a 5-digit zip code. Selecting this option assigns a low level of confidence to unwanted alternatives that appear within longer numbers on the document, such as 11-digit telephone numbers.

Ignore Case

If you select this option Ignore Case icon, the Format Locator ignores case for this format. If it is not selected, the Format Locator will ignore any alternative that differs in case. For example, a regular expression that searches for "Last Name" with the ignore case option disabled does not return "Last name" as a confident result.

Ignore Blanks

If you select this option Ignore Blanks icon, spaces are ignored when a format is run. For example, a Social Security Number may be printed with spaces between the numbers. This option ensures that a result is found.

Search Exact

This option is available only for regular expression format definitions that contain a dictionary.

If this option Search Exact icon is selected, a value is only returned if there is an exact match in the dictionary.

This means that you are able to ensure precise matching. If "January" was misread as "Janvary", the misread date would not be returned.

Ignore Characters
Type in characters that can be ignored by the format definition search.
Description
Type a description of the format definition. Include sample matches so it is clear what is supposed to match here.
Error Description
If there are any issues with the format definition, a read-only error is displayed in this column.

You can modify format options by following these steps:

  1. Open the locator properties.
  2. On the Format Definitions tab, in the Formats group, clear the Use Use Format icon option to disable formats.

    For the best results, use this feature when testing your Format Locator to ensure that the individual format definitions work in partnership. Delete unwanted formats when you finish testing your locator.

  3. Enable or clear the following options for each format definition as needed.
    • Whole Word Whole Word icon
    • Ignore Case Ignore Case icon
    • Ignore Blanks Ignore Blanks icon
    • Search Exact Search Exact icon
  4. For a format definition, type the characters that the format should ignore into the Ignore Characters column.

    Common examples include hyphens in telephone numbers and commas in monetary values.

  5. Open a test document and click Test to test your settings.
  6. Optionally, click Close to close the locator properties window.
  7. Save the changes to your project.