Output Options | OptimiDoc Server Documentation

The Output Options tab decides three things about a scan: what the produced file is called, which file format it is saved in, and where it is delivered. The chosen format also determines whether OCR runs and which recognition engine is used. Every workflow needs a primary destination, and any number of additional destinations can be added with their own delivery rules.

https://optimidoc.atlassian.net/wiki/download/attachments/42402050/scan-template-output-options.png?api=v2

Screenshot: Scan Workflow editor — Output Options tab

How It Works

Output Options is where the abstract result of a scan becomes a concrete file. The filename pattern builds a name from static text and dynamic placeholders; the format selects the file type (and, for OCR formats, triggers text recognition); and the destinations list controls where copies are sent. A workflow always delivers to its primary destination and can fan out to additional destinations, each with its own save mode and delivery condition.

Filename Pattern

The Filename Pattern is the name given to each output file. It combines free text with placeholder tokens written in square brackets, which are resolved at scan time. The correct file extension for the chosen format is appended automatically and shown as a read-only suffix next to the field — you never type the extension yourself.

Click the Placeholders button to browse the available tokens and insert them into the pattern. The picker lists the built-in placeholders below, plus any scan parameters attached to this workflow (inserted as [parameter_key]).

Placeholder	Resolves to
`[timestamp]`	Date and time (yyyyMMddHHmmss)
`[current_year]` / `[current_month]` / `[current_day]`	Year (yyyy), month (MM) and day (dd) components
`[current_hours]` / `[current_minutes]` / `[current_seconds]`	Hour (HH), minute (mm) and second (ss) components
`[user_name]`	User display name
`[user_login]`	User login
`[user_email]`	User e-mail address
`[user_department]`	User department
`[user_homedir]`	User home directory
`[device_name]` / `[device_ip]` / `[device_model]`	Device name, IP address and model
`[device_location]` / `[device_sn]`	Device location and serial number
`[flow_name]`	Scan workflow name
`[file_name]` / `[file_name_extension]`	Original filename, without or with its extension (hot folder and e-mail inputs)
`[parameter_key]`	Value of a scan parameter, referenced by its key

Example: the pattern [timestamp]_[user_login] produces a file such as 20260710_143022_jsmith.pdf (the .pdf suffix is added automatically for a PDF format).

Output Format

The Format selector determines the file type and whether text recognition is performed. Formats fall into three groups, and the group decides which OCR engine (if any) processes the document. The engine choice in turn governs which OCR languages are available on the Processing and OCR tab and whether the PDF Settings and OCR Zones tabs are shown.

Without OCR

Image-only output with no text layer — the fastest option, always available.

Format	Description
PDF (Non-searchable)	Standard image-based PDF with no text layer
JPEG	JPEG image — one file per page
TIFF	TIFF image — supports multi-page documents

ABBYY OCR

High-accuracy recognition producing searchable or fully editable output. These formats appear only when the ABBYY OCR feature is licensed; without that licence the group is hidden. ABBYY supports the full OCR language list.

PDF Searchable (ABBYY) — searchable PDF with a text layer
PDF Compact Searchable (ABBYY) — searchable PDF with aggressive image compression
Word (ABBYY) and Word 2003 (ABBYY) — editable Microsoft Word documents (.docx / .doc)
Excel (ABBYY) and Excel 2003 (ABBYY) — editable Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx / .xls)
PowerPoint (ABBYY) — editable presentation
RTF (ABBYY) — Rich Text Format
Text (ABBYY) — plain text extraction

OptimiDoc OCR

The built-in OptimiDoc recognition engine, always available with no extra licence. Its language list is filtered to the languages the engine supports. This is the default group for new workflows (a searchable OptimiDoc PDF).

PDF (Non-searchable) — image PDF produced through the OptimiDoc pipeline
PDF Searchable — searchable PDF with an embedded text layer
PDF Compact Searchable — searchable PDF with image compression
Word — editable Word document
Text — plain text output
TIFF Searchable — TIFF carrying a text layer

PDF/A Type

For PDF output formats, a PDF/A Type selector sets the archival conformance level: PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2a, PDF/A-2u, PDF/A-3a or PDF/A-3u. Choose None when archival compliance is not required. The selector is hidden automatically when the output format is not a PDF variant (for example JPEG, TIFF or an Office format).

Save Metadata

The Save Metadata option writes a companion metadata file next to the scanned document, capturing parameter values, scan settings and user information. Choose None, JSON, XML or CSV.

Destinations

Primary Destination

The Primary Destination is the main delivery target and is required — a workflow cannot be saved without one. Select a destination that has already been created in the Scan Destinations section. When creating a new workflow, the first available destination is pre-selected as a convenience; change it as needed.

Earlier versions offered a "No destination" choice. Because the backend always requires a primary destination, that option has been removed — every workflow now delivers somewhere.

Additional Destinations

A workflow can deliver to several destinations at once. Click Add Destination to open the destination dialog, which offers the following options for each additional target:

Option	Description
Destination	Which configured scan destination receives the copy.
Save	Scan and metadata delivers the produced document (and its metadata file), while Report delivers a generated report instead of the document.
Deliver	Always sends on every scan; Only on errors sends only when processing or the primary delivery fails — useful for routing failures to an administrator's mailbox.

When Save is set to Report, extra options appear:

Overall report — produce a single report for the whole batch instead of one report per file.
Report format — JSON, XML or Custom.
Custom templates — when the format is Custom, four template strings (report text, file report text, zone report text and destination report text) let you shape the report output. Templates may reference scan parameters and zone values.

Each additional destination is listed in a table showing its destination, type, save mode and delivery condition, and can be edited or removed at any time. This supports patterns such as archiving invoices to a folder while also e-mailing them to an approver, or sending a failure report to IT only when a scan cannot be delivered.

How to Configure Output Options

Open the scan workflow editor and go to the Output Options tab.
Enter a Filename Pattern, inserting placeholders and parameters from the Placeholders picker.
Select the Format. This decides whether OCR runs and unlocks the PDF Settings and OCR Zones tabs where relevant.
Set the PDF/A Type (PDF formats only) and the Save Metadata format if required.
Choose the required Primary Destination.
Optionally click Add Destination to add further targets with their own save and delivery rules.
Click Save to store the whole workflow.

In Summary

Output Options turns a scan into a named, correctly-formatted file and routes it to one or more destinations. The format is the pivotal choice — it selects the OCR engine and therefore the searchability of the result and the tabs available elsewhere in the editor. A required primary destination guarantees every scan lands somewhere, while additional destinations with Always / Only-on-errors delivery and optional reports cover multi-target and monitoring scenarios.

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