Automation
Anchor Tools
3min
Sometimes data isn't as clearly labeled as it could be. Perhaps a name field exists on its own with no label. Or perhaps another field-of-interest exists at the top of the page as a header, separate from any table or text present in the document. The Tools we've covered so far won't be able to extract the target values in either of the two cases, so we can use Anchor Tools to provide a way of extracting values based on relative location.
Consider the following example, in which our objective is to identify "Investor Type", which is "Non-Institutional Investor".
Note that this example document always has the same definition disclaimer at the bottom, thus making using a text pattern to extract the type of investor difficult
To create an Anchor Tool:
- Under “Pattern Studio”, click to "Automation"
- Click “Add Kit” and name the Kit.
- Pick the schema the Anchor Tool belongs to
- This will provide the schema fields that you’ll be able to automate using the Anchor Pattern in this Kit.
- Within the Field you want to add the Anchor Tool to, select "Add Tool".
- Within the "Add Tool" section, you will then select "Anchor Tool".
- Within the Anchor Tool, you will first enter the method to identify your Anchor-- Text or Regex.
- Following that, you'll select the direction from the Anchor in which the desired target value will be found.
- Finally, you will identify the method for obtaining the desired target:
- Line is used to identify the first line of text that is found in the direction you've selected.
- Custom will be used with either text or regex to specifially identify the desired target format.
- Once complete, click on "Save Tool"
This produces the following result:
Congratulations, you've built an Anchor Tool!
Updated 03 Mar 2023
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