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General discussion

Scanning into MS Word

Jul 31, 2005 3:13AM PDT

I am running a PIII-500, two HD's,(93 gigs), 256 ram, 56k dial up. I am using Office XP Pro with SR-3. I am trying to scan a document into Word to use as a template, whereby I can write into that document, save it, print it, whatever, and still have the original document as a template for future use. Obviously I need some guidance as everything that I have tried to accomplish this task has failed. Any input would be helpful. Thanks, Bill

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Re: scanning into MS Word
Jul 31, 2005 5:43AM PDT

Viper,

What you need is OCR (Optical Character Recognition)software to translate the scan into a MS-Word document. Most scanners (like mine from HP and Canon) come with such, and they automatically install. Have a look at the CD with the software that came with your scanner. If nothing is present, you've got to buy it separately.

I suppose you know enough of MS Word to do what you like once this first step is taken.

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Scanning in Office XP Pro
Jul 31, 2005 6:44AM PDT

Kees; Office XP Pro has the OCR software that is needed, but, when I save the document in any format, (and some just come up with programming characters), I still cannot bring it up and type directly into it. Any further suggestions? Thanks, Bill

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Sorry, this is new for me.
Jul 31, 2005 8:22AM PDT

Bill,

I understand that Word, with the OCR 'add-in' makes a Word-document, that somehow is read-only. There has been a discussion here lately (http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-7813-0.html?forumID=29&threadID=105094&messageID=1203148, read through the whole discussion), where the scanning result happened to be a bitmap picture in Word, not a Word-document. That must have been a setting problem, I think, or maybe an incorrect way of doing it; that didn't become clear.

It's easy to check: scan a well-readable page (not too small letters, no columns, black type) and save it. A Word document should be about 25 kB, a document containing a bitmap picture about 1 Mb in size.


Kees

PS. I just read about the OCR integration in Office XP in http://www.ntcompatible.com/Microsoft_Ships_Office_XP_with_ScanSoft_OCR_Technology_s4837.html, so you're absolutely right, it should be possible. I've got no Office XP at home, and no scanner at work, so I can't tell you how to do it. Sorry for that.

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Scanning in Office XP Pro
Aug 3, 2005 8:24AM PDT

Kees, in doing some more research, I find that I can scan the document into my computer, save it as a document template and enter all of the information that I need, anytime I need to, save it, bring it back up, delete what I don't want and start all over again. Thanks for your help. Bill