Scan a document so that it is editable.

[G2C2C]

Is there any way to scan a document and then open it so that certain words can be edited. I've had a couple of goes but when I open the doc in Word 2003, it mostly gets all mixed up. Any help appreciated.

[ChuckFickens]

When you scan something you are basically taking a picture of it, to get it to be editable you need something that will "read" the picture and convert it into real text, this is called optical character recognition (OCR).

There are loads of free bits of software or online services that will do this, but they tend to only work well with clear, typed or printed text, you've not got a hope in hell of them working well with hand written words. (and even if you are converting from printed text read the results very carefully because OCR does make mistakes)

There is an online OCR service here
http://www.onlineocr.net/

[G2C2C]

Chuck, before Christmas I did this with a hand written christmas carol and as you say, not all of it came out correctly but I was surprised by how well it came out.

The thing is I can't remember how I did it now. I thought it was using "open with" some program but can't remember exactly.

[ChuckFickens]

If you have one note installed as part of your office installation that can do OCR.

[bibblebub]

Do you have an all-in-one printer that does scans? If my cheap printer is anything to go by then yours might well have OCR included.

[anneasquith]

ooft..... specsavers moment !!!!!!!!!!( scan a document so that it is edible ) :(

[G2C2C]

I wish I could remember what way I did that before christmas, that is annoying.

[G2C2C]

I tried scanning it Text(OCR) to RTF File and sending it to Word. It works, but not perfectly. There is a bit of moving bits around. Frustrating and it may be quicker to type out documents rather that try to work this out.

[ChuckFickens]

It often is quicker to type them out again than to rely on OCR. Some of the newer (paid for) solutions are not too bad, but generally you still have to fiddle with the formatting and check carefully for errors.

[bazwillrun]

Use speech to text software, Google it