Scanning & editing help needed please?

fifitrix123

:A Hi good of you to read thanks. :beer: :A

I have just scanned in some of my bank statements which I want to edit. :cool: I have saved the pages and done OCR.
However. the text and figures are all over the place and need a lot of work to get in column order, probably due to the scanner creating different tables which seem to put all the colums out.

But, if I look at the pages in PDF format or normal copying they look exactly like the pages themselves.
What is PDF, and can I edit the pages in this format like OCR?
Or, is there an easier way to scan & OCR the docs so they come out exactly as they are? :eek:

I did manage to edit a document before in OCR and also managed to preview the print page but cannot remember how I did this?

My scanner is a MP210 if that makes a difference.

Thank you sooo much if you are able to help, I will be logging off soon as got a headache from this screen trying to figure things out but I will be back on tomorrow morning as I have to get this done asap........:D

fenlander_uk

It really depends on the quality of your OCR software: this is one area where you really do get what you pay for. I use Abbyy FineReader, which is one of the better OCR packages and it does have an option to retain the exact format of the original. Even so, complex pages involving tables or graphics are never guaranteed.

PDF format is not intended for editing. There are tools available which let you make very minor changes, but normally you can't make major additions or deletions as the text cannot be reflowed.

BTW: editing your bank statements will not improve your balance, unfortunately.;)

culpepper

can you download your statements in a different format (digital) from their online bank pages? then you could possibly edit them before printing out or saving.

fifitrix123

HAHA Thanks fenlander I never thought of that!

I would love it if it would retain as I only want to remove a couple of numbers!!

Culpepper I will have a go at that as I am trying to scan in my own and I can't understand how they scan in perfectly if you just want to copy them but if you try to change them then the text is all over the place!!! Driving me nuts!

I am gonna try Staples tomorrow as the lads there are really helpful and I don't mind paying one of them to do it for me!!!:beer:

TonyMMM

fifitrix123 wrote: »

I can't understand how they scan in perfectly if you just want to copy them but if you try to change them then the text is all over the place!!!:beer:

Because an ordinary scan is just a picture of the document ...just the same as using a camera or photocopier. OCR software tries to "read" the picture and turn it back into a text document .... something which never works very well in my experience.

If you just want to "remove a couple of numbers" why not leave as an image and just blank out the bits you don't want ?