How do I create a word document out of scanned source?

meher

You know there was this clever way to scan pages from textbook and create a word document out of it instead of typing it. I know the scanning part but how do I create a word document out of it to save typing?

free4440273

many of the scanners come with OCR software/ or there are a few free OCR installs out there //

free4440273

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=free+ocr

no guarantee though they will all work with a particular scanner//

victor2

What does the scanner's OCR facility create? Ones I've used create an RTF file which can be opened directly in Word and copied and pasted into another document if necessary, or just edited and saved as a Word document.

Goldielocks

Can you scan it into a PDF format?
You can then 'Save as text' when in the PDF.

meher

Thanks, I'll see if I can do that. I don't have pdf, instead something similar called foxit reader. It lets me read; I need to see if it would let me edit.

Dave_C_2

meher wrote: »

Thanks, I'll see if I can do that. I don't have pdf, instead something similar called foxit reader. It lets me read; I need to see if it would let me edit.

Foxit reader is a program that reads PDF files - like Adobe reader but without the bloat. Double click the PDF file and it will open with Foxit. Then all you do is select File > Save as and ensure that save as type is text. This lets you save the pdf file as text, which is easy to import into word.

However the PDF must be in "text" format rather than a "picture" format - needs some sort of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) performing on it first. Sadly this is not part of the Foxit reader.

Since you already have Foxit and a scanner, it costs nothing to try it!

HTH, Dave

bert&ernie

There are web based OCR services that can do this. I've not tried any of them so can't vouch for any particular service. If you search for "web OCR" you should find a few free services that don't require registration, so you've nothing to lose (as long as the original isn't private).

Shimrod

I've used Nuance software PDF converter software will a lot of pdf documents to convert to word quite successfully - it costs £99 though! There are some free converters out there and also some cheaper products (look at able2doc for around £30).

If your scanner can't create a pdf directly, you can always download a free 'print to pdf' printer driver, print to pdf, and then convert the resulting file. As Bert&Ernie has mentioned, there are some online services that provide the same service for free, but they aren't really practical if you have a lot of text to convert.

If you need a lot of text out of a lot of books, have you considered subscribing to one of the online book services such as safari http://my.safaribooksonline.com/ (assuming it is academic books you want to scan)?

apnorf

If you do not want to edit the text just use the "INSERT" facility in Word, it's what I do.

cgk1

just use the windows scanning software, it will OCR text, I use it all the time.