convert paper document to word for free

donnajunkie

Thankyou for all the help so far. I am working through it. I tried the change format idea with the printer/scanner. It only allows basic pdf or jpeg, neither can be modified. I then tried both adobe reader and office and both require a sub for the function. I have open office but if you can do it with that i cant work out how.
i will keep working through all suggestions.

rdr

Microsoft OneNote, which is available free, will extract text from images and scanned PDFs but you will need to sort out the formatting afterwards.
Similarly Google lens and Microsoft office lens on the phone will extract text from images

donnajunkie

Norman_Castle said:

Google Drive

Google Drive, which is integrated with Google Docs, is a fantastic free online service provided by Google that supports multiple document formats including PDF files. To convert a PDF to text using Google Docs, follow the steps below.

Tip

For any PDF containing pages that need to be rotated, we suggest using Online OCR instead of Google Drive since it automatically rotate all pages.

1. Open Google Docs.
2. In Google Docs, click the Settings icon in the top-right corner (shown below) and click Upload settings and then make sure Convert text from uploaded PDF and image files is checked.

3. After checking the settings above, any PDF file you upload to Google Docs is automatically converted to text.

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000124.htm

currently trying this but those options arent there. there is an option in settings to convert uploaded files to google docs editor format. i have uploaded a scan but the text has gone from black to some sort of weird green colour for some reason.

Cornucopia

More info about Google Docs here:-

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/176692?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

donnajunkie

alanclarke said:

https://www.onlineocr.net/ extract text from scanned PDF and images (JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF) and convert into editable Word, Excel and Text output formats

This just put all the text in a box and didn't keep the layout or format. And it had an error when trying to download. 

donnajunkie

Neil_Jones said:

OCR - Optical Character Recognition - could be an option. https://www.simpleocr.com/ocr-freeware/ but the success of this depends on the quality of the paper copy already.  If its already faded or been half-eaten by the dog, nothing will salvage it.

Of course easiest solution is just to type it all out yourself manually.

This was extremely complicated and caused a printer error so i immediately got rid. 

alanclarke

donnajunkie said:

alanclarke said:

https://www.onlineocr.net/ extract text from scanned PDF and images (JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF) and convert into editable Word, Excel and Text output formats

This just put all the text in a box and didn't keep the layout or format. And it had an error when trying to download. 

I once had a problem downloading converted documents, I signed up for a free account and the scanned document converted and I could download the formatted output file.

Most times documents convert and I can download files without logging in, but if there is a problem I log in and it works fine.

IvanOpinion

Just throwing another possibility into the mix here.   You mention emailing, and modifying etc so,  if the documents aren't that big you could just 'read' them into your word processor. 

Assuming Windows 10 use Windows-H to turn on dictation (you may have to set up speech recognition), give focus to your word processor and start reading .... voila!

WaywardDriver

Sign up to free trial of Adobe Acrobat Pro at Pricing & subscription options | Adobe Acrobat DC and use Export to Word. 

donnajunkie

alanclarke said:

donnajunkie said:

alanclarke said:

https://www.onlineocr.net/ extract text from scanned PDF and images (JPG, BMP, TIFF, GIF) and convert into editable Word, Excel and Text output formats

This just put all the text in a box and didn't keep the layout or format. And it had an error when trying to download. 

I once had a problem downloading converted documents, I signed up for a free account and the scanned document converted and I could download the formatted output file.

Most times documents convert and I can download files without logging in, but if there is a problem I log in and it works fine.

i found docx was still getting error but i tried the older doc and it worked and opened in open office but it wasnt possible to modify it at all.