I have a document that I scanned on my computer and I have been trying to figure out how to edit it in Microsoft Word or a program like that. I would just re-type it, but its pretty long. I've done it before, but I don't remember what I did. Could someone walk me through the steps? Thanks a ton!!
2007-01-14 14:25:45 · 5 answers · asked by ? 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
I've done it before and I used Adobe Acrobat but I'm not sure what I did!
2007-01-14 14:33:36 · update #1
You need a character recognition program. OCS or something like that. Even then, you have to edit it a lot. Most scanners come with software that will convert graphics to text. If you use Adobe Acrobat, and scan your document as a pdf file, it should work pretty well.
2007-01-14 14:31:05 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
OCS is a good program for recongnizing text on photos, it's never completely accurate though, any lines on the side or something will be though of as a capital i or an l or a | symbol and it will screw the whole thing up.
For the most part, when you scan a document, it's in the format of a picture. When you type a document, it's in the format of text. A computer isn't like a human, it has trouble recognizing symbols, so they have it all formatted into code so that the computer can use a skill it's good at.
You see computers specialize in mainly math, that's what almost everything comes down to in a computer, math. And it can solve somewhere around a million problems a second. You get the smallest little computer ... a calculator ... and ask it ... uhhh ... 23 x 756 and it'll do it in milliseconds. But if you try to do that, it'll take a couple minutes ... a pencil in paper will be needed probally. The awnser is 17,388, but that's not the point.
Now if you teach a little toddler what the letter "R" looks like and you show them later ... at an angle, distorted, in a different font, whatever, they say: Oh, that's an 'R'. With a computer, this is a very difficult process and can even be impossible to accomplish.
Your computer with that OCR software may be able to recall neat computer printing, but if an elementary kid wrote a page about kittens or something, the computer will never read it. It may be a little difficult for us to read but we can do that.
The one reason that keeps computers imperior to us and keeps them under control isn't becasue they can't think for themselves. They can, you can put a program in a robot and it can work with it's environment. But the real reason is becasue they cannot work out of pattern. They can produce a random number, but not on their own, only if they're told to. They can't do anything on their own unless programed to do so. That's why you need to be a little more specific when saying they can't speak for themselves, for the most part, they can't but it is possible. Your own computer know to start your Operating System when it turns on without being commanded to. But that's only because it has a code in it somewhere telling it to. And that code was written by a human.
2007-01-14 14:47:23 · answer #2 · answered by jtkroll12 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have an HP scanner. It always asks me when I scan if I want to scan as a picture or an editable document. Choosing document makes it a Word Document, image makes it a Jpeg. Go under your scanner settings and look for this kind of an option.
2007-01-14 14:35:08 · answer #3 · answered by Uther Aurelianus 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You can't. A scanned document is an image file, and not a text file. You could always go into MS Paint or photoshop and add text, I suppose, but you can't use a word processor application.
2007-01-14 14:30:00 · answer #4 · answered by baka_otaku30 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It cannot be edited. There is a program that will do it, but, I don't remember the name of it. It's mainly use in offices.
2007-01-14 14:33:32 · answer #5 · answered by newyorkgal71 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋