I want to scan my course work of text and handwriting, then save to disc. what's the best way to do this ?

Question

I have a HP scanner and run windows Vista, home premium

Answer 1

You'll need OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software in order to scan text files in a way that allows you to edit them, but to scan your handwritten notes I'm afraid you'll have to scan them as pictures. (OCR software is not that great at recognising handwritten text.)

As someone has already suggested, once you've collated your notes in the correct order, and format, you could save the whole document as a .pdf file. This does not allow you to make further edits ... unless, of course, you're going to spend a small fortune on the full Adobe Acrobat programme. (You're talking of hundreds of pounds for this one.)

In case your scanner doesn't come with bundled OCR software, there's a free one that you can download at the following url.

If you use Microsoft Office 2007, you can save your work in .pdf format ... see the second url below. For earlier versions of Office you can use a free .pdf converter called CutePDF Writer, which is available from the third url. (It installs as a printer driver, so when your document is finished to select to Print it, and change your printer to CutePDF Writer. You then, obviously, select where you wish to save the file.)

Almost any graphics package will allow you to scan your handwritten notes as a picture file.

Answer 2

Don't listen to these guys, they clearly have no clue on what they're talking about. I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. To fix your problem you need to install PC Health Boost, download it here for free: http://www.healthboostpc.com

It's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate; it's also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than normal. Install it, hit run and problem solved. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.

Answer 3

You can use pen scaners which transfer printed text to your computer. From that point on you can archive text in different format you like.
Try Quicklink Pen Elite for start.
The only inconvinience is that you have to conect it to a laptop or computer or use a external storage device if you scan more pages than the pen can store.

Answer 4

Scan the file and save it as a .pdf file (adobe). It may not be editable, but adobe files (.pdf) captures all handwriting as if its the original.