Scanning editable text documents...and getting really po'ed

FroGGer

I am trying to scan a document that I want to edit in word. The document is a waiver of lien and when I scan it ( I use Omnipage SE which came with the canon scanner) everything shows up in the window nicely, but then when I have the program try to recognize the document and export it to work, it gets all messed up. Some of the stuff is there, like some of the words even though they overlap. But the blank lines to be filled in are not there. I chose to scan it with every option they give like spreadsheet, auto, columns and text, etc.
WTF is going on here?
Does anyone know how to do this?
thanks
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gmoney · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:24 pm Post subject:

are you using microsoft printer/scanner/software?

if so ... it should work fine
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

In a word..........forget it.

All you can do, really, is scan it, test it, move the page a millimeter in one way, try again, repeat 100 times. There's a reason scanning OCR didn't take off.........it doesn't work well, if at all. Even if you're off a tiny bit, the OCR software will default to graphics mode, and make the text un-editable.
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FroGGer · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:26 pm Post subject:

No I am using a canon scanner and the software that came with it called OmniPage SE. Is there a free program that can do this easily. I've tried scanning documents many times and it never works. I just get gibberish, and now I finally got pissed enough to ask becasue it is really frustrating. That's what I bought it for!!
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FroGGer · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:31 pm Post subject:

what is moving the page going to do. does it really make a difference?
Is there something else besides OCR that will work.?
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Hoedizzy · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:36 pm Post subject:

FroGGer · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:40 pm Post subject:

so basically what you guys are telling me is that I am s##t out of luck. Is this correct?
How about a place like kinkos, could they do it for me and save it as a word file so I don't have to use a typewriter anymore?

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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Um...........

In a word, NO.

This is why multi-million dollar legal firms still employ typists and so on..........OCR sucks, period.
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FroGGer · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:51 pm Post subject:

OK, I guess that's the end of my questions, lol.
Oh, and for the record, that stinks. One more, Does OCR ever work?
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mojo1340 · UberTweaker Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 1022

I just tried it on my hp sj 4470c. I saved the scan as a .txt file, selected the entire document, copied and pasted into MS Word. Only one edit needed to be made. I could've edited the doc in notepad as well.

FroGGer · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:56 pm Post subject:

Did it have graphics?
there is a logo on the top that doesn't want to show up.
I can't scan it as a text file though. How would you do that? you still have to scan it as document. the only options it gives me is word. Unless I just scan it with the basic software and not omnipage.
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zhensem · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:29 am Post subject:

I've personally had nothing but good experiences with OCR. The images come out all messed up but the text is almost perfect except for the occasional bad word.
I even remember testing my own handwriting and it worked on many of the words!!!

My advice: Use OCR, but with caution.
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FroGGer · Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:38 am Post subject:

Maybe i just don't know how to use it. I have to mess around with it some more
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mojo1340 · UberTweaker Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 1022

My scanner software has a setting for "text & image". Sends a rich text file directly to Word.