Scanning JPEG ~ Word (or similar)

I don't get what you mean. Scanning has two meanings these days.

One is when you insert a photograph into a scanner and scan it. The other is to just sift through a box of old photographs looking at each picture. One transfers the photograph to memory while the other triggers memories .

If it's the first case, the scanner should have come with software that converts the scanned documents or pictures into jpeg, pdf, or some other format. My printer has a built-in scanner that does just that.

If your mom is just triggering memories then buy a scanner or a printer with scanner. The advantage of having a printer with scanner is that some models allow you to reprint the photos on photo paper.

very good. I have a flatbed (canon) scanner. I can save documents as: .jpeg, .bmp, .psf etc. etc.

The question is can I convert to a .doc. So as to manipulate in similar fashion.

I actually have found some good features using the PhotoSoft software (it is an awesome freebie), but if there is some specific conversion software that would be good.

clear as mud I'm sure.

try search OCR

OCR = Optical Character Recogition

The last I heard about these software was that they weren't 100% accurate. You'd still have to manually correct some its work.

Still, it would probably be better than writing or typing everything manually.

One way I can think of doing what you want to do without purchasing OCR software is to scan the document as a jpeg file and paste it onto a Word document. Then, using the drawing toolbox, overwrite what you need to correct or add comments on the side or on some space close by.

word sucks... but if you need to edit the documents after scanning..then you need to perform OCR after scanning..the software typically comes with the scanner, and it is excellent to use.. and for scanning from type printed documents, it is nearly perfect.. but for publishing..even after ocr..I recommend adobe pdf format.

Cookies did you say???

the OCR is probably the best choice, and the easiest method of inputting then searching documents. But if the family records are anything like ours most are hand written, in the family bible, court documents, birth records and baptismal records as well as marriages, it will be a problem.

There are hand held as well as flatbeds to scan documents, each has it's advantages as well as disadvantages. The biggest problem will be the software. For your perusal:

http://www.dataid.com/aboutocr.htm

http://www.readsoft.com/products/forms.htm

If by some strange chance I get the cookies have her send them to a solider over seas.

That's a perfectly valid issue, I would love to discuss:

- How good are existing OCRs, in recognising hand-written documents?

I know some PDA devices, are perfectly capable of recognising hand-written input. The algorithms must be similar.

Yes, there are lots of software available and downloadable from internet websites,

one popular and familiar is Fine Reader (Version 5 or later). All these are known as OCR (Optical Character Recognizing) softwares. It can convert in Word/excel/txt and many other word processing format.

Hope now onwards your mom's will give more time on other works rather than this scanning and typing..

-Harshad

Yes, FineReader is the solution. It can read almost everything, even handwriting. You can download it for a free test before you decide whether you buy it or not.

http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_ocr/

GoTo, I.R.I.S.

It's a very competent OCR software packed with H-P multifunctional printers.

Bob

After trying all of the Adobe software, I went to PDF Professional by Nuance, 1/3rd the price and seems to do a lot more, easier. You need Adobe Reader to make it work more smoothly. I scan tons of docs including Mill Test Reports, Bills of Lading, etc into PDF using an HP Scanjet G3010, convert to Word with this program, and then insert the Docs into a report. Many less glitches then with Adobe's software. You can buy and download on line. Hope this helps.

qaqcpipeman

As another poster mentioned, if Mom is working with hand-written letters and such, I doubt you will find a program that will scan that to editable text reliably, they still haven't matched the human brain and eyes as far as OCR goes! Again as mentioned, converting to PDF will give the best solution as far as file size and compatibility (PDF readers are free, Word is not). The resulting file will not be searchable text, but depending on what software is used to create the PDF, you could add keywords and comments that would allow some degree of searching. Now, what's that you said about cookies ?!

Tom

"Scanning hundreds of years of family history is keeping Mom quite busy during her hard earned retirement."

Handwritten, no doubt? IF in printed form now sweat. There are numerous ways to convert to modern document formats. Others have outlined the ways.

IF handwritten, you have a problem in getting access to a proprietary system the converts handwriting, little better that scribbles, to readable text. A license would not be cheap!

"She's baking cookies for a helpful Poster!"

Be really HELPFUL. Quit eating cookies and help mom do the typing.

C,

I use a product "PaperPort Office Pro9", used to be owned by Scan Soft but now by Nuance. You can scan documents, create .pdf's or jpeg's, type & write on the page (even adobe acrobat pages), and convert to a word or excel document. Many more features and it costs about $100.00. I use a Fujitsu fi-4120C scanner and with both products can scan a tremendous amount and e-file documents easily. Hope this helps! CM

Probably not workable, but could Mom read the unscannable (new word) into the computer with voice recognition software to avoid all that pesky editting?

I hadn't thought of that.

"Guest" You should sign in when writing good ideas to get credit where credit is due. Whether or not your idea is workable in their particular situation ... it was by far the most "out of the box" suggestion. All the rest of us were stuck in the wheel ruts of the ones before us.

It's the type of logic that you used that oftentimes comes up with the most outrageous and crazy suggestions to challenges .. but also sometimes the most brilliant!

Assuming that much of the "history" is handwritten (almost certainly) ... I'm guessing they might go with that.

Nice work!

As I figured much GOOD help.

To you all, a most sincere THANK YOU!

Most scanner come with OCR software. Check it out.

Pineapple

Try Presto OCR or ScanSoft. Both are very nice and cheap.

If you have a HP scanner the OCR works great.

It's on the install disk

I bought an HP scanner 3 years back. It is the one that you can see through -- it looks like a picture frame or tablet PC. I like the scanner. I can be used to scan sections of large drawings. You can see the picture you are scanning -- no worry that when you closed the lid the air pressure moved the picture.

The OCR software it came with was 10 times better than OCR software I had years earlier. It is perhaps 99% accurate. Previously the software I had was 80 to 90% accurate and worthless. But still when you have perhaps 3,000 characters on a page, you get 30 mistakes. Spell check finds a lot of them. But if the OCR changes font or point size -- you have to find that yourself.

It scans to text boxes -- which I find annoying. I then have the futher step of copying the text from the boxes to a standard document. I am not a fast typest, maybe 40 wpm. The OCR saves me time if there are not a lot of text boxes generated. If I typed in the 60 to 70 wpm range, I would never use it. In the past 3 years, maybe OCR has improved even more. However it is my guess that the OCR would hardly hardly work at all with hand written text.

The scanner came with software to combine multiple scans into one picture (or multiple photos into one picture). This software was worthless -- I could not get a result that I would have cared to show to anyone. The best I could do with multiple scans was to assemble it in CAD. That works okay, but takes some time.

have you tried to add a scan setting for word. I have a dell all in one and several other types of scanners and they all allow me to add scanning features. I can even scan to excel. Ink prices from dell are a killer but the printer is good.

IrfanViewer is really a versatile Software for PIX & MMX.
Your post revealed to me just a new valuable property of IrfanViewer. That is it opens Text-Files as image-file & you can save it as a .jpg [or any format you desire] *** See list at end of my post.

This will at least solve some problem of text files.

Additionally you can endorse any remarks or Tags on the PIX files.
JPEG file by most of the cameras show 3 buttons; [EXIF Info*]; [iptc info] and [Comments].

In [EXIF Info*] button all the info about the picture & Camera is there & you cn copy it as professional-photographer.

In [iptc info] button you have a lot of space to enter all about the picture or else you want to.

In [Comments] button you only 1 fixed, but sufficient space to write-in.
Don't forget to download also All-plug-ins file.

Links for latest ver 4:
1. [Author: irfan skiljan <http://www.irfanview.com/ ]
2. IrfanView 4.00 <http://www.majorgeeks.com/IrfanView_d4253.html [ 1.1 Mb | Freeware |
[Win All]
A very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware graphic viewer.

*** Formats supported:
JPG|JPEG|JPE|GIF|BMP|DIB|TIF|TIFF|PNG|PCX|TGA|PCD|SUN|RAS|ICO|AVI|IFF|PPM|PGM|PBM|LBM|WMF|EMF|WAV|PSD|MPG|MPE|MPEG|MID|RMI|MOV|CUR|ANI|DCX|EPS|CLP|LWF|LDF|CAM|G3|AIF|AU|SND|PSP|ICL|SFW|KDC|RA|MP3|DCM|ACR|FPX|XBM|XPM|DJVU|SWF|IMG|IW44|WBMP|SGI|RGB|RLE|MED|RLE|SFF|NLM|NOL|NGG|GSM|JP2|JPC|J2K|JPF|FSH|CRW|B3D|WMA|WMV|TTF|SID|MNG|JNG|RAW|ECW|ASF|TXT|WAD|ICS|IDS|CDR|CMX|NEF|ERF|ORF|RAF|MRW|DCR|X3F|SRF|PEF|OGG|DWG|DXF|DDS|JPM|PLT|CR2|DNG|

At last, some sense into this discussion. Thanks Haajee.

Thanks so much.

I just started using Infranview and learning a bit each week.

Good advice.

Here, an example of *.bmp file, created from word *.doc (in Hebrew), which is the other way around on this topic, meaning, from text into bitmap:

i am not aware of any soft ware which converts non-word to editable word document.

if your mom wants to add her own comments/text as an adjunct to the matter imported to word package, she can do so. but she cannot change the text. i stand to be corrected, if i am wrong.

there are many who manually type out the non word format matter to be made into an editable text which can be modified. and it costs money.

hmmm. cookies smell good. i am sure the poster will turn out to be fantastic

shankar

bangalore india

"i am not aware of any soft ware which converts non-word to editable word document."

You can import a Word Perfect.wpd into Word.doc and then edit it as if it had been created in Word!

Or, for that matter, any *.rtf document, created on any word-processor, and opened in MS-Word.

I've been very impressed by and fond of TextBridge by Xerox. I've used Omni page also and it's good, too. TextBridge seems to make slightly fewer errors. When you install TextBridge, it creates an option in the Word File menu for TextBridge. So you start up Word, pull down the File menu and select TextBridge and it will scan the text directly into Word, where you can spell check it and edit it. It's also very good about retaining formatting, though OmniPage is a little better in this regard.

I don't think anyone has undertaken a scanning software that will recognize longhand. I'd like to suggest that some truly hotshot programmer undertake that challenge.

SoftBridge is a software product that will convert virtually any word processor format into virtually any other.

My Replies to:
Yuval for #25 & qaqcpipeman for #26

Happy to listen that my suggestion resolved a little of your job

if you want to extract text from jpeg image, you need some ocr tool and software to help you. there is a free online ocr, it can convert jpeg image to text, after that, you can copy the text to a word document.