Scanner Question: How do I scan to a Word Document or other text file?

[Salvador]

Hi,

I just got a scanner and I'm trying to figure out how to scan to a useable text file so someone else can open the thing. I don't get the option of a text file with my Microtek Scan Suite 5. All I get is options like TIF's, BMP's and PDF's. I would use PDF, but I don't think the person that I'm sending this document to has Adobe Acrobat. Any suggestions on what file type to use so I can convert it to a Word document or just normal text to read in an email?

Sorry if this is off topic. I didn't know exactly where to ask this question. It is related to my scanner, so I thought I'd ask it here.

TIA,

Sal

 

[mindiris]

This is off topic, but what you are looking for is OCR software (Optical character recognition ?).

One came with my scanner, but I never used it much.

 

[Adul]

Check out omni page pro 10. Great ocr program. It will recognize most fonts and does a pretty good job at keeping formating.

 

[bacillus]

given your limited options, I would initially save as a .bmp, then open that document in paint & choose save as jpg.
send the jpg to your friend as it will be much smaller in size to the bmp file!

 

[NelsonMuntz]

There was probably some free OCR software you got when you purchsed the printer see if oyu can find all the software you got with it and see what you already have installed. Omni Page is really common and I think there is one called Text Bridge (or something like that) that is really common.

 

[err]

If you can get your hand on Office XP, it will do the trick

Office XP has integrated OCR capable scanner software.

eRr