Mochabomb

OCR - optical character recognition is what we do when we read - shapes represent letters.

This write-up shows how to quickly scan in documents for either archiving (keep a scan of the page, recycle the paper copy), email by pdf, or for editing a document without typing it all in. I do work as a mortage loan officer and sometimes its better to send a pdf than a fax - especially if the document is barely readable. I also tend to keep everything until the loan is closed - keep clutter (fax cover sheets, etc) and if I need something later, it’s there. More than once I have shredded something I needed a phone number off or something like that. Also, it saves the space in the file drawers for important files.

I have experience with Microsoft Document Imaging (part of Microsoft Office), Microsoft Word and FreePrimo (a free pdf distiller - vs Acrobat) ), so that is where the screenshots are from. It would be similar in process for OpenOffice, HP scanning and other packages.

Note: FreePrimo is great so far - there is a lot of good feedback about it

Basic steps are:

1. Scan in Document
2. Run OCR - output it sent to Word
3. Edit
4. Print to FreePrimo or your Printer

Here are the steps in detail 1. Start up Microsoft Document Imaging:
1. Start | All Programs | Microsoft Office | Microsoft Office Tools | Microsoft Office Document Imaging
2. Click on the scan icon

3. Set up your scanner - higher DPI = longer scan times; 300dpi works well for most documents

4. Scan your doc

5. Either continue to scan or click “Done”

6. Here is the scanned image - either print to pdf, or to extract text click the send to Word button

7. Here is the scanned image text in word - ready to edit (I changed all the text to 16pt font)

At this point you have the document scanned in and can save as is, print and send as a pdf (instead of a fax), or edit using Word.