OCR scanning into Word (Word 2003)

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A friend of mine says he’s sure there’s an OCR scanning program that will scan an exact copy of a document, formatting and all, into Word (i.e., doesn’t require any clean-up). He doesn’t know the name of it, but feels sure there is such a program. I’m not aware of anything like this, but would love to know if such thing exists.

Russ

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There are several OCR programs with a good reputation that can produce a formatted Word document (for example Nuance OmniPage and ABBYY FineReader). But to expect that the copy will be exact and will not require any clean-up is not realistic. No OCR program is perfect.

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Thanks, Hans. From what I can tell from their Web sites, a standalone scanner is not required to use either of these programs. All you need is a PDF file scanned by your photocopier. I guess the days of needing a separate scanner are over since most photocopiers can scan to PDF.

Russ

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PDF is often used as an intermediate stage. And multifunctionals (printer/copier/scanner in one) are becoming more and more common.

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Thanks for your help, Hans (and quick replies).

Russ

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