Author Topic: Converting document from photocopy to Word COMPLETED  (Read 748 times)

Offline ainslie

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Converting document from photocopy to Word COMPLETED
« on: Monday 11 December 17 12:32 GMT (UK) »
I have a document created in a former Word format.  I have tried to scan and convert one page back to Word for editing without success and would welcome advice (in very simple terms please).
I have scanned it on my HP Deskjet 3520 into Paint, saved it as TIFF, one of the options.  I have   'PDF Conversion' and have tried to convert the TIFF file to Word, but the converted version still seems to treat the page as an image.
There are six more pages to be converted back to Word format, and perhaps other documents, so am stuck for now.
I have Windows 10 and Word 2016.

Thank you.
Ainslie

Online ShaunJ

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Re: Converting document from photocopy to Word
« Reply #1 on: Monday 11 December 17 12:51 GMT (UK) »
Do you still have the original Word file? If so you should be able to open it in Word 2016 without difficulty.

If you only have hard copy then you will have to use an OCR application to create an editable file.
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Offline John915

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Re: Converting document from photocopy to Word
« Reply #2 on: Monday 11 December 17 12:53 GMT (UK) »
Good afternoon,

You say this document was created on a former word format. Scanning  a document back into the pc normally prevents any editing taking place. Had this problem myself in the past so asked junior (programmer) for advice.

It may be easier to just recreate the documents on a modern version of word.

John915
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Offline Erato

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Re: Converting document from photocopy to Word
« Reply #3 on: Monday 11 December 17 12:55 GMT (UK) »
"still seems to treat the page as an image"

That's because it IS an image, not text.  You need to convert it to text. There is free OCR software available but I've never tried any of the programs.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ocr+software&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
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Offline Gadget

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Re: Converting document from photocopy to Word
« Reply #4 on: Monday 11 December 17 13:14 GMT (UK) »
As Shaun and Erato have said, you need to use OCR (optical character recognition) software.

 Many scanners come with OCR software and you can then save directly to Word. I've had reasonable success but you have to do very careful proof reading of the resulting file and expect to make quite a few changes in spelling and formatting.

Gadget
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Offline ainslie

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Re: Converting document from photocopy to Word
« Reply #5 on: Monday 11 December 17 13:53 GMT (UK) »
Thank you to all.  The original document was lost in a PC failure, so it seems that I shall have to get OCR conversion  to be able to bring the piece up to date.
A

Offline ainslie

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Re: Converting document from photocopy to Word
« Reply #6 on: Monday 11 December 17 15:22 GMT (UK) »
I am happy to say that I used 'onlineocr.net' which successfully converted my document with few errors and I now have a better version than the outdated printout.
Many thanks for the advice.
A