How do I scan in text?

[Guest]

Hi. I really hope someone can help. HOW do I scan in TEXT using Vista?
With XP, I used the same process as for photos, but was given an rtf format
option. With Vista Photo Gallery I can only scan and import PICTURES. . .
which means I cannot use the text in Word, etc. . . .

I have searched every possible key word and get NO help from my Vista help.
It tells me how to import just about everything imaginable EXCEPT plain old
text. Thanks.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Martha.

In Vista, click Control Panel | Indexing Options | Advanced | File Types.
Find the .docx extension (for Word 2007 files) and choose Index Properties
and File Contents.

You'll need Administrator credentials, and then you'll have to give it time
to rebuild the index.

If that's not what you were looking for, please post back. You might get
better results if you look for "search" rather than "scan"; sometimes those
words mean the same thing but sometimes they don't.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)

 

[Michael Walraven]

If by scan is meant place a document with text in it on a scanner, and have
that converted into an editable word document, than you will need a third
party program. What you are looking for is generally call an OCR (optical
Character Reader) program. My Epson scanner came with a semi useful 'free'
version of Abbyy FineReader (will not allow me to edit) that performs what I
think is wanted.

Michael

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi. I really hope someone can help. HOW do I scan in TEXT using Vista?
With XP, I used the same process as for photos, but was given an rtf format
option. With Vista Photo Gallery I can only scan and import PICTURES. . .
which means I cannot use the text in Word, etc. . . .

I have searched every possible key word and get NO help from my Vista help.
It tells me how to import just about everything imaginable EXCEPT plain old
text. Thanks.

When you're talking about scanning, text isn't "plain" at all. The
result of using a scanner on a page of text is a picture of that text,
not the text itself. To convert that picture to text, you need a type
of software called Optical Character Recognition ("OCR," for short).

This isn't an issue of XP vs. Vista, but of what programs you have
installed. Apparently you had an OCR program installed on your XP
computer, but don't have one on your Vista computer.

Scanners often come with "Lite" versions of OCR software, so you might
want to check to see if you have one you can install. Failing that,
you'll need to buy an OCR program.