Scanning Documents

[Don Edmonds]

Greetings

First - I acknowledge that this is not strictly a query about Word - but I
do not know where else I can ask this question - and knowing that Word users
are working with written documents ­ I hope that there is someone there who
can point me in the right direction.

I have an iMac G5 ­ OS X 10.4.3 (waiting for my broadband connection to
download 10.4.4) - Word 2004 11.2.

I have a Canon Pixma MP110 Printer/Copier/Scanner

I often have documents (usually multiple pages) in hard copy that I would
prefer to store electronically. I don¹t usually want to OCR the document
(although I might want to at a later date).

I admit that I know very little about various formats such as TIFF, PDF etc
­ or dpi etc etc

I think (but could be convinced otherwise) that I would like to be able to
save such documents as multiple page PDFs (so that I can copy bits into a
word document if I want to at a later date)

I notice that my scanner/printer can copy an A4 printed page in about 20 to
25 seconds.

Experimenting with the various bits of software that came with the printer
or that were already in my Mac ­ I find that the best that I can find that
allows me to come out with a multiple page PDF is MP Navigator 1.1 ­ but it
takes all of 4 minutes 10 seconds to scan one A4 page!

I can¹t believe that there isn¹t a better way ­ especially given that in
photocopy mode it can scan an A4 document ­ AND print it out ­ in 20-25
seconds!

I can¹t find anything in the Help files etc for what I am trying to do ­ the
assumption always seems to be that I should want to scan a picture ­ or if
it is a document ­ that I should want to OCR it.

I just want to get the print off the paper into my computer so that I can
read it on screen or print it out later (to look the same as it was) - in a
format that is not too memory hungry ­ and doesn¹t reproduce every slight
crease or shadow on the page.

A bonus would be the possibility of copying bits into a word doc if I wanted
to.

(By the way ­ I have learnt so much from this group ­ AND can tell you that
Clive Huggan¹s ³Bend Word to your will (or try to)² has helped me more with
my use of my iMac than anything else I have seen ­ many thanks Clive).


--
Don Edmonds
7 Rankin Street
Kaikohe
New Zealand
64-9-4053030
64-27-2568290

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Don:

If you ³might² want to OCR the thing later, save it as 300 dpi one-bit
(black and white) TIFF from your scanner. Black and white TIFF is
reasonably compact if you allow TIFF compression. If your scanner doesn¹t
do compressed TIFF, try GIF or PNG (not JPEG, it will make the text fuzzy
and difficult to OCR).

If you want to copy lumps of the text into Word, you must OCR first: you
can¹t copy and paste properly from PDF, particularly not a PDF made from a
scan.

PDF is simply a ³container² format -- how you can use it depends on what the
PDF contains. If you scan, the resulting PDF contains a bitmap that you
will not be able to copy and paste selections from into Word. If you OCR
first and then create the PDF, the PDF then contains ³text² which you CAN
copy and paste. You will lose formatting by doing so. Better to OCR to an
RTF or Word document from which you can copy and paste at will.

Cheers

Greetings

First - I acknowledge that this is not strictly a query about Word - but I do
not know where else I can ask this question - and knowing that Word users are
working with written documents ­ I hope that there is someone there who can
point me in the right direction.

I have an iMac G5 ­ OS X 10.4.3 (waiting for my broadband connection to
download 10.4.4) - Word 2004 11.2.

I have a Canon Pixma MP110 Printer/Copier/Scanner

I often have documents (usually multiple pages) in hard copy that I would
prefer to store electronically. I don¹t usually want to OCR the document
(although I might want to at a later date).

I admit that I know very little about various formats such as TIFF, PDF etc ­
or dpi etc etc

I think (but could be convinced otherwise) that I would like to be able to
save such documents as multiple page PDFs (so that I can copy bits into a word
document if I want to at a later date)

I notice that my scanner/printer can copy an A4 printed page in about 20 to 25
seconds.

Experimenting with the various bits of software that came with the printer or
that were already in my Mac ­ I find that the best that I can find that allows
me to come out with a multiple page PDF is MP Navigator 1.1 ­ but it takes all
of 4 minutes 10 seconds to scan one A4 page!

I can¹t believe that there isn¹t a better way ­ especially given that in
photocopy mode it can scan an A4 document ­ AND print it out ­ in 20-25
seconds!

I can¹t find anything in the Help files etc for what I am trying to do ­ the
assumption always seems to be that I should want to scan a picture ­ or if it
is a document ­ that I should want to OCR it.

I just want to get the print off the paper into my computer so that I can read
it on screen or print it out later (to look the same as it was) - in a format
that is not too memory hungry ­ and doesn¹t reproduce every slight crease or
shadow on the page.

A bonus would be the possibility of copying bits into a word doc if I wanted
to.

(By the way ­ I have learnt so much from this group ­ AND can tell you that
Clive Huggan¹s ³Bend Word to your will (or try to)² has helped me more with my
use of my iMac than anything else I have seen ­ many thanks Clive).

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410