Anyone know about converting files from JPEG to Word documents?

[Bouncy Ball]

Can it be done?

I scanned in a document and it's a .jpg file right now. But I need to somehow convert it (or copy it and make it into?) a file I can make changes to, like a .doc file.

It will allow me to convert it to a .tif, .bmp, .dcx, .pcx, .gif, .fpx, or .png file right now. Are any of those the kinds of files I can make changes to (treat it like a Word file)?

Thanks! If I do this, I'll be someone's hero today.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. graphics are not transformable

but you can inswert it inot a Word document as a picture, if I am wrong I will be glad to laern to

[jody]

2. You can "Insert" a "Picture" "From File" and select the desired

.jpg file and it will be included in your MS document.

[Bouncy Ball]

11. Thanks, I just did it.

Shoot, all that technology and you can't even do that!

Shit. Means we have to re-type the whole damn thing. The woman who had the original disk all these documents were on took off a year ago and we discovered she took the damn disk with her (this is a work thing).

So now we want to make revisions to the documents and I thought I could scan them in and convert to a word file and make changes, but I can't.

Oh well. It's going to be hell re-typing all this.

[Misunderestimator]

17. Sounds like it would be worth it to buy OCR software that everyone...

is recommending downthread... ;)

[Bouncy Ball]

19. Yep.

We're talking hundreds of pages of documents, so it looks like it would be worth it for about $150 worth of software. Thanks again, everyone!

[Lord_StarFyre]

3. OCR Software...

http://www.irisusa.com/products/readiris/pc/index.html#

They have a demo available...

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Bingo

That sounds like it's what you're looking for.

[Don Claybrook]

4. When you say "make changes", do you mean...

Do you want to actually edit the image? If so, you can use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (you can d/l Paint Shop Pro free, at least a trial version).

If you just want to be able to resize it in Word, crop it, print it, that sort of thing, just open the image in your image viewing program, copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-C), then open Word, and paste it into the document.

[Bouncy Ball]

14. It's a text document.

I scanned it in and I want to be able to make revisions to it. But as an image file, I can't. I want to actually change the wording etc, without having to re-type the whole damn thing. The original disk it was saved to is long gone.

Fuck!

[Don Claybrook]

20. sorry, didn't read the original post closely enough

As someone else mentioned, OCR (optical character recognition) software is required. Since you scanned this in, there's a good chance that your scanner came with OCR software.

If not, go to download.com or tucows.com and search for OCR. You may get some trial version of software that will let you convert x number of pages before it disables itself.

Good luck.

[Tom Kitten]

5. Can you not just

open a new word document and then just insert the jpg? I can do that on the Word I have.

[jokerman93]

7. Probably not

JPG and the other file types you mentioned are bitmap graphics that can be edited with graphics programs likes photoshop, photopaint, CorelDraw etc.

A word document is a formatted "text" document that uses ascii code to represent the text you see on the screen.

These are two very different types of files.

What are you trying to accomplish? There might be another way.

[Rick Myers]

8. You need conversion software

Try this from Download.com:

http://www.download.com/Imagetrix/3000-2192_4-10397096.html?tag=lst-0-6

I've never used it, but it's worth a try.

[Misunderestimator]

9. Unless you have OCR software (optical character recognition)...

no... I haven't done that in many years, but even years ago it was pretty good technology. I'm sure it's even better now, and there must be some freeware out there.

[ghostsofgiants]

10. If you want to edit the text, you would need some OCR software

OCR = Optical Character Recognition. It scans the image and converts the letters that it sees into editable text.

There's a link to a demo in someone else's response to this thread.

[Orangepeel]

12. I think you need to scan it again using a different program

I'm not an expert, but I have to use a different program to scan in text documents. Mine is called omni, I think (I'm not at the computer that's hooked to the scanner so I'm not sure). You want a scanning option called OCR (optical character recognition?).

IIRC, I go to the scanning software folder and choose a different package when I want to scan text documents.

[Spinzonner]

18. Probably Omnipage

[Orangepeel]

22. that's it!

:D

[Spinzonner]

13. You need an OCR (Optical Character recognition) program or service

Takes images of text and converts it to corresponding text. Varying degrees of accuracy dependning on the original document, quality of scanning, and sophistication of the program.

Consumer-level software typically around $100 or so. There might be some services around including printing shops or other document preparation businesses. Might try Kinkos. I've never really looked.

[jody]

15. I overlooked your "make changes to" question. You 'll need a

picture editor like MS PhotoDraw to make the changes. Then save the changes as a .jpg file and insert into a Word document if that is your goal.

[Bouncy Ball]

16. Thanks, guys, looks like I'm going to need to go the OCR route.

I am going to check out the link provided in this thread.

You guys are FAST!!!!

Thanks again!

[ladjf]

21. Scan the document using character recognition software. Save

it as word perfect document. This works on most print documents that don't have lots of complicated graphics or hand written notes.
(I use Epson software for this purpose.)