08-03-2010, 08:16 AM

Hello guys, I am very new to the whole Apple imac world, and don't really no what I am doing, I have scanned a document, and the scanned document is now in my documents, in a format abbreviated as, RTFD, I need to edit this document, how do I do it and what do I need?

Many thanks,

Czar.

08-03-2010, 08:31 AM

Typically, when you scan a document, the computer sees that scanned data as picture of a document. It doesn't understand that it has letters or numbers on it, they're just a collection of dots on a grid, as far as the computer is concerned. So, if you go to edit it in an application, you'll find that the cursor doesn't delineate between characters or words, it just treats the content as one big block.

This is where Optical Character Recognition (OCR) comes in. OCR software, sometimes included in scanning software, can actually peruse the document looking for letters and formulating words. The resulting document may not be perfect, but at least it should yield a document that can be edited.

The trick is whether you have a software package capable of doing OCR.

08-03-2010, 08:43 AM

Wow thanks for such a quick response, when I bought my imac all I got was the standard operating software (snow leopard) I also bought iwork, that's all I have, and my printers/canner is a Epson stylus photo RX620 (quite old now)
I have not loaded the Epson software disk onto my imac, my imac seemed to sort itself out when I plugged my Epson printer/scanner in.

So this OCR software, is this downloadable or do I go back to the Apple store also which is the best? sorry for all the questions.

Many thanks,

Czar.

08-03-2010, 08:48 AM

Well, OCR is a technology - it's not a brand name of a software package. Many packages have some kind of OCR capability. For example, Adobe Acrobat (the full, Professional version) can scan a document and put it through OCR. I don't believe the Mac comes with any package that can do OCR. And just as a point of fact, the same goes for Windows.

Here's an article that discusses some popular packages that do OCR:

OCR Software for Macintosh - Optical Character Recognition - Mac OCR Software

It's also possible that Epson might bundle in some kind of software that does OCR if you go to their webpage and see what downloads are available for your scanner.

08-03-2010, 08:52 AM

Again wow, thank you so much for your knowledge and information, what a fantastic site, I have put you guys on my bookmark bar, and will no doubt be asking lots more questions, as I try to get to grips with my imac.

Many thanks,

Czar.

08-03-2010, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by czar

Again wow, thank you so much for your knowledge and information, what a fantastic site, I have put you guys on my bookmark bar, and will no doubt be asking lots more questions, as I try to get to grips with my imac.

Many thanks,

Czar.

Glad I could help, and welcome to the forums.

08-03-2010, 08:55 AM

Thank you so much.

Czar.

08-03-2010, 12:04 PM

I had an Epson RX600 until it died about two years ago. I think there is an OCR program on the disk (don't remember the name at the moment). Can't attest to how good it is though. It might be called Abby Fine Reader or something similar.