Scanning/Editing

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I'm an extreme newbie, so forgive me if I ask a totally stupid question. I've scanned docs from my HP Photosmart Premium to my iMac (Snow Leopard 10.6). The docs get scanned and saved to "PDF in Documents." When I open a doc on my iMac, I cannot figure out a way to edit it. I cannot highlight text or manipulate/edit it in any way. You'll be my hero for life if you can tell me how to accomplish this task.:*

I'm ashamed to say that I could do this easily on my old Dell PC, with docs going to and opening in Word. It distresses me that now I'm back to my beloved Mac, I cannot accomplish this task.

In truth, I blame me, not Mac.:Blushing:
 
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chas_m

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It sounds like you are scanning these files as IMAGES rather than doing OCR on them. If so, there's not much you can do with that. Re-scan the documents as OCR/Text (check your scanner's manual on how to do this, it should be pretty easy once you find out how.
 

dtravis7


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It sounds like you are scanning these files as IMAGES rather than doing OCR on them. If so, there's not much you can do with that. Re-scan the documents as OCR/Text (check your scanner's manual on how to do this, it should be pretty easy once you find out how.

Agreed. If you are saving them as normal PDF's, there is not much you can do. Chas is correct.

I doubt you were scanning to PDF on your Dell.
 
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MacInWin

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Depending on the nature of the documents, you can open PDFs in Preview, and from there select text and then paste that text into word processors. I just did that into LibreOffice and TextEdit, so I presume it would work for most, if not all, word processors. You are not editing the document itself, but you can manipulate the text that was in the document, if that is the goal.
 
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Once you scan as a text document, you might want to check out LibreOffice, OpenOffice, or NeoOffice for Mac. All are free app suites similar to MS Office. Each has an app similar to MS Word for editing documents. You can even save files with MS Office extensions (.doc, .xls).
 
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Thanks to all.

I think you might be right that I was scanning an image rather than text, so I checked the HP software and I could not find a text option. I've uninstalled the HP software and downloaded/reinstalled it from the HP site. I have not tried to scan and edit yet. Wish me luck!
 
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A Major Problem

Okay - I seem to have a major problem. After reinstalling the HP software, I opened the scan window and there was an option for scanning text. I selected it and scanned it to be saved in my documents folder as a PDF - at least that is the command I selected on the scan shortcuts panel of my scanner.
When I opened it, I could not select or edit the text, and I saw that it was identified as an "image" document.

It seems that my scanner will not scan a text regardless of what I select. Any thoughts (other than tossing it out the window).

HP Photosmart Premium C309g - All-in-One (Print-Scan-Copy)
 
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Dear Chas M,

I went to the thread you posted. That problem seems to be exactly what I have, so I'm going to try the solution there. Many thanks, and wish me luck!
 
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You could try scanning the item as text but NOT saving it as a PDF, instead saving in another format like Word.

Also, when I googled HP Photosmart Premium C309g and "mac ocr," I got this:


Saving a Scanned Document as Editable Text - Page 2 - HP Support Forum

Dear Chas M,

I went to the thread you posted. That problem seems to be exactly what I have, so I'm going to try the solution there. Many thanks, and wish me luck!

THANK YOU! This link was great. After following Sevenoakboy's suggestions, I was finally able to scan and edit documents in TextEdit.

This forum is going to be a lifeline for me.
 

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