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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Convert Scan Documents WP

poetguy - May 28, 2006 - 5:54 am

I'm running G4 with OSX 10.4.6 and an Espon 2580 scanner. I would like someone to walk me through the process of scanning a document and converting it to Appleworks 6.2.9 for formatting. Thanks.

Paul

DeltaMac - May 28, 2006 - 7:17 am

As you have discovered, when you simply scan a document, even if it's nothing but text, you can't directly edit that text. The reason is that you simply have a picture of that text, similar to taking a picture of a document. The OTHER way to scan is using some software which will look for objects that might be text, and try to translate that into something you can read, and edit if you need to. For that, you will need some OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. The ABBYY FineReader software that came with your scanner may do what you want, FineReader is difficult to locate if you have misplaced your scanner software, as their software seems to be only offered through that means. Epson does not provide updates for ABBYY software through thier website, you will need to contact ABBYY support (good luck on that!)
Other software may work, such as OmniPage Pro (at $500, beyond what I want to do!)
TextEdit will probably be a better choice for editing an OCR scanned page, although you can try opening the doc in AppleWorks, it might work, also.
- Dale

poetguy - May 29, 2006 - 7:13 am

Good morning, Dale

Thanks for your reply to my problem. Although I was aware that I needed OCR software, it wasn't until you mentioned it again, that I decided to make a effort to find it. My searching was in vain...until I remembered that the scanner came with a software disk, which I'd not installed because the quick start instructions gave me the impression that the scanner was a plug-and-go deal. Which it was, until I want to scan and convert docs. When I opened the cd, sure enough, there was FineReader and a couple of goodies that I'd overlooked. Epson doesn't make it easy to install and find the software, but I spent some time searching and finally found it. Late last night I tried it, and it worked great, even converting to AppleWorks. It was a long and winding road, but I found the solution to my problem. Thanks for sending me in the right direction.

Paul

poetguy - May 29, 2006 - 2:03 pm

I thought I would pose another question to you, although it is not exclusively a Mac issue. My interset is DSL. There are two other computers in the house--one an Apple laptop--that are wireless. Is there any widget, application, utility that will allow me to be able to tell from my computer if one of the others is using the internet? I understand that they are always connected, but I'm intersted in kowing if either of the wireless computers are online.

If you're only allowed to answer Mac questions, fine.No problem. I'll search someplace else.

Thanks, Dale.

DeltaMac - May 29, 2006 - 2:09 pm

I can answer any question I like (if I have an answer, that is)
I don't know an answer for the 'who's connected now' question. I have seen it asked several times, but I don't recall seeing a good answer.
You should ask that question at the forums on this site. You should get more responses (more visibility there, too, for more 'experts' to answer)

good luck on that
- Dale

poetguy - May 29, 2006 - 8:43 pm

Fair enough. I will post it tomorrow. Thanks for all your help.