How do I edit a form scanned & saved into MS WORD?

[Bochaimo]

I want to answer questions on a form that I have scanned and saved
into MS WORD. I have Windows XP Prof and I'm using Office 2003 Prof.
I'm not really computer literate so if someone could please help me
and give me step by step instructions, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[IanRoy]

Well, if you want to explain just what you meant by "saved into MS Word?"
That is, what steps have you taken to get where you are?

 

[Bochaimo]

Okay, First I scanned the form through my Adobe Activeshare program.
Then I sent it to my Desktop.
Then I opened MS WORD, minimized it, and dragged the form from my
Desktop to a blank MS WORD form.
Then I saved as - and titled the form for retrieval in my C/drive under
Documents and Settings.

But when I go back into the form, again it won't let me edit it.

Thank you for trying to help.

 

[Bochaimo]

Okay, First I scanned the form through my Adobe Activeshare program.
Then I sent it to my Desktop.
Then I opened MS WORD, minimized it, and dragged the form from my
Desktop to a blank MS WORD form.
Then I saved as - and titled the form for retrieval in my C/drive under
Documents and Settings.

But when I go back into the form, again it won't let me edit it.

Thank you for trying to help.

 

[IanRoy]

Hi, Bochaimo;
I am not familiar with Adobe Activeshare, but following your procedure with
one of my own scans resulted in an image (the scan) pasted into a Word
document. You could insert text boxes into the places you wish to insert your
answers. Or you could open your scan (outside of Word) in it's default
application, and print using Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. The
resulting .mdi file can be opened with Microsoft Office Document Imaging. You
can insert text boxes in that, which worked a little better for me. Or, you
can use Tools> Send Text to Word, but you would have to re-format your form
once you have the text in Word. I have a cheap scanner ($40), but it came
with Scan Soft Form Typer 4.0 (apparently part of PaperPort Deluxe 7.0),
which makes the whole process much easier. Just open the scan with Form
Typer, type your answers where they need to go, and save as (so you keep your
blank form for further use.) If you don't have that software, or something
like it, you might want to get a copy.
Regards,
Ian.

 

[Dian Chapman, MVP, MOS]

This is a duplicate post. See the previous post of yours above where I
provided you with a detailed explanation.

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

Free Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word eBook: www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html

 

[Bochaimo]

Dian,
Thank you for you help.
Now I have another big problem!
I was able to do what you said.
I scanned the form in it's default applicaton,
hit print using the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer,
and was able to open the .mdi file,
and insert text.
Once that was done, I " saved as" back into my MS Word for retrieval in my
C/drive under Documents and Settings.
I was just zipping through each page of the form and saving them with no
problems.
However, when I went back into my saved file to print them
a window popped up titled "Fire Conversion - ActiveShare0001"
and it read "Select the encoding that makes your document readable.
Then it had Windows (Default) selected with MS-DOS and Other encoding
options (Western European (Windows) that were not selected.
The preview window showed the form all garbled????
All my work is out the window unless you can help me unscramble these saved
forms.
Please help!
Thanks

 

[IanRoy]

Hi, Bochaimo;
Two of us answered you, myself and Dian Chapman. It appears that you
followed part of my suggestion. So far, so good. However, when "saving as"
from my copy of Microsoft Document Imaging, I didn't see an option to save as
type: Word document, only Microsoft Document Imaging Format (*.mdi) or Tagged
Image File Format (*.tif); (I'd have left it as *.mdi, only changing the name
to make the filled in form a new file). So how did you save as "back into...
MS Word?" I wasn't able to replicate your second problem.
Regards,
IanRoy.

 

[Dian Chapman, MVP, MOS]

Sorry, but I'm not sure what you've done to garble the file.

The instructions I provided were to simply scan an image as a graphic
and save it into a document as a regular graphic file, such as jpg. I
have no idea of the ramifications you'd encounter using an MDI file
with Word, since I never use that.

It sounds like you've somehow managed to save the file in some format
that is not compatible with Word. So you'll need to either try to get
a conversion to work...or rescan the image and follow my original
directions.

Good luck...

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

Free Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word eBook: www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html

 

[IanRoy]

Hi, Dian Chapman;
Or, bochaimo could re-scan and just use the .mdi, instead of trying to put
it into Word. Don't know why Word is needed there.
Regards,
Ian.

 

[Dian Chapman, MVP, MOS]

For that matter, it could be scanned into any of a dozen other
programs. But since the SUBJECT of the question was asking how to do
it in Word...hence my answer was related to how to do it in Word.

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

Free Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word eBook: www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html