Scanning a document with multiple columns

[wdc]

Help please on converting a page of text into electronic form.

Attachment 1 is a photo of one page (of many I have) containing 3 columns of text.

I am trying to scan and convert the page to electronic form so that -- with Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V commands –I can then insert the text from each of the three columns into a WORD table, like this one: (Attachment 2)

My scanner is an HP Scanjet 3500C and I am working with WORD97 on a W98 pc. Attachment 1 (the photo of the original page) was made using the scanner.

Attachment 3 is the distorted electronic file I obtained using the scanner.

Question 1: Attachment 3 does not show the material in 3-column format. Is there a way I can get the original material in 3-column format, or is that beyond the capabilities of my scanner?

Question 2: Why does the scanner misplace sections of text the way it does? For example, numbers 206, 209, 211 (that appear in the first column of the original copy) appear in the electronic copy (attachment 2) <far removed> from the associated text?

I’d be grateful for advice from someone with scanner experience.

[photolady]

Because the OCR software isn't always accurate. At least older versions weren't. Are you using something that came with your scanner or a third party software.

TextBridge is better than scanner supplied software.
OmniPage is even better, but more expensive than TextBridge.

And I'm sure you know, you can't scan those pages as a photo because then you can't manipulate the text.

[Train]

Jack up the dpi a bit and test again.

[wdc]

Train, Photolady: Many thanks for your suggestion. It prompted me to look deeper into my scanner software where I found many options I never knew existed. First, I changed from 300 to 400 dpi (the maximum). Second, I saw an option that “Preserved format” and I switched to that. Now when I scan the page and get an editable WORD file it looks like my three column original; voila.l

Now – working in WORD with two files (my scanned document and my Master Table) one above the other – I should be able to highlight blocks of text in the scanned document and paste them into the appropriate blocks in the master table.

That is a huge improvement over where I was. Thanks again.

[photolady]

You're welcome!