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Coverting a scanned file from Acrobate 7.0 Stnd pdf into a word file

Forum Index > General Acrobat Topics > Coverting a scanned file from Acrobate 7.0 Stnd pdf into a word file
2008-08-26 14:16:07
David65
Registered: Aug 26 2008
Posts: 6

I used to know how to copy and paste a document from a pdf file (Acrobate 7.0 Stnd) into a ms word document as a true word document and not a picture. The process involved scanning the document on our printer into the network system and then opening with Acrobate as a pdf. There were steps then which the document was copied and pasted into ms word and the new document could be altered just as if it had originally been typed into word. However, I can't remember the steps and pasting seems to just create pictures in word. I also tried save as word doc which again was just the picture. Any help? I really would like to not have to retype the document.

My Product Information:
Acrobat Standard 7.0, Windows
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2008-08-26 15:38:49
#1
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4308
Scanning creates an image of the document, think photgraph, and no actual text, just the picture of the text. To get the text out of the image, one needs to Optical Character Recognize, OCR, the image if the image quality is good enough for the program to identify the characters. Then the document will either be text or an image with hidden text.

George Kaiser

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2008-08-26 15:47:25
#2
David65
Registered: Aug 26 2008
Posts: 6
That's my problem, the scan is being added to word as a picture. There was a way which I can't remember in which it would recognize the text and the word document would be created. There would be some issues such as "cl" being text recognized as the letter "d". I just can't remember the steps.
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2008-08-27 04:46:37
#3
teledu
Registered: May 10 2007
Posts: 42
David; you really have all the info... the step is to 'Recognize Text Using OCR' (however the menu offers it in 7Std, if it is available in that version). Once OCR has been done you select text with the I-bar and copy out to Word.
Acrobat doesn't allow any real control over OCR and the results can be variable, so consider using proper OCR software like Abbyy Finereader or ReadIris for example.
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