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Posted to users@openoffice.apache.org by Robert Carney <rl...@gmail.com> on 2016/02/24 00:19:31 UTC
how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to scan the
form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks. What do I need to
do? Any help appreciated.
--
Robert L. Carney
rlcarney5195@gmail.com
Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by Brian Barker <b....@btinternet.com>.
At 15:19 23/02/2016 -0800, Robert Carney wrote:
>I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to
>scan the form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks.
If you scan a hard copy, you have a picture of the document and not
anything which can be edited as text. You have a picture of the text
rather than the text itself. You could use optical character
recognition on the image to extract the text, which would then need
careful correction. But you would then anyway have just the text and
would have to reformat everything, perhaps adding boxes, colours,
shading, or whatever. So a bit of a non-starter.
>What do I need to do?
What you can do is create a new drawing (Draw) document in
OpenOffice, insert your scanned image as a "picture", and then
overlay text boxes in appropriate places into which to enter your
text. It's fiddly, but it works.
I trust this helps.
Brian Barker
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Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it
Posted by Brian Barker <b....@btinternet.com>.
At 09:18 25/02/2016 +0100, M Henri Day wrote:
>2016-02-25 1:21 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney:
>>I tried Henri's suggestion to scan the form to a PDF and edit that
>>in Open Office. Maybe I don't know how to open a PDF file in Open
>>Office because every time I try to open the file, Open Office 4.1.2
>>crashes. I tried clicking on "open" and selecting the proper file
>>and I tried clicking on text document and, either way, Open Office
>>crashes as soon as I select the PDF file. Otherwise, it works just
>>fine on other files, etc.
>
>Robert, I get the impression - which may be erroneous - that you
>tried to open the pdf file in OpenOffice Writer. What happens if you
>try to open it in OpenOffice Draw ?...
Surely it is a fallacy to suppose that you can open files "in Writer"
or "in Draw"? These names for components merely describe the type of
document that is being handled. And if you *open* a file in
OpenOffice (which is all you can do - not in a specific component),
you generally don't get a choice of how it is interpreted: text files
are interpreted as text, spreadsheet files as spreadsheets, and so
on. And PDFs are not interpreted at all - except perhaps
misinterpreted as the text files that they indeed are.
Some users think that if they have a text file open they are somehow
"in Writer" and that this will influence how further documents are
opened. They are suffering from Microsoftitis: Word, Excel, and so on
are indeed separate programs. But OpenOffice is an integrated application.
You can, of course *insert* various items - including a graphic of a
PDF document - into different types of OpenOffice documents. And
inserting an image of a PDF form into a drawing (Draw) document as a
picture is (as I mentioned earlier) one way to deal with the enquirer's need.
Brian Barker
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Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it
Posted by M Henri Day <mh...@gmail.com>.
2016-02-25 9:51 GMT+01:00 Brian Barker <b....@btinternet.com>:
> At 09:18 25/02/2016 +0100, M Henri Day wrote:
>
>> 2016-02-25 1:21 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney:
>>
>>> I tried Henri's suggestion to scan the form to a PDF and edit that in
>>> Open Office. Maybe I don't know how to open a PDF file in Open Office
>>> because every time I try to open the file, Open Office 4.1.2 crashes. I
>>> tried clicking on "open" and selecting the proper file and I tried clicking
>>> on text document and, either way, Open Office crashes as soon as I select
>>> the PDF file. Otherwise, it works just fine on other files, etc.
>>>
>>
>> Robert, I get the impression - which may be erroneous - that you tried to
>> open the pdf file in OpenOffice Writer. What happens if you try to open it
>> in OpenOffice Draw ?...
>>
>
> Surely it is a fallacy to suppose that you can open files "in Writer" or
> "in Draw"? These names for components merely describe the type of document
> that is being handled. And if you *open* a file in OpenOffice (which is all
> you can do - not in a specific component), you generally don't get a choice
> of how it is interpreted: text files are interpreted as text, spreadsheet
> files as spreadsheets, and so on. And PDFs are not interpreted at all -
> except perhaps misinterpreted as the text files that they indeed are.
>
> Some users think that if they have a text file open they are somehow "in
> Writer" and that this will influence how further documents are opened. They
> are suffering from Microsoftitis: Word, Excel, and so on are indeed
> separate programs. But OpenOffice is an integrated application.
>
> You can, of course *insert* various items - including a graphic of a PDF
> document - into different types of OpenOffice documents. And inserting an
> image of a PDF form into a drawing (Draw) document as a picture is (as I
> mentioned earlier) one way to deal with the enquirer's need.
>
> Brian Barker
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@openoffice.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@openoffice.apache.org
I stand corrected, Brian, thank you ! Despite being a long-time Linux
user, I seem to be suffering from Microsoftitis. My apologies to Robert for
a meaningless suggestion !...
Henri
Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it
Posted by Rory O'Farrell <of...@iol.ie>.
On Thu, 25 Feb 2016 08:51:02 +0000
Brian Barker <b....@btinternet.com> wrote:
> At 09:18 25/02/2016 +0100, M Henri Day wrote:
> >2016-02-25 1:21 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney:
> >>I tried Henri's suggestion to scan the form to a PDF and edit that
> >>in Open Office. Maybe I don't know how to open a PDF file in Open
> >>Office because every time I try to open the file, Open Office 4.1.2
> >>crashes. I tried clicking on "open" and selecting the proper file
> >>and I tried clicking on text document and, either way, Open Office
> >>crashes as soon as I select the PDF file. Otherwise, it works just
> >>fine on other files, etc.
> >
> >Robert, I get the impression - which may be erroneous - that you
> >tried to open the pdf file in OpenOffice Writer. What happens if you
> >try to open it in OpenOffice Draw ?...
>
> Surely it is a fallacy to suppose that you can open files "in Writer"
> or "in Draw"? These names for components merely describe the type of
> document that is being handled. And if you *open* a file in
> OpenOffice (which is all you can do - not in a specific component),
> you generally don't get a choice of how it is interpreted: text files
> are interpreted as text, spreadsheet files as spreadsheets, and so
> on. And PDFs are not interpreted at all - except perhaps
> misinterpreted as the text files that they indeed are.
>
> Some users think that if they have a text file open they are somehow
> "in Writer" and that this will influence how further documents are
> opened. They are suffering from Microsoftitis: Word, Excel, and so on
> are indeed separate programs. But OpenOffice is an integrated application.
>
> You can, of course *insert* various items - including a graphic of a
> PDF document - into different types of OpenOffice documents. And
> inserting an image of a PDF form into a drawing (Draw) document as a
> picture is (as I mentioned earlier) one way to deal with the enquirer's need.
>
> Brian Barker
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@openoffice.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@openoffice.apache.org
>
>
Also, one might need to install the OpenOffice PDF extension, which permits limited editing of a pdf file; note that the exact version of the PDF extension to install is dependent on the version of OpenOffice in us; details of this are on the PDF extension page in the extensions repository.
--
Rory O'Farrell <of...@iol.ie>
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Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by M Henri Day <mh...@gmail.com>.
2016-02-25 1:21 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney <rl...@gmail.com>:
> I tried Henri's suggestion to scan the form to a PDF and edit that in Open
> Office. Maybe I don't know how to open a PDF file in Open Office because
> every time I try to open the file, Open Office 4.1.2 crashes. I tried
> clicking on "open" and selecting the proper file and I tried clicking on
> text document and, either way, Open Office crashes as soon as I select the
> PDF file. Otherwise, it works just fine on other files, etc.
>
> I am using Windows 10, Open Office 4.1.2, an Epson 600 scanner with the
> Epson software that came with the scanner. I can read the PDF file with
> the Adobe reader, so it is not corrupted. Any help appreciated.
>
> Robert
> rlcarney5195@gmail.com
>
Robert, I get the impression - which may be erroneous - that you tried to
open the pdf file in OpenOffice Writer. What happens if you try to open it
in OpenOffice Draw ?...
Henri
Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by Robert Carney <rl...@gmail.com>.
Thanks Henri
I will try that.
On Wednesday, February 24, 2016, M Henri Day <mh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2016-02-24 0:19 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney <rlcarney5195@gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rlcarney5195@gmail.com');>>:
>
>> I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to scan the
>> form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks. What do I need
>> to
>> do? Any help appreciated.
>>
>> --
>> Robert L. Carney
>> rlcarney5195@gmail.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rlcarney5195@gmail.com');>
>
>
> Robert, doesn't your scanner/all-in-one-machine
>
> offer the option to scan the form to a .pdf file ? In that case, you
> should be able to edit it in Draw....
>
> Henri
>
--
Robert L. Carney
rlcarney5195@gmail.com
Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by Dave Barton <db...@tasit.net>.
-------- Original Message --------
From: M Henri Day
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 17:09:00 +0100
> 2016-02-24 0:19 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney <rl...@gmail.com>:
>
>> I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to scan the
>> form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks. What do I need to
>> do? Any help appreciated.
>>
>> --
>> Robert L. Carney
>> rlcarney5195@gmail.com
>
>
> Robert, doesn't your scanner/all-in-one-machine
>
> offer the option to scan the form to a .pdf file ? In that case, you
> should be able to edit it in Draw....
>
> Henri
I doubt that this will work, because scanners can only create a bitmap
image and a scanner's software "Scan to PDF" option will normally create
a PDF file with bitmaps (pictures) of the scanned pages, which will not
be editable in Draw with the PDF extension or any other PDF editor.
Annoyingly, I routinely get this type of PDF file from clients and have
to expend valuable time converting them back into an editable format.
There needs to be a stage between the scanned image and the PDF file
creation, such as OCR conversion. Some scanners are supplied with basic,
but reasonably usable, OCR software. More sophisticated commercial
software (eg. ABBYY FineReader, Nitro Pro, Acrobat Pro) do have the
ability to scan and convert into an editable, but not 100% perfect, PDF
or MS Word document.
A couple suggestions for Robert:
1. Scan the form to a a jpeg or png file and run that file through one
of the free OCR programs, previously recommended in this thread, take
the resulting text and import or copy/paste it into Writer. Then
reconstruct the form in Writer and export it to PDF, create a printed
document, or whatever is most appropriate.
2. Take the scanned image and set it as the page background in a Writer
document, use suitably positioned, transparent, borderless text frames
or boxes to enter the required information over the top of the page
background. Then export it to PDF, create a printed document, or
whatever is most appropriate.
Both options are very "fiddly", but they do avoid the need to purchase
expensive commercial software that might be of little further use.
Dave
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Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by M Henri Day <mh...@gmail.com>.
2016-02-24 0:19 GMT+01:00 Robert Carney <rl...@gmail.com>:
> I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to scan the
> form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks. What do I need to
> do? Any help appreciated.
>
> --
> Robert L. Carney
> rlcarney5195@gmail.com
Robert, doesn't your scanner/all-in-one-machine
offer the option to scan the form to a .pdf file ? In that case, you
should be able to edit it in Draw....
Henri
Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by Allen Schaaf <ne...@sound-by-design.com>.
Hi Robert,
Take a look at FreeOCR. It will convert it to text but I do not
recommend this. The way I do it is use FreeOCR to make a PDF and
then I use my old version (6.0) Adobe Acrobat to fill out the
form. There are other PDF programs that will do this as well,
just use Startpage.com (a privacy protecting search engine that
is a front end for Google. Startpage is the only search engine
with an European Privacy Seal) and you'll find a bunch.
Allen
This e-mail may, and probably does, contain factual errors as
well as errors of logic, organization, grammar, and spelling.
They are included at no charge. However, you're invited to make a
donation.
On 2/23/2016 3:19 PM, Robert Carney wrote:
> I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to scan the
> form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks. What do I need to
> do? Any help appreciated.
>
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Re: how to import scanned page into Open Office and edit it.
Posted by Robert Carney <rl...@gmail.com>.
Thanks, Brian.
I did some research via Google search. Apparently there exist several
software items that claim to be able to do this. I have not tried any of
them. I was even told that OneNote that comes with Microsoft Office would
do it. Don't have office. The version of OneNote that comes with Windows 10
will not.
Robert
On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, Brian Barker <b....@btinternet.com>
wrote:
> At 15:19 23/02/2016 -0800, Robert Carney wrote:
>
>> I have a form that has blanks for me to fill in. I would like to scan the
>> form, import it into Open Office and fill in the blanks.
>>
>
> If you scan a hard copy, you have a picture of the document and not
> anything which can be edited as text. You have a picture of the text rather
> than the text itself. You could use optical character recognition on the
> image to extract the text, which would then need careful correction. But
> you would then anyway have just the text and would have to reformat
> everything, perhaps adding boxes, colours, shading, or whatever. So a bit
> of a non-starter.
>
> What do I need to do?
>>
>
> What you can do is create a new drawing (Draw) document in OpenOffice,
> insert your scanned image as a "picture", and then overlay text boxes in
> appropriate places into which to enter your text. It's fiddly, but it works.
>
> I trust this helps.
>
> Brian Barker
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@openoffice.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: users-help@openoffice.apache.org
>
>
--
Robert L. Carney
rlcarney5195@gmail.com