Edit scanned documents - how it works

If you want to edit scanned documents, you need an appropriate program. We show you how to do it.

Edit documents with "ABBYY"

"ABBYY FineReader" is a special program for text recognition. The full version costs around 130 euros. You will receive a trial version for 30 days free of charge.

1. Open the "ABBYY FineReader".
2. Click the "Open" button and select your scanned document.
3. The document is automatically read in and "translated" in the right window.
4. After the procedure, you can still correct any errors manually.
5. Finally, click the "Save" button. By default, the document is saved as a DOCX file. You can change the format by clicking on the small arrow on the save button.
6. Now open the saved document with Word, for example, and edit it as required.
7. It is worth buying the full version if you have to run such applications regularly. For one-time applications, you can choose the trial version. This is valid for 30 days and you can process a maximum of 100 documents.

Edit scanned documents for free: "Free OCR to Word"

"Free OCR to Word" is a free program. However, during installation, make sure that you do not consent to installing other programs.

1. Open "Free OCR to Word".
2. Click the "Open" button.
3. Select the scanned document you want to convert.
4. Then click on the magic wand icon.
5. Your text is now displayed in the right window. You can make the last changes there.
6. Finally click on "Save Text" and select the storage location.
7. The file is saved as a TXT file. Open this with the editor.
8. Now you can select the text and paste it into a Word document.

The best text recognition programs for your Mac can be found in the next practical tip.