Re: Can Office use OCR to read in handwritten documents ?

No, I can't think of a way to make the tool remain selected. All in all,
it's very awkward, and I wouldn't want to have to work like that for more
than a very short period--hence the phrase "very crude workaround, at best"
:-). Most annoying, for me anyway, is that if I were annotating something,
my pen would be down on the Wacom tablet, and the "something" would be on
the screen. I understand that there are people who have suffienct eye-hand
coordination to work that way, but I'm not one of them. If you have just a
little to do, it works. But, ergonomic, convenient or natural... it's not.

Here's a workaround... buy a tablet PC! ;-)

My handwriting is so bad that even the best tablet PCs have trouble
deciphering what I scrawl. The only way I'll ever have a tablet PC is if
it's the only computer available... and even then, I'd quickly find a way to
connect a keyboard to it.

Good luck!

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
http://www.herbtyson.com
"ATD mapman" <ATDmapman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8EDDDD96-5E0F-469B-9BC9-4A3608DF4FDC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Dear Herb,
>
> I've been thinking about this part of your response:
>
>> In my case, I can accomplish what you're talking about, however, by using
>> my
>> Wacom pen to control Word's scribble tool (on the drawing toolbar, choose
>> Autoshape - Lines - Scribble). But, it's a very crude workaround, at
>> best.
>
> This would be an even better idea if the scribble tool would stay
> selected.
> Then you could just keep writing (annotating) without having to select the
> tool again. Do you know of a way to keep the tool selected?
>
> Again, thanks for your help. My hope is they will implement ink in the
> regular version of office. I read someplace else that ink objects are
> different than draw objects so it certainly seems it could be done.
>
> Andy
>
> "Herb Tyson [MVP]" wrote:
>
>> Mine actually appears to have an ink capability--you can insert
>> handwritten
>> notes, and they aren't converted into text. When I choose Handwriting -
>> Write Anywhere. But, they seem to want to take the place of text, rather
>> than sitting in the drawing layer. There doesn't seem to be an option to
>> insert them in front of text, rather than in line with text. And, setting
>> Word to default (Tools - Options - Edit) to inserting grapics in front of
>> text doesn't affect the ink objects.
>>
>> In my case, I can accomplish what you're talking about, however, by using
>> my
>> Wacom pen to control Word's scribble tool (on the drawing toolbar, choose
>> Autoshape - Lines - Scribble). But, it's a very crude workaround, at
>> best.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Herb Tyson MS MVP
>> Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
>> http://www.herbtyson.com
>> "ATD mapman" <ATDmapman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:8BE9EA94-A1B6-4B1E-84C1-64D544C9B4DA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > Thanks Herb,
>> >
>> > You are correct about language recognition. The problem is this is
>> > really
>> > only designed for handwriting recognition. It does not allow
>> > annotations
>> > that
>> > sit directly on top of a document (like a professor does when reviewing
>> > a
>> > paper). Ink, like works for tablet PCs (and incidentally does work for
>> > PowerPoint during a presentation only) allows annotations directly onto
>> > the
>> > document.
>> >
>> > They should have allowed the "ink" capability for people with Wacoms.
>> >
>> > Any other ideas?
>> >
>> > Andy
>> >
>> > "Herb Tyson [MVP]" wrote:
>> >
>> >> I don't know about the Intuos, but the ink feature works with my Wacom
>> >> Graphire pad, which is attached to a normal desktop PC. If you
>> >> right-click
>> >> the language bar and choose Settings... in the Settings tab, there
>> >> should
>> >> be
>> >> a Handwriting Recognition section. If not, click Add and see if you
>> >> can
>> >> enable/add it.
>> >>
>> >> If you don't see the language bar, right-click Windows' taskbar and
>> >> choose
>> >> Toolbars - Language bar (unless it's already checked).
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Herb Tyson MS MVP
>> >> Please respond in the newsgroups so everyone can follow along.
>> >> http://www.herbtyson.com
>> >> "ATD mapman" <ATD mapman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> >> news:3BC2E10F-384B-4D07-905D-B04D61D6EB8D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >> > Hello,
>> >> >
>> >> > I just read the below
>> >> >
>> >> >> The ability to process 'ink' (handwritten notes) into
>> >> >> documents while it ships with Office comes from the capabilities
>> >> >> in Windows XP for Word 2003.
>> >> >
>> >> > My testing of office 2003 seems to say that the ability to process
>> >> > "ink"
>> >> > is
>> >> > only available if you are using a tablet PC. I have a wacom intuos
>> >> > tablet
>> >> > with a desktop PC and would love to use the "ink" feature. Is there
>> >> > any
>> >> > way?
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks, Andy
>> >> >
>> >> > "Bob Buckland ?:-)" wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> Hi Miksoft,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> MS Office apps can generally accept OCR results from
>> >> >> a variety of brands of Optical Character Recognition,
>> >> >> (i.e. Word, Excel do not in themselves possess an ability
>> >> >> to do the recognition). The MS Office Document Imaging app
>> >> >> will attempt to 'read' and turn things into text but some
>> >> >> of the 3rd party OCR apps are stronger in their abilities.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> The ability to process 'ink' (handwritten notes) into
>> >> >> documents while it ships with Office comes from the capabilities
>> >> >> in Windows XP for Word 2003.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> ============
>> >> >> <<"miksoft" <miksoft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> >> >> news:ACFB7DAB-E937-46FF-9788-43198BD234D9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >> >> Want to convert many handwritten pages into text in MS Word.>>
>> >> >> --
>> >> >> Let us know if this helped you,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Bob Buckland ?:-)
>> >> >> MS Office System Products MVP
>> >> >>
>> >> >> *Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
>> >> >>
>> >> >> For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
>> >> >>
>> >> >> http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>>
>>
>>


.

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