[Zell]

I work for a company that has a hardcopy directory of people's names, addresses, phone #s, and email addresses. This directory is in print/paper form, but not available in softcopy/digital form.

Somehow, I need to get all of this contact information, or at least the names and addresses, from the hardcopy directory into an Excel spreadsheet where this information can then be edited and sortable.

I tried digitally "scanning" the text information from the hardcopy directory but that only scans the "image" of the text and does not convert the scanned text into editable/sortable information after it is pasted onto a spreadsheet. Obviously, other than hand-typing all of this information into Excel, I need to scan the data and somehow get it into Excel to be edited. But how do I do that?

Any suggestions on how to do this? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

[IndyGunFreak]

Originally Posted by Zell

I work for a company that has a hardcopy directory of people's names, addresses, phone #s, and email addresses. This directory is in print/paper form, but not available in softcopy/digital form.

Somehow, I need to get all of this contact information, or at least the names and addresses, from the hardcopy directory into an Excel spreadsheet where this information can then be edited and sortable.

I tried digitally "scanning" the text information from the hardcopy directory but that only scans the "image" of the text and does not convert the scanned text into editable/sortable information after it is pasted onto a spreadsheet. Obviously, other than hand-typing all of this information into Excel, I need to scan the data and somehow get it into Excel to be edited. But how do I do that?

Any suggestions on how to do this? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Hire some data entry temps..

IGF

[grokdesigns]

You need OCR software to turn the scanned images into editable text. ABBYY FineReader is one that works well from what I've seen.

[Linux3]

It's been my experience that most scanners come with OCR, Optical Character Recognition software.
Seldom perfect but you would just have to clean up mistakes rather than typing the whole thing.

Check your scanner manufacturer's website.

[Blitzer]

Originally Posted by Zell

I work for a company that has a hardcopy directory of people's names, addresses, phone #s, and email addresses. This directory is in print/paper form, but not available in softcopy/digital form.

Somehow, I need to get all of this contact information, or at least the names and addresses, from the hardcopy directory into an Excel spreadsheet where this information can then be edited and sortable.

I tried digitally "scanning" the text information from the hardcopy directory but that only scans the "image" of the text and does not convert the scanned text into editable/sortable information after it is pasted onto a spreadsheet. Obviously, other than hand-typing all of this information into Excel, I need to scan the data and somehow get it into Excel to be edited. But how do I do that?

Any suggestions on how to do this? Your help would be greatly appreciated.

A search for OCR software that is targeted for comma delimited text output. (see this link for Optical Character Recognition)

[MavsX]

yeah i was going to post OCR as well. we use omnipoint version like 16 or something. Well, i don't use it. But the girls here use it. It's pretty cool. They scan documents in our copier as pdfs. Then open the pdfs up in omni page. Then that can convert it to a .doc and there you go.

good luck man

[solomansousana]

Originally Posted by grokdesigns

You need OCR software to turn the scanned images into editable text. ABBYY FineReader is one that works well from what I've seen.

+1. I use this to scan patient medical records into digital patient records because sometimes, as an RN, I'm required by hospital to make home visits and use old charting methods.

[Green_Manelishi]

Assuming your company does not pay some poor soul to verify the results of the scan, make certain to keep the hardcopy around somewhere so it can be referenced. The scanners are good but not perfect.