OmniDocWhat should you check before converting scanned documents to Word to avoid rework?
Before converting the scanned document to Word, first check the clarity, slant, language and page order, and then perform OCR recognition and export. Explain how to confirm and handle each item to help you reduce rework.
Key points of this article
- Errors in converting scanned documents to Word are mostly caused by picture problems before conversion. If you go through the four items of clarity, slant, page order and language first, there will be much less rework.
- To determine whether it is a scanned document, you can try to select a section of text in the PDF. If it cannot be selected or the entire page is selected, you need to do OCR first.
- Blurred words in the picture are difficult to correct by hand after recognition. It is better to rescan or retake the image than to recognize it by force.
- After exporting to Word, you must proofread numbers, names, dates, and tables against the originals. This step should not be skipped especially for important documents.
Many people submit their scans to conversion tools, only to find out when the results come out that there are missing words, misplaced paragraphs, and messy tables, and they have to start all over again. Most of this type of rework is not a problem with the tools, but rather a hidden danger in the scans before conversion. This article is written for readers who need to convert contracts, papers, old materials or paper forms into editable Word documents.
After reading, you will get a pre-conversion checklist, including four items: clarity, slant, page order, and language, as well as how to confirm and deal with each item. Going through this sequence before doing OCR recognition and export can usually save a lot of detours.
Before converting scanned documents to Word, what should be checked first? One sentence conclusion
First check the four items of clarity, slant, page order and language. After confirming that there are no obvious problems, do text recognition (OCR) and export Word. The earlier the problems are discovered, the less rework will be done.
| your situation | Recommended practices | reason |
|---|---|---|
| If you take photos or copies with your mobile phone, the writing will be gray and the edges will be blurry. | Rescan or retake first, then identify | The recognition effect is limited by the clarity of the picture, and it is difficult to correct the blurred words later by hand. |
| The page is skewed and has shadows or black borders around it | First rotate, crop, and remove shadows, and then hand it over to recognition | Skewing can cause lines to be cut off and paragraph and table structures to be misaligned. |
| Mixed Chinese and English, including formulas or special symbols | Read the full text before identification, write down these page numbers, and check them after identification. | Foreign names, symbols and formulas are easily recognized as similar words |
| Multiple scans are merged, or page numbers jump. | First, name them uniformly according to the page order, check the page numbers, and then merge and identify them. | If the page order is wrong, the exported Word paragraph order will also be wrong. Manual adjustment is very time-consuming. |
| Contracts, papers, etc. need to be formally submitted | After exporting, proofread it paragraph by paragraph against the original, and check the numbers and dates separately. | The identification results may be wrong, and the key content must be based on the original. |
First determine what kind of problem it is
If something goes wrong, look at the symptoms first and then look for the cause to avoid blind redoing. The table below can help you get started.
| symptoms | Common causes | How to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| A large number of recognized words were mistaken for similar words | The picture is blurry, the font size is too small, and the resolution is low | Enlarge the original to see if the strokes are stuck together, and select a small section for comparison. |
| A line of text is split in half and the paragraphs are messed up. | The page is skewed and crooked when scanning | Check whether the edge of the page is at an angle with the horizontal line |
| The entire page of text is missing, or only part of it is recognized | The page has shadows, dark background, or the image on a certain page is too dark | Look through the pages one by one and write down the page numbers with missing words. |
| The exported Word paragraphs are in the wrong order | The page order is out of order, or the splicing order of multiple files is wrong. | Check the file name serial number against the page number, header and footer |
| The table becomes a string of text | The original table lines are very light or have no frame lines. | Check whether the original document has clear vertical and horizontal lines |
| Chinese is normal, English or formulas are garbled | Mixed languages and inaccurate recognition of special symbols | Select a piece of English or a formula and compare it word-for-word with the original |
Check and repair item by item
Follow the order below. If the previous problems are not solved, the subsequent steps will often be in vain.
- Confirm whether it is a scanned copy. Try selecting a text in the PDF. If it cannot be selected, or only a whole page of images is selected, it means that it is a scan and needs to be OCRed first. PDFs that can select text normally do not need to be recognized and can be exported directly.
- Check the clarity. Zoom in to the point where you can clearly see each stroke to see if the strokes in the text are clear. It is recommended to rescan pictures with small font size, gray background, and backlighting. If you can use a scanner, use it as much as possible. When shooting with your mobile phone, keep the lens parallel to the paper and keep the light even.
- Correct tilt and edges. For pages that are already skewed, first rotate, crop, and remove black edges and shadows in the image tool before entering the recognition process. This step is done before recognition, which is more troublesome than manual adjustment after recognition.
- Check page order and completeness. Arrange all pages according to page numbers, and check whether there are missing pages, duplicate pages, or skipped pages. Multiple files should be named uniformly first, such as serial numbers such as 01 and 02, and then merged.
- Mark special content. Read the full text and write down the page numbers that contain names, formulas, chemical formulas or special symbols in English or foreign languages. After the identification is completed, these places are the key checking objects.
- Do OCR in OmniDoc. Open the desktop client (download.omnidoc.top) and use the PDF editor to perform OCR on the scanned PDF. After recognition, the text can be selected and edited. OCR results may contain errors and require manual review.
- Export to Word and compare and proofread. Use the export function of the PDF editor to convert it to Word. After opening it, check the numbers, names, dates, tables and paragraph order against the original paragraph by paragraph. When you find a problem, go back to the corresponding page to correct it, and then export it again. Don't just change one thing in Word.
How to avoid it happening again next time
Making checking a habit takes less effort than fixing it every time something goes wrong. The following items can be followed directly:
- Align before scanning. Try to lay text documents as flat as possible and close to the scanning surface. When taking pictures with your mobile phone, avoid reflections and shadows and let the paper fill the screen.
- Unified file naming. Number pages or files with serial numbers like 01 and 02, and check them before merging to avoid confusion in the order.
- Originals and results are kept together. The exported Word document and the scanned original document are stored in the same folder and can be compared at any time during proofreading.
- Fixed walking through the list. Go through the four items of clarity, tilt, page order, and language every time, which is more stable than judging by feeling.
- Allow time for proofreading of important documents. Numbers, names, and dates in contracts and papers must be checked one by one with the originals. Do not skip them because you are in a hurry.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Do scanned documents have to be OCRed before they can be converted to Word?
If the PDF is a scanned image, the directly exported Word will only contain pictures and text cannot be edited, so OCR needs to be done first. PDFs that can select text usually already have text layers, so you can skip this step.
2. Can files taken with a mobile phone be transferred directly?
You can try, but the shooting quality directly affects the results. It is recommended to check the clarity and tilt according to the list first. If the handwriting is blurred or the angle is skewed, reshooting is more trouble-free than hard recognition.
3. If I only want translation or bilingual comparison, do I need to do OCR first?
No need to do OCR separately. Upload the scanned PDF to omnidoc.top, choose bilingual comparison or translation only, and download the result. Translation results also need to be checked, especially proper nouns and numbers.
4. Are free online conversion tools enough?
When selecting, you can focus on a few things: file size limits, whether there is a watermark after conversion, how the file is processed after uploading, and whether the formatting and tables are retained. When it comes to sensitive documents such as contracts and papers, you should first read the privacy clause clearly.
📝 Summary
In the final analysis, there are three things to note when converting scanned documents to Word: straighten out the clarity, slant, page order and language before conversion, pay attention to special content when identifying, and proofread it against the original after exporting. A few minutes spent checking up front can often save the time of redoing the entire document.
