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How do you enable OCR for Windows 10 OneNote

Anonymous
2020-07-16T13:54:14+00:00

I am a construction inspector and have used Onenote 2016 for compiling PDF plans. OCR is incredibly useful for finding information on those plans.

However I now only have access to the windows 10 version and I can't figure how to get OCR to work on new printouts/images I attach.

Can someone please tell me how to enable OCR so I can search for words within PDFs and/or images in the windows 10 version of Onenote?

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneNote | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2020-07-16T16:20:56+00:00

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your query in this community.

The OCR function in OneNote for Windows 10 is enabled by default, there is no changes you need to make.

I think you might have concern, because you can't find "Copy text from Picture" option from the picture/PDF printouts in OneNote for Windows 10. The reason for this is, different from OneNote 2016, the OCR function in OneNote for Windows 10 is hosted at the Microsoft's Sever.

After your notebook is syncing to the Cloud, the Microsoft Server will help recognize the text in the images, and only after that procedure is done, you will have the option "Copy text from Picture" on your desktop app. If you have inserted a lots of the images in the notebook, the server will need to take more times to finish the OCR procedure.

I do understand the inconvenience it has made and apologize for it. We understand the inconvenience caused by this.

The alternative method is to user OneNote 2016 as the OCR function is embed in the local components. But based on your description, seems you no longer have access to OneNote 2016, really sorry about that.

For the behavior that OCR in OneNote for Windows 10 doesn't work immediately, to address your concern about the situation, we’d suggest you go to OneNote for Windows UserVoice to provide your feedback. T Or you can also provide feedback to our related team by clicking on Settings > Feedback inside OneNote. This feedback will directly go to them so that our related team can hear your voice on this feature directly.

Your understanding is highly appreciated.

Regards,

Alex Chen

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-09-23T14:58:53+00:00

    Has this been sorted? It does not seem so. Could the moderator please post a correct answer to this query?? I have synched the notebook and still do not have the OCR. Should I do a specific dance, stand on my hand pray to some god of Microsoft's choosing and then check again if the OCR function has come to life? Mr Chen please answer the question. Doe the OCR work or not with Windows 10.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-10-26T08:53:31+00:00

    Bernd P.

    • THANK YOU SOOO MUCH! I downloaded from the link you suggested and have successfully been able to use OCR in my "outdated" OneNote app!

    To everyone else - the link Bernd P. provided is correct, even though it may appear to be the Windows 10 version, it's NOT. Once you get it installed you can clearly see it is Microsoft OneDrive Home and Student 2016 and best of all, OCR works beautifully!

    I seriously cannot believe Microsoft took away this amazing feature!

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T17:29:32+00:00

    Simply put:

    For working OCR you need OneNote 2016.

    It's free:

    https://www.onenote.com/download?omkt=en-US  

    Bernd

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-07-16T17:09:55+00:00

    Thank you so much for your response!

    This is very reasonable. However, it has been a week since I compiled the notebook with all of the PDF printouts and shared between multiple users and we don't see the "Copy text from picture" option.

    Could this be because it is through a business account?

    Or is there some option I need to select for this to occur?

    Separately, I would like to obtain Onenote 2016 for myself in order to have a native OCR.

    How can I go about purchasing 2016?

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