How to scan and save a document

Unless your scanner comes with software to create a Word document from the scan, you cannot do this directly.

See:

• https://www.gmayor.com/scan_into_word.htm
• https://gregmaxey.com/word_tip_pages/add_macro_to_qat.html

Most scanners will allow you to scan to pdf. That is a step.

PDF files can be edited in Word, sort of…

 You can use File > Open and open it from within Word. It may go through a conversion process. Once opened, you should save it as a Word file, not pdf, for editing. If you need it back in PDF format, you can later save as a pdf. To simply edit a pdf file as a pdf file, there are better programs available than Word.

How was the file created originally, and by which program? It could have been created from a scan or a picture taken by a phone camera. Those are pictures of words saved as pdfs. Just as you can have a picture of a car. You can see the car in the picture, but you can't change the timing of the engine in that picture. You can't change the order of text or otherwise edit it with a picture of text. Word can open such a file, but it can't edit it. You have a Word file that contains a picture of text rather than text.

In that case, you need to convert the picture to text. This is a process known as optical character recognition. This is built into Adobe Acrobat (but not the free Acrobat Reader) and is also in Office OneNote. Most scanner software comes with an OCR component as well. Word does not have OCR capability. OneNote does.

·       Copy text from pictures and file printouts using OCR in OneNote

·       How to OCR a PDF in OneNote

Once translated into text, it can be edited in Word but there will still be formatting anomalies.

If you simply want to write on the document (but not in it) you can add a Text Box floating on top of the document layer, whether or not it has been put through the OCR process.

Web pages or Word documents that have been saved as PDF will not need the OCR process, they retain their text, although not all their Word structure and formatting. Documents created as PDF from other programs will likely be even more problematic.

Finally, documents converted from pdf (or really any other format) to Word can be tough to edit because the conversion process never has a one-to-one matching of how formatting is done under the hood. This means that a converted document will seldom be formatted in Word in a way that uses Word features well for that formatting. An example is multiple section breaks to change margins, where in Word you would simply change the paragraph indent. Margins and Indents in Word. Another example is that Word formatting of text is best done using Styles and those will not be used. It will all be direct formatting. That can make a huge difference in how easy it is to edit. The Importance of Styles in Microsoft Word.

If possible, find the file from which the pdf was created and edit that file, using the program that created it. Then if you need it in Word format and it is not, convert it directly to Word. This will cut out one conversion process and make for fewer editing problems.

When I really need the document in Word format and intend to do much editing, I create a new Word file and paste the content into it as plain text. Then I format it to match the original using Styles for the formatting as much as possible. This takes time; for me, it is worth it and saves a lot of frustration.

To scan and save a document using your app, you can follow these steps:

1. Get an ImageScanner object: First, create an ImageScanner object by calling the ImageScanner.FromIdAsync method with the device ID of your scanner.

      ImageScanner myScanner = await ImageScanner.FromIdAsync(deviceId);
   

2. Scan with default settings: You can use the default scan settings to scan the document. This method relies on the Windows.Devices.Scanners namespace and selects the scanner source automatically. Here’s how you can do it:

      var result = await myScanner.ScanFilesToFolderAsync(ImageScannerScanSource.Default, folder).AsTask(cancellationToken.Token, progress);
   

   Make sure the document is placed correctly in the scanner (either in the feeder or on the flatbed).
3. Using Auto-Configured Scanning: If your scanner supports auto-configuration, you can scan using the most optimal settings. Check if the scanner supports this feature before using it:

      if (myScanner.IsScanSourceSupported(ImageScannerScanSource.AutoConfigured))
      {
          var result = await myScanner.ScanFilesToFolderAsync(ImageScannerScanSource.AutoConfigured, folder).AsTask(cancellationToken.Token, progress);
      }
   

4. Save the scanned document: The scanned files will be saved to the specified folder you provided in the ScanFilesToFolderAsync method.

By following these steps, you should be able to scan and save documents effectively using your application.