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[Bigron]

I've tried several, but none seems to be able to handle forms that have areas to fill in and/or edit. My son has a claim form to complete and wants to make it look neat rather than just write in the boxes. Is there a programme, preferably free (think of my pension!) which will do the job effectively?

Ron.

[Andy H]

Are you sure that you need OCR? That would be appropriate for taking text and numbers and feeding them into another package.

I would be looking to use an "annotation and markup" package or a "pdf editor". I use bluebeam revu and pdf-xchange at work. Pdf-xchange does offer a free version but I don't think the free version works as an editor.

On Linux I would use Xournal ;-)

[aaronjb]

Is the form paper or PDF? We are assuming PDF.. if so, on a Mac I'd just use the built in Preview software, which supports adding text to PDFs. Adobe Acrobat Reader probably does the same on the PC..

[Bigron]

I'm not sure that I need an OCR, but I do need something that preserves the formatting - the boxes for my text - and enables me to input my answers.
My best effort so far has been to scan the form (not PDF, just text in a table) into Photoshop, but entering text in the boxes is awkward and tedious; positioning is imprecise.
The OCR packages I've used ignore the table lines and just give me a solid block of text without punctuation.
I'm tearing out what little hair I have left!

Ron.

[Jimbob]

Ill ask the obvious question...you have checked theres not an electronic version you can fill in?, or editable one you can download?

Something like this is never easy, scan as picture, then use publisher or similar to draw text boxes as required would probably be quicker and easier then trying to automate the process for a one off.

OCR will destroy formatting, and Im guessing the form owner will be expecting something resembling the original back, with all boxes exactly where they should be etc.

For the record, best OCR Ive used is Omnipage, but nothings perfect.

[aaronjb]

Hm .. my ScanSnap scanner would do this for me.. it scans as PDF, the software that comes with it then OCRs the text making it editable/searchable, but maintains the formatting and imagery of the original page, and then you can just edit/add text in Preview/Acrobat.

That doesn't help you any, and the scanner is >£400 so.. yeah.

Tell him to rite nice like skuul and be done with it - heck, I have that kit and that's still what I do with paper forms; the ball-ache of scanning it in, editing it and re-printing it isn't worth the hassle if you can write half legibly in block capitals, even for me with handwriting that a doctor would be proud of!

[Doctor Gollum]

Print off a few copies, practice a couple of times, and fill in the final copy once you're happy, then scan it as a pdf to a folder. Check it's the right way up, (if not, rotate it on the scanner and try again), attach it to an email and ping it off

[Bigron]

i got my son to do the tedious bit of inserting and aligning the text in the Photoshop boxes - and it worked! They don't provide an email address/option, DG, so it had to be this way.

Ron.