Microsoft Word 2003 problem w scanned text

[Kathleane]

I'm using MS Word 2003 w Windows XP. I've scanned in some docs using the software that came with my PhotoSmart All-In-One HP machine. I scan it into WordPad and then copy and paste it into Word to avoid Word automatically placing every paragraph in a seperate text box.

The problem I'm having is that occasionally a paragraph will have this strange formatting where when I place my cursor at the beginning of the line whatever I type ends up at the end of the line. Sometimes I can delete the paragraph and retype it to solve this but even then that doesn't always work and when it does work it's a lot of extra work for something that should be a simply fix if I knew what to do to fix it.

The entire doc is usually not formatted this way, generally just a paragraph here and there.

Can anyone offer any suggestions for fixing this?

[Kathleane]

Here's a clue. When I tried running spell check on this strangely formatted text Word tells me it is Hebrew and can't run a spell check on Hebrew text.

[Kathleane]

I found this in Word help but there is no "section direction box" or any way in the Page Setup menu to choose the direction of the text.

Specify the direction of sections in right-to-left documents
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The feature or some of the options described in this Help topic are only available if support for right-to-left (right-to-left: Refers to keyboard settings, document views, user interface objects, and the direction in which text is displayed. Arabic and Hebrew are right-to-left languages.) languages is enabled through Microsoft Office Language Settings.

On the File menu, click Page Setup, and then click the Layout tab.
In the Section start box, select where you want the section (section: A portion of a document in which you set certain page formatting options. You create a new section when you want to change such properties as line numbering, number of columns, or headers and footers.) to begin.
In the Section direction box, click the appropriate direction (direction: Specifies the reading order, alignment, and/or visual appearance of right-to-left text and documents, regardless of the keyboard language. Direction also describes how the user interface, controls, and other screen objects are oriented.), Right-to-left or Left-to-right.

[rraehal]

I am not sure if your HP software will let you scan to notepad but you can try that

I always scan to a text program when I use OCR to prevent errors like you have right now. Text does not have a format so when pasted into word or opened directly from a saved text file, it will always pick up the default word settings / language.

My current HP software will not scan to notepad only Word. I save my word file a a text file and then resave it as a .DOC.

[Kathleane]

Thanks for the Notepad idea. That was my 1st choice but I couldn't do it directly into Notepad either only to WordPad or MSWord, although I suppose I could scan to WordPad, copy and paste into Notepad and then copy and paste into MSWord but it would be nice to find an easier way to accomplish scanning a doc in.

[Sterling_Aug]

Scanning documents usinf an OCR program is much better now than it was 10 years ago, but it is still far, FAR from perfect.

You may need to spend some money to buy a better quality program. Remember, you got that one for free, so you can't expect much.

[Kathleane]

Funny, I look at it that I spent $400 for a machine that I would expect would come with software that allows me to use it with as little trouble as possible (: but you are probably right in that the answer to my problem is that I should spend some money on another program. Any suggestions?

[Kathleane]

Can we get back to basics here? Does anyone know how I can remove the "Hebrew" formatting that the scanner assigns to my scanned text? Somehow Word is assigning a right-to-left formatting that is says is Hebrew to some of my scanned text and all I really want to do is find a way to remove that formatting or change it to left-to-right text.

[rraehal]

After you scan to word, hit file save as - change the type from RTF to Text and save the document. That would remove the Hebrew assigned format. Open the faile and save as a second time to turn the file back into a word document.

I would look at your OCR software to see if there is a language setting to change the default language to what you want. Maybe you need to change something in the office language bar / control panel.

[Kathleane]

Thank you. I like that fix. Less tedious than opening 3 different programs and copying and pasting between them. I've searched MS for how to remove the Hebrew language formatting and haven't found an answer. I checked the OCR software and the language is set to English.

[rraehal]

Click the tools menu, select language and then select Set Language. The word language options will open. Highlight the proper language and set it as default. You should see the Check with ABC next to the default language. Reset you default to something other than English and then back if English is already selected.

That sets the default language for your spell check, grammar, and thesaurus.

If that doesn't help go to the control panel and make sure that your regional and language settings are set to English. Play with the control panel to see all the options available.

[Kathleane]

Mathias,
Are you talking about MS Word when you say to go to Tools/Language/Set Language? There is no Language option under Tools. I also checked under Tools/Options and looked for a Language tab but didn't see one. Did I miss a step?

[rraehal]

I was talking about office. I have Office XP SP3. I click Tools, then language.

Check the picture. I am not sure if this is a standard option with word 2002 or if it is a custom install item. I have always had it available to me. I assumed it was standard.

[bruceb]

I have the same Office XP Pro 2002 .. that option is in mine as well
so it is standard part of Office .. There is also a check box at that
same place which can turn off the Spell Checking if you prefer.