How to Turn a Scanned Document Into Microsoft Word Document

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July 2, 2020Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to convert a scanned document into an editable Word document on your computer. You can do this using Word's built-in settings if you scanned the document as a PDF, but you'll need to use a free converter if your document scanned as an image file. If you have a Microsoft account and a smartphone, you can also use the free Office Lens app to scan your document and save it as a Word file in your OneDrive cloud storage.

Method 1 of 3:
Converting a Scanned PDF

1
Make sure your scanned document saved as a PDF. Microsoft Word can recognize and convert scanned PDF files into Word documents without requiring any additional software.^{[1]XResearch source}
- If your document saved as an image (e.g., a JPG or PNG file), you can use New OCR to convert it instead.
2
Open the PDF in Word. This process will vary depending on your operating system:
- Windows — Right-click the PDF you want to convert, select Open with, and click Word in the resulting pop-out menu.
- Mac — Click the PDF you want to convert, click the File menu item, select Open With, and click Word in the pop-out menu.
3
Click OK when prompted. Word will begin converting the scanned PDF into a Word document.
- This process can take several minutes if your PDF has lots of text or images.
4
Enable editing for the file if needed. If you see a yellow bar with a warning at the top of the Word window, click Enable Editing in the yellow bar in order to unlock the file for editing.
- This usually only pertains to files you've downloaded (e.g., if you downloaded your scanned PDF from a cloud service).
5
Clean up your document. Converting scanned files into Word documents isn't an exact science; you may have to add missing words, remove excess spaces, and fix typos before your Word document is ready to go.
6
Save the document. Once you're ready to save the converted document as its own Word file, do the following:
- Windows — Press Ctrl+S, then enter a file name, select a save location, and click Save.
- Mac — Press ⌘ Command+S, then enter a file name, select a save location from the "Where" drop-down box, and click Save.
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Method 2 of 3:
Converting a Scanned Image

1
Open the New OCR site. Go to http://www.newocr.com/ in your computer's web browser.
2
Click Choose file. It's a grey button at the top of the page. Doing so prompts a File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) window to open.
3
Select the scanned file. In the file browser, navigate to the scanned image file of your document, then click the file.
4
Click Open. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so will prompt the file to upload to the website.
5
Click Upload + OCR. You'll find this button near the bottom of the visible page. New OCR will begin extracting the readable text from your scanned image.
6
Scroll down and click Download. This link is in the lower-left side of the page, just above the box containing the document's text. A drop-down menu will appear.
7
Click Microsoft Word (DOC). It's in the Download drop-down menu. This will prompt a Microsoft Word version of the scanned file to download onto your computer.
8
Open the document. Once the file is done downloading, you can double-click it to open it in Microsoft Word. Your scanned image is now a Microsoft Word document.
- You may have to click Enable Editing at the top of the page as the document might be locked by default.
9
Clean up your document. Converting scanned files into Word documents isn't an exact science; you may have to add missing words, remove excess spaces, and fix typos before your Word document is ready to go.
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Method 3 of 3:
Scanning a Document into a Word File

1
Open Office Lens. Tap the Office Lens app icon, which resembles a red and white app with a camera iris and the letter "L" in the center of the icon.
- If you don't have Office Lens installed, you can download it from the Google Play Store for Android or from the App Store on iPhone.
2
Allow Office Lens access to your phone. If this is your first time opening Office Lens, tap Allow or OK when prompted to allow Office Lens to access your phone's files.
3
Tap DOCUMENT. It's a tab at the bottom of the screen.
4
Point your phone's camera at a document. Position the document that you want to scan inside the camera's view.
- Make sure you document is well lit so the camera can pick up as much detail as possible.
5
Tap the "Capture" button. It's a red circle at the bottom of the screen. This will take a photo of the document's page.
6
Tap
. It's in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
- You can scan more pages by tapping the camera with the plus icon at the bottom of the screen.
7
Tap Word. You'll find this option in the "SAVE TO" section of the "Export To" page.
- On Android, tap the box next to Word and then tap SAVE at the bottom of the screen.
8
Sign into your Microsoft account. If you haven't already, enter your Microsoft account email address and password. Once signed in, your Word document will be uploaded to your OneDrive account.
- This must be the account that you use to log into Microsoft Word as well.
9
Open Word on your computer. It's the blue app with a white document and the letter "W" in the icon.
10
Click Open Other Documents. It's on the left side of the window below the "Recent" section.
- On Mac, simply click the folder icon that says Open on the left-hand side of the window.
11
Click OneDrive - Personal. It's at the top of the window. This will open your OneDrive folder.
- If you don't see the OneDrive option, click + Add a Place, then click OneDrive and sign in with your Microsoft account.
12
Go to the Office Lens folder. Click on the "Documents" folder, then click the "Office Lens" folder. This is on the right pane of the window.
13
Double-click your Word document. This opens the Word document you scanned using Office Lens in Microsoft Word.
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Community Q&A

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Question
Does anything here cost money? Is there any chance of getting a virus on my computer while downloading these things?
Community Answer
Some cost money, some don't. The free ones run a risk of infection, but you should have an anti-virus program installed anyway.
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Question
I followed the instructions for enabling document imaging in Word 2007, but did not find the imaging program listed under Microsoft Office Tools, then what went wrong, and how can I do it correctly?
Community Answer
Microsoft (for some reason) didn't enable document imaging in Word 2007 for 64-bit computers.
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Question
Will everything I scan become editable?
Community Answer
Indeed, it will. Just follow these simple steps: Go to onlineocr.net or if your file is more than 5mb, use you can use pdf2doc.com. Upload your file to these websites. When the file get uploaded, select doc or docx format and click 'Convert'. It is a time-consuming process, especially if your file size is big. The moment it completes the conversion, click download the file. After downloading the file, go to your downloads and open the file which will automatically in MS Word. Now here you can edit your file and use it your way.
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Question
How can I get a scanned document into Word 2013 from my printer?
Community Answer
Following the guidelines in the article should work. If you don't know how to scan a document, see How to Scan Documents. Note that you can't scan documents with a plain printer. It needs to have a built-in scanner. Otherwise, you have to either buy a scanner or go to the library or somewhere else where you can use a scanner.
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Office Lens will handle physical files (e.g., paper documents) better than on-screen text.
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Warnings

Using New OCR to recognize text in a scanned image can be hit-or-miss depending on the angle, color, and texture of the scan. For optimal results, scan your document into a PDF format, then use the Microsoft Word method to convert your scan.
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