Canon Photocopiers: “Scan directly to Microsoft Word” function

Everyone knows how to scan documents with a multifunction printer. While the operation is easy, there is one small problem with common scanning procedures. You can save the file as a PDF or image file, but importing it into Word so that it can be edited is a whole different story. Canon copiers and printers have had the ability to scan OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, files for a few years. These are files that are scanned from paper documents that can be edited on your computer. Imagine the benefits of finally being able to fix mistakes, add to the document or make some last minute changes to ensure the document is perfect.

Scanning the Document

Creating an OCR file is nearly as easy as a normal scan. The first thing you have to do is enter the Canon Utilities folder and open MP Navigator EX. Select the One-Click button near the top and choose OCR as the file format of choice. From here you just have to change the options to match your preferences. For example, you can change the scan to colour or black-and-white, alter the resolution and enter a common or custom document size. Now you have to lay the document on the copier or printer and scan it.

This will enter the document into Notepad. All you have to do now is copy it over into Word or use a converter to change it into a Word format if you want to keep the exact formatting. This is incredibly easy and all of your employees can quickly learn how to scan these files.

Benefits and Advantages

The first and most obvious benefit is that Canon helps you edit these documents. No longer will you have to retype the documents or just hope that the text conveys everything properly. You can now make any necessary changes without going through any hard work.

Another huge benefit is that you can now easily search the information in these documents. For example, many documents come to you that were originally on paper and you have no digital copy of them. Business cards are very common in this regard, but there are also memos, reports and brochures. Normally you would file any interesting paper documents away and potentially look at them later if needed. With a copy in Word, you can create massive files with all the interesting data you would ever need. Not only that, but these files are easy to search so that you can find exactly what you’re looking for in a matter of seconds.

These documents can also be distributed and edited electronically. You can email reports or other documents to your team and they can make changes as needed. You’ll be amazed at how much more proficient an OCR scanner is.

Conclusion

If you’re tired of normal scanners, then it’s time to check Canon’s OCR scanning capabilities. You’ll finally have documents that you can search and edit, which presents a massive benefit to your business.