Editing scanned document

[cruiser2]

I want to edit a document which I have scanned onto my PC. The original document was typed on another PC and printed off on another printer. There are reasons why the original document cannot be sent to me by email.
The document is saved in My Documents with Adobe.
I can highlight the sentences I want to delete, but nothing happens when I press the delete button.
I may also want to insert new sentences.
Any advice much appreciated.

[Workingman]

Cruiser, if Adobe opens the document it is in .pdf format, Unfortunately the version of Adobe pre-installed on computers is only a reader, it will not allow you to edit the document. So what options do you have?

The first thing to consider is whether the file is write protected. If it is you will need the password.

The next thing is to find a .pdf editor to edit the file directly, or a converter to enable you to edit it in Word or similar. There are free online tools if you google for Free pdf Editor and that search will also give links to readers with limited editing functions such as Foxit, Nitro and PDF-Xchange viewers, it depends what you want to do. However, if you download software please be aware that some will offer you other things you do not need unless you make sure to opt for a custom install and then untick or decline any offers.

My tip is to go for AbleWord. It has a clean installer with no offers except for Microsoft's .NET if you computer does not have it - Vista and Win7 have it already installed. It is a small download and will edit .pdfs, even those with images. Most others will not handle images so well.

[Aggers]

Isn't it possible to copy it and then paste it into a new document.?

[Workingman]

Not usually, John.

Scans tend to be saved in image formats PDF, TIFF, JPG and BMP and they are not editable in most cases. However, most modern printer/scanners come with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software which will allow the text to be "read" and edited before saving.

These softwares allow the images to be edited then saved as popular document formats such as .pdf, doc, docx, rtf and txt formats. If you wish to scan and edit documents these are what should be used as the document is scanned. They are not perfect and require a bit of work, and the full suites are quite expensive.

[cruiser2]

WM,

Thank you for your help.
What I didn't realize is the documents had been sent to me to an email address I am not using very often and only check once a month.
So I can easily edit them as I want to.
Have saved Ableword in case I ever need it

[Workingman]

It is worth keeping as a backup or for simple texts.