OneNote is an Office application for creating, editing, and saving notes. The note-keeper can also insert almost every type of content, including tables, pictures, links, file printouts, video clips, audio recordings, and more.
Microsoft OneNote, if you are not aware supports Optical Character Recognition (OCR), a tool that allows copying text from a picture or file printout and paste it in your notes. This proves handy, especially when you need to copy information from a business card you’ve scanned into OneNote. After you have extracted the text, you can paste it somewhere else in OneNote. Let us consider another example.
Suppose you want to digitize a magazine article. If you do not possess sound knowledge about OCR, you could possibly spend tens of hours retyping and then correcting misprints. Or best, you could simply convert all the required materials into digital format in several minutes time using a scanner and Optical Character Recognition software.
Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, is a technology that enables you to convert different types of documents, such as scanned paper documents, PDF files, or images captured by a digital camera into editable and searchable data. Let’s see how it works in OneNote 2016/2013.
You can choose to copy the text from the printout and insert it as plain text in OneNote desktop software. To extract text from a single picture you’ve added into OneNote, right-click the picture, and click Copy Text from Picture.
Click where you’d like to paste the copied text, and then press Ctrl+V.
To extract text from the images of a multiple-page file printout (PDF) file, simply open your pdf file, right-click the mouse button and select the ‘Print’ option.
Next, under the window that appears on your computer screen, choose ‘Send it to print to OneNote’.
Select a location for the file.
The file will start the process to convert and send to OneNote.
Once converted, OneNote will open and show you the PDF file. Right click on it and select “Copy Text from the Pages of the Printout”.
You can now paste it where you want to.
In most cases, the built-in text recognition feature in OneNote makes it possible to copy the text largely error-free from the printout. Certain fonts, especially serif fonts, can present problems, while so-called “grotesque fonts”—Sans Serif fonts—e.g., Arial and Verdana—normally do not create problems.
Also, the text is copied exactly as it appears. So, if the text is in columns, you will get many short lines. Nevertheless, this can be corrected relatively quickly by manually removing the line break after each line.
Updated on August 3, 2024 Tags: OneNote
A post-graduate in Biotechnology, Hemant switched gears to writing about Microsoft technologies and has been a contributor to TheWindowsClub since then. When he is not working, you can usually find him out traveling to different places or indulging himself in binge-watching.
