In your application there needs to be some kind of gap-filler to get
you from the OCR software to Access. Off-the-shelf software may exist
for that, but somehow you have to make the jump from OCR to Access.
I did a *bit* of OCR scanning some years ago (so the software may have
improved), and a lot of data parsing (slicing and dicing text files
into Access). My response is heavily influenced by those two factors,
so I could be completely off base.
In my experience OCR scanning is prone to recognition errors and
formatting errors so that you can't tell in advance where on a page
the scanned text will appear. Again, the software may have improved
since I did this type of work, but if your body of data is substantial
enough for you to be thinking in terms of a database then you're
thinking about a lot of data, and even a 1% error rate equates to a
lot of reworking.
If you're able to get reliable scans and can save the scanned file to
a text file, then you can easily write VBA code from within Access to
read the text file and store the data to database records. A lot
depends on the format of the data: you may even be able to import the
text file.
Hope this clears the water, as opposed to muddying it for you.
Dave O
"Zen" <ze*******@cfl.rr.com> wrote in message news:<8n**********************@twister.tampabay.rr .com>...
I'm using Access 2000, and I'd like to know if there is a way to use a
scanner (flatbed, doc-feed, etc) to scan forms with OMR or OCR software, and
have the data be automatically (or if not automatically then using a macro
or other means) entered into tables. I guess the real question is do I need
to use an expensive program to do this or is it codable suing Access/VB, and
if it is codable, any suggestions as to how to start?
Many thanks for taking time to read this.
Joe