Optical character recognition (OCR) software is a technological tool that can be used to read and manipulate text from a hard-copy type-written document. In other words, this software can read type-written text from a hard-copy paper document and convert the text to be edited in Microsoft Word. This can be a very convenient resource if one would ever need to edit text in a document of which they only had a hard copy.
Currently, the Prairie Lakes AEA houses the OCR software Sharpdesk on every secretary and staff-desktop computer. Each staff member is encouraged to take advantage of this technological resource; however, there are a few steps one must follow for it to work properly. *Important Note* Sharpdesk reads handwriting and tables as objects and therefore they can not be manipulated as type-written text (i.e. you can’t modify letters from hand-written text or alter any text that is in a table with this software).
To use, follow these simple instructions:
Step One: Locate the physical document you wish to use Sharpdesk with and place it on the scanner tray.
Step Two: Select the Image Send button on the copy machine display screen, click Address Book and navigate to the appropriate user name. The user name will always have OCR at the end of it (e.g. FD-Desktop-LL-OCR).
Step Three: Press the Start button on the copy machine.
Step Four: Go to the machine you sent document to and open the “Shortcut to Sharpdesk Desktop” folder (located on the desktop). Inside of the folder you should see a Word document and an Adobe PDF (it copies the document in both forms). Use the Word document to manipulate the text as necessary.
