SCANNING TEXT ON THE GO

Optical character recognition [O.C.R] apps are designed to convert images of letters in documents or other printed sources-

Into text files you can edit in Microsoft Word or another word processing program.

O.C.R. apps for Android are available in the Google Play store, just as similar programs for an  iOS, Windows 10 Mobile and desktop systems can be found in their app stores. Some apps can translate photographed text into different languages.

If you use the Microsoft office suite for writing and editing documents, however, a combination of  Microsoft Word for Android and the separate Office Lens app is one way to snap, scan and edit when you are on the go.

When you have both apps on your Android device, open Office Lens and take a picture of the page or printed material you want to convert into a Word File; the app can also convert a photograph of notes scrawled on a white board into text files.

When you are asked to save and store the photo, choose Microsoft Word from the list of apps and services.

The Android version of Word  then takes over to open the file,  convert the text into type you can edit and then open the content in a word-processing document on your phone or tablet.

You can edit it there, email it to yourself for use and elsewhere or park it in a linked online storage site like One Drive.

It works about the same way with the apps on an iOS or Windows based device.