While happiness may be playing with a puppy, it certainly isn't having to type in a document for which there is no file nor is it having to thumb through a stack of old invoices in search of the right one. A scanner can help avoid you being completely unhappy, though, when faced with these projects. Under normal circumstances, a scanned image can't be changed once it's in electronic form. The scanner reads a page as one whole picture, not as individual letters, words, and paragraphs.
Tips Look to the bundle.
If you're shopping for a scanner and don't want to drop the big bucks for a stand alone OCR title, get a stripped down version bundled with the new scanner and upgrade on the cheap. Use competitive upgrades. Tell the seller you' re using a competitor's product and considering switching, and you'll likely get their package at a much lower cost. Walk before you run. If you're in the market for a scanner and an OCR application, check out the software titles first.