[gplaw]

Hi, my name is Greg. I am relatively new to Mac. So far I love it. No blue screen's of death.

I have a question. (Hopefully, this is the proper forum.)

I recently received a few letters in the mail that needed replies. When I opened Word (2004) I noted that my Address Book entries were not accessible when I attempted to format an envelope. Thus I needed to enter the address manually in Address Book and in Word on the envelope.

This led me to wondering: Is there any way I can scan an envelope with my Scansnap, and then have the return address automatically entered into Address Book? (I've since began using a widget that allows direct access to Address Book for the purpose of filling in my envelopes.)

It seems that manually entering address/contact information is a big waste of time. Is there a better way?

Thanks for your insights.

Greg

[sandbag1]

You would need OCR software in order to convert the scanned image into text.

[roscoe]

Acrobat pro software has OCR built in if that is any help

[gplaw]

Hello again. Thank you for the thoughtful replies.

For what it is worth, I do have OCR capabilities. The Scansnap comes with ABBY Fine Reader and with Acrobat Professional, 8.0. (It's a wonderful little machine.}

However, what seems to be missing is an ability to automatically copy the return address from the scanned envelope and input it into Address Book.

Right now, this is how the process is working

1) scan envelope and OCR, then
2) copy first name, then
3) paste first name in the first name field of Address Book, then
4) copy last name, then
5) paste last name in last name field, then
6) copy address number and street name, then
7) paste address number and street name in those fields in Address Book, then
8) copy city, then
9) paste city in city field of Address Book, then
10 copy state, then
11) paste state in state field of Address Book.

Surely, there must be some program or some script that will bypass these eleven steps? If not, then I want some of the profits from the person who eventually designs and sells such a program.

Any more insights?

Yours,
Greg

[sandbag1]

When doing something similar, this is what I do and it's only slightly easier.

I open a new Card in Address Book, paste the entire address of the contact I want to make into the Note area. I then double click on the first name which will highlight it, then continue holding down on the mouse and drag the first name into the appropriate field in the address area above. Do the same for the rest of the address. What makes it easier is that you don't have to go back and forth between the 2 applications copying and pasting.

The only problem with what you want to do is the software would need a crystal ball to determine what goes where as all return addresses are not formatted the same.

Oh yea, you forgot the steps required to get the zip code where you want. :)

[gplaw]

Thanks for the above tip.

However, i remain frustrated. When I try to drag the double-clicked portion it serves to highlight the rest of the address; and dropping it into the appropriate field is hit or miss.

Clearly I am unskilled.

Is there no way to browse a website or document, find an address in the usual format --

Willard Whyte
The Whyte House
3000 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89109


and then copy and paste it into Address Book?

This is otherwise time-consuming and unproductive.


Thanks for reading.

Greg