Turning paper into digital, editable document with your smartphone

Whether you need to edit your contract or a business report on the go, to scan a receipt, digitize your grandma’s recipe, and make notes or changes to a paper document, you will be delighted to know that you can do all that and more with your smartphone.

First of all, let’s see why would anyone want to turn paper into electronic documents?

Benefits of paperless lifestyle

When you digitize documents you make sure their data is protected from time, water and other factors that can destroy every piece of paper. Furthermore, you can easier put a lock on your digital document than on paper one. Securing PDF files is very easy today thanks to many PDF tools that give you the option to choose who will have the access to your files.

If you have lost your paper document, you may never find it. The same goes with forgetting to bring that important piece of paper with you just when you need it. Unlike paper, digital documents can be accessed everywhere, on any computer or a mobile device thanks to the cloud technology.

Not only does paperless lifestyle help environment, but it also helps you. You will have all your files at your fingertips, wherever you go. They will be safe and secure, and the color of the text won’t fade.

How to properly scan paper with your phone

The better you scan the paper, the easier will be to view the scanned document, to convert it into other formats and edit. As a general rule, you should put your paper on a flat surface and take a snap of it, making sure you catch only the paper and not the surrounding area (table, desk). Of course, the light should be natural or good enough to produce a clear photo.

You can use just your camera to take a photo of your report and then upload it to the cloud. But, if you want to crop the photo and to make the best possible result, Image to Word – picture scanner app can help you with that.

So, you can either import a photo that you have in your device, or snap a new one with your mobile camera. The cropping process is very automatic, the app itself suggests where you should crop the paper.

Editing scanned images on a mobile device

If you need to edit a business report, research paper or any other document, it would be time-consuming to retype or rewrite everything from scratch. When you scan a paper and turn it into a scanned image, you can easily view it on your phone, share it with other people and convert it to editable file formats.

You can use the above-mentioned app to convert image to text. The process has already been explained but let’s sum up:

1. Import scanned paper (image) from your phone, tablet or the cloud or take a photo with your camera.
2. Decide how you will crop the paper.
3. Wait for conversion to be completed.

Notes: the app is free to use but you need to wait for one hour to get the converted file or to subscribe for fast conversions. There are no limits on the file size and the number of converted files. As for the cloud options, you can import files from Gmail, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box.

You will receive a conversion result in a Word document that will be easy to edit. If you don’t have any text editor app on your phone, you need to install one so you can open and edit Word file. These kind of apps are totally free and easy to find on the Google Play store.

In conclusion

There is no quicker way to turn paper into a digital, editable document with your phone than by using apps such as this one that does most the job for you. Next time you need to respond to your boss or client’s demands, don’t forget that you can finish most of the tasks with your smartphone. With proper apps and easy-to-obtain skills, you don’t have an excuse to pile papers on your desk.