Handheld scanners -do they work?

Re: pens

So I've been told Spod....

(Anyway you're not supposed to be here, this was a serious question in a serious forum )

And 'hello' back, btw

Re: pens

Apparently, you need good wrist action, is this you Jacko?

Re: pens

Still got a little Primax hand scanner with click on motor option knocking about somewhere. To work well with OCR you need not only a steady speed but also to keep it straight on the page to avoid slanty or wavery text.

pens

I have seen the pens used quite efficiently to read in news articles from the papers.

You can "train" them to recognise the font used etc. to improve performance.

You will always have to check what has been read in though as there will be errors.

pens

Lynn,

yes, but in theory you could use them to scan the details straight into excel or similar.

dont know anyone who has one so I dont know if they are any good.

Mark

Re: maybe.

Thanks Mark,

I think the pens just do OCR scanning.

maybe.

We used to have one of the hand held jobs floating about. it was ok - have to move at a constant speed but it did the job.

or do you mean those pen things ?

Mark

I've been looking at a way to make my invoicing quicker/easier and am considering scanning receipts 'on the hoof'.

Are hand held scanners worth the money?