ISO: Text Recognition Software suggestions

[Mark Jared Zufelt]

Friends,
I have been working on an adaptation of a novel that I am taking into rehearsal in Manila four weeks from today.  While the adaptation is coming along swimmingly, I now find that I need a literal translation (i.e. every word of the original) formatted for MS Word.  If you have, or have used, a text recognition program in conjunction with a scanner, that actually worked - I would LOVE to hear about it.  I may have mad typing skilz, but would love to forgo this process if at all possible.  Any and all suggestions can be sent here or to me directly at: mjzufelt@comcast.net
Many, Many thanks...
mark

[Gavin Cummins]

Mark,
   Oddly enough this was my job for a few years.  I used OmniPage http://www.nuance.com/omnipage/
This was a few years ago so I am sure the latest version much better.  It will probably work quite well for what you are doing.  However there are bound to be some errors but that may not matter much for your purposes. 
    You might also want to look at some voice recognition software which I believe can be more accurate but of course requires you to read whatever you want to put into you computer.
    It is also true that a cheaper program will be less accurate.
    There is also an OCR Pen http://www.irislink.com/c2-1052-189/IRISPen-scanner---Ideal-pen-scanner-for-printed-text-retyping-.aspx which I never used but looks quite promising.

[Roger Tang]

I've used both OmniPage and TextBridge for the Mac (though I've heard the later versions of Omni are not worth the money...). Languages make a difference of course, and I don't know how the various programs are (being a stupid monolingual American....).

And, of course, you can cajole someone with an academic background to buy you an academic version of said programs...