On 22/02/2008, Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I`ve done that. > > I`ve been to at least 5 different calc tuitorial sites and can`t find > anything about extracting whatever I need from a image opened in calc.
As I understand it a .otg file is a *graphics* or *image* file. In which case you *cannot* extract the data using Calc. There is a fundamental difference, which is quite hard to explain, between graphics/image files and text files. The former are not text, merely pixels arranged in a sequence that makes them look like text to the human eye. Each byte or pair of bytes represents a *pixel*. In a text file each byte or pair of bytes represents a *character* (that's not 100% true but is sufficiently close for the purposes of this discussion). Graphics/image files are not computer readable as text except by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. Such software usually comes in the box when you buy a scanner but you can, of course, buy it separately or, possibly, find a free program or a trial version of an otherwise non-free program You have several possibilities. 1. Enter the data by hand into Calc. 2. Obtain an OCR program that will read the .otg file (this might be difficult, I couldn't find one although I didn't spend a lot of time looking). 3. Use Draw to open the .otg file and then save it as a .jpeg, .bmp or .tiff which most OCR software will be able to read and then obtain an OCR program that will read the result. The purpose of the OCR software is to convert an image into text. The success of the conversion depends very strongly on the clarity (contrast, blurring, fonts used etc.) of the image. There's a thing called SimpleOCR at http://www.simpleocr.com/ It's free but I've never tried it. Read the download instructions carefully. Then read the installation instructions carefully. If necessary contact *their* support people. Alternatively, as others have suggested, use Google to find a suitable OCR program. ReadIris is good but expensive (mine came free with my scanner). Omnipage is also good but expensive. There might be trial versions around. -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org
