Filling Out Forms ~ Software

[Guest unit731]

Filling out forms that have blank spaces in them.

1. Can fill out by hand with pen and ink.

2. Can use an old fashioned electric (or manual) typewriter.

Is there any software out there that can scan the forms and then put them in a Word program so that the blank spaces (parts to be filled in) can be done on a computer?

Is this a pie in the sky?

What do corporations and companies use when they have to fill out forms? Do all businesses still keep an old fashioned typewriter just for forms?

[wallyg]

Quick answer,

It depends, in part, of the format of the forms. If they are regular VA forms, you could scan them with OCR software, but then you lose most of the formatting. You could convert them to .pdf format, with the right software, and then fill them out, on screen, again with the right software.

However, this software is expensive, and usually only worthwhile for large quantities of forms. There is some freeware/shareware available which will allow you to fill out forms on screen. You should do a search for "freeware" and then visit some of the sites and look in their index for what you want.

Here are some URLs to try.

http://www.freewarehome.com/

http://www.earlyretiremint.com/freeware_mo..._motherload.htm

http://www.freewarearena.com/html2/

http://decentdownloads.x-istence.com/

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32_freeware.html

[Tbird]

for adovcates i recommend Lexis Nexis http://bookstore.lexis.com/bookstore/catal...t&prod_id=41493 they have software that fills out VA forms you enter the veterans information once and save it as a file that it fills in various forms if more information is needed it will request it and store in the file thereby capturing all the veterans information for future forms.

for just regular forms i like omni form and i believe you can scan a form in and it works.

[10thFO]

There's a program out now that you can scan or download PDF files and it will convert them into a word document so you can fill in the blanks, I believe it's called PaperPort but i'm not sure.

[10thFO]

There's a program out now that you can scan or download PDF files and it will convert them into a word document so you can fill in the blanks, I believe it's called PDF3 but i'm not sure.

[frosty69]

RoboForm is good for filling out forms too, I had the free version for a year, and now have the paid service, works pretty good