Another Cool Tool From Microsoft PowerToys.
Introducing the Mighty Useful Text Extractor

As my clients know, and as so do frequent readers of The Dispatches From the Front also know, I am a big fan of Microsoft PowerToys.  My posting on January 11, 2022, extolled the many useful applications within the PowerToys suite.  To familiarize yourself with PowerToys, including installation instructions, visit the original posting by clicking here.

The newest version of PowerToys is version number 0.62.1.  The new and really useful tool is called Text Extractor.  What Text Extractor does is copy the text that is displayed within an image file.  Say, what?

So let's say your dimwitted cousin wants you to read about the latest nonsense conspiracy of the day.  But, being dimwitted, the numbskull copies the info from wherever and pastes it into whatever, but then prints that out and takes a picture of the printed paper with his phone.  And then your newbie cousin emails to you the image file of the printed paper.  Yes, people are that lame.

Now, with the PowerToys Text Extractor, you can read that drivel in whatever word processor you like, and spread the word — That Cousin Billy is out of his freakin' mind.

When you bring up the PowerToys by clicking the icon in the system tray, like most Windows applications, the menu of PowerToys available appears on the left of the PowerToys Screen.  The Text Extractor tool appears towards the bottom of screen. From here you can change the keyboard shortcut to activate Text Extractor; but I just accept the default of:

The image below was converted from a pdf file to a png image file.  And then cropped; thus the off-center title.

The Text Extractor is called up by the keyboard shortcut of Windows Key + Shift Key + T.  We can then mouse over the verbiage we want to convert.  Be careful to include the margins when you scroll with your mouse. When you release the mouse, the text you highlighted is automatically copied to the clipboard.  Then the copied verbiage can be easily pasted into any text editor.

Now, this technology, like all Optical Character Recognition (OCR), is not perfect.  You may need to reformat paragraphs.  Plus, it can only readily recognize normal and usual text characters.  Notice below that the OCR technology could not recognize the © symbol for the copyright year.

I Promise, My Love, I Will Words and Music by Gerald Reiff 0 2022 NiteBluz Music

So, if your dimwitted cousin handwrites his drivel, this tech may or may not help you.

Of course, the concept of extraction has a whole different connotation to me.

Yes, you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle

— Savoy Truffle, George Harrison, The Beatles