Get a Better View – Through Office Lens

 Feb 18, 2016

Microsoft have an app for mobile devices called Office Lens. It is a mobile scanner that uses your device’s camera in conjunction with OCR software (Optical Character Recognition) to capture and save images and documents. It debuted in 2014 on Windows Phone, but is now also available for Android as well as iOS devices (i.e. iPhones and iPads). Yes, there have been scanning apps before, but the major benefit of Office Lens is that it can transfer the resulting image directly into the OneNote notebook of your choosing or upload a Word, PowerPoint or searchable PDF document into the user’s OneDrive. It can also send a scanned business cards details directly to your contacts. Besides business cards, Office Lens can convert such things as handwritten notes, whiteboard notes, and receipts. It crops the image, sharpens and enhances it before converting it.

The procedure for using Office Lens:

  1. Tap the Mode menu
  2. Tap the mode to be used
  3. Aim the camera at the item to be scanned
  4. Tap the Camera icon

  5. After the image processes, it can be cropped further:

  6. If necessary, tap the Crop or Delete icons
  7. Tap the Save icon
  8. Choose the formats to convert to
  9. Tap the Tick icon
The files are then created and uploaded to OneNote/OneDrive. Office Lens is the perfect companion app to Microsoft OneNote and is also an excellent way to perform scans on the fly and have the convenience of the content being uploaded straight to the cloud.
Office Lens
Office Lens

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About the Author:

Ben Kirk  

With over 16 years of experience working as a Desktop Applications specialist for a number of large education services providers, Ben is one of New Horizons most skilled and dynamic instructors. With his Advanced Diploma of Business Skills alongside his practical experience and expertise, Ben is able to provide insight and guidance to students at all skill levels across the entire Microsoft Office suite.

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