I want to be able to scan in a document via my scanner into my computer, then be able to edit the text like it was a document on my computer instaed of retyping it.
I think Xerox makes a product like this, but not sure what it's called.
Do these types of programs really work? What's a good one?
However some of them have a bit of trouble recognizing the difference between an I and a lower case L at times because in some fonts, the difference is negligible or not at all prevalent. So just watch out for that.
The most easily accessible OCR comes right with Microsoft Office. It's called MS Document Imaging and it comes part of the software I think starting Office 2003. There are also many open-source OCRs these days because Google spends tons of their time scanning in books and making them available in searchable text form. Ocropus is a free, open-source OCR that you can use, developed by Google:
http://code.google.com/p/ocropus/ http://www.isri.unlv.edu/ISRI/OCRtk
But Document Imaging is your best bet if you're on a school computer and need your document characteristically recognized. Many scanners also come with the software these days. Hope this helps.